Beard feels we can't so much learn from the Romans as respect and dialogue with them.

Create a commenting name to join the debate, There are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts, There are no comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts. 1) It definitely doesn't read like a textbook. SPQR isn’t a rivetting read, but it’s darned enjoyable and interesting. You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment. That means not just the slavery, the filth (there was hardly any such thing as refuse collection in ancient Rome), the human slaughter in the arena and the death from illnesses whose cure we now take for granted; but also the newborn babies thrown away on rubbish heaps, the child brides and the flamboyant eunuch priests.”, Ms. Beard’s prose is never mandarin, yet she treats her readers like peers. Here's an exceptional review, which carry my sentiments exactly.
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? For example: Cleopatra couldn't have killed herself by putting an asp to her breast because: "Suicide by snakebite is a hard feat to pull off, and anyway, the most reliably deadly snakes would be too hefty to conceal in even a regal fruit basket. According to the author, all historians, ancient and modern, who wrote prior to her were misled by one variety or another of naïveté. Door op ‘accepteren’ te klikken ga je hiermee akkoord. It explores not only how Rome grew from an insignificant village in central Italy to a power that controlled territory from Spain to Syria, but also how the Romans thought about themselves and their achievements, and why they are still important to us. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. If you look down on one side, everything looks reassuringly familiar: there are conversations going on that we almost join, about the nature of freedom or problems of sex; there are buildings and monuments we understand, with all their troublesome adolescents; and there are jokes we 'get'. Marcus Manlius, a fourth-century BCE rebel asked the oppressed many: "Quo usque tandem ignorabitis vires vestras?" It is a revisionist history of Rome, starting in the height of Cicero. She notes that one Roman contraception technique involved “wearing the worms found in the head of a particular species of hairy spider.” She enjoys cataloging ancient put-downs. is dag en nacht open. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. Beard agrees that Rome underpins Western culture and politics today but avoids facile comparisons: "In some ways to explore the ancient Rome from the 21st century is rather like walking on a tightrope, a very careful balancing act. Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

The book deals with those in power as well as the little people, how Rome expanded its power and maintained it. She really gives a good overall picture of the empire - it's people, politics, and how it hung together for so long. My rating?

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Due to the sheer scale of this comment community, we are not able to give each post the same level of attention, but we have preserved this area in the interests of open debate. Het boek SPQR van Mary Beard is vlot geschreven. Judging from her treatment of trolls she seems to be an exemplary human, and while she has so far been unable to reform hardened, [ because I think it is gilding a turd, the counting system still takes as it's reference point the notional birth of Jesus Christ whatever you call it, pretending it is neutral and universal by changing what we call it, is worse to my mind than simply admitting it to be just another parochial year counting system, [ naturally in the context of the discussion of Augustus and the Civil wars I enjoyed the lead sling shots from the siege of Perugia with their ribald and disrespectful slogans pp 344-5, [ while stressing the importance of the paired lives of his original conception which few translations preserve. The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. Mary Beard writes about how Rome grew, not about why it collapsed. Beard makes it about the people, the institutions and the historian's accounts of the time. If you look down on one side, everything looks reassuringly familiar: there are conversations going on that we almost join, about the nature of freedom or problems of sex; there are buildings and monuments we understand, with all their troublesome adolescents; and there are jokes we 'get'.

That is the choice faced by Britain and Europe today.

This book starts in 63BCE with Cicero – philosopher, orator and influential politician – and ends with the first millennium. 535).")

Robert Harris' bestselling Lustrum). You could definitely read it for bed or at the beach without feeling bored at all. Ook willen we cookies plaatsen om je bezoek aan bol.com makkelijker en persoonlijker te maken. servicekosten.. "Winifred Mary Beard, OBE (Much Wenlock, Shropshire, 1 januari 1955) is een Britse classica, hoogleraar aan de Universiteit van Cambridge, fellow van Newnham College en Professor of Ancient Literature van de Royal Academy of Arts. Mary Beard (University of Cambridge) houdt ons meer dan 600 pagina's lang met brio in haar greep.Bovendien werd dit boek mij thuis geleverd, wat gezien mijn situatie, alweer een pluspunt was. . )” Pg. Beard deals with archaeological and well as written sources for her information.

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard, book review rome-getty.jpg. 2 out of 5. Sometimes she merely has to supply the details. I read the 500+ pages of this in 4 days - it is written in an exceptionally readable style, but doesn't 'talk down'. {"pdpTaxonomyObj":{"pageInfo":{"pageType":"PDP","language":"nl","website":"bol.com"},"userInfo":{},"productInfo":[{"productId":"9200000050139561","ean":"9781846683817","title":"Spqr","price":"12.99","categoryTreeList":[{"tree":["Boeken","Geschiedenis"]},{"tree":["Boeken","Geschiedenis","Oude beschavingen","Romeinen"]},{"tree":["Boeken","Geschiedenis","Periodes","Klassieke oudheid (tot 500 n. I love Mary Beard. Hiermee passen wij en derden onze website, app en advertenties aan jouw interesses aan. Ancient Rome was an imposing city even by modern standards, a sprawling imperial metropolis of more than a million inhabitants that served as the seat of power for an empire that spanned from Spain to Syria. Given the 5o years Mary Beard poured into the crafting of this book, and my own interest in the subject matter, I was tempted to give this four stars, but kept getting hung up by the author's decision to fall sway to the modern trends in academia of giving a postmodernist veneer to any narrative. Fascinating. Readers who've studied antiquity formally or read secondary sources in the original might not have much reason to read this one, but for everyone else, "SPQR" is highly recommendable. Hi Martha I finished this one and told myself that it's time to start reading more history. If you've previously read a bit about Rome, Beard's book probably won't offer much new.
The prologue drew me in immediately. It's a good feeling to have. First, for those wondering what on earth SPQR means: this is an abbreviation what was commonly used in ancient Rome (and is still used today in the city of Rome) and stands for “Senatus Populusque Romanus” in Latin. Mary Beard writes about how Rome grew, not about why it collapsed. Over half covered early Rome through the Republic, then why the Republic fell and Emp. I enjoyed most the section on Pliny the Younger and on the "haves and have-nots"--rich and poor. Geschreven bij Spqr : a History of Ancient Rome. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. She prints a drawing of Pliny the Younger’s immense villa, for example, and remarks, “It has been a favorite scholarly pastime for centuries to take Pliny’s own description of the place and to try to re-create an image or plan of it.”. A big plus were the color plates and illustrations. 454. Its myths and stories - from Romulus and Remus to the Rape of Lucretia - still strike a chord with us. The author has incorporated some of the latest research. Please continue to respect all commenters and create constructive debates. Beard mentions inscriptions on game boards, and graves, commercial records and private correspondence.