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Author

Mary Beard

8 non-fiction

Mary Beard is a British classicist, historian and broadcaster whose work has brought the history and culture of ancient Rome to a wide general readership. Born in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, in 1955, she studied classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she later taught for several decades. She is Professor Emerita of Classics at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow Emerita of Newnham College and the classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement. Her research examines Roman politics, religion, art and everyday life, while frequently questioning modern assumptions about the ancient world.

Beard’s books include Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town, The Roman Triumph, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, Twelve Caesars and Emperor of Rome. Rather than concentrating solely on emperors and military conquest, she also explores citizenship, slavery, gender, humour, public spectacle and the experiences of ordinary people across the Roman world. Her accessible writing and television documentaries combine scholarship with a willingness to examine incomplete or contradictory evidence, making her work particularly useful to readers seeking historical context for fiction set in the Roman Republic and Empire.

Periods and events

Ancient Greecec. 1100–146 BCE Ancient Rome753 BCE–476 CE Athenian Democracy508–322 BCE Flavian Dynasty69–96 CE Greek Mythology and Heroic LegendMythic and archaic tradition Imperial Rome27 BCE–476 CE Julio-Claudian Dynasty27 BCE–68 CE Late Roman Republic133–27 BCE Nerva–Antonine Dynasty96–192 CE Roman Gladiatorial Games264 BCE–404 CE Roman Republic509–27 BCE Severan Dynasty193–235 CE Year of the Four Emperors69 CE

Non-fiction

Non-fiction by Mary Beard (8 books)

Reference works, biographies and other non-fiction are kept separate from the historical fiction above.

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