Claim OwnershipEmperors of Rome
Subscribed: 8,088Played: 257,276
Subscribe
© (c) 2021 La Trobe University
Description
“Great empires are not maintained by timidity.” - Tacitus. A podcast series looking at the rulers of the ancient Roman empire, by Dr Rhiannon Evans, Dr Caillan Davenport and Matt Smith.
262 Episodes
Reverse
Arria, and her daughter of the same name, were celebrated in Roman literature for their virtues, piety, and devotion to family. Remembered above all for their willingness to embrace self-sacrifice, their lives and deaths became exemplars of courage and duty, cited by writers like Pliny and Martial as models of Roman virtue.
Episode CCXLVIII (248)
Guest: Assoc. Professor Rhiannon Evans (Classic and Ancient History, La Trobe University)
1Being the daughter of Cato and wife of Brutus came with certain expectations from the ancient world. Embody her father’s principles, be a fine, upstanding Roman lady, and put Rome first above all other things. Porcia did this, and was admired for her disposition.
Episode CCXLVII (247)
Guest: Assoc. Professor Rhiannon Evans (Classic and Ancient History, La Trobe University)
In times of antiquity, alongside the Via Appia, stood the Laudatio Turiae, a funerary inscription praising the life of an exceptional Roman woman. While we aren’t sure of her actual identity her husband was clearly fond to her, and wanted everyone approaching Rome to know it.
Episode CCXLVI (246)
Guest: Assoc. Professor Rhiannon Evans (Classic and Ancient History, La Trobe University)
When Nero took his own life in 68CE it was the end of an era for Rome. The Julio-Claudians had ruled for close to 100 years, and with the end of the dynasty there was confusion, civil war, and an outpouring of grief.
Some would exploit this confusion and claim to be the still alive Emperor Nero, with the intention of retaking his empire.
Episode CCXLV (245)
Guest: Assistant Professor Zachary Herz (Legal Historian, Department of Classics, University of Colorado Boulder).
Plague getting your people down? Suffering from a mysterious ailment? Perhaps a festival of Apollo is what you need. A simple festival with games, plays and feastings could be enough to sway Apollo in your favour. Or at least, distract your city for a while.
Episode CCXLIV (244)
Guest:
Assoc. Professor Rhiannon Evans (Classic and Ancient History, La Trobe University)
After the death of Crassus his powerful name, his fortune, and his family’s honour survived. In this episode we’ll trace the life of the Crassi yet to come, and how the family comes together with an old rival.
Episode CCXLIII (243)
Part V of Crassus
Guest:
Assoc. Professor Rhiannon Evans (Classic and Ancient History, La Trobe University)
Crassus had power, he had money, but he still felt something was missing. With an army and a province in the east, he sets off to win the glory he had always been denied Perhaps it lay in Parthia.
Episode CCXLII (242)
Part IV of Crassus
Guest:
Assoc. Professor Rhiannon Evans (Classic and Ancient History, La Trobe University)
As Crassus gathered more power and wealth his success was aided by two allies. One, Julius Caesar, had received financial aid from Crassus for many years. The other, Pompeius Magnus, was at the best of times a bitter rival. Together they formed the triumvirate - more powerful together than apart.
Episode CCXLI (241)
Part III of Crassus
Guest:
Assoc. Professor Rhiannon Evans (Classic and Ancient History, La Trobe University)
In the tales of Hollywood Crassus will always be the antagonist to the slave hero Spartacus, but is that how would he see himself? A war against slaves is something that no self respecting Roman would like to be pushed into. And yet here we are.
Episode CCXL (240)
Part II of Crassus
Guest:
Assoc. Professor Rhiannon Evans (Classic and Ancient History, La Trobe University)
Marcus Licinius Crassus was an influential politician in the late Roman republic, famous for the wealth he accrued and the power that he held. An ally of Caesar and a rival of Pompey, he rose to prominence during the social wars, but would never get the military glory he believed was his owed.
Episode CCXXXIX (239)
Part I of Crassus
Guest:
Assoc. Professor Rhiannon Evans (Classic and Ancient History, La Trobe University)
Pompeii has been excavated for hundreds of years, and in that time techniques, practices and philosophies have changed. We’re now finding out a lot more about the city and the people who lived there, and there’s still more to find out.
The When in Rome podcast is now fundraising for an upcoming series 8. Please give your support.
Guest:
Dr Sophie Hay (Archaeologist, Archaeological Park of Pompeii)
Professor Steven Ellis (Classics, University of Cincinnati)
The simple act of dinner took on a new dimension for the Emperors. In an place where every meal could be a performance, an Emperor used the chance to reward and impress, intimidate and strike fear, and sometimes all at once. Having dinner with the Emperor was always a great honour, but sometimes you were risking your life.
Episode CCXXXVIII (238)
Guest:
Professor Mary Beard (Classics and Ancient History, La Trobe University)
For the Romans the simple act of dinner was so much more than a meal. It was an opportunity to socialise and do business, to see and be seen, and in some cases just to show off. Like everything it is steeped in protocol and tradition, but ultimately it emphasised spending time with others - as every good meal should.
Episode CCXXXVII (237)
Guest:
Associate Professor Rhiannon Evans (Classics and Ancient History, La Trobe University)
To celebrate the 10th year of the Emperors of Rome podcast, Rhiannon Evans and Matt Smith convened a screening of the epic movie Gladiator starring Russell Crowe, preceded by a live podcast recording the history and basis of the character Commodus performed by Joaquin Phoenix.
