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In scandals and power struggles obscured by time and legend, the wives, mistresses, mothers, sisters, and daughters of the Caesars have been popularly characterized as heartless murderers, shameless adulteresses, and conniving politicians in the high dramas of the Roman court. Yet little has been known about who they really were and their true roles in the history-making schemes of imperial Rome’s ruling Caesars—indeed, how they figured in the rise, decline, and fall of the empire.
Now, in Caesars’ Wives: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Roman Empire, Annelise Freisenbruch pulls back the veil on these fascinating women in Rome’s power circles, giving them the chance to speak for themselves for the first time. With impeccable scholarship and arresting storytelling, Freisenbruch brings their personalities vividly to life, from notorious Livia and scandalous Julia to Christian Helena. Starting at the year 30 BC, when Cleopatra, Octavia, and Livia stand at the cusp of Rome’s change from a republic to an autocracy, Freisenbruch relates the story of Octavian and Marc Antony’s clash over the fate of the empire—an archetypal story that has inspired a thousand retellings—in a whole new light, uncovering the crucial political roles these first "first ladies" played. From there, she takes us into the lives of the women who rose to power over the next five centuries—often amid violence, speculation, and schemes—ending in the fifth century ad, with Galla Placidia, who was captured by Goth invaders (and married to one of their kings). The politics of Rome are revealed through the stories of Julia, a wisecracking daughter who disgraced her father by getting drunk in the Roman forum and having sex with strangers on the speaker’s platform; Poppea, a vain and beautiful mistress who persuaded the emperor to kill his mother so that they could marry; Domitia, a wife who had a flagrant affair with an actor before conspiring in her husband’s assassination; and Fausta, a stepmother who tried to seduce her own stepson and then engineered his execution—afterward she was boiled to death as punishment.
Freisenbruch also tells a fascinating story of how the faces of these influential women have been refashioned over the millennia to tell often politically motivated stories about their reigns, in the process becoming models of femininity and female power. Illuminating the anxieties that persist even today about women in or near power and revealing the female archetypes that are a continuing legacy of the Roman Empire, Freisenbruch shows the surprising parallels of these iconic women and their public and private lives with those of our own first ladies who become part of the political agenda, as models of comportment or as targets for their husbands’ opponents. Sure to transform our understanding of these first ladies, the influential women who witnessed one of the most gripping, significant eras of human history, Caesars’ Wives is a significant new chronicle of an era that set the foundational story of Western Civilization and hung the mirror into which every era looks to find its own reflection.
- Sales Rank: #1310167 in Books
- Published on: 2010-11-09
- Released on: 2010-11-09
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x 1.20" w x 6.00" l, 1.14 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 368 pages
- ISBN13: 9781416583035
- Condition: Used - Very Good
- Notes: 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
From Publishers Weekly
Former BBC freelance researcher Freisenbruch addresses a long-neglected topic in this intriguing study of the first ladies of the Roman Empire. While emphasizing such colorful individuals as Livia, the long-lived, scheming wife of Augustus; Agrippina, the mother of Nero, whose assertion of authority over him ended in her execution; and Julia Domna, the brilliant and tragic wife of the African-born Emperor Septimius Severus, Freisenbruch has also given us valuable information on less dramatic but steadier women whose presence enabled the Western Empire to flourish. Particularly significant were the roles of Helena and Fausta, the mother and wife respectively of Constantine the Great, in ensuring the triumph of Christianity in the Empire. Weakened only by a slight tendency to compare and contrast events with the modern media versions of Rome, Freisenbruch's debut is both fascinating and enjoyable. (Nov.) (c)
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Review
“To summon the ghosts of Rome’s lost womenfolk is a remarkable achievement. But to do so with such vividness, evoking vibrant lives out of broken sculpture and distorting texts, is a triumph of scholarship. More than just toppling our preconceptions of familiar characters like Livia and Agrippina, Annelise Freisenbruch redefines our understanding of women’s roles at the pinnacle of Roman society. Clearing away the historical murk, Caesars' Wives is a convincing answer to an ancient mystery.”
--Evan Fraser and Andrew Rimas, authors of Empires of Food
“A vivid account of the women who cracked the marble ceiling of ancient Rome’s corridors of power. Caesars’ Wives emerge from the long dark shadows of their better known Imperial consorts as brilliantly colored personalities of flesh, blood, intellect, and passion. Annelise Freisenbruch has stripped away the layers of myth, and painted the portraits of these remarkable wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters with clarity, sympathy, and a charming humor.”
--David Tripp, author of Illegal Tender and Special Consultant to Sotheby’s
“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-maneuvered -- the political storm that was the Roman world.”
--Bettany Hughes, author of Helen of Troy
“Caesars’ Wives 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, author of The Six Wives of Henry VIII and The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn
“For years now Robert Graves and HBO have made us as familiar with Augustus’ troubled family as with Henry VIII, and we know that much of the narrative is scandal. Now Freisenbruch has stepped in to provide a lively, balanced, and expert account of the imperial wives. “
--Elaine Fantham, Ph.D., coauthor of Women in the Classical World
“Caesars' Wives gets as close as possible to the real stories of the women of the Roman Empire, without resorting to the dull, old sex and murder clichés. Annelise Freisenbruch delivers considerable scholarship in a lovely, easy-going way.”
