The first half of the book is very dull though and feels like it takes a long time ambling its way through Beard’s quasi-fetish of Cicero which dominates so much of the first half of the book. I think if Mary Beard had sub-titled this book with the idea that it was socio-political commentary on the first millennium in Rome centred around …
https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard/dp/1631492225