Recorded on the 19th October 2024 at the Thornbury Picture House, Melbourne.
The Roman festival of Faunalia Rustica was celebrated in rural areas in honour of the god Faunus, a god who according to epic poetry was the King of the Latins, but to many needed appeasement for country living.
Guest:
Associate Professor Rhiannon Evans (Classics and Ancient History, La Trobe University)
Diocletian and Maximian must be doing something right - keeping the borders of Rome safe, and ruling the Empire in harmony. They even have a catch-up in Milan, worthy of a panegyric. Things would be perfect, if it wasn’t for the revolt of Carausius in Gaul and Britain, who doesn’t want to rule Rome, he just wants to be included in the party.
Part II of Diocletian
Guest:
Associate Professor Caillan Davenport (Head of the Centre for Classical Studies at the Australian National University)
The man who would be the Emperor Diocletian was of unremarkable origins. Quick to recognise the challenges of Rome, he moved to set it up as a franchise opportunity. This worked when nothing else did, and to many he was the most successful Roman emperor in an age. Just don’t ask the Christians…
Part I of Diocletian
Guest:
Associate Professor Caillan Davenport (Head of the Centre for Classical Studies at the Australian National University)
As the wild and crazy experiment of the 3rd century winds to a conclusion, a man named Carus steps into the purple, with an imperial dynasty ready to go. But Rome has grown unwieldy. Challenged by enemies from beyond and within, it will take quite a leader to hold the empire together.
Guest:
Associate Professor Caillan Davenport (Head of the Centre for Classical Studies at the Australian National University)
Probus had a fairly long reign for this time in the history of the Empire. Keeping the barbarians in check is one thing, seeing off usurpers is another, but just don’t ask too much of the military - they don’t like getting their hands dirty.
Guest:
Associate Professor Caillan Davenport (Head of the Centre for Classical Studies at the Australian National University)
We now return to the late third century, where the Emperor Aurelian has finally reunited the Roman empire and been murdered for the trouble, and the senate in Rome, waning in its influence, makes a final flex of power.
Tickets are now on sale for our special 10th anniversary live screening of the movie Gladiator! 19th October at the Thornbury Picture House in Melbourne.
Guest:
Associate Professor Caillan Davenport (Head of the Centre for Classical Studies at the Australian National University)
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States
Up next
Persians were not simply opportunistic adversaries; they were a powerful civilization with their own intricate political and cultural context, capable of producing leaders and generals whose achievements deserve recognition on their own terms.
Therefore, attributing Roman defeats solely to factors like plague, incompetence, or treachery, while reducing Persian accounts to mere exaggeration or propaganda, oversimplifies a complex historical reality. Both empires were sophisticated, and both struggled with comparable problems. It is neither fair nor historically accurate to assume that only the Roman version of events deserves credibility.
Such internal divisions, combined with the immense logistical demands of maintaining order across such a large empire, imposed significant limitations on Persia’s capacity to mobilize all its power against Rome. Yet, despite all these difficulties, the Persians repeatedly managed to achieve remarkable victories over the Romans — victories that were neither accidents nor the result of luck, but of genuine strategic brilliance and military capability.
In addition to these external pressures, the Persian Empire had to contend with complex internal dynamics, particularly the political struggles among the seven great Iranian clans. These aristocratic houses wielded enormous influence and often pursued their own interests, occasionally challenging royal authority or even determining the outcome of successions.
Persia was not merely fighting Rome; it was simultaneously defending its vast eastern borders against the nomadic incursions of the Hephthalites and other Central Asian tribes. The Hephthalites were fierce and unpredictable enemies, and Persia’s commitment to securing its eastern frontier meant that at any given time, at least half of the Persian military forces were deployed in those distant and exhausting wars.
If we are to be fair and objective, we must recognize that plague, famine, and internal political turmoil were not unique to the Roman side. These same difficulties existed in the Persian Empire as well. The Sasanian rulers faced constant and equally severe challenges that weakened their stability and drained their resources.
For instance, in the case of the capture of Emperor Valerian, you prefer to rely on one specific Roman or later Western account as the undoubtedly correct version, while dismissing the Persian sources that describe it as a legitimate victory achieved by strategy or military superiority. This selective skepticism reveals a kind of bias that has long existed in much of the Western historiography of the Roman–Persian conflicts.
It is really interesting how you both are so artistically justifying the series of defeats suffered by the Roman emperors, as well as their deaths and captures at the hands of the Persians, by attributing them to factors such as plague or internal instability, while at the same time treating the Persian sources as if they were nothing more than bluff or bragging.
This is possibly my favorite podcast of all time, certainly of the nonfiction variety anyway. I also love Matt Smith(!!!). I hope he gets someone to continue the chronology, though.
q qqq
I absolutely love your podcast.
🔴✅📺📱💻ALL>Movies>WATCH>ᗪOᗯᑎᒪOᗩᗪ>LINK>👉https://co.fastmovies.org
Twitter no longer exists? What about X? Showing our lefty ideology are we?
I wonder how listeners who come to these podcasts late can have access to the Fasti series and the Gallic Wars series.
The US is now repeating history with an oligarchic Senate and a demogogue who has a cult following of racists and misogynists who fear true democracy. We are living through the last days os the USA.
I laughed at least 4 times. a must listen
It appears the host, Matt Smith, has a "problem" with the Gracchi brothers....I don't think I like him very much anymore.
Dr. Zachary Herz is a gem. Amazing episode.
I love Dr. Emma Southon! ❤️