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Domina: The Women Who Made Imperial Rome Hardcover – October 30, 2018

by Guy de la Bédoyère (Author)

4.4 131 ratings

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A captivating popular history that shines a light on the notorious Julio-Claudian women who forged an empire

Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero—these are the names history associates with the early Roman Empire. Yet, not a single one of these emperors was the blood son of his predecessor. In this captivating history, a prominent scholar of the era documents the Julio-Claudian women whose bloodline, ambition, and ruthlessness made it possible for the emperors’ line to continue.

Eminent scholar Guy de la Bédoyère, author of Praetorian, asserts that the women behind the scenes—including Livia, Octavia, and the elder and younger Agrippina—were the true backbone of the dynasty. De la Bédoyère draws on the accounts of ancient Roman historians to revisit a familiar time from a completely fresh vantage point. Anyone who enjoys I, Claudius will be fascinated by this study of dynastic power and gender interplay in ancient Rome.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“B. has been successful in writing a narrative history with the emphasis on Julio-
Claudian emperors being sought through the female line owing to the failure of
the male line and, with reference to its title, these women certainly shaped the early
imperial period.”—Trudie E. Fraser, Gnomon

“An illuminating and highly readable narrative about the role of women at the centre of imperial Rome – fascinating and important.”—Lesley Adkins, author of Handbook to Life In Ancient Rome

“In contrast to most histories of Rome which focus almost entirely on the exploits of its male emperors, Domina examines the women who partnered them in power, from the perfect Roman wives Livia and Octavia to Cleopatra, Agrippina the Younger and the trio of Severan Julias who all stepped far beyond tradition to dominate the Roman world.”—Joann Fletcher, The Story of Egypt

“Enjoyable, fluently written and well-balanced in approach. De la Bédoyère leaves no stone unturned by way of evidence, which he carefully evaluates with regard to its context and reliability.”—Pat Southern, author of The Roman Army

“A vital contribution to our knowledge and understanding of the lives of imperial women. Domina presents a nuanced assessment of the various forms of power and agency which women could wield and the ways in which Roman historians drew on gender ideologies both to praise and censure them. Fascinating.”—Katherine J. Lewis, author of Kingship and Masculinity in Late Medieval England

“An illuminating and highly readable narrative about the role of women at the centre of imperial Rome – fascinating and important.”—Lesley Adkins, author of Handbook to Life In Ancient Rome -- Lesley Adkins

“In contrast to most histories of Rome which focus almost entirely on the exploits of its male emperors, Domina examines the women who partnered them in power, from the perfect Roman wives Livia and Octavia to Cleopatra, Agrippina the Younger and the trio of Severan Julias who all stepped far beyond tradition to dominate the Roman world.”—Joann Fletcher, The Story of Egypt -- Joann Fletcher

“Enjoyable, fluently written and well-balanced in approach. De la Bédoyère leaves no stone unturned by way of evidence, which he carefully evaluates with regard to its context and reliability.”—Pat Southern, author of The Roman Army -- Pat Southern

“A vital contribution to our knowledge and understanding of the lives of imperial women. Domina presents a nuanced assessment of the various forms of power and agency which women could wield and the ways in which Roman historians drew on gender ideologies both to praise and censure them. Fascinating.”—Katherine J. Lewis, author of Kingship and Masculinity in Late Medieval England -- Katherine J. Lewis

About the Author

Guy de la Bédoyère is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and well known from television appearances. He lives in Grantham Lincs, UK.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press (October 30, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 408 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300230303
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300230307
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.86 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.2 x 1.6 x 9.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,414,292 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #515 in Ancient Rome Biographies
- #2,339 in Ancient Roman History (Books)
- #4,187 in Women in History

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4.4 131 ratings

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Guy De la Bédoyère

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I was born in 1957 in Wimbledon. I went to the Universities of Durham and London, studying History and Archaeology (including Egyptology), and took an MA in Archaeology at University College, London. I worked for the BBC for most of the time between 1981 and 1999 but had started writing books on Roman Britain for Batsford by the late 1980s. In 1998 the Channel 4 TV series Time Team asked me to take part and I soon became a regular participant as 'Roman expert' between then and 2011. It was a privilege to be elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

One of my great privileges is that being independent, as opposed to be tied to a university position, means I can pursue my interests in any direction they take me. Although I have mainly written on the Romans, I have also been able to publish books on the seventeenth-century diarists John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys, and now ancient Egypt.

