Mary Beard, “Misleading Lives: The Perils of Ancient Biography”

Mary Beard, one of Britain’s best-known classicists and the author of many acclaimed books on ancient Rome, gives this year’s Leon Levy Lecture on the craft of biography. Her most recent book, Emperor of Rome, delves into what it actually meant to be a Roman emperor, offering insights into the nature of role and the people who inhabited it. A professor emerita at Cambridge, Beard has also written Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town; SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome; Women & Power; and Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern, among other books. A regular broadcaster and media commentator, she has written and presented television documentaries on history and culture, including two acclaimed series, Meet the Romans and Rome: Empire Without Limit.

Presented with the Leon Levy Center for Biography.