Mary Beard: The Secret Histories of Ancient Rome

Mary Beard is back on stage at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on Wednesday 21 October, her first live appearance since her sold-out 2025 tour. She's returning to the world of Ancient Rome with The Secret Histories of Ancient Rome, a talk that looks past the usual suspects of the era.

Most of what we're taught about Rome focuses on the emperors and the battles — the big names and the famous clashes that make it into the textbooks. Beard wants to move beyond those well-worn paths and instead bring the lives of the people who usually get left out of the history books into the light. It's a chance to hear about the city from the perspective of the ones who lived in its shadows rather than the ones who ruled it, and to see how that changes the stories we've been told.

She doesn't stop at the ancient world, either. Throughout the evening, she draws connections between Roman politics and the world we're living in today, and she leaves room for the audience to ask their own questions. It's a live event rather than a lecture, so it's as much about the conversation as it is about the history.

It starts at 20:00 at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on Hope Street, L1 9BP. Tickets are £39.90, which includes the booking fee.