The first female ruler ever mentioned in written sources was (according to the Sumerian King List) Ku-Baba, a tavern woman who ruled Kish as a king for a hundred years, supposedly during the third millennium bce. The book under review is a collection of 41 articles (some of which are general surveys, while others delve into narrower topics, and such unevenness is to be expected), reviewing and challenging the topic of women and monarchy in the world of the ancient Mediterranean. The contributions are arranged in seven sections, edited and written by a range of experts in the field.

The volume, which is in a way a continuation of S.L. James and S. Dillon (edd.), A Companion to Women in the Ancient World (2012), and S.L. Budin and J.M. Turfa (edd.), Women in Antiquity: Real Women across the Ancient World (2016), opens with an introductory section written by the editors (Part 1: ‘Women and Monarchy in the Ancient Mediterranean’). Carney and Müller state that the volume ‘brings together chapters about the role of women in monarchy in the ancient Mediterranean world. Many more topics, periods, and cultures could have been included, but the current collection introduces the reader to some of the vast number of approaches possible’ (p. 3). The scope and issues addressed by the volume are also emphasised: ‘The volume spans from the ancient eastern civilizations to late antiquity and ends with an examination of some aspects of the reception of royal women in ancient and modern times. It tries to provide overviews of current scholarship about the spheres of action of royal women in the ancient Mediterranean world, as well as some chapters discussing specific issues. The focus is on an historical approach, but the volume also includes archaeological, art historical, and philological studies’ (p. 7). Although the size of the volume and the number of contributions were most probably what prevented the editors from a brief description of each chapter and an elucidation of the authors’ conclusions and methods, the lack of any concept of the definitions and theoretical background of ‘power’ (and consequently concepts of formal and informal power) and ‘monarchy’, especially from the point of view of social anthropology is striking.

Part 2, ‘Egypt and the Nile Valley’, presents ten contributions dealing with the ancient Egyptian and Ptolemaic world. L. Sabbahy presents an overview of ‘The King's Mother in the Old and Middle Kingdoms’; A. Lohwasser examines ‘The Role and Status of Royal Women in Kush’, noting the specific position and impact of queenship in Kush, and pointing out that in the Kushitic form of rule the feminine aspect had a significant share; and M. Minas-Nerpel provides an account of ‘Regnant Women in Egypt’. Three contributions are focused, as a more general survey, on Ptolemaic royal women: ‘Ptolemaic Royal Women’ by A. Bielman Sánchez and G. Lenzo; S. Pfeiffer's ‘Royal Women and Ptolemaic Cults’; and ‘Ptolemaic Women's Patronage of the Arts’ by S. Barbantani. M.F. Ayad's ‘The God's Wife of Amun: Origins and Rise to Power’ presents an overview of the office of God's Wife of Amun, stressing its religious and political influence. Three studies are focused on individual women: ‘The Image of Nefertiti’ by A. Van der Perre; Müller's ‘Berenike II’; and C. Schäfer's ‘The Kleopatra Problem: Roman Sources and a Female Ptolemaic Ruler’. Surprisingly, a chapter dedicated to Hatshepsut, whose reign is in so many aspects paradigmatic to the issue of women and monarchy, is missing.

Part 3, ‘The Ancient Near East’, presents eleven chapters. Although, as with any collection of essays, the distribution of content is always a concern, the name of the section is misleading. There are only three essays on ancient near eastern women: contributions from S. Fink on ‘Invisible Mesopotamian Royal Women?’, presenting a general overview, from M. Brosius on ‘Achaimenid Women’ and from S. Ruzicka discussing ‘Karian Royal Women and the Creation of a Royal Identity’. Chapters written by M.J. Olbrycht (‘Seleukid Women’), G. Ramsey (‘Apama and Stratonike: the first Seleukid Basilissai’), M. D'Agostini (‘Seleukid Marriage Alliances’), D. Mirón (Royal Mothers and Dynastic Power in Attalid Pergamon’), J. Wilker (‘Hasmonean Women’), I. Madreiter and U. Hartmann (‘Women at the Arsakid Court’), J. Wiesehöfer (‘Women of the Sassanid Dynasty [224–651 ce]’) and L. Dirven (‘Zenobia of Palmyra’) are focused on Hellenistic monarchies. Wiesehöfer produces a particularly interesting re-evaluation of almost all attested women of the Sassanid dynasty, stressing that they were more influential than the Arsacid ones, and concluding that their titles were linked to social rank rather than family status. Since the focus of the section is on Hellenistic monarchies, a term Western Asia would better characterise the content of the chapter. Certainly, much more can be said about royal women of the Ancient Near East (as outlined in the contribution by S.C. Melville in D.C. Snell [ed.], A Companion to the Ancient Near East [2020]). Articles presenting Mari, Ugarit (profoundly analysed by C.N. Thomas, Reconceiving the House of the Father: Royal Women at Ugarit [2014]), the Hittites (just to mention numerous contributions by T.R. Bryce and, most recently, M. Moore's Hittite Queenship: Women and Power in Hittite Anatolia [2018]) and above all the Neo-Assyrian state (e.g. S. Svärd's ‘Neo-Assyrian Elite Women’, in S.L. Budin and J.M. Turfa [edd.], Women in Antiquity [2016]) would be very welcome.

