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Unfortunately, She was a Nymphomaniac: A New History of Rome's Imperial Women
'Pacy, witty and authoritative' Jonathan Freedland
'In her hands, ancient history becomes a vivid avenue of approach to a burning modern-world concern… a powerful and important book' Daily Telegraph
A superb and illuminating history of Imperial Rome's most important women – dispelling the myths and misogyny that have distorted their reputations for over 2000 years.
Writer, activist and journalist Joan Smith has worked for years to raise awareness of violence against women and girls, and has been instrumental in bringing the innate misogyny of the police to public attention. Unfortunately, She Was a Nymphomaniac reinterprets the bloody, violent story of twenty-three women closely associated with the Julio-Claudian emperors of Rome. Fewer than half a dozen of them can be said with any confidence to have died of natural causes.
These were the wives, mothers and daughters of the emperors from Augustus to Nero, via their ‘mad’ relative Caligula. They were the most privileged women of their time, but their lives were overshadowed, dominated and controlled by these men. Raped, killed, ripped apart from their children and mostly airbrushed from history, Joan Smith brings their extraordinary and tragic stories back into focus. There are no nymphomaniacs here.
Instead, the book pieces together the human stories, showing how they struggled for control of their lives at a time when both the law and culture were stacked against them. These women shared in a spirited, inspiring and sometimes reckless resistance to male authority.
Smith brings to this history not only a fresh interpretation of the original texts but also an understanding of what we know now about the mechanics of domestic abuse. The way these women have been misrepresented for two thousand years speaks volumes not just about ancient misogyny but the origin and persistence of attitudes that continue to blight women’s lives today.
'In her hands, ancient history becomes a vivid avenue of approach to a burning modern-world concern… a powerful and important book' Daily Telegraph
A superb and illuminating history of Imperial Rome's most important women – dispelling the myths and misogyny that have distorted their reputations for over 2000 years.
Writer, activist and journalist Joan Smith has worked for years to raise awareness of violence against women and girls, and has been instrumental in bringing the innate misogyny of the police to public attention. Unfortunately, She Was a Nymphomaniac reinterprets the bloody, violent story of twenty-three women closely associated with the Julio-Claudian emperors of Rome. Fewer than half a dozen of them can be said with any confidence to have died of natural causes.
These were the wives, mothers and daughters of the emperors from Augustus to Nero, via their ‘mad’ relative Caligula. They were the most privileged women of their time, but their lives were overshadowed, dominated and controlled by these men. Raped, killed, ripped apart from their children and mostly airbrushed from history, Joan Smith brings their extraordinary and tragic stories back into focus. There are no nymphomaniacs here.
Instead, the book pieces together the human stories, showing how they struggled for control of their lives at a time when both the law and culture were stacked against them. These women shared in a spirited, inspiring and sometimes reckless resistance to male authority.
Smith brings to this history not only a fresh interpretation of the original texts but also an understanding of what we know now about the mechanics of domestic abuse. The way these women have been misrepresented for two thousand years speaks volumes not just about ancient misogyny but the origin and persistence of attitudes that continue to blight women’s lives today.
Audible Audio
Published November 7, 2024
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About the author
Joan Smith
360 books156 followersJoan Smith is a graduate of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and the Ontario College of Education. She has taught French and English in high school and English in college. When she began writing, her interest in Jane Austen and Lord Byron led to her first choice of genre, the Regency, which she especially liked for its wit and humor.
Her favorite travel destination is England, where she researches her books. Her hobbies are gardening, painting, sculpture and reading. She is married and has three children. A prolific writer, she is currently working on Regencies and various mysteries at her home in Georgetown, Ontario.
She is also known as Jennie Gallant
Her favorite travel destination is England, where she researches her books. Her hobbies are gardening, painting, sculpture and reading. She is married and has three children. A prolific writer, she is currently working on Regencies and various mysteries at her home in Georgetown, Ontario.
She is also known as Jennie Gallant
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 18, 2026
Impressive book, if only because of the shocking display of violence against imperial woman. I cannot help but wonder what the Roman attitudes were towards ‘common’ women.
Mysogyny is part and parcel, so it seems, of Roman culture. And this culture is well and truely still with us, even if it isn’t so plainly before our eyes. We all, all of our men included, decry violence against women, rising mysogynism and extreme news stories that take over the media. And yet, the recurrence of these stories illustrates that mysognysm is still ingrained in our society and through some sort of unbiased prejudice we apparently cannot help ourselves.
This book not only shows us how pervasive it was in the Roman imperial family but also in historiography since. Much has improved of course. We have laws against violence against women, people are increasingly aware. Recent extreme cases such as Giselle Pelicot’s and, longer ago, the ‘me-too’ movement have raised awareness. But mysogomy is embedded in our culture, and although it might not raise its ugly head too obviously in most of our daily lives (hopefully!), it is still there. Smith gives various examples of it.
None of this is surprising. We all know this. I imagine many feel similar as I do: reluctant to become a rights warrior but uncomfortable about the incredibly slow changes that are being made.
