The First Ladies of Rome
  • Published: 3 October 2011
  • ISBN: 9780099523932
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

The First Ladies of Rome

The Women Behind the Caesars

Formats & editions
EBook
31 Oct 2011
Paperback
3 Oct 2011
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A brilliant and rich group biography of the imperial women of Rome - from an exciting young historian.

Like their modern counterparts, the 'first ladies' of Rome were moulded to meet the political requirements of their emperors, be they fathers, husbands, brothers or lovers. But the women proved to be liabilities as well as assets - Augustus' daughter Julia was accused of affairs with at least five men, Claudius' wife Messalina was a murderous tease who cuckolded and humiliated her elderly husband, while Fausta tried to seduce her own stepson and engineered his execution before boiled to death as a punishment.

In The First Ladies of Rome Annelise Freisenbruch unveils the characters whose identities were to reverberate through the ages, from the virtuous consort, the sexually voracious schemer and the savvy political operator, to the flighty bluestocking, the religious icon and the romantic heroine.

Using a rich spectrum of literary, artistic, archaeological and epigraphic evidence, this book uncovers for the first time the kaleidoscopic story of some of the most intriguing women in history, and the vivid and complex role of the empresses as political players on Rome's great stage.
  • Published: 3 October 2011
  • ISBN: 9780099523932
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

About the author

Annelise Freisenbruch

Annelise Freisenbruch is a writer and classicist. She holds a PhD in Classics from Cambridge University and has worked as a freelance history researcher in the media for the last four years. She is the author of The First Ladies of Rome and was the researcher to Bettany Hughes on her critically acclaimed book Helen of Troy, a researcher on the BBC1 docu-drama series Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire and worked on films on Attila the Hun and Spartacus for the BBC. She is a research co-ordinator at the King's College Research Centre, Cambridge.

Praise for The First Ladies of Rome

[An] extraordinary story...a colourful, pacy survey of dominant Roman women

Tom Payne, Daily Telegraph

What a great idea for a book this is - what a record of filial loathing, sexual scheming, parental neglect, suicide, fratricide, matricide, patricide, infanticide, incest and abuse... The result is a book both scholarly and racy... She has produced a book to be commended: one that restores to life some of the toughest, most colourful and most bizarre women who ever existed

Robert Harris, Sunday Times

A beautifully observed, gripping chronicle and a triumphant achievement

Alison Weir

At last. A book that does not sell us the powerful, intriguing women of Rome simply as poisoners, schemers, femmes fatales, but that brings a wonderfully rich, varied and original range of evidence to bear on the reality of their extraordinary lives

Bettany Hughes, author of 'Helen of Troy' and 'The Hemlock Cup'

Excellent history...the stories Freisenbruch tells of political machinations and literary aspirations are among the most fascinating of any historical period

Independent on Sunday

Bewitchingly enjoyable study

John Dugdale, Guardian

This wonderfully researched work displays wit and cultural reach

Independent

A tour de force of research... an illuminating story

Dailiy Mail
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