Carthage

 Carthage: A New History- Eve McDonald

W.W. Norton & Co.

Rating: 📚📚📚

Release Date: January 13, 2026

Synopsis: Carthage was a power that dominated the western Mediterranean for almost six centuries before its fall to Rome. The history of the realm and its Carthaginians was subsumed by their conquerors and, along the way, the story of the real Carthage was lost. An ancient North African kingdom, Carthage was the home of Hannibal and of Dido, of war elephants and enormous power and wealth, of great beauty and total destruction.

In this landmark new history, Eve MacDonald tells the essential story of the lost culture of Carthage and of its forgotten people, using brand new archaeological analysis to uncover the history behind the legend. A journey that takes us the Phoenician Levant of the early Iron Age to the Atlantic and all along the coast of Africa, Carthage puts the city and the story of North Africa once again at the centre of Mediterranean history. Reclaimed from the Romans, this is the Carthaginian version of the tale, revealing to us that, without Carthage, there would be no Rome.

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(3.5 stars)

When history is written by the winners, it can mean the losers are all but erased- and that is what happened with Carthage. Anything anyone today knows about the city comes to us from Roman eyes. So this book, trying to find the Carthage that isn't told to us through Roman propaganda, is a fascinating and much needed book for the history shelves.

From the city's founding as a Phoenecian outpost to its destruction by Rome hundreds of years later, Eve McDonald takes readers through the development of a city, a people, and a mega-power whose existence rivaled (and threatened) Rome's desire to dominate the Mediterranean. She critically examines both ancient sources and modern archaeological discoveries to evaluate how different events, trade, sieges, and the wars with Rome would have effected the Carthaginians. I found her explaination of the changes in the power structures across the Mediterranean over time, and how Alexander the Great essentially changed the game for everyone, quite interesting.

The chapters on the Punic Wars were, for me, the clearest and best written. Maybe because there's the most evidence in the historical sources for her to work with. McDonald is never afraid to admit when there is simply not enough information for scholars to do more than some educated guesswork on something, which I admire. By the end of the book I was pretty solidly on Carthage's side and wishing more reasonable treatied could have worked- but apparently that's not what was going on in this time.

An excellent, well-written, well-researched book for anyone who is interested in getting the story Carthage wishes it could have told us. A must-read for ancient history enthusiasts.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Agrippina

Agrippina: The Most Extraordinary Woman in the Roman World- Emma Southon
Pegasus Books
Release Date: August 6, 2019

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Sister of Caligula. Wife of Claudius. Mother of Nero. The story of Agrippina, at the center of imperial power for three generations, is the story of the Julio-Claudia dynasty―and of Rome itself, at its bloody, extravagant, chaotic, ruthless, and political zenith.

In her own time, she was recognized as a woman of unparalleled power. Beautiful and intelligent, she was portrayed as alternately a ruthless murderer and helpless victim, the most loving mother and the most powerful woman of the Roman empire, using sex, motherhood, manipulation, and violence to get her way, and single-minded in her pursuit of power for herself and her son, Nero.

This book follows Agrippina as a daughter, born in Cologne, to the expected heir to Augustus’s throne; as a sister to Caligula who raped his sisters and showered them with honors until they attempted rebellion against him and were exiled; as a seductive niece and then wife to Claudius who gave her access to near unlimited power; and then as a mother to Nero―who adored her until he had  her assassinated.

Through senatorial political intrigue, assassination attempts, and exile to a small island, to the heights of imperial power, thrones, and golden cloaks and games and adoration, Agrippina scaled the absolute limits of female power in Rome. Her biography is also the story of the first Roman imperial family―the Julio-Claudians―and of the glory and corruption of the empire itself.

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Agrippina: The Most Extraordinary Woman in the Roman World gives readers something that is hard to find: a biography of a Roman woman.  Agrippina: sister of Caligula, wife of Claudius, mother of Nero.  She was loved and reviled, praised and curse- both today and during her lifetime. Agrippina created new roles for imperial women, and pushed (or outright broke) the accepted role of women in Roman life.

 Emma Southon looks at Agrippina's life as it can be pieced together from ancient sources, but she also gives readers perfect examples of why those sources can't necessarily be trusted.  She immerses the reader in the culture of the Roman world so we can see how our modern views on women, politics, and life in general were not those of Tacitus, Seutonius, and the histories they wrote.That True History can't always be discovered and sometimes the historian has to make their best assumptions- but should also be willing to admit that they are assumptions.

It is clear that Southon is an expert in all things Aggripina and ancient Rome and has done her research.  But her writing style isn't designed to overwhelm the reader with how much she knows or how amazingly academic she is.  Instead, Southon writes as if she is a friend trying to describe Agrippina's life to you over a pint at the local pub.  She is in full casual, brilliant,  story-telling mode; she shreds her original sources for their clear prejudices and unreliability; and presents it all with sparkling English humor, wit, and occasional vulgarity that left me laughing at many of her opinions and insights.  Southon reconstructs Agrippina's life through ancient sources, gives her views on what was mostly likely to happen when Agrippina wasn't being written about, and does a wonderful job of explaining why she thinks that way while reminding the reader when something is only herl speculation or opinion.     

If you only read one book in your life on Agrippina, or the Roman Empire as a whole, it needs to be Emma Southon's Agrippina: The Most Extraordinary Woman in the Roman World. It is a book for people who love history and are looking for a more feminist light to be shone on ancient sources, for those who love history and want to celebrate powerful women the Romans tried to hide in the shadows.  It is also a book for people who think they don't like history and that history is boring.  Just a few pages into Agrippina will convert even the most hardened "history isn't for me" believers. 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review