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They weren’t all scheming poisoners: the maligned women of imperial Rome

Joan Smith criticises the distortions of Robert Graves in particular, whose villainisation of the empress Livia had no historical basis whatever

2 November 2024

9:00 AM

2 November 2024

9:00 AM

Unfortunately, She Was a Nymphomaniac: A New History of Rome’s Imperial Women Joan Smith

William Collins, pp.272, 25

Unfortunately, She Was a Nymphomaniac must be one of the most eye-catching book titles of the year. I assumed it was just a riff on John Ford’s 17th-century tragedy ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, but apparently it came directly from the mouth of a modern tour guide in a museum in Rome.

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