Empire on the Mind: Mary Beard Interviewed

One of Britain’s most prominent classicists met with historian Tessa Dunlop to discuss Emperor of Rome and more.

Parliament Square in London bristles with so many statues it is like a free version of Madame Tussauds. If you’ve ever wondered why, look no further than Mary Beard’s latest book – Emperor of Rome. Yup it was the hubris and heft of the Roman empire that helped consolidate the aggrandising trend for erecting men (almost always) in stone, marble, bronze and silver. But unlike Madame Tussauds, these statues weren’t warts and all replicas of their subjects but rather instruments via which to consolidate power; in the words of Mary ‘to spread the imperial face around the whole of the Roman world, like never before.’

I talked to Mary, Britain’s most famous classicist, just after the Roman Empire exploded across TikTok. This was the 2023 trend where women asked the men in their lives when they last thought about the #romanempire. The viral phenomenon reached nearly one billion people but I wonder how many of them have since nosed into Mary book or even better, had a chance to listen to her. She has a knack of effortlessly joining the dots of history – from her broad Roman canvass we effortlessly return to London and its oldest bronze statue – Charles I in Trafalgar Square, looking if not Roman (that’s his brother James II a short distance away) certainly very kingly. For Mary this questionable monarch reaffirms the importance of statues.