Emperors of Rome

When the Emperor Valerian was captured by the enemy what the empire needed was a trusted, capable, firm set of hands to take on the imperial mantle. In retrospect, that probably wasn’t his son Gallienus.

For the next eight years Gallienus would rule as sole emperor and proceed to lose two thirds of the empire, leaving Rome at its weakest position in centuries.

Part I of 'Gallienus'

Guest: Associate Professor Caillan Davenport (Head of the Centre for Classical Studies at the Australian National University).

Livia is often known by association - the wife of Augustus and the mother of Tiberius - but she becomes a figure of power and influence in Rome in her own right.

This episode is a redux of Episode XXV (from 2016), followed by an all new interview with Sian Phillips who played Livia in The BBC’s ‘I Claudius’ in 1976.

Part II of 'Empresses of Rome'

Guests:
Associate Professor Rhiannon Evans (Head of Department of Languages and Linguistics, La Trobe University)
Sian Phillips (Livia in ‘I, Claudius’)

The first triumvirate is over, but for Julius Caesar he got the desired outcome – he’s now poised with an army to march into Rome. Over the next few years he will exert his influence over the empire, and his legacy will bring and end to the Roman republic.

Part VI of The Fall of the Roman Republic.

Dr Rhiannon Evans (Senior Lecturer, Classics and Ancient History, La Trobe University)

The last Penguin edition of The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius was translated by Robert Graves in 1957. Historian Tom Holland is now working on a new translation, and took time away from the manuscript to talk to me about his process.

Guest:
Tom Holland (author of Rubicon, Dynasty, and an upcoming translation of Suetonius' 'The Twelve Caesars')

Caesar reaches the age where he can enter politics, but quickly finds that the rules don’t suit him.

Dr Rhiannon Evans (Ancient Mediterranean Studies, La Trobe University) and host Matt Smith look at Caesar's time as a politician, and a tenuous alliance called the Triumvir.