About the author
Mary Beard is an English classicist and public historian specializing in ancient Rome. She writes from inscriptions, speeches, coins, stories, and gaps in the record, keeping the uncertainty of historical evidence visible to general readers.
Mary Beard begins in 63 BCE, with Cicero exposing Catiline's alleged conspiracy, rather than with a neat foundation date. The episode supplies texts, speeches, political theater, and unanswered questions — the materials from which Roman history must actually be made.
Where to start
Start with SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. Mary Beard reconstructs Rome from its foundation stories and republican politics to empire, citizenship, and life under emperors.
