Mary Beard: In-Person & Online

Robin Cormack

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Literary Arts

Mary Beard: In-Person & Online

Past Event: Friday, October 27, 2023

At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall

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In Person & Online

In her international bestseller SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome. Now she shines her spotlight on the emperors who ruled the Roman empire, from Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) to Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE). Emperor of Rome goes directly to the heart of Roman (and our own) fantasies about what it was to be Roman, offering an account of Roman history as it has never been presented before.

All Literary Arts Series, Create Your Own Series, and Super SAL subscribers receive a copy of Emperor of Rome, shipped to their doors by our partner bookstore, University Book Store. Please note: complimentary subscriptions and single tickets do not include the book.

Q&A with Sarah Levin-Richardson.

With Emperor of Rome, Beard challenges our popular assumptions regarding ancient Rome and its highest leaders. What power did emperors actually have? Was the Roman palace really so bloodstained? She tracks down the emperor at home, at the races, on his travels, even on his way to heaven. She introduces his wives and lovers, rivals and slaves, court jesters and soldiers—and the ordinary people who pressed begging letters into his hands.

Emperor of Rome follows Beard’s previous publications, Confronting the Classics, and SPQR, which were each nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

In addition to her authorship, Beard has also given a number of lectures concerning the voice and status of women throughout history. In 2014, she spoke at the British Museum as part of the London Review of Books lecture series. BBC Four broadcast the talk under the title, Oh Do Shut Up, Dear!, a reference to Prime Minister David Cameron’s remarks towards a female MP.

In 2017, Beard gave a second lecture entitled, “Women in Power: from Medusa to Merkel,” in which she discussed the cultural institutions which have historically and presently been designed to exclude women from power.

Alongside her involvement in a number of successful broadcast programs, both as a writer and presenter, Beard is also a popular blogger and a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books.

Sarah Levin-Richardson, an Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Washington, is the author of The Brothel of Pompeii: Sex, Class, and Gender at the Margins of Roman Society (Cambridge 2019). She held a Rome Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (2014-15), was a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh’s Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (2022), and lectured for the Archaeological Institute of America (2022-23). Her scholarship and teaching explore various aspects of Roman social history, art and architecture, and texts. Her next project is called The Emotional Landscape of Roman Slavery.

Event Details

Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall

1119 8th Ave
Seattle, WA 98101

View directions.

Know Before You Go

Can't find your tickets?

All tickets have been emailed for this event, so be sure to check your inbox for an email from boxoffice@lectures.org. Email or call us at 206-621-2230 x10 if you can’t find them.

For in-person attendance: Your e-tickets come attached in a PDF with your ticket order confirmation email. Present on your mobile device or bring your printed ticket to the venue the night of the event.

For online attendance: If you purchased a digital pass, SAL will send a pre-event reminder email with instructions to log in and access the online stream on the day of the event. The night of your event, return to lectures.org/event/mary-beard and enter the password where prompted. The program begins at 7:30 p.m. (PT) and will be available for viewing for a week after the event.

If you have opted out of receiving SAL emails, you will miss this important information—please email us at boxoffice@lectures.org and we will assist you.

Seating in the Hall

For the in-person event, the lobby doors and SAL Box Office open at 6 p.m. (PT). The auditorium doors will open at approximately 6:30 p.m. (PT) for seating.

All seating is General Admission by section with the exception of Grand Patron seats, which are reserved.

Late seating is permitted at SAL events. However, your seat is not guaranteed after the program has begun.

Have a question for the speaker?

Want to ask our speaker something? We invite you to submit questions for our Q&A. Check your pre-event email for a link!

Books

All Literary Arts Series, Create Your Own Series, and Super SAL subscribers receive a copy of Emperor of Rome, shipped to their doors by our partner bookstore, University Book Store. Please note: complimentary subscriptions and single tickets do not include the book.

University Book Store will have books available for purchase at their table in the lobby and on their website.

There will be no book signing after the event.

Need an exchange?

Please note: in-person tickets do not include digital access. (Curious to learn why? Check out our FAQ.)

If you need to exchange your in-person ticket for a digital pass, SAL kindly asks that you please contact the box office before noon on the day of your event.

Tickets and subscriptions are non-refundable.

Transportation & Parking

Town Hall Seattle is centrally located at 1119 8th Ave, on the corner of 8th and Seneca. Their venue is served by frequent bus routes, is near access to light rail stations, and close to a number of parking options nearby. Please see their website for more details.

Accessibility

Open Captioning is an option for people who have hearing losses, where a captioning screen displaying the words that are spoken or sung is placed on stage. To make a request for open captioning, please contact us at boxoffice@lectures.org or 206.621.2230×10. Please note: for in-person events at Town Hall Seattle, we appreciate a two-week advance notice to allow us time to secure captioning services. 

Closed Captioning is an option for people who have hearing loss, where captioning displays the words that are spoken or sung at the bottom of the video for online events. Captioning is available for all online events; click the “CC” button to view captions during the event.

Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs) are devices that people with hearing loss use in conjunction with their hearing device (hearing aids or cochlear implants). Town Hall Seattle has a hearing loop system, so you can switch your T-coil hearing aid to telecoil to have the stage’s microphones transmitted directly to your hearing aids. To pick up a headset, check in with any Town Hall usher when you arrive.

Sign Language Interpretation is available upon request for Deaf, DeafBlind, and hard of hearing individuals. To make a request for interpretation, please contact us at boxoffice@lectures.org or 206.621.2230×10, or select “Sign Language Interpretation” from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process and we will contact you to confirm details. Please note: we appreciate a two-week advance notice to allow us time to secure interpretation.

Wheelchair Accessible Seating and Accessible Restrooms are available in all sections at Town Hall Seattle, which is fully accessible to ticket holders with physical mobility concerns. Town Hall Seattle recommends that visitors use the 8th Avenue Entrance for events in the Great Hall, and elevators with Braille signage go to all levels within the Hall. The venue has all-gender, ADA-accessible restrooms on the lobby and Forum level. To reserve seating for a specific mobility concern, please contact us at boxoffice@lectures.org or 206.621.2230×10, or select “Wheelchair Accessible or Alternative Seating Options” during ticket checkout, and we will contact you to confirm details. For more details on accessibility features at Town Hall, click here.

Guide and service dogs are welcome.

All-gender restrooms are available.

We are pleased to offer these accessibility services at our venues, and they are provided at no additional cost to ticket holders. Please contact us with any questions and feedback about how we can be more accessible and inclusive. Our Patron Services Manager is available at boxoffice@lectures.org, or Tuesday-Friday, from 12 noon–5 p.m., at 206.621.2230×10.

For more accessibility information, please head to lectures.org/accessibility. If you would like to make accessibility arrangements you do not see listed here, please contact our box office or select “Other Accommodations” from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process, and we will contact you to confirm details.

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