The following version of the book was used to create this study guide: Beard, Mary. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. New York and London: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2015.

Author Mary Beard argues that Ancient Rome is important because of its foundational contributions to Western culture and politics. In this book, Beard will explore how Rome grew and sustained its position while confronting myths about its civilization.

Beard opens in 63 BCE with the trial of Catiline, who was prosecuted by Cicero for his attempts to stage a rebellion against the senate and was ultimately killed in battle. Cicero was a skilled orator who was likely keen to achieve glory and status through his prosecution of Catiline and his allies. Catiline, who was portrayed as an evil terrorist, may in fact have been responding to the economic and social problems and inequities that were creating issues in Rome at the time. Beard characterizes the story of Cicero and Catiline as indicative of Ancient Roman life and a template for our current political struggles.

Chapter 2 is about Rome's mythological origins. The city was said to have been founded by Romulus, who killed his brother Remus in an argument in the city's very early days. To find citizens for his new settlement Romulus welcomed outsiders and exiles, and condoned the rape and abduction of neighboring women. An alternative foundation myth is that of Aeneas, who founded Rome after fleeing his native Troy after the Trojan war. Legends aside, it is very difficult to find any concrete facts about Rome's earliest years though archeological clues can tell us some details about what the earliest Romans ate, what their houses looked like, and what materials they traded with outside communities.

Chapter 3 focuses on the Roman regal period in which kings ruled the proto-urban settlement until the end of the sixth century BCE. The creation of the Roman census and calendar are attributed to kings in this period, but it was an era characterized by many conflicts. By the sixth century BCE, Rome was a small urban community but its citizens were growing resentful of the exploitative monarchy. After the rape of a noblewoman, the king and his family were expelled and the monarchy ended. The Roman Republic then emerged with a value of liberty and a form of democratic rule in which two consuls were elected as leaders each year.

Chapter 4 is about the developments in Roman politics and culture that occurred in the early Republican period. Rome became a major urban center and some laws were codified in writing. The plebeian underclass fought for and gained greater rights more equal to those of the elite patrician citizens and Rome began to conquer neighboring communities. With victory in the Latin and Samnite Wars, Rome had control over half the Italian peninsula by 290 BCE.

Over the next hundred years, there were various military conflicts between Rome and others including the Greeks, the Gauls, the Corinthians, and the Carthaginians. Though Rome did suffer some defeats and invasions, it also had very major victories that soon eclipsed those losses. The profits of war enriched Rome and allowed for both infrastructure developments and increased luxuries. As Rome expanded its control and power over other areas, its culture was transformed by interactions with others, creating some diversity and multiculturalism.

Chapter 6 is about the period between the defeat of Carthage in 146 BCE and the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE. This period was a high point of Roman literature, art, and culture, but it was also a period of political and moral decline. There were increased violence and political infighting alongside attempts at new reforms such as land redistribution and food subsidies for the poor. Opposition to these reforms only increased the infighting among Romans. Notable conflicts in this period include an attack on Rome by a Roman general named Sulla, who instilled a short-lived autocracy, and Spartacus' slave rebellion.

In Chapter 7, Beard writes about the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. The political decline of the Republic was in part related to the exploitative actions of senators and governors abroad, which raised questions about whether the Republican government was capable of governing such a vast empire. In the 50s an alliance of three elite men, Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Marcus Crassus, controlled much of Roman politics. Pompey accumulated power and wealth in the East, while Caesar did so in the North. In 49 CE, Caesar marched on Rome and thus began four years of civil war that ended in Caesar's autocratic rule until his famous assassination in March 44 BCE.

Chapter 8 is about the typical lives of more ordinary Romans. Marriage was a large part of Roman life and the creation of children was essential. It was assumed and expected that all women would marry, though Roman women had, relatively speaking, greater rights than other women in Antiquity or in other periods of history. Childbirth was dangerous and infant mortality was high. Weak or disabled babies would often be abandoned. The wealthy would own several properties and many slaves.

After Caesar's assassination, Rome did not return to Republican rule but instead entered an imperial period. His successor, Augustus, would provide a template for Roman imperial rule that all subsequent emperors would follow for the next two centuries. The emperors would maintain control over the army, conduct infrastructure projects, and would display generosity to the poor.

Chapter 10 explores the question of how much an individual emperor's personality and character mattered to the average Roman. Though history has left us detailed and often dramatic descriptions of these larger-than-life characters, the life of the average Roman citizen would likely have been little change or effected by who was in power. There was never a clearly established model for imperial succession and thus the transition of power was often bloody. The relationship between the emperor and the senate was also complex, poorly defined, and tenuous. In some cases, there were outright hostilities, and in others, senators acted as helpful administrative branches of imperial rule. Finally, Beard looks at how emperors were often thought of as divine, whether that be in life or after their deaths.

Chapter 11 is about the various classes of Roman society, between the elites and the very poor there were also a significant number of peasant farmers, merchants, tradespeople, and laborers who made up what we would think of as the middle-classes. Bar culture was an important part of Roman social life for these classes, as bars and cafes were places not only to eat but to socialize and gamble.

Chapter 12 is about life in the wider Roman world. Rome maintained control over the provinces in part through its army and in part through the cooperation of local leaders. While some were keen to Romanize, others rebelled against Roman rule. Overall, however, Roman rule led to cultural mixing rather than complete domination or cultural erasure. An individual could easily identify as bilingual and bicultural.

In the Epilogue, Beard ends her narrative in 212, when the emperor Caracalla gave citizenship to all free inhabitants of the Roman empire. This marked the end of the first Roman millennium and the end of a distinct period in Roman history. In her conclusion, Beard argues that we should not think about learning from the Romans, but rather about learning from our engagement with them.