The definitive account of ancient Rome by acclaimed historian Mary Beard vividly depicts ordinary Roman lives and contains more than 45 full-colour images specially selected for the Folio edition of S.P.Q.R.
How did a civilisation based on cruelty and violence, slavery and infanticide provide the foundations of modern Western culture and politics? Ancient Rome’s astonishing story of conquest, atrocities and excess is something against which the Western world continues to judge itself, while its debates about citizenship, government and individual rights still shape our own discussions on civil liberty today.