"What better escape from the woes of our present day than rolling around in the intrigues of the Roman Empire? Naughty Caesars! Pictures too! Avidly I plunge in!"鈥�Margaret Atwood
"A mesmerizing read."鈥擬ichael Dirda, Washington Post
"This deeply researched account explores how Roman art has shaped the Western world鈥檚 understanding of power for two millenniums, from ancient Roman imperial portraits to the work of the 19th-century American sculptor Edmonia Lewis."鈥�New York Times
"Beard, a prolific author and a distinguished classical scholar, brilliantly describes the ways in which images of Roman emperors have influenced art, culture and politics for two millennia. . . . Twelve Caesars is a masterly demonstration of scholarship in a variety of fields, from republican Roman politics to Renaissance tapestry to contemporary British collage. Again and again, Ms. Beard gives us unexpected insights. . . . Twelve Caesars is wonderfully readable, with graceful prose and witty comments along the way."鈥擝arry Strauss, Wall Street Journal
"This thoroughgoing survey examines the relationship between ancient imperial imagery and the modern visual imagination. . . . With handsome illustrations of coins, canvases, frescoes, and teacups, Beard brings the prestige and power of these emperors鈥� half-invented faces into tighter focus."鈥�The New Yorker
"Twelve Caesars is fascinating and not only because its author writes so engagingly. Many years in the making, the world into which it will be born is not quite the same as the one in which it was conceived. Its preoccupations鈥攅ssentially, it鈥檚 about the way that images of Roman emperors from Caesar to Domitian have influenced culture across the centuries鈥攁re suddenly and newly of the moment in a Britain that has become completely fixated with statues."鈥擱achel Cooke, The Observer
"A fantastic new book."鈥擳om Holland, The Rest Is History
"In [Beard's] work, the consumption of classical culture is as revealing as the culture itself."鈥擩osh Spero, Financial Times
"[A] fascinating book, which embarks on a study of not just the Julio-Claudian dynasty of caesars made infamous by Suetonius and Robert Graves but also of their ubiquitous iconography鈥攊n statues, on coins, in paintings and sculpture. It鈥檚 an eye-catching field guide to these famous ancient rulers."鈥�Christian Science Monitor
"Beard upends many of our assumptions by looking at how these rulers have been represented in art, from antiquity to the modern-day. It鈥檚 a clever and entertaining exercise in helping us reframe how we think about the distant past."鈥擠arragh Geraghty, Irish Times 鈥嬧�嬧�嬧�嬧�嬧�嬧��
"[A] rich disquisition on the Caesars鈥� visual representation. . . . [Twelve Caesars is] handsomely illustrated and brightly ringing with Beard鈥檚 enjoyment and scholarship. . . . Beard shows the joy of classical texts, and how they are the ultimate resource when visual art fails to be comprehensible to us."鈥擧ermione Eyre, The Spectator
"[Twelve Caesars] abounds in expert and keen-eyed readings of Roman imperial images, with insights into the meanings they might have held for those who displayed them. . . . [Beard鈥檚] insights are always original and her lively, cheeky prose style always compelling."鈥擩ames Romm, Daily Beast
"Beard has written a fascinating book, one to browse happily. It sparkles with ideas, many of them characteristically provocative. Pictorially it is a sheer delight. As for the question of attribution or misattribution, well, you can read this delightful book in the spirit of a detective."鈥擜llan Massie, The Scotsman
"Beard provides a masterclass for art historians and classicists on the challenges of interpretation and the potentialities of meaning in this neglected area of classical studies, so important to elite visual power politics between the 15th and 19th centuries."鈥擲imon J. V. Malloch, Literary Review
"Beard wades boldly into muddy territory and emerges with a portrait of the emperors鈥� afterlives that is as vivid as the busts themselves. The book leaves little room for doubt as to how influential the role of later artists and buyers has been in adding muscle to the sinews of emperors passed down from the ancient world. The twelve Caesars are arguably among the finest inventions of posterity."鈥擠aisy Dunn, The Critic
"A leading scholar as well as a writer of bestsellers, [Mary] Beard, as always, asks important questions. . . . [In Twelve Caesars,] she leads us through the best available evidence and delivers insightful answers in lucid prose accompanied by dazzling images. . . . A lively treatise on Roman art and power, deliciously opinionated and beautifully illustrated."鈥�Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Incisive prose and wit. . . . This lavishly illustrated volume will be accessible and interesting to a wide variety of readers; a must-read for anyone interested in classics or art history."鈥�Library Journal
"A sumptuously illustrated, beautifully designed, gloriously rich work of history from the distinguished classicist with a lively literary voice, an extraordinary eye for telling detail, and a grand sense of humor. Twelve Caesars is a masterful, brilliant work of detection, a joy to read."鈥�B&N Reads
"[Twelve Caesars] currently sits on my nightstand. . . . . I've been interested in power for quite a while: who has it, who doesn鈥檛, how to acquire it and how to use it for the greater good."鈥擝ernardine Evaristo, Elle.com
"With her reputation for viewing Roman history through a feminist lens, Mary Beard may be the most popular classicist in the world. . . . Focusing on images of power throughout the ages, from ancient Rome to the present, [Twelve Caesars] will only grow her fan base."鈥�ARTnews Magazine
