Reading for Anyone Thinking About the Roman Empire Today
It has come to our attention that we have grossly underestimated how many people are thinking about the Roman Empire on the regular (#RomanEmpire). To remedy, this we are sharing some titles for all the classics lovers out there including history, biography, literary fiction, and political thrillers.
If you're in New York this fall we hope you consider joining us for a special Live from NYPL program "Mary Beard with Tim Gunn: Emperor of Rome" on November 3, 2023. The program will also be offered via Livestream.
Nonfiction
Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World
by Mary Beard
In her international bestseller SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome. Now she shines her spotlight on the emperors who ruled the Roman empire, from Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) to Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE). Emperor of Rome goes directly to the heart of Roman (and our own) fantasies about what it was to be Roman, offering an account of Roman history as it has never been presented before.
The Death of Caesar: The Story of History's Most Famous Assassination
by Barry Strauss
Thanks to William Shakespeare, the death of Julius Caesar is the most famous assassination in history. But what actually happened on March 15, 44 BC is even more gripping than Shakespeare’s play.
Messalina: Empress, Adulteress, Libertine: The Story of the Most Notorious Woman of the Roman World
by Honor Cargill
A classicist sets out to rewrite the history of the Empress Messalina, viewed as a ruthless, predatory and sexually insatiable schemer by male historians, looking at her life in the context of her time and reclaim the humanity of a life story previously defined by currents of high politics and patriarchy.
New Rome: The Empire in the East
by Paul Stephenson
It turns out that the descent of Rome is inscribed not only in parchments but also in ice cores and DNA. From these and other sources, we learn that pollution and pandemics influenced the fate of Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire. During its final five centuries, the empire in the east survived devastation by natural disasters, the degradation of the human environment, and pathogens previously unknown to the empire's densely populated, unsanitary cities. Despite the Plague of Justinian, regular "barbarian" invasions, a war with Persia, and the rise of Islam, the empire endured as a political entity. However, Greco-Roman civilization, a world of interconnected cities that had shared a common material culture for a millennium, did not.
Cleopatra: A Life
by Stacy Schiff
Separates fact from fiction to reconstruct the life of the most influential woman of her era, revealing Cleopatra as a complex woman and shrewd monarch whose life and death reshaped the ancient world.
Hannibal: Rome's Greatest Enemy
by Philip Freeman
Over two thousand years ago one of the greatest military leaders in history almost destroyed Rome. Hannibal, a daring African general from the city of Carthage, led an army of warriors and battle elephants over the snowy Alps to invade the very heart ofRome's growing empire. But what kind of person would dare to face the most relentless imperial power of the ancient world? How could Hannibal, consistently outnumbered and always deep in enemy territory, win battle after battle until he held the very fate of Rome within his grasp?
The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic
by Mike Duncan
The creator of the award-winning podcast series The History of Rome and Revolutions brings to life the bloody battles, political machinations, and human drama that set the stage for the fall of the Roman Republic.
Agrippina: The Most Extraordinary Woman of the Roman World
by Emma Southon
A portrait of the influential matriarch who played a major role throughout three generations of the Julio-Claudia dynasty includes coverage of her relationship with her brother, Caligula, her marriage to her uncle, Claudius, and her assassination by her son, Nero
Fiction
I, Claudius: From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Born 10 B.C., Murdered and Deified A.D. 54
by Robert Graves
Considered an idiot because of his physical infirmities, Claudius survived the intrigues and poisonings of the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and the Mad Caligula to become emperor in 41 A.D..
Lavinia
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Growing up in ancient Italy, Lavinia is on the verge of a betrothal to Turnus, the handsome king of nearby Rulli, when a fleet of Trojan ships, under the command of Aeneas, sails up the Tiber, and Lavinia sets out to control her own destiny and find the love of her life, in a historical novel that puts a female twist on Virgil's classic, The Aeneid.
The Wolf Den
by Elodie Harper
A slave and prostitute in Pompeii’s notorious Wolf Den brothel, Amara, once the beloved daughter of a doctor in Greece, is buoyed by the sisterhood she forges with the other women and dream of a new beginning—if she can pay the high price for her freedom.
Semper Fidelis: A Novel of the Roman Empire
by Ruth Downie
Resuming his medical duties in the 20th Legion in Roman-occupied Britain, Gaius Petreius Ruso investigates an outbreak of mysterious injuries and deaths among the native recruits to Britannia's imperial army and discovers possible links to the revered Centurion Geminus and the long-awaited Emperor Hadrian, findings that place his wife in jeopardy.
Julian
by Gore Vidal
An insightful historical novel recreates the brief but brilliant career of Julian, the Roman emperor and philosopher who dedicated himself to the restoration of Hellenism and tried to halt the spread of Christianity.
The Splendor Before the Dark: A Novel of the Emperor Nero
by Margaret George
When a fire engulfs ancient Rome, Nero Augustus is targeted with suspicion about his complicity, forcing him to navigate a web of false friends and spies to save the empire.
Memoirs of Hadrian
by Marguerite Yourcenar
Yourcenar reimagines the Emperor Hadrian's arduous boyhood, his triumphs and reversals, and finally, as emperor, his gradual reordering of a war-torn world, writing with the imaginative insight of a great writer of the twentieth century while crafting a prose style as elegant and precise as those of the Latin stylists of Hadrian's own era.
The Dovekeepers
by Alice Hoffman
A tale inspired by the massacre of hundreds of Jewish people at Masada presents the stories of a hated daughter, a baker's wife, a girl disguised as a warrior, and a medicine woman who keep doves and secrets while Roman soldiers draw near.
Pompeii
by Robert Harris
When the aqueduct that brings fresh water to thousands of people around the bay of Naples fails, Roman engineer Marius Primus heads to the slopes of Mount Vesuvius to investigate, only to come face to face with an impending catastrophe.
Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.