Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World

une analyse du fonctionnement de l'empire romain très instructive qui donne à penser concernant les régimes “présidentiels“ actuels

Rather than try and tell all of Roman history in one attempt, Professor Beard this time takes a slice of the history focusing on the period covered by the Emperors and placing them within the wider longer history of Rome. As always this is as much as social history as a political one. Indeed this book presumes a certain knowledge of Roman history which is built upon in the text.

Heel erudiet boek Heel leeswaardig

Mary Beard as always is excellent and very engaging. A wealth of detail presented in a readable form. Highly recommended.

I'm a big fan of Beard's previous book, SPQR, and this is about the same time period more or less (Julius Caesar to Alexander Severus). Her prose is very readable. For this book, it is helpful if the reader knows something of Roman history as it is arranged by topic, that is, what it was like to be emperor (what were his duties, what was his life like), rather than chronologically. If you don't already know which emperor followed which, it could be confusing (though she provides a list of the emperors at the back of the book). She uses the sources available critically, examining their own motives for writing what they did and the times in which they were writing. Overall, I liked it very much. It's not your typical "history book."