SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

I struggled with this book. In the beginning, I could follow along. Eventually, I could not keep track of where I was in time and place. Obviously, still Rome..and long ago, but it got fuzzy. I am sure this is a failing on my part, but just a caution to other folks.

Despite getting lost, I enjoyed how the author brought old stories to life - adding depth to events or people that were barely footnotes in my world history education. I especially enjoyed how the author discusses the potential implications, and not, of the words of published speeches and how they may have related to the actual speeches as given and other events of the time. It would be all to easy to quote out of context if you only see the text..er, translated after hundreds of years of transcribing text...as most of us are like to do.

Probably a book that deserves a few separate reads over years or in time with other history texts for scaffolding. Read if you are interested in Rome.

Looong book. On the plus side, a lot of it reads like a novel. On the negative side, the organization is often confusing. The author poses a lot of interesting questions but never seems to clearly answer them. She also talks a lot about the people that are normally left out of history - women, slaves, etc, but then doesn't do much to add them here either.