Paperback | 608 pages

New York TimesBestseller
ANew York TimesNotable Book
Named one of the Best Books of the Year by theWall Street Journal, theEconomist,Foreign Affairs, andKirkus Reviews
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award (Nonfiction)
Shortlisted for the Cundill Prize in Historical Literature
Finalist for theLos Angeles TimesBook Prize (History)
ASan Francisco ChronicleHoliday Gift Guide Selection
ANew York Times Book ReviewEditors Choice Selection

A sweeping, “magisterial” history of the Roman Empire from one of our foremost classicists shows why Rome remains “relevant to people many centuries later” (Atlantic).

InSPQR, an instant classic, Mary Beard narrates the history of Rome “with passion and without technical jargon” and demonstrates how “a slightly shabby Iron Age village” rose to become the “undisputed hegemon of the Mediterranean” (Wall Street Journal). Hailed by critics as animating “the grand sweep and the intimate details that bring the distant past vividly to life” (Economist) in a way that makes “your hair stand on end” (Christian Science Monitor) and spanning nearly a thousand years of history, this “highly informative, highly readable” (Dallas Morning News) work examines not just how we think of ancient Rome but challenges the comfortable historical perspectives that have existed for centuries. With its nuanced attention to class, democratic struggles, and the lives of entire groups of people omitted from the historical narrative for centuries,SPQRwill to shape our view of Roman history for decades to come.