# SPQR by Mary Beard

3 Hacker News commenters recommended SPQR by Mary Beard and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Readers recommend it as an informative, enjoyable survey of ancient Rome. Critics say it repeatedly calls the early list of consuls impossible.

## Why people recommend it

- Informative, entertaining history of Rome (2 comments): "Mary Beard's SPQR is an amazing book about Rome and I recommend it to any fellow history nerds." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46046770)) "her scholarship is both informative and IMO entertaining" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46801590))
- Enjoyable read for history fans (2 comments): "Mary Beard's SPQR is an amazing book about Rome and I recommend it to any fellow history nerds." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46046770)) "I read SPQR last year and really enjoyed it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46051022))

## What people warn about

- Repeatedly calls early consul list wrong (2 comments): "I was pretty unimpressed with _SQPR_. It's a nice survey, but she keeps saying things like "this list of consuls since the kings can't possibly be right"." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46047824)) "I was frustrated by Mary Beard's "SQPR" when she kept saying things like "of course, this list of consuls cannot possibly be right"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46801923))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dawn-of-everything.md): 23 recommend
- [Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cadillac-desert.md): 18 recommend
- [The Box by Marc Levinson](https://hackerapproved.com/p/box.md): 16 recommend
- [Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sapiens.md): 13 recommend
- [Chip War by Chris Miller](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chip-war.md): 13 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1631492225?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9781631492228) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "SPQR by Mary Beard", https://hackerapproved.com/p/spqr/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).