This is a 1-volume history of Ancient Rome from its mythical inception to about 200CE (AD). Not exactly sure as I haven't finished yet.
Beard is a scholar of Roman history who has worked on it for about 50 years. The book is very readable and very interesting, while drawing on many recent discoveries that have changed our view of Roman history considerably.
For me, the reason for reading this is to gain a perspective on a very sophisticated civilisation that in some ways led directly to our current western civilisation and, on the other hand, is very different in its ideas to many of our current ideas, especially in the ethical sphere. I find that by looking at how they differ from us, I can see that some of our ideas that are so ingrained that we do not realise we hold them are in fact open to useful questioning.
The ancient Romans invented institutions and ideas that underlie many still current today and yet they are now subtly (or not so subtly) different. Beard points these out but leaves her readers to draw their own conclusions.

Caution: you might want to read at least a Wikipedia summary of the history as she seems to assume a (very basic) knowledge of the arc of Roman history (Kings/Republic/Emperors) and half a dozen of the most famous people - not a problem for me as I've read other books, and she does explain most, eventually.