One of my most popular books is Roman Britain. A New History for Thames and Hudson. Since 2014 I have been writing for Yale University Press, producing The Real Lives of Roman Britain (2015), Praetorian (2017, and Domina (2018). My survey book of the Roman army, Gladius, was published by Little, Brown in 2020, followed by my history of Egypt's 18th Dynasty, Pharaohs of the Sun, in July 2022.

https://twitter.com/guydelabed

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Seth Foley

Excellent book!!

Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2024

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I picked this up after coming across two other books by the author, Praetorian and Gladius. Just as with those titles, I love this book. Guy has a gift for explaining in intricate detail all things Roman. I highly recommend reading this book.

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JR

Good overview of Julio Claudians

Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2019

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This is a great general introduction to the Julio-Claudian era, as it covers in one accessible volume the whole period from the end of the Republic to the fall of Nero. The book’s principal mission, to portray the lives of the Julio-Claudian women, is less successful. The chapters on the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula are more about the men than the women. The book picks up when it deals with Messalina and Aggrippina the Younger, who are portrayed as genuine protagonists. Overall, though, the book succeeds in integrating women into early imperial history.

The chapters on Augustus and Tiberius are lost opportunities. Much more attention is paid to Augustus than to the women. Women are interpreted predominantly in terms of how they affect Augustan policy. The tales of Livia, Julia the Elder, the Antonias, and Aggrippina the Elder are told in pieces and scattered about, rather than being continuous narratives. As a result, we never get a good picture of these women.

Augustus’ goals and purposes are presented in great detail, and we get a good portrait of the pater patriae. But the women are all shown in terms of how they affect him. We never get a sense of Livia as a personality, or of what her goals are and how she pursued them. Likewise Julia is reduced to anecdotes about how men controlled her and how she affected Augustus. The Antonias feel like ciphers and I never got a good sense of Aggrippina the Elder.

Way too much attention is paid in the early chapters to men’s goals and how they used women to accomplish them, to the point that women are framed by men’s goals rather than their own goals. The author may claim that such was life in the Empire. But it is also a narrative choice on the author’s part.

The author does not portray Messalina and Aggrippina the Younger in this way. He frames them as women in pursuit of their own goals, manipulating men with aplomb. It would have been interesting to have Livia and Julia portrayed that way, instead of framing them solely within Augustus’ goals.

The chapters on Messalina and Aggrippina the Younger are much better. These women are vibrantly portrayed, shown in ruthless pursuit of their own goals, and clearly outshine Claudius and Nero in the narrative. I get a good sense of them as personalities and I’m unlikely to forget them. I found myself wishing the whole book was like that.

In the final chapter we get a nice compact history of the whole rest of the Western Empire. There is a good extended discussion of the Severan women, and again these are portrayed as protagonists. All the Severan Julias are memorable and distinct.

The author is not so good when it comes to the fascinating women of the Valentinian-Theodosian dynasty; he is here far afield from his main research focus, and it shows. He states, for example, that “The empresses of Valentinian I (364–75) and his brother Valens (364–78) are little known.” This is a surprising thing to say about Valentinian’s empress Justina, whose conflict with Bishop Ambrose of Milan has gone down as a fundamental episode in the history of church-state relations. Justina is a fascinating woman with an extensive secondary literature and deserved better than to be passed over without mention.

Concerning the famed Pulcheria of Constantinople, the author states: “She ruled as regent for her brother Theodosius II (402–50) who was only seven when his father died in 408. His shortcomings as emperor meant that Aelia Pulcheria effectively ruled the Eastern Empire in his stead throughout the reign.” This is far from accurate. Kenneth Holum, in his essential study ‘Theodosian Women’, showed that Pulcheria’s regency ended with her brother the emperor’s marriage, and she did not recover that power until the end of his reign, when she was in position to guide the transition to a post-Theodosian empire. De la Bedoyère cites no evidence to the contrary.

