SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

• 1. Introduction

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  SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome is a 2015 book by the English classicist Mary Beard. In December 2015, it appeared on the New York Times hardcover, non-fiction bestseller list. A history book landing there invites two questions. What did critics and prize committees make of it, and where was it actually published? And behind its title sits an older question still. What do the four letters S, P, Q, R actually stand for, and why did Romans bother writing them at all? This documentary works through both, starting with the modern reception the book earned and ending with the ancient phrase it borrowed.

• 2. Across Two Publishers

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  Profile Books published the book in the United Kingdom, while Liveright & Company released it elsewhere. That same year, judges for the National Book Critics Circle named SPQR a finalist in their Nonfiction category. The letters in that title, though, were doing their own work in the Roman world long before any publisher or prize committee took notice.

• 3. An Ancient Initialism

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  Senatus Populusque Romanus, in Classical Latin, is the phrase abbreviated by the letters S, P, Q, R. Translated, it reads The Senate and People of Rome, an emblematic phrase for the government of the Roman Republic. The phrase turns up wherever Roman authority wanted to be seen. It marked official documents through inscriptions cut into stone or metal. It named monuments and civic projects in their dedication text. And it was struck onto some Roman currency. Spoken aloud in Classical Latin, Senatus Populusque Romanus is a mouthful. Four letters made it easier to carve, stamp, and remember instead.