Atlantic Books acquires a revealing new history that uncovers the life of a powerful and charismatic Ancient Roman woman

Atlantic Non-Fiction Editorial Director James Nightingale has bought UK and Commonwealth rights in A Thoroughly Rapacious Female: How Fulvia Played the Game, Broke All the Rules, Won, and then Lost in Ancient Rome by Jane Draycott from Doug Young at PEW Literary. A Thoroughly Rapacious Female will be published in hardback in 2025.

A Thoroughly Rapacious Female tells the dramatic story of Fulvia, who amassed a degree of political and military power unprecedented for a woman in Ancient Rome at that time. Married three times to men who moved in powerful circles, including Marc Antony, Fulvia was not content to play the usual background role that was required of a wife, instead she challenged the Roman patriarchy and sought to increase her influence in the face of determined opposition. Her actions had such an impact on Roman society that abusive tirades were written about her by male detractors, such as Cicero and Plutarch, who disapproved of such unfeminine behaviour.

Using original sources to piece together her life and sort fact from fiction, while also exploring the role of women in Roman society, Jane Draycott retells Fulvia’s life anew and offers an original and fascinating take on the chaotic period when Rome was violently transitioning from a republic to the dictatorship of the Roman Empire.

Dr Jane Draycott is a Roman historian and archaeologist, and the author of Cleopatra’s Daughter: Egyptian Princess, Roman Prisoner, African Queen, published by Head of Zeus in the UK and Liveright in the USA. She was awarded a BA (Hons) in Archaeology and Ancient History and an MA in Ancient History from Cardiff University, an MSc in Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology from Cranfield University, and a PhD in Classics from the University of Nottingham. Jane is currently Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Glasgow and co-director of the University of Glasgow’s Games and Gaming Lab.

Jane Draycott says,

‘I’m delighted to be moving to Atlantic Books to further my career as a popular historian. They are the perfect platform from which to launch A Thoroughly Rapacious Female and unleash Fulvia on the world. With her as our guide, we can visit an unfamiliar Rome, one in which women played a crucial, albeit less high profile, role in many of the events leading up to the fall of the Roman Republic.’

James Nightingale says,

‘I’ve long been looking for a smart, original and engaging work of classical history and A Thoroughly Rapacious Female delivers that and more. Jane is an incredibly talented historian and storyteller, and we are all very excited to be publishing her on the Atlantic non-fiction list.’

Doug Young says,

‘Jane has done a wonderful job of bringing Fulvia back to life. Part of her task has been to reverse-engineer a life story from the screeds of invective written over the years by men like Cicero and Plutarch, who clearly hated Fulvia and could not countenance the idea of a powerful woman. Fascinating and revelatory stuff!’