Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World by Mary Beard

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERBest Books of 2023: New Yorker, The Economist, SmithsonianMost Anticipated Books of Fall: Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, TODAY, Literary Hub, and Publishers Weekly"A vivid way to re-examine what we know, and don’t, about life at the top.... Emperor of Rome is a masterly group portrait, an invitation to think skeptically but not contemptuously of a familiar civilization." ―Kyle Harper, Wall Street JournalA sweeping account of the social and political world of the Roman emperors by “the world’s most famous classicist” (Guardian).   In her international bestseller SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome, from its slightly shabby Iron Age origins to its reign as the undisputed hegemon of the Mediterranean. Now, drawing on more than thirty years of teaching and writing about Roman history, Beard turns to the emperors who ruled the Roman Empire, beginning with Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) and taking us through the nearly thre