Beard has already written, co-authored, or edited nearly two dozen books on ancient history, so finding something new to say requires a bit of ingenuity on her part. Her strategy in Talking Classics is to go against the grain of whatever she thinks most people assume about her subject. So, in what began as a series of lectures at the University of Chicago, Beard dismantles her subject, though in a decidedly cheery way. Later, she undercuts the accepted use of the Roman phrase Civus Romanus sum, “I am a Roman citizen.” This review originally appeared in the California Review of Books.