Unfortunately, She was a Nymphomaniac

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.


"This book honours its female subjects with the truth in a way only a brilliant story teller can do." Julie Bindell, author, Feminism for Women



Writer, activist and journalist Joan Smith has worked for years to raise awareness of violence against women and girls. She 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 amongst others Nero, Augustus, Tiberius and 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 these women back into focus, offering an account of their extraordinary and tragic lives. There are no nymphomaniacs here.


Instead, the book pieces together the stories of these women, 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.