★★★★★ History as investigation

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

Mary Beard

I added SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome to my "Read" list 11-Oct-2020. That was shortly after I began using Goodreads seriously, and before I started reviewing all my books in detail. Thus although I have a five-star rating, probably given while the book was still fresh in memory, it is no longer that, and I am scrambling a bit to remember why I liked it so much.

I do remember that what pleased me most about it was that Mary Beard tells us carefully what we know, and how we know what we know. It is my position -- I have gotten into arguments over this -- that you don't actually know anything unless you know how you know it.

Now, the brutal fact of the matter is that we don't actually know all that much about the history of the Roman Republic. Much of what we think we know comes from a small number of often sketchy and not-all-that reliable sources. For instance, the writings of Cicero (a politician) loom large. Also, for earlier times, gravestone inscriptions are important. (That's an example of a "sketchy" source.) For many readers Beard's embrace of ignorance will be a problem. They have read extensive and detailed histories of the Roman Republic (as have I) and are not going to be happy that someone tells them those histories are mostly fables, and that we do not, in fact, know what battles were fought in the early days of the Republic or how they were won.

Personally, I love it. I can't help it -- when you tell me "We don't know this,", it is exciting. So much possibility! So much left to discover! Just think how exciting it will be when we invent a time-travel machine and can send historians back to Rome to find out what really happened. (Hat tip, Connie Willis.)

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