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Mary Beard shows how Roman rulers shaped Western views of power. She looks at the twelve Caesars, from Julius Caesar to Domitian. The rich, famed and powerful used their portraits as models. Their hold on art spans more than two thousand years.

This history uses pictures to link art, politics and culture. It first shows how rulers used portraits in Roman rule. It traces their use through the Renaissance to today. Beard asks why images of such violent rulers held sway. She links this past to today's rows over public statues. Who gets a public likeness? She asks why, too. Nero plays his lyre while Rome burns. People still use this image to attack leaders.

Beard looks at art by Memling, Mantegna and Edmonia Lewis. Lewis was an American who made sculptures in the nineteenth century. Beard also looks at British collage and works of craft. These include work by those who weave tapestries or make cabinets. She looks at work by silversmiths, printers and potters, too. She pieces together Titian’s Room of the Emperors. She takes a fresh look at tapestries Henry VIII ordered.

People mistook who the images showed or who made them. Fakes form part of this history, too. Some errors came by chance. Others served a purpose. Images could show mixed views of power, not just praise.

Beard teaches classics at Cambridge. She also edits at the Times Literary Supplement. She is a member of the British Academy. She also belongs to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She writes and presents BBC films about real life. This edition has many pictures. Ondine-Cristina Dascalita translated the text from English.