Yet the most shocking element of this book is not the description of everything we already knew about our own society and historiography, but the harsh and brutal description of the treatment of the Julio-Claudian women. When described in the way Smith does, using the familiar sources of all the well-known (mostly male) historians from the past and present have done before her, she paints a horrifying picture of repeated abuse, rape and murder. Ancient (and modern) historians parrot the perpetrator’s excuses, or make them up, and often the victim was presented as some sex-crazed lunatic who had it coming. The male violence was considered almost cute in a Nero or Claudius, and Augustus’ image is never tampered with, but for their wives and daughters, the craziness was considered all-consuming. Victim blaming was top of the list and historians and, subsequently, public opinion, went along with it. Augustus might have exciled and starved his daughter and granddaughter to death, but never is his reputation as the first and greatest emperor blemished by such trifles.
Joan Smith’s book is shocking and raises a very important point of view, which should not be ignored in the future.
Often it is said we should not judge the past by our own standards, but this is not about that. We are not here to judge the people of the past, but we do, constantly, take from the past what suits us. We write and re-write history all the time. We ‘see’ the past differently than our parents did, because we ‘see’ ourselves differently than our parents did, because the world has changed. How we interpret the past says everything about how we see our own world. Whether we judge the men who abused women 2000 years ago is not that relevant. But now that we are slowly becoming aware of the equality of women, and the roles we play and played in society, we can learn from the past and become aware that historians, then and now and in the future, write from their own cultural point of view. It is important to make sure the stories we tell about the past shift with us along the path our culture takes us. We are not here to blame and shame but we study history for knowledge, acknowledgement and accountability. If we no longer want to unconscioulsy encourage mysogynism, then one place to start is with history writing. Joan Smith did us a great service.
I listened to the audiobook, but as so often with audio or ebooks, when I love it, I buy the physical book. So I hope to nip to the shops this week and get a copy as I simply want it in my bookcase and hope to reread parts now and again.
Mysogyny is part and parcel, so it seems, of Roman culture. And this culture is well and truely still with us, even if it isn’t so plainly before our eyes. We all, all of our men included, decry violence against women, rising mysogynism and extreme news stories that take over the media. And yet, the recurrence of these stories illustrates that mysognysm is still ingrained in our society and through some sort of unbiased prejudice we apparently cannot help ourselves.
This book not only shows us how pervasive it was in the Roman imperial family but also in historiography since. Much has improved of course. We have laws against violence against women, people are increasingly aware. Recent extreme cases such as Giselle Pelicot’s and, longer ago, the ‘me-too’ movement have raised awareness. But mysogomy is embedded in our culture, and although it might not raise its ugly head too obviously in most of our daily lives (hopefully!), it is still there. Smith gives various examples of it.
None of this is surprising. We all know this. I imagine many feel similar as I do: reluctant to become a rights warrior but uncomfortable about the incredibly slow changes that are being made.
Yet the most shocking element of this book is not the description of everything we already knew about our own society and historiography, but the harsh and brutal description of the treatment of the Julio-Claudian women. When described in the way Smith does, using the familiar sources of all the well-known (mostly male) historians from the past and present have done before her, she paints a horrifying picture of repeated abuse, rape and murder. Ancient (and modern) historians parrot the perpetrator’s excuses, or make them up, and often the victim was presented as some sex-crazed lunatic who had it coming. The male violence was considered almost cute in a Nero or Claudius, and Augustus’ image is never tampered with, but for their wives and daughters, the craziness was considered all-consuming. Victim blaming was top of the list and historians and, subsequently, public opinion, went along with it. Augustus might have exciled and starved his daughter and granddaughter to death, but never is his reputation as the first and greatest emperor blemished by such trifles.
Joan Smith’s book is shocking and raises a very important point of view, which should not be ignored in the future.
Often it is said we should not judge the past by our own standards, but this is not about that. We are not here to judge the people of the past, but we do, constantly, take from the past what suits us. We write and re-write history all the time. We ‘see’ the past differently than our parents did, because we ‘see’ ourselves differently than our parents did, because the world has changed. How we interpret the past says everything about how we see our own world. Whether we judge the men who abused women 2000 years ago is not that relevant. But now that we are slowly becoming aware of the equality of women, and the roles we play and played in society, we can learn from the past and become aware that historians, then and now and in the future, write from their own cultural point of view. It is important to make sure the stories we tell about the past shift with us along the path our culture takes us. We are not here to blame and shame but we study history for knowledge, acknowledgement and accountability. If we no longer want to unconscioulsy encourage mysogynism, then one place to start is with history writing. Joan Smith did us a great service.
I listened to the audiobook, but as so often with audio or ebooks, when I love it, I buy the physical book. So I hope to nip to the shops this week and get a copy as I simply want it in my bookcase and hope to reread parts now and again.
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December 26, 2025Un análisis de las mujeres de la familia Julia-Claudia y cómo se les ha tendido a juzgar cómo conspirativas y ninfómanas cuando, en el mejor de los casos, tuvieron que sobrevivir la difícil situación de ser una mujer patricia en la machista Roma tardorepublicana y al inicio del periodo imperial, la mayoría de ellas perecieron víctimas de la violencia patriarcal o tuvieron que lidiar con ella.
July 5, 2025
Well written book. It is not an easy one if you are jot into Romans and history but it is super interesting
Did Not Finish
April 4, 2026dnf audiobook. too much academic info constantly and not telly a flowing story
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews