Audio only
Twelve Caesars
Images of Power from the Ancient World to the ModernBy Mary BeardNarrated by Mary Beard
Length10h 11m
About this audiobook
This audiobook narrated by bestselling author Mary Beard explores how images of Roman autocrats have influenced art, culture, and the representation of power
What does the face of power
look like? Who gets commemorated in art and why? And how do we react to statues of politicians we deplore? In this book—against a background of today's "sculpture wars"—Mary Beard tells the story of how for more than two millennia portraits of the rich, powerful, and famous in the western world have been shaped by the image of Roman emperors, especially the "twelve Caesars," from the ruthless Julius Caesar to the fly-torturing Domitian.
Twelve Caesars asks why these murderous autocrats have loomed so large in art from antiquity and the Renaissance to today, when hapless leaders are still caricatured as Neros fiddling while Rome burns.
Beginning with the importance of imperial portraits in Roman politics, this richly illustrated book offers a tour through 2,000 years of art and cultural history, presenting a fresh look at works by artists from Memling and Mantegna to the nineteenth-century African American sculptor Edmonia Lewis, as well as by generations of now-forgotten weavers, cabinetmakers, silversmiths, printers, and ceramicists. Rather than a story of a simple repetition of stable, blandly conservative images of imperial men and women,
Twelve Caesars is an unexpected tale of changing identities, clueless or deliberate misidentifications, fakes, and often ambivalent representations of authority.
From Beard's reconstruction of Titian's extraordinary lost Room of the Emperors to her reinterpretation of Henry VIII's famous Caesarian tapestries,
Twelve Caesars includes some fascinating detective work and offers a gripping story of some of the most challenging and disturbing portraits of power ever created.
Published in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Audiobook details
GenreHistory, Other
Length10 hrs 11 mins
Narrated byMary Beard
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateSep 28, 2021
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Opening Anno, Preface
8Chapter 4 - The Twelve Caesars, More or Less
2Chapter 1 - The Emperor on the Mall: An Introduction
9Chapter 5 - The Most Famous Caesars of Them All
3Chapter 1 - Continued
10Chapter 5 - Continued
4Chapter 2 - Who's Who in the Twelve Caesars
11Chapter 6 - Satire, Subversion and Assassination
5Chapter 2 - Continued
12Chapter 6 - Continued
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter 3 - Coins and Portraits, Ancient and Modern
13Chapter 7 - Caesar's Wife . . . Above Suspicion?
7Chapter 3 - Continued
14Chapter 8 - Afterword: Looking Back, Closing Anno
Series
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m$8 · $0.00
The Red RecordIda B. Wells-Barnett2h 9m$2 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m$29 · $0.00
Saving My EnemyBob Welch9h 11m$20
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m$33 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m$15
EnduranceAlfred Lansing6h 1m$20
LES MISERABLES (Illustrated Edition)Victor Hugo66h 17m$1 · $0.00
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m$28 · $0.00
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Complete 6 Volume Edition)Edward Gibbon179h 45m$2 · $0.00
Fall and RiseMitchell Zuckoff17h 23m$40 · $0.00
The SurvivorJosef Lewkowicz, Michael Calvin9h 22m$29 · $0.00
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m$29 · $0.00
The Book of Proverbs (2020 Edition)Brian Simmons4h 48m1 (1)$10 · $0.00
PAW Patrol - Volume 16Unknown Author57m$7
The Holy Bible - 1 SamuelKing James2h 13m$3 · $0.00
KJV Holy BibleBroadStreet Publishing Group LLC96h 16m$10 · $0.00
The American Standard Bible — The Gospel of MatthewMatthew3h 56m$2 · $0.00
Everyday Chanakya | Time Management S01E08Radhakrishnan Pillai42m$4
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m$24 · $0.00
The King James Audio Bible New Testament CompleteChristopher Glyn20h 2m5 (1)$12 · $0.00
Faiths CheckbookCharles Spurgeon12h 44m$11 · $0.00
Be Wild Be FreeAmber Fossey26m$7 · $0.00
My Favorite Husband, Vol. 1Hollywood 360, CBS Radio5h 40m$14
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m$20 · $0.00
The Chosen Book OneAmanda Jenkins, Kristen Hendricks, Dallas Jenkins3h 8m$10 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m$29 · $0.00
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the HorseCharlie Mackesy58m$11 · $0.00
Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of LukeJ.C. Ryle27h 13m$18 · $0.00
CrossroadsKaleb Dahlgren7h 56m$26 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m$29 · $0.00
Brain Training for RidersAndrea Monsarrat Waldo5h 56m$19 · $0.00
My Effin' LifeGeddy Lee17h 11m5 (1)$40 · $0.00
You may also like
History of the BritonsNennius1h 45m$2 · $0.00
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and ArchitectsGiorgio Vasari97h 32m$2 · $0.00
Christopher Columbus and How He Received and Imparted the Spirit of DiscoveryJustin Winsor24h 52m$1 · $0.00
Roman Social, Legal, and Political Structures – 3 Classic Ancient History StudiesAlfred John Church, Flavius Josephus, Tacitus66h 48m$2
Collections and RecollectionsGeorge William Erskine Russell11h 50m$2 · $0.00
The House of WisdomJim al-Khalili10h 25m$20
Phases of Irish HistoryEoin Mac Neill8h 15m$2 · $0.00
The postage stamps and post cards of the North American colonies of Great BritainVarious Authors4h 36m$2 · $0.00
Reading Confederate MonumentsMaria Seger9h 33m$25 · $0.00
Famous Composers and Their WorksVarious30h 7m$1 · $0.00
Abroad with Mark Twain and Eugene FieldHenry W. Fischer4h 35m$1 · $0.00
Foundations of Near Eastern and Classical Civilization – 3 Classic Antiquity TextsDonald A. Mackenzie, D. G. Hogarth, Herodotus53h 57m$2
Shakspeare and His TimesFrançois Guizot9h 57m$2 · $0.00
Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete 1661 N.SSamuel Pepys8h 59m$2 · $0.00
The Catholic Church In ParáCarlos Araujo Carujo1h 26m$7 · $0.00
The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World: ChaldaeaGeorge Rawlinson$1 · $0.00
Cleopatra's DaughterJane Draycott7h 39m$17 · $0.00
Phases of Irish HistoryEoin Mac Neill11h 20m$2 · $0.00
TrichocosmosAnonymous4h 1m$1 · $0.00
Empires of the NormansLevi Roach10h 4m$20