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Reviews tagging 'Gore'
Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern by Mary Beard
1 review
frantically's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
4.0
First: I get what everyone's saying! This isn't really a book suited to a wider audience, the writing is dense and the contents are very detailed and overall it's just a proper academic book. But I don't think it's far to rate this solely on the way it was published and I am exactly the target audience! I'm doing my history degree, I love Mary Beard, and I find depictions of historical rulers fascinating.
I have to say, I didn't know much about most of the Caesars in this book, nor had I ever noticed or heard of the phenomenon of the "Twelve Caesars" but I found that Beard explained it very well and led us through a history of the phenomenon from antiquity up to modernity. It's so interesting to see how these people and their faces and stories have enthralled viewers for millemnia and how they're continuing to do so.
I was already really liking this when Beard did one of the last chapters on the way the women in the lives of the Caesars were and still are prepared and that really sold me. Here we see loads of points that can be made for female consorts throughout all of his history like how, no matter how little power they have legally, their biggest power is being able to birth an heir, something that their husband will never be able to do.
I listened to the audiobook for this, it's read by the author and it felt like I was listening to her just lecturing and I really loved that and I think it added that extra something!
I have to say, I didn't know much about most of the Caesars in this book, nor had I ever noticed or heard of the phenomenon of the "Twelve Caesars" but I found that Beard explained it very well and led us through a history of the phenomenon from antiquity up to modernity. It's so interesting to see how these people and their faces and stories have enthralled viewers for millemnia and how they're continuing to do so.
I was already really liking this when Beard did one of the last chapters on the way the women in the lives of the Caesars were and still are prepared and that really sold me. Here we see loads of points that can be made for female consorts throughout all of his history like how, no matter how little power they have legally, their biggest power is being able to birth an heir, something that their husband will never be able to do.
I listened to the audiobook for this, it's read by the author and it felt like I was listening to her just lecturing and I really loved that and I think it added that extra something!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Incest
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
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