The Steve Tiberius Donoghue Book Club - SPQR, Part 2!

[@lgtsln]

I have had Mary Beard's book on my TBr for a couple of years and was finally inspired to confront what I thought would be the daunting task of reading it by joining the Steve Tiberius book club read-a-long. i have not previously read what you might term a serious history of Rome, but am enjoying this book immensely. I am enjoying the fact that she has adopted an approach where she gives an overview of the history, makes the people come alive and popularises Roman History. My belief is that she is across the detailed sources but has adopted what you may consider a quirky approach to spark the reader's interest who may then refer to more academic works dealing with primary sources. her approach is to stimulate the readers interest, to inform them, while giving a broad overview not getting bogged down in the minutiae of the story. She succeeds admirably. It is the first history of Rome I have read, but won't be the last.

[@elenamakridina8196]

All my knowledge of Roman history comes from SPQR series by John Maddox Roberts (thank you), SPQR by Mary Beard was my first nonfiction, she made me want to read more, I hope Livy comes next.

[@davidstinson6800]

I love Mary Beard. Is she unconventional and a bit eccentric? Yes, but so what. She vitalizes traditional academic treatises and makes them fun to read. True, she gets off the chronological track from time to time (I occasionally have had to refer to the rather brief Wikipedia article on Ancient Rome to get back on track), but her wit, enthusiasm and matronly charm (on video) more than make up for these little lapses. Her videos are especially interesting for their on-site visuals. Her illustrations are always clever and often funny: in one video she illustrated the creation of the tetrarchy by cutting a pizza into four equal slices and designated each regional capital with black olives. Rome was a cherry tomato. This woman is never boring.

[@nickpiccirilli4278]

This is my first overview of ancient Rome history and it's been very readable and enjoyable so far. The parts where she questions what we can reliably know or not are some of my favorites.

[@RanchElder]

This was my first Roman history a few years back, and it worked completely. Turns out I quite like source criticism in historiography, so Beard's many caveats and cautions kicked off a new fascination.

[@booksknitsthings]

You're awesome Steve

[@jamesholder13]

I really enjoyed my reread of SPQR.

[@battybibliophile-Clare]

If Britain was like Japan and valued literature and history, Mary Beard would be a national treasure. The criticism here in UK amounts to why doesn't she conform, dress up and dye her hair for TV? Grrrr. She is a great advocate for the Classics in her TLS blog.

[@danielmarlett1421]

This was my first history of Rome that I read a couple years ago. I picked it up particularly because people recommended it as a first history, probably because it is so readable. It didn't work well as an introduction at all. I want to revisit it when my foundation is stronger.