The author gives equally short shrift to the ideology of Theodosian coins, concerning which he states “Galla Placidia’s coins, like those of other empresses of the period, served no purpose other than to act as a mechanism of exchange, bearing for the most part just the Salus Rei Publicae legends on the reverses.” Again, this ignores Holum’s fine analysis of the ideological significance of long-cross solidi in proclaiming the legitimacy of the Theodosians. Here were palace-bound emperors and female regents, and the image of winged victory with the long cross presented a new view of how emperors could contribute to Rome’s military prowess.

Despite these minor issues, the book succeeds splendidly in bringing women to the front and center of Julio-Claudian history. If you want a well written, one-volume history of the Julio-Claudians that takes women into account, this is it. Overall, I enjoyed the book very much and found it very informative and generally well researched and argued.

In my opinion, De la Bedoyère does not quite succeed in creating a fully fleshed out portrait of the early Julio-Claudian women. However he does succeed in creating a history of the era that fully integrates women’s lives and private lives as an essential part of power politics, not as a sidebar or a minor issue. Too often women are portrayed as marginal characters, and private lives as irrelevant to the mainstream of history. And yet De la Bedoyère shows how these lives are essential to understanding the high politics of the Empire. This is true of history more generally, and I hope we will see much more history written like this.

25 people found this helpful

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Pamela Wells

Domina

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2024

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Great book! A must have if you like to read about the history of the famous women of Rome. Recommend this book!

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2021

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Author: 4 Stars (a lot of research has been done on the subject)
Editor: 2 Stars (sentences run over)
Publisher: 1 Star (very small font)

3 people found this helpful

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Galla

Fascinating account of the Julian-Claudian family

Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2018

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Domina is a fascinating account of the role of the Julian-Claudian women in maintaining the regime established by Augustus Caesar. Although the emperors are more famous and notorious, a look at the family trees shows ony too clearly that being a descendent of Augustus's wife Livia, his daughter Julia and/or his sister Octavia was necessary for claiming the prize. Given the marriages within the family, being descended from the three women was not unusual.

De la Bedoyere begins his study with an explanation of the Roman concept of the virtuous woman, wife, and mother
which is epitomized by Livia, Octavia, Agrippina the Elder, and Antonia Minor. In direct contrast are the two Julias, daughter and grand daughter of Augustus, and Messalina. The defeated Cleopatra was used by the Romans as ths prime example of what virtuous women should not be......after all she was the one who made Antony less than a real Roman man (Antony evidently not being held responsible for his own decisions and actions!)

The following chapters focus primarily on Livia, the two sad Julias, Agrippina the elder, the infamous Messalina and Agrippina the Younger (the mother and victim of Nero). De la Bedoyere explains how the emperors themselves dealt with their female relations, from deifying them to having them killed, not exactly happy families. In particular it is difficult to believe that Messalina could have gotten away with all that she did without Claudius having some inkling of what was going on. Of course, he must rely on historians such as Tacitus, Suetonius and Dio who had their own biases and axes to grind. Tacitus, for example, detested Livia and fed the image of her as getting rid of all males who stood in the way of her son Tiberius becoming emperor. The author also explains the importance of Roman coins and why who was depicted on the coins can tell us much about the status of the women.

It all makes for fascinating reading, a Roman and historical Game of Thrones. After finishing reading Domina, I reread the classic I, Claudius by Robert Graves and watched again the old series based on the historical novel. I think it is time for a remake. This has everything, intrigue, sex, overweening ambition, hypocrisy, perfidy, and murder. And people think history is boring!

24 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

good history.

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2023

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Sometimes hard to to follow. Drifting between time periods major hard to follow. However I recommend it to those interested in Roman history.

One person found this helpful

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Patricia Gibson, Ed.D.

Fascinating and enjoyable

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2019

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As a fan of the Time Team show, I can hear Guy talking as I read what he wrote. It is a well researched historical book, but an enjoyable read due to the gems of humor with which he embellished his text. I just wish the illustrations were embedded in the text. I borrowed a physical copy from my library because it is difficult to page back and forth on the Oasis.

