Beard discusses the written sources for this period-Roman historians such as Livy, who were writing hundreds of years later-and says they had no direct evidence about this time, and were relying on tradition. There is compelling evidence that early Rome was ruled by kings, as the legends say, but no one knows for certain whether the seven kings of legend actually existed. Much of the evidence for the early period of Roman history is archaeological, and archaeologists disagree on exactly how old their discoveries are. In a fascinating section early in the book, Beard discusses various legends about the founding of Rome, including the stories of Aeneas and Romulus and Remus, and says they are just that-legends, with no historical truth to them. SPQR (the title stands for “The Senate and People of Rome”) covers the period from 753 BCE, the supposed date of the founding of Rome, to 212 CE, when the emperor Caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire. It is impossible, in a brief review, to do justice to Beard’s achievement. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome is a monumental work by the historian Mary Beard.
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