Emperors in their labyrinths

Mary Beard's book may not change conventional notions of imperial Rome, but it does prompt a cautious reevaluation of the simplistic view of imperial personalities

Emperor of Rome

Author: Mary Beard

Publisher: Hachette

Pages: 492

Price: Rs 1,599

In 2015, Mary Beard wrote SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, a superb exploration of the politics and culture of the first millennium of Roman history, ending with the reign of the emperor Commodus (180-192 CE).

Why did she stop here? The fault line, she explained in that book, was the granting in 212 CE of Roman citizenship by the emperor Caracalla to all free inhabitants of the empire, from Scotland to Syria. With that “more than 30 million provincials became legally Roman overnight”. This “single biggest grant of citizenship