9 people found this helpful

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Paul Creasy

Great book

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2020

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Fascinating read and quite detailed. Anyone interested in the period will learn something from this book. And, it seems, Nero is even worse than you might have thought. And elgabulos even weirder.

4 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

S. Nobile

Rare insight into the lives and achievements of Ancient “other halves”, in a patriarchal society.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 3, 2023

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We all know the names and have probably read the scurrilous stories about these women left to us by the male Ancient writers. This book redresses the balance by providing insight on the success of these remarkable women, who were able to achieve some degree of power in an entirely masculine society and culture. Enlightening

Ian Thumwood

Thorough recasting of history.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 12, 2020

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I am an avid reader of books about the Romans and in recent years people with an interest in this period have been spoilt. For my money Guy De La Bedoyere is probably the pick of the bunch amongst historians writing in this field, matching authority on his subject with an ability to make the topic understandable to readers not already familiar with this era. He is also pretty unique amongst historians in lacing his books with a dry sense of humour which makes them hugely entertaining and always gives me the impression that the Romans would have loved to have read about themselves in his publications.

I think this book is a brave topic to have chosen. It effectively takes the works of celebrated Roman historians such as Dio, Suetonius and Tacitus and re-casts them through the perspective of the wives, daughters and sisters of the Emperors. Given that the contemporary sources he is relying upon where largely written with a male-orientated focus, this is almost akin to trying to glean information by looking through the wrong end of the telescope. Given the limitations and , more significantly, the agendas that need to be understood when looking at his sources, I think that De La Bedoyere has effectively salvaged the stories of these women. On top of this, he employs evidence from coin issues and a few inscriptions from buildings to bring the stories of Livia, Cleopatra, the two Julia's and the two Agrippina's to life. The books sets the scene with a chapter explaining how Roman women were expected to behave and their status in society which then outlines why each of his subjects were either perceived as being "good" or "bad." I think that this book's principle achievement is to highlight just how much influence the likes of Livia and Agrippina the younger exerted over certain Emperors whilst underlining that none of this would have been possible had they not been either the wife of mother of particular Emperors. The book reaches a climax with Agrippina the younger and Nero, a story which is very familiar but which, in this re-telling, made me feel a lot less sympathetic towards the former ! (It is difficult not to read this chapter and not recall the recent "Rotten Romans" film.

I think that Guy De La Bedoyere's previous books have been fantastic. The guide to Roman Britain is an essential book to acquire if you want to learn about life in these islands at that time whereas his previous effort about the Praetorian Guards reads like an action thriller. If someone told me they did not like history, this is the book I would choose to convert them. By slight contrast, this book was not quite as compelling for me. The research and understanding of the topic is unquestionable as ever but I felt that the Roman sources relied upon here were not written with a view to make the subjects of this book seem human. Unlike the subjects of modern biographies, the actions of some of these women seem so extreme that they are very difficult to relate to. Prior to reading this book, I read another about the 4th century Roman Villa at Chedworth where the author attempted to describe the everyday life in the villa with the result that you could see parallels with how a farm estate would be managed today and recognise something in how the occupants would have conducted themselves. (The author's earlier "The real lives of Roman Britain" is recommended for a perspective of the lives of "ordinary" people.) Step back several hundred years and relocate to the Imperial court in Rome and the picture painted in this book is of a world that is very difficult to understand with the constant plotting and scheming and issues of "standards in public life" seemingly disregarded. It does make a very good story and the writer correctly points out that writers such as Suetonius and Tacitus were writing with an agenda, often relying in stereotypes even to the degree that similar stories about two "Augustas" may actually be due to the confusion where the story is repeated in error with regard to the later individual. We cannot be sure that everything we read is 100% correct. If anything, it does serve to remind you that if contemporary political leaders like Trump, Johnson and even Berlusconi do have a "touch" of the Roman about them in the decadent and cavalier manner in which they have led their respective countries, this is nothing in comparison with what went on in the Julio-Claudian period.

