Mary Beard Books
Mary Beard is a British classicist, professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of Newnham College. She is known for her accessible and scholarly works on ancient Rome and for her contributions to public understanding of classical history through books, television, and journalism.
Known for: SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, Women & Power: A Manifesto
Books by Mary Beard
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome is a comprehensive and engaging account of the rise and evolution of ancient Rome, written by the renowned classicist Mary Beard. The book explores Rome’s transformatio...
Women & Power: A Manifesto
In this powerful manifesto, classicist Mary Beard explores the roots of misogyny and the ways in which history has shaped the exclusion of women from positions of power. Drawing on examples from ancie...
Key Insights from Mary Beard
The Origins of Rome
The story of Rome begins—as all great stories do—with both myth and mud. The twin brothers Romulus and Remus, suckled by a she-wolf, are among the most enduring symbols of the city’s beginning, but we must remember they are poetry more than fact. Still, the myth captures something fundamental about ...
From SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
The Roman Republic
The republic, which lasted nearly five centuries, was a complex and surprisingly dynamic system. When I explain it, I always emphasize that the Romans did not think of their government abstractly—they lived it daily in the Forum, in elections, in the act of voting on laws. The term 'Senatus Populusq...
From SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
Classical Foundations
The story begins, as so many Western stories do, with Homer’s *Odyssey*. I have always been struck by the episode where Telemachus, the young son of Odysseus and Penelope, tells his mother to be silent and return to her room, for public speech is the business of men. This single moment, written thou...
From Women & Power: A Manifesto
Public Voice and Authority
In the classical world, voice and authority were almost synonymous. To speak in the assembly, to plead in court, or to address the populace was the performance of power itself. Yet such speech was explicitly a masculine act, supported by the systems of citizenship and political participation that ex...
From Women & Power: A Manifesto
About Mary Beard
Mary Beard is a British classicist, professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of Newnham College. She is known for her accessible and scholarly works on ancient Rome and for her contributions to public understanding of classical history through books, television, and journal...
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Mary Beard is a British classicist, professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of Newnham College. She is known for her accessible and scholarly works on ancient Rome and for her contributions to public understanding of classical history through books, television, and journal...
Mary Beard is a British classicist, professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of Newnham College. She is known for her accessible and scholarly works on ancient Rome and for her contributions to public understanding of classical history through books, television, and journalism.
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Mary Beard is a British classicist, professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of Newnham College. She is known for her accessible and scholarly works on ancient Rome and for her contributions to public understanding of classical history through books, television, and journalism.
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