Sabina Augusta

Reviews / Votes

Brennan has done a remarkable thing in asserting the possibility of placing such a sparsely attested figure at the heart of a scholarly enquiry and revealed the value of shifting the lens away from the emperor and toward an era and its cultural icons. * Classical Journal-Online * Without question, it is a very solid piece of scholarship, crafted by an author who knows his way well around (mostly) nonliterary sources... As it stands, Sabina Augusta is probably the best monograph on Sabina one could hope for. * Classical Philology * Working from 200 words of textual references, sculptural representations, and other sources, [Brennan] effects a remarkable reconstruction of an iconic empress. * Harvard Magazine * Brennan is to be commended for producing a clearly written and accessible book that thoroughly documents these changes in the representation of Sabina. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review * A broad view, copious details and illustrations, and lively presentation mark Sabina Augusta: An Imperial Journey. Overcoming the ancient disinterest in women that extended even to Hadrian's wife Sabina and other most imperial women, Brennan's exploration of Sabina enjoyably and memorably elucidates Roman imperial power and its effects in Italy and the provinces. The book appealingly presents its subjects as humans, sensitively treating the outstanding coinage, evocative sculpture, and enigmatic literary and other sources for the Hadrianic period. Sabina will be a major contribution to Roman social history, especially the history of Roman women. * Mary T. Boatwright, Duke University * A meticulously researched and detailed study that probes the surviving evidence (especially inscriptions, coins and sculpture, not least as a counterbalance to the hostile literary sources) about the emperor Hadrian's wife Sabina and, in the process, reveals much about the nature of Roman imperial power in the second century AD. It will be required reading for anyone interested in the reign of the enigmatic emperor Hadrian and, more generally, in the evolving strategies that Roman emperors devised to solidify their rule. * Jonathan Edmondson, York University *