In finishing the book, my over-riding impression was that this was a world totally alien to ours today and that it was hard to have much sympathy for many of these women other than Julia the Elder. The comment in the opening chapters about trying to avoid a feminist re-casting of this period of history may be seen as ironic - few of these women struck me as being exemplars for their sex and would defy any right-thinking apologist. Most of these women would make Lady Macbeth seem like a paragon of virtue ! I think this accounts for the general appeal of this book - we prefer reading about "baddies" than "goodies." This book serves to remind us just how much power can corrupt.

As a piece of historical writing, you can always rely on this writer. The closing chapter of the Severan Empresses allow him full reign with his wit and I think the inclusion of the family tree , potted biographies and glossary at the end serve as useful tools in understanding the sometimes very complex nature of the subject. (The explanation of individual's descendance via the female line , coupled with the interchangeable marriages and similar names often meant that understanding this required a feat of mental agility. ) All in all, I felt that this book achieved what it had set out to do and much be considered authoritative even if it portrays a world that is shown to be repellent to our modern morals. To quote another source from ancient history called Obelix, these Romans are crazy.

7 people found this helpful

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An alternative view of Augustan Rome

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2020

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The history of Rome is usually written with the male protagonists as central to the narrative. Women, or at least prominent women, tend to be portrayed in a very poor light as devious, cruel, or both. This work tries to redress the balance. However, with no new evidence it is very difficult to produce a definitive answer. This is a re-interpretation of the "facts" [as written 2000 years ago] with a twenty-first century slant. That is not to. say that it exonerates the central characters, but it does expose the misogynistic views ancient roman historians. Having said all that,this is a highly absorbing read.

The most interesting point about the book is how important the female descendants of Augustus were to the stability, and ultimately the continuity, of the fledgling Imperial Empire. To reinforce the point the argument is extended to the Severen Dynasty.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in ancient roman history.

3 people found this helpful

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Fun and well written

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 8, 2011

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This book is pacy, well written, and it is great to have all of these characters and events put together in one place. There are also some nice illustrations. Very good to have the early british xtian teacher Pelagius in here; Augustine's persecution and hatred of this man are most unattractive and say a lot about the roots of xtianity, and it's distance from christ's stance.

The author has a lovely writing style, often witty, usually opinionated. You won't struggle to read this. He carefully unpicks the biases of the people (romans, usually) who wrote the primary source material.

The book loses a star for what seem to be occasional lapses and the intrusion of the author's perspective. He doesn't always realise how implicitly pro-roman he is. Having been so careful to acknowledge the propagandist purposes of roman authors, he uncritically cites the Druids as an all powerful caste of murderers and sacrificers, despite the fact that this is based on a few lines of biased roman reporting. (For a good account, see Caesar's Druids, by Miranda Aldhouse-Green.) He also seems irritated with Boudica, and a little unsympathetic to many of his rebellious characters. He goes to the length of implying that boudica is a literary fiction, irritably saying that she was probably only one leader and not really in charge, and that the uncertainty about her death means that she might not have existed (i overstate slightly, but this is the tone). The fact that she succeeded was put down to roman negligence, excluding the possibility that it might have been down to boudican brilliance. Why is there a need to be so patronising? She is criticised for not having an 'alternative vision' for her people. Other, that is, than their ancestral freedoms and way of life.

Also, he disapproves of many of the rebels as they brought suffering to their people when they should have submitted quietly to the 'pax' romana. He implies that all people want is a quite life with a bit of bread, even if this means complete capitulation to murdering conquerors. (What a roman point of view - 'bread and circuses'.) it would have been interesting to ask some warrior celts if they agreed. Of course the 'pax romana' was accompanied by crucifiction, floggings, usury, torture, forced disarmament, judicial rape and naked racism. I suppose that he would also see the WWII French resistance as a bunch of losers who did nothing but trigger German reprisals, whilst failing to win the war. The alternative view is that they were heroes, and like other magnificent characters (e.g. Geronimo) they carried a lot of the honour of their people.

So this is a great book written by a smart guy and a good writer. You can tell that it has engaged me and made me think. However, he is a roman historian, and is sometimes patronising to the little guys who stood up against them. He criticises roman racism, but seems to despair of the rebels and imply amateurism and opportunism (and what was the roman empire, if not centuries of armed opportunism?).

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