--Harry Mount, author of the bestselling book on Latin language and history, Amo, Amas, Amat ... and All That
“Extraordinary story, spanning four and a half centuries…The author is quick to see the far-reaching consequences…and to apply the lessons to modern times… In this colorful, pacy story of dominant Roman women, we can admire them in their own right.”—The Telegraph
About the Author
Annelise Freisenbruch was born in 1977 in Paget, Bermuda, and moved to the UK at the age of eight. She studied Classics to postgraduate level at Cambridge University, receiving a PhD in 2004 for her thesis on the correspondence between the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and his tutor Cornelius Fronto. During that time, she also taught Classics at a private school in Cambridge. She has worked as a research assistant on a number of popular books and films about the ancient world, and regularly gives talks to schools about Classics in popular culture. Annelise Freisenbruch was the researcher to Bettany Hughes on her critically acclaimed book Helen of Troy (Vintage). She was also a specialist series researcher on the BBC1 docu-drama series Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire, and is currently working on films on Attila the Hun and Spartacus for the BBC. Annelise holds a PhD in Classics from Cambridge University and has worked as a freelance history researcher in the media for the last four years. She lives in Cambridge, where she teaches Latin to middle-school children. Caesars' Wives is her first book.
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Finally I am clear on who married who!
By LSC
Finally I am clear on who married who! She provides extensive genealogies for three sets of Empresses: (I) the Julio- claudian empresses (they were wild!), (II) the others who came after (also interesting characters), and (III) the Christian Empresses before the Empire fell. This is a for real history book, footnotes and all, so do not expect the story to be a soap opera embellishment. The truth is crazy enough--without any embellishment, you have marriages, adoptions, poisonings, maneuvering for succession, adoptions, assassinations, religious insights--all on the grandest scale imaginable--the truth, as extensively researched, is fascinating enough on its own!
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
Caesars' Wives are much more interesting that the real housewives of TV notoriety
By C. M Mills
Caesars' Wives is the first book by Dr. Annelise Freisenbruch. The author was born in Bermuda, raised in England and sports a Ph.D from Cambridge University! Not bad for a young woman in her early 30s! Friesenbruch has also done work as a freelance classical historian for the British Broadcasting Company.
Caesars' Wives covers in detailed prose the lives of the most prominent imperial spouses in the four hundred years from the Julio-Claudian emperors of the first century AD. to the end of the Roman empire in 476 AD. Wives discussed include such colorful and murderous wives as Livia who was married to Augustus for over fifty years and their infamous daughter Julia Also chronicled are important rulers from the eastern empire. Especially to be noted are Cleopatra VII the wife of Mark Antony; Berenice the Judean princess who wed Titan and Helena who was the mother of the first Christian emperor Constantine.
The problem I had with the book is there are so many names and dynasties to keep track of it boggles the mind of the historicla layman! This is particularly true as the book nears its 465 page end. It is a well researced book written in a scholarly style. Freisenbruch has done her homework quoting extensively from such ancient authors as Suetonious, Dio Cassius,
Pliny, Ovid, Tacitus and countless others both pagan and Christians.
The book could well be used as a resource in a collegetiate level course on the Roman Empire. Along with information about the women we find good descriptions of changes in fashion, childbirth customs and the role of women in the ancient world. A good book by a fine young classical scholar. Look upon it as "I Claudius" and "Rome" (TV programs on the period covered in this book) put in print and viewed from a female perspective. The book includes illustrations of coinage and portraits of many of the women mentioned in the text.
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Unfocused presentaiton
By Lance B. Hillsinger
No single book can tell the story of the Roman Empire. The best any one book can do is focus on one aspect and tell the story of Roman Empire through that focus. Through the lives of the notable women of the Empire -- not just those who were married to a Caesar - Annelise Freisenbruch gives us the history of Imperial Rome.
Anyone familiar with the history of the Roman Empire knows that recounting the historical narrative is difficult; many historical figures are known by multiple names and the same name is common to many historical figures. Frisenbruch included multiple genealogical charts to help the reader navigate through the morass of names.
However, Frisenbruch's style of writing adds to the confusion. For instance, in the first paragraph of chapter one, the story begins with Nero and his seventeen year old wife, Livia, running for their lives in a burning forest. In the next paragraph, the text jumps to the political fallout following the assaination of Julius Caesar. This is followed by a comparison of Livia to Cleopatra which is followed by a brief biography of Nero. Nowhere in the chapter does the author take the reader back to the burning forest and how Nero and Livia made their escape.
Similarly, chapter five begins with a discussion two plays about the emperor Titus and his mistress Berenice. These are plays that premiered in 1610! Berenice's story is quite an interesting historical figure; she is even mentioned the Bible. It would have been a lot clearer for the author to recount her story first and then report that in the Middle Ages her life was made into competing plays -- not the other way around. The confusing style continues in chapter eight. That chapter begins with a discussion of a 1950 historical novelization of the life of Empress Helena. As the first Christian Empress, Helena's story is very important not just within the history of the Roman Empire, but the history of early Christianity as well. The reader doesn't need a reference to a book written in 1950s to tell the reader why Helena is important.
In places, Caesar Wives can be quite informative. When Frisenbruch writes about the symbolism of dress/hair styles or the symbolism found in coins and statues, or the evolving definition of the ideal Roman woman, the storyline is clearer. The text becomes particularly interesting when Frisenbruch's recounts those rare occasions when the empresses - or other female member of the Roman elite - exercised real political power or engaged in philanthropic largesse.
While there is slight feminist slant to her writing, when Frisenbrush writes about coins, dress, power, or philanthropy, she gives a fresh, and well-documented, analysis of the history of women inside the telling of the history of the Imperial Roman. It is unfortunate that this analysis is too often clouded by an unfocused presentation.
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