Part 4, ‘Greece and Macedonia’, contains four essays. J. Heinrichs provides a lucid, comprehensive account of ‘“Royal” Women in the Homeric Epics’. Heinrichs rightly stresses that, when the epics became formative for Greek thinking, many of their female characters became classics and perhaps even more archetypal. The marked differences in roles and attitudes of Western, i.e. Greek elite, and Eastern, i.e. Trojan ‘royal’, women subtly reflect their different social context. H.M. Roisman explores ‘Royal Women in Greek Tragedy’. ‘Women in Antigonid Monarchy’ are discussed by Carney, and ‘Argead Women’ by Müller.

In Part 5, ‘Commonalities’, Carney brilliantly analyses and compares ‘Kleopatra, sister of Alexander the Great, Adea Eurydike, and Phila’, stressing the importance of the agency of royal women (with all its positive and negative consequences) in the given period. The three women played crucial roles in the transition from Argead to early Hellenistic monarchy. The same section also presents studies by R. Strootman (‘Women and Dynasty at the Hellenistic Imperial Courts’), S.L. Ager (‘Royal Brother–Sister marriage, Ptolemaic and Otherwise’) and D. Plantzos (‘Jugate Images in Ptolemaic and Julio-Claudian Monarchy’).

Part 6, ‘Rome: Late Republic through Empire’, presents eight contributions. The section opens with K. Moore's ‘Octavia Minor and Patronage’, followed by C. Kunst's ‘Livia and the Principate of Augustus and Tiberius’, F. Cenerini's ‘Julio-Claudian Imperial Women’ and K. Schnegg's ‘The Imperial Women from the Flavians to the Severi’. The illuminating essay on ‘Portraiture of Flavian Imperial Women’ by A. Alexandridis explores how images of Flavian imperial women were deployed (through the issues of the dichotomy between family or dynasty, exemplary womanhood, beauty or luxury, and divinity) for defining the dynasty. Alexandridis concludes that the Flavians were the first to systematically develop a visual, dynastic programme for their female relatives and to mint regular coinage for them (p. 429). Other contributions in the Roman section analyse ‘The Faustinas’ (S. Priwitzer), ‘Women in the Severan Dynasty’ (R. Bertolazzi) and ‘Women in the Family of Constantine’ (M. Dirschlmayer).

The concluding part, ‘Reception from Antiquity to Present Times’, slightly surprisingly contains just three contributions. B. Truschnegg examines ‘Semiramis: Perception and Presentation of Female Power in an Oriental Garb’, focusing on the methods of constructing female power, its evaluation and its connection to stereotypes of the ‘Orient’ in works of classical authors. ‘Tanaquil and Tullia in Livy as Roman Caricatures of Greek Mythic and Historic Hellenistic Queens’, by J.P. Hallett and K. Klaiber Hersch, and ‘Roman Empresses on screen: an Epic Failure?’, by A. Wieber, are the final chapters in the volume. One would expect to find a chapter dedicated to Cleopatra VII in the respective part of the book.

This volume doubtless has several virtues. Its chapters cover a wide range of topics and include plentiful examples of the relevant sources. Moreover, the bibliographies that follow each contribution provide readers with multiple avenues for further research. The volume presupposes a reader familiar with the history of the ancient world (both ancient near eastern and classical) and as such it seems rather more appropriate for graduate students and scholars in ancient studies. One hindrance is the absence of chronological charts and the relatively small number of pictures (moreover, of a rather poor quality) that could have further embellished the volume. Overall, the volume certainly will become a touchstone for researchers interested in the study of women in antiquity and gender studies.