Emma Southon

Una historia de Roma apasionante y distinta. Explicada a traves de la vida de 21 mujeres que, pese a los esfuerzos de los cronistas para acallar sus voces, han conseguido llegar a nuestros días gracias al esfuerzo de la historiadora Emma Southon para rescatarlas del olvido. Un libro que desvela nuevas realidades de la historia antigua y que interesara tanto a especialistas del periodo como a lectores que se aproximan por vez primera a la historia de Roma.

Esta es la historia de una mujer excepcional, que ha sido malinterpretada y vilipendiada por una Historia y unas fuentes originales escritas por y para hombres. Emma Southon rescata a Agripina la Menor, hermana, sobrina, esposa y madre de emperadores, y le otorga el papel central que durante cuatro generaciones tuvo en la política romana; atreviéndose a pisar esferas de poder reservadas a los hombres, lo que le acabó costando la vida.

CSI: Ancient Rome discover what everyday killings tell us about the Roman Empire and its peopleA brilliant idea, brilliantly executed. Tom Holland, co-host of The Rest is HistoryIn Ancient Rome all the best stories have one thing in common murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city, Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic, Caligula was butchered in the theatre, Claudius was poisoned at dinner.But what did killing really mean in a city where gladiators fought to the death to sate a crowd? Emma Southon examines real-life homicides from Roman history to take us inside Ancient Romes unique culture of crime and punishment, and show us how the Romans viewed life, death, and what it means to be human.Those left cold by the sober tones of scholarship will find this voice liberating and intoxicating. Its energy is boundless and its range immense. Wall Street Journal

A biography of the most extraordinary woman in the Roman world

Rome as youve never seen it before brazenly unconventional, badly behaved and ever so feminine.Hugely entertaining and illuminating Elodie Harper, author of The Wolf DenA WATERSTONES BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2023Heres how the history of the Roman Empire usually goesWe kick off with Romulus murdering his brother, go on to Brutus overthrowing Tarquin, bounce through an appallingly tedious list of battles and generals and consuls, before emerging into the political stab-fest of the late Republic. After Et tu, Brute?, it runs through all the emperors, occasionally nodding to a wife or mother to show how bad things get when women wont do as theyre told, until Constantine invents Christianity only for Attila the Hun to come and ruin everything.Lets tear up this script. The history of Rome and its empire is so much more than these Important Things.In this alternative history, Emma Southon tells another story about the Romans, one that lives through Vestal Virgins and sex workers, business owners and poets, empresses and saints. Discover how entrepreneurial sex worker Hispala Faecenia uncovered a conspiracy of treason, human sacrifice and Bacchic orgies so wild they would make Donna Tartt blush, becoming one of Romes unlikeliest heroes. Book yourself a table at the House of Julia Felix and get to know Pompeiis savviest businesswoman and restauranteur. Indulge in an array of locally sourced delicacies as you take in the wonderful view of Mount Vesuvius what could possibly go wrong? Join the inimitable Septimia Zenobia, who after watching a series of incompetent, psychopathic and incompetently psychopathic emperors almost destroy the Empire did what any of us would do. She declared herself Empress, took over half the Roman Empire and ran it herself.

Putting the Women Back into Roman History

From acclaimed author of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and historian Emma Southon, a groundbreaking history of Ancient Rome that explores how the empire was built, fueled, and shaped by its enslaved people.When Julius Caesar conquered Gaul he boasted that he killed a million Gauls and enslaved a million more. This is the truth about the Roman empire: Rome could not function without slavery as it underpinned every single part of their economy. Without the millions of people snatched from their homes in the aftermath of war, kidnapped from the streets, sold into slavery as punishment, or born into it as home bred slaves, the Roman empires great aqueducts and temples could never have been built. There would be no coins or tiles to find in fields, no limitless manpower for the army and navy that conquered the Mediterranean, no marble palaces or underfloor heating, and certainly no life of unimaginable luxury for the one percent who didnt even tie their own shoes. For the first time, Not Built in a Day tells their stories.Not Built in a Day takes readers into the invisible spaces of the Roman empire, where the millions of enslaved lives perpetuated the excesses of the empire that owned them. From the fields of wheat required to give every Roman his daily bread, to the actors and gladiators who provided their circuses; from the guards who kept the streets of Rome safe and the mines which kept Rome a city of gold and marble, to the builders who placed every brick in the Colosseum. It traces how people entered, experienced, and left slavery, covering the little known story of slave revolts and the complex realities of enslaved people who themselves owned enslaved people. Not Built in a Dayalso explores the lives of those freed from slavery, finally able to choose their own destinies. With humor, wit, and expertise, Emma Southon invites us into the absurdity of Roman life and completely upends our idea of the Roman empire.

"Un libro muy recomendable y entretenido, donde la historiadora le gana siempre la partida a la feminista, y que hará las delicias de quienes busquen conocer más del mundo romano y los entresijos del Imperio." Que LeerEsta es la historia de una mujer excepcional, cuyo atrevimiento al pisar esferas de poder reservadas a los hombres acabo costandole la vida. Una mujer a quien la historia y sus fuentes oficiales, escritas por y para hombres, han malinterpretado y vilipendiado sistematicamente. Emma Southon rescata a Agripina la Menor, hermana, sobrina, esposa y madre de emperadores, y le devuelve el historico papel central que efectivamente tuvo en cuatro generaciones de la politica romana.Una biografia "notable" y "atrevida" (Publishers Weekly) de la mujer mas extraordinaria de la antigua Roma, "repleta de referencias a la cultura actual" (El Pais), y que, gracias a la cantidad de detalles tan jugosos como insospechados que reseña, se convierte una obra tan reveladora como entretenida.

Cada vez que se da un episodio transformador en la historia de Roma, hay un asesinato. Una persona muere, en general de manera sangrienta, y alli donde vivia surge algo completamente nuevo. Roma se construyo sobre la sangre de Remo; la Republica nacio con la muerte de Lucrecia; el Imperio aparecio a partir del asesinato de Cesar. Roma era un lugar con una extrana tendencia al asesinato. Pero, durante la mayor parte de la historia de Roma, el asesinato no fue un crimen. De hecho, durante toda la historia de Roma, la muerte en la arena de los gladiadores era un deporte, literalmente.(...) Hay pocas sociedades que hayan venerado tanto como los romanos la muerte deliberada e intencionada de hombres y mujeres, y que se hayan deleitado tanto con ella. Si te he de ser sincera, a los romanos les chiflaba el tema.EMMA SOUTHONUna idea brillante, brillantemente ejecutada.TOM HOLLANDDivertida, academica, erudita, irreverente.... SARAH PERRY