"[Beard] explores in fascinating and entertaining detail how the long-dead Roman emperors have lived on in the Western imagination, providing a rich store of moral and political exemplars to instruct, warn and mock their successors. . . . Beard provides instruction as well as entertainment."鈥擲tephen Mills, Inside Story
"There鈥檚 lots of moments in this book that are surprising and very funny."鈥擜ndrew Roberts, BBC Radio Four: Start The Week
"A detective masterpiece of entertaining misattributions, reinterpretations, and blatant fakes. "鈥擡ugenia Ellanskaya, Minerva Magazine
"From Beard鈥檚 reconstruction of Titian鈥檚 extraordinary lost Room of the Emperors to her reinterpretation of Henry VIII鈥檚 famous Caesarian tapestries, Twelve Caesars includes fascinating detective work and offers a gripping story of some of the most challenging and disturbing portraits of power ever."鈥擜ngela Crocombe, Readings
"An enthralling story of how images of Roman emperors have influenced art, culture, and the representation of power for more than 2,000 years. . . . Drawing on a wealth of research, and a multitude of paintings and sculptures, Beard explores the importance of portraits in Roman politics and provides interesting insights into famous pieces of art. A fascinating book."鈥�Canberra Weekly
"Beard is a consummate reader of images. One of her great strengths is the way she is constantly alive to the potential for images to misbehave. . . . A clever, witty, thought-provoking book."鈥擜lastair J. L. Blanshard, Australian Book Review
"In discussing what the faces of imperial power looked like, Beard presents a fascinating detective story of changing identities told through a selection of historical artworks."鈥擫indsay Powell, Ancient History
"Engaging, erudite and enormously informative. . . . Beard鈥檚 fascinating book asks its readers to be curious about, and critical of, redeployments of the images of Roman emperors from the Renaissance in Italy to 20th-century America."鈥擬arguerite Keane, America
"Beard鈥檚 style of investigation is often just as interesting as some of her find颅ings. . . . 'Are we sure we know that?' is her consistent refrain. It鈥檚 a refreshing sort of intellectual humility鈥攕peak颅ing confidently when an answer can be known, but also recognizing when caution is warranted."鈥擱egina Munch, Commonweal
"[Beard鈥檚] latest triumph. Twelve Caesars takes readers on a delightful journey through artistic representations of Rome鈥檚 emperors. . . .This book could be read at the beach, then cited in a dissertation."鈥擬ikayla Barreiro, Comitatus
"An amazing, richly illustrated, book that reveals Mary Beard as a sleuth."鈥擲cot McKnight, Christianity Today
"[A] welcome contribution to the study of representation of Roman emperors in early modern visual arts."鈥擬iryana Dimitrova, Classical Review
"A tour de force of art and intellectual history."鈥擩ames Corke-Webster, Greece and Rome
"Twelve Caesars by Mary Beard is a brilliant and engaging historical account of the lives of twelve Roman emperors. The book is a remarkable feat of scholarship that brings to life the personal and political complexities of these powerful men."鈥�The F
"[Mary Beard] masterfully combines expert knowledge and scholarly rigour with a clear and engaging writing style. . . .An important book with much to say about the place of the Classical World in modern society."鈥擠onald MacLennan, The Journal of Classics Teaching
鈥淎s this book triumphantly demonstrates, there is no one on the face of the planet better qualified than Mary Beard to guide us through the great hall of mirrors, labyrinthine and treacherous as it is, that separates us from the Twelve Caesars.鈥濃�擳om Holland, author of Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
鈥淒eftly weaving together past and present, this elegantly written book analyzes the allure of Roman imperial iconography from the early modern period up to the present day. Often reading like a detective novel, it focuses on the formation of a canonical group of twelve Caesars that were invented and reinvented, interpreted and reinterpreted, for purposes that varied from a simple lust for collecting to political self-fashioning.鈥濃�擯atricia Fortini Brown, author of The Venetian Bride: Bloodlines and Blood Feuds in Venice and Its Empire
鈥淎n exceptionally well written and lively book, there is nothing like Twelve Caesars. The book is consistently informative and entertaining. The range of reference across art history from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries, as well as in the author鈥檚 more expected arena of command in antiquity, is staggering and deeply impressive.鈥濃�擩a艣 Elsner, author of Roman Eyes: Visuality and Subjectivity in Art and Text
鈥淎ncient Rome emitted a haze of distorting myth throughout all of later Western history. It was the task of most classicists to fight their way back through the intervening murk of multiple 鈥楻omes鈥� to the actual Rome. But Mary Beard, who has been a great fog dispeller from real Rome, knows that later 鈥楻omes鈥� were real to the cultures that harbored or dreamed them up. Thanks to her experience with TV cultural education, Beard is a superb visual teacher. A good example is this book鈥檚 chapter on later reverence for ancient coins. Nothing could be drearier than classical treatises on Roman coins, crowded with tiny black blurs on a page, so small as to seem indistinguishable until one takes up a magnifying glass to discern the imperfections of the minting process. Here one finds later creative uses of coins鈥攁s models for other works of art, or as set in brilliant jewelry, or as promoted by daft but wealthy collectors. What a relief.鈥濃�擥arry Wills, author of Rome and Rhetoric
