Kate Cooper

I’m so happy to share my newest book QUEENS OF A FALLEN WORLD with you. This history tells the story of the last years of the Roman Empire through the eyes of four women who left their mark on the world thanks to what is possibly the greatest autobiography of Latin literature, the fourth-century Christian bishop Augustine of Hippo’s CONFESSIONS.

It’s well known that Augustine had a close relationship with his mother Saint Monica, but the other women in Augustine’s life are equally fascinating. Piecing together their side of the story based on fragmentary sources was a matter of detective work and a labour of love. Several readers have said their story reads like a novel, but it is all properly documented in the end notes!

I’m also the author of BAND OF ANGELS: THE FORGOTTEN WORLD OF EARLY CHRISTIAN WOMEN, which tells the larger story about how women shaped the world of early Christianity.

Books in order of publication:

Monographs

The Virgin and the Bride: idealized womanhood in late antiquity 1996 

The Fall of the Roman Household 2007 

Band of Angels: The Forgotten World of Early Christian Women 2013 

Queens of a Fallen World – 2023

Edited Volumes

Religion, dynasty, and patronage in early Christian Rome, 300-900, – 2007

Making Early Medieval Societies: Conflict and Belonging in the Latin West, 300-1200 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016)