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connorreads's review
dark
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
If nothing else, read the book for the phrase 'Rome's former action man [Tiberius] had turned into an ageing, filthy-minded and malevolent sloth lurking around on Capri like a vindictive cave troll.'
Also, have a sip of water every time a variant of the word 'acquiesce' is used. It's not excessive, but enough that I played a little game with myself the whole time I was reading.
Also, have a sip of water every time a variant of the word 'acquiesce' is used. It's not excessive, but enough that I played a little game with myself the whole time I was reading.
Content Warnings
Minor: Cancer, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
tywhiplashing's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
3.75
confusedmagpie's review
4.0
An honest and in depth depiction of the struggles for “power in a mans world” of the women of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, without idealizing or sugarcoating their brutality, inmense priviledge and ruthlessnes but still showing the reader their brilliance. Not an introductory read, as it demands an intermediate level of background knowledge, and not suitable for someone just looking for a light read on rome as it does go into detail, leaves the central topic fir long stretches and can be dense at times, but the history buff will get plenty of exciting new information, many a titillating tale and a look at the background goings or Imperial politics. As a bit of a specialist in the Late Republic-Julio Claudian period, I also very much enjoyed the sneak peak into the Severan wome and will be reading more on them soon!