We meet with the images and history of Ancient Rome in science, literature, art. But how close to reality are our ideas about the era on which the entire Western civilization relies? The world's leading expert on ancient history, Mary Beard, in her book SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, explains why Roman history is so important to us, how a small, unremarkable town in Central Italy turned into an empire of three continents.

The name "SPQR" is an abbreviation of the Latin expression senatus populus que romanus, meaning "Senate and People of Rome". The Senate gave its name to modern legislative assemblies around the world.

SPQR is a book about Rome and how it maintained its dominance for several centuries in a row, about its inhabitants, emperors and conspirators. Describing the relationship between power and man, the political structure and conflicts, the formation of statehood and empire, famous and unknown Romans, the author destroys myths through scientific data.

The presentation of the history of Ancient Rome begins from the middle of the 1st century BC. BC e., when Rome was already a vast metropolis with a population of more than a million inhabitants, with the foreshadowing of the coup and the description of Cicero's finest hour. And it ends with a climactic moment when, in 212, Emperor Caracalla gave all free inhabitants of the Roman Empire the right to full Roman citizenship, eliminating the distinction between winners and vanquished.

Why the book is worth reading:

– It has all the best that the reader can find in popular science literature: deep and comprehensive knowledge of the subject, excellent language, a sense of the pulsation of everyday life.

– With an increase in the number of finds found in the soil, groundwater and even in libraries, the historiography of ancient Rome has undergone dramatic changes over the past 50 years. The book contains up-to-date scientific data.

- This book is a historical performance, a connection between the past and the present. It's amazing how many similar events and parallels to today the reader will find in the history of Ancient Rome.