Being Roman with Mary Beard
4.7/5
Critic Rating
Beneath the starched togas and the pungent fug of gladiator sweat there are real Romans waiting to be discovered. Mary Beard uncovers six fascinating stories from the Empire.
Critic Reviews
Score: 5
Patricia Nicol • The Times UK • Nov 26, 2023
"...deploys expert guests graciously. Each episode lasts only 28 minutes, but conveys a pungently vivid sense of a modern world imbued by the ancient. The classicist Beard achieves entertaining lightness and scholarly insight."
Score: 5
Edward Wickham • Church Times • Nov 17, 2023
"The impulse to remove a historical figure from their context and treat them as a cultural plaything was similarly exemplified in the first episode of Being Roman with Mary Beard. All the macho stuff was mere performance, we were told — with the enthusiasm of a journalist who has discovered a historic cache of incriminating Facebook posts."
Score: 4
James Marriot • The Times UK • Nov 16, 2023
"On her wonderful new Radio 4 show, Being Roman, she is on pleasingly sceptical form. Beard’s deep knowledge of her subject means she is full of fascinating and unexpected tales. The show is a testament to how much more clearly you can see the Romans if you refuse to be overawed by them. In Beard’s telling they emerge as rather less impressive than their grand monuments would have you believe — but much, much more interesting."
