The First Ladies of Rome

What a great idea for a book this is - what a record of filial loathing, sexual scheming, parental neglect, suicide, fratricide, matricide, patricide, infanticide, incest and abuse... The result is a book both scholarly and racy... She has produced a book to be commended: one that restores to life some of the toughest, most colourful and most bizarre women who ever existed -- Robert Harris The Sunday Times Extraordinary story -- Tom Payne Daily Telegraph An illuminating story -- Matthew Dennison The Critics The First Ladies of Rome is not only informed by meticulous scholarship, but it is a beautifully observed, gripping chronicle and a triumphant achievement. Eloquently written, this is a long-overdue reappraisal of some of the most intriguing and powerful women in history. You may think you know about them already - but you would be wrong, because in these pages the myths of centuries are swept away to reveal the startling truth. The book is so vivid and immediate in its detail that you forget that these women lived around two thousand years ago. Annelise Freisenbruch is a historian to trust, and her work will justifiably be hailed as the final word on her subject -- Alison Weir At last. A book that does not sell us the powerful, intriguing women of Rome simply as poisoners, schemers, femmes fatales, but that brings a wonderfully rich, varied and original range of evidence to bear on the reality of their extraordinary lives. After reading this book you will feel as though you have travelled the city with Livia, Agrippina et al. - glimpsing the heady power-play and high-octane culture of the day and understanding both more subtly and more deeply how these women rode - and sometimes out-manoeuvred - the political storm that was the Roman world.' -- Bettany Hughes