The First Ladies of Rome by Annelise Freisenbruch
The First Ladies of Rome is a richly detailed historical picture of some of those great women of Rome, born or married into the house of the caesars. Opening at the dawn of the imperial age, the story begins with the rise of Livia, the first 'first lady', and proceeds to ghost the timeline of imperial Roman history through six dynasties, to Galla Placida, captured by a rampaging Goth horde only to rise to prominence as one of the last empresses. In this remarkable book Annelise Freisenbruch casts a spotlight into every corner of the private and public lives of some of the most intriguing women in history, showing how they were moulded to meet the political requirements of their emperors, be they fathers, husbands, brothers or lovers. But these women proved to be liabilities as well as assets, and The First Ladies of Rome unveils a full range of 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. It also delves into their everyday lives and the world of Rome - taking in education, clothing, health, sex lives, slaves, children, marriages, deaths, and their pivotal roles as political, artistic and architectural patrons. Using a full spectrum of the most up-to-date literary, artistic, archaeological and epigraphic evidence, this book reveals for the first time the rich kaleidoscopic history of these women's lives, and the vivid and complex role of the empresses as political players on Rome's greatest stage.
Annelise Freisenbruch was born in 1977 in Paget, Bermuda, and moved to the UK at the age of eight. She studied classics to postgraduate level at Newnham College, Cambridge, receiving a PhD in 2004. For five of the last ten years, she has taught classics at The Leys school in Cambridge. During that time, she has also worked as a research assistant on a number of popular books and films about the ancient world, and as a research officer exploring the interface between the arts and the law, at the King's College Research Centre in Cambridge. She now lives in Dorset, where she teaches Latin. The First Ladies of Rome is her first book.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780224085298 |
| ISBN 10 | 0224085298 |
| Title | The First Ladies of Rome |
| Author | Annelise Freisenbruch |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Vintage Publishing |
| Year published | 2010-08-19 |
| Number of pages | 400 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |