What do you really miss when you’re away?
Putting my feet up, my own bed, reading the papers in print rather than on my phone.
Do you travel light?
Very light. People are always amazed when you show up for an American lecture and don’t have any checked baggage.
What’s your favourite destination?
Somewhere in Italy, because it’s a great combination of things that relate to my work; really good food; and things that don’t relate to work. And I can speak enough of the language to feel at home.
What are your early holiday memories?
We always used to stay in a little cottage in Snowdonia by a lovely mountain stream, and for me that was just heaven. We went to Belgium when I was about ten, and it looked like England – a bit disappointing.
What was your favourite subject at school?
Latin, which I learnt at my secondary school [Shrewsbury High School]. And it sounds very nerdish, but I loved the sense of being able to grasp a language without having to bother speaking it.
What was Cambridge like in the mid-’70s?
Terribly male. Just over ten per cent of students were female. I felt very pleased that I’d gone to an all-girls school because that had inoculated me against some of the silliness of male culture.
What sparked your interest in the Romans?
The thrill of the museum in Shrewsbury: these rather dusty tombstones of Roman squaddies who died near where I lived. And you could touch the tombstones in the museum, and that visceral sense of physical contact with the ancient world is really what got me going.
What was the magic spark that produced the genius of Greece and Rome?
As in the Italian Renaissance, things seem to come together to produce something that, for its good and its bad points, has made a lasting contribution to the culture of the world.
Who’s your favourite Roman emperor?
I would be curious to meet Nero, Hadrian and Augustus’s Livia, and the girl who swept the baths at the end of the day; the ordinary people.
Who was the biggest historical villain?
Many of the Romans were brutal, genocidal maniacs. Julius Caesar committed genocide. It’s interesting to look at the emperors who were assassinated, Domitian, Nero close to being assassinated, forced to suicide, Caligula... You could say they must have turned into brutal monsters because they ended up being assassinated.
Did you set out to popularise the classics?
I don’t know quite what it would be like to study a subject that you didn’t want to share with other people. That seems a basic moral responsibility for an academic.
Which do you think was the greater civilisation – Greece or Rome?
Greek and Roman cultures were intertwined – that’s the baseline. Then you might want to draw out certain distinctions later between them.
Has classics been dumbed down at Cambridge?
I think there’s a myth about past competence. I went back and looked at some of the exam papers, and our undergraduates would have romped through them.
In modern society and political times, do you see reflections of Roman times?
I think you do. People often ask me which emperor Donald Trump is most like and I don’t think it’s a useful question. But you can see political structures in Rome that help you understand some of the structural things in modern politics, such as the emperor changing his mind…
You’ve been an academic, a writer, a media star – what do you see yourself as?
An academic, because all the rest follows from it.
Are you a reluctant celebrity?
If nobody ever asked me to give an interview or be on telly or radio again, I’d be slightly regretful because I enjoy it.
How have you coped with the abuse that you’ve received, particularly from the late A A Gill, who was rude about your looks?
It can be upsetting. If you get a message saying, ‘We’re going to blow up your house at 10.27 tomorrow,’ I don’t think anybody says, ‘Oh, silly bloke.’ But most online abuse comes from people who are sad. I sometimes reply. They’re not all sweeties, but most are prepared to apologise.
Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We didn’t have a honeymoon. I was eight months pregnant.
Do you go on holiday?
This year, I’ll be on a little boat in the Aegean.
Do you lie on a beach?
My husband [the classicist and art historian Robin Cormack] can’t stand sand, and I rather like the idea of a lounger on a beach and a vodka martini.
What’s your biggest travel headache?
Travelling does turn me more passive, but when the flight’s cancelled and I’ve got a meeting or a lecture, then I’m not the most compliant traveller (and I feel embarrassed about losing it).
What are your travelling tips?
Beware of the bargain, pay a little more and don’t get up at one in the morning.
Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard is out now.
