Mary Beard - Emperor of Rome

Emperor of Rome is Mary Beard's latest book aimed at a popular audience about Ancient Rome. As with her others this is accessible, entertaining and readable. This book looks at the Emperors, though as she makes clear this is no easy task. The Imperial period covered a long period of time, and there were numerous Emperors, some of whom lasted a very brief time and several of whom we know little or nothing about. Beard avoids a chronological approach, which is good because it means she avoids having to tell the same story over and again. Instead what she tries to do is to give the reader a general impression of the role, perception and activities of the man who was the pinnacial of the highly rigid, violent society that was Rome.

One of the advantages of this approach is that the Emperor is understood in context. We avoid the "1066 and all that narrative" of good and bad men, and begin to see the men as mor than "benevolent elder statesmen or juvenile tyrants". These are there, and Beard cannot but avoid give us some of the salacious gossip and slander. But she also can conclude that these stories are ones that arise in context - as attempts to discredit, or boost, an Emperor during or after their lifetimes. The Emperors were the top of the ruling class, but they were also important figures in terms of continuinty. As Beard points out, "the magnifying lens of these stories helps us to see clearly the anxieties that surrounded imperial rule at Rome".

It also means that Beard doesn't try to separate the Emperors from those below them. The Emperor cannot exist without military guards and networks of patronage. But he also, being at the top of a slave society, cannot exist without the labour of thousands of slaves. It is the casual commodification of the slaves that highlight the first example of this interaction, as Beard recounts how the Emperor Domitian once held a dinner were everything, including the food dishes, was coloured black. The slaves were painted back, and guest's dinner places were marked with pretend tombstones. The sombre atmoshpere would have terrified the diners: were they about to be executed? At the end, upon returning home, the guests were met by tone of the slaves, carrying a fake tombstone and the washed slave dressed up as a gift. 

There's much in this example - the Emperor's casual references to death as a symbol of power. The even more casual giving of the slave as a gift which, Beard points out, is what will stand out to modern readers. And the use of dinners as places where the Emperor would network and distribute gifts. But we also have to ask "Did it happen"? Was the story, recounted centruies later by the Roman writer Dio, even true. Its a good example of how what we think about Emperors as individuals as well as the role, might be distorted - even if the story reveals much about wealth, power and the nature of Roman slave society.

There's a lot here, and I enjoyed the book as an exploration of the nature of class rule in Rome. Surprisingly for a book focused on individuals it also shed a lot of light on some of the ruins in Italy, particular those in Rome and made me eager to visit again. For other visitors this would be a good book to pack in your holiday suitcase.

Related Reviews

Beard - SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
Beard - The Roman Triumph
Beard - Pompeii: The Life of A Roman Town
Beard & Crawford - Rome in the Late Republic
Hopkins & Beard - The Colosseum