THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER'[Mary Beard] has always had the sharpest eyes for telling detail and colourful anecdote' Sunday Times'Britain's most famous classicist ... at the peak of her powers' The Times'Extraordinary ... a deliciously varied tapestry of detail drawn from across nearly three centuries' Telegraph'The reigning Queen of Classics' SpectatorWhat was it really like to rule and be ruled in the Ancient Roman world?In her international best-seller 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 is not your usual chronological account of Roman rulers, one after another: the mad Caligula, the monster Nero, the philosopher Marcus Aurelius.

Beard asks bigger questions: What power did emperors actually have?

Was the Roman palace really so bloodstained?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.