Many of the empresses of Rome refused to be reduced to the role of 'woman by his side.' Among them are very different and strong-willed personalities, whose characters span the spectrum between the extremes of strict matrons, power-conscious 'stateswomen,' and, according to sources, extravagant nymphomaniacs and Christian penitents. Hildegard Temporini-Countess Vitzthum and her co-authors do not settle for the sometimes cheap clichés of tradition; instead, they reconstruct the social and political conditions of existence for their protagonists. At the same time, they delve into the intentions of those who shaped the image of each ruler in history. After all, their portrayal was certainly driven by interests—an unpopular emperor could easily be discredited through criticism directed at his wife for behaving adulterously or power-hungrily. Similarly, the wife of a 'good' ruler was all too willingly adorned with positively valued feminine traits. This richly illustrated and accessible work opens up over five hundred years of Roman history from the perspective of the empresses for the first time.