Hadrian ruled the Roman Empire for 21 years. His legacy, however, is a tangled mess. On the one hand, he left behind impressive architectural marvels, like Hadrian’s Wall; and his epic journeys across land and sea reinforced the notion that he was not just the leader of Rome, but the representative of tens of millions of people across a vast commonwealth. And yet, both his early years and, as we’ll talk about today, his latter years, were strange and shrouded with intrigue and animosity. One sen...
Apr 24, 2024•15 min•Ep. 40
Hadrian's Wall served as the Roman frontier in Britain for nearly 300 years. While not an impenetrable barrier, it deterred large-scale raids, allowed for the regulation of trade, and provided a base for Roman military operations when necessary. Hadrian’s Wall is both a symbol of Rome’s final ruinous end, but also of the extent to which the Roman peace was an illusion. Ultimately, the Wall failed to protect the Empire—not only from outside invasions, but as we will continue to show on this podca...
Apr 16, 2024•17 min•Ep. 39
By the year AD 130, Hadrian had ruled the Roman Empirefor more than a decade—touring its far flung provinces, and transforming it from conquest empire to unified commonwealth. And yet, one peoples in particular were not aligned with Hadrian’s grand vision. The Jewish people had been subjugated to some of the worst brutality imaginable—a fact they had not forgotten. Under eventual Roman emperor Titus, their capital of Jerusalem as well as the great Jewish temple, had been levelled to the ground. ...
Apr 10, 2024•17 min•Ep. 38
Hadrian took over for Trajan, and it was a little awkward. As we saw last time, Trajan went to his deathbed without naming a successor; then over the course of several secretive days, Trajan died and Hadrian emerged as the next emperor. Only Trajan’s wife and praetorian prefect seem to know what happened. Others knew what happened, of course, but they were murdered under mysterious circumstances. Then, four leading senators were also executed without a trial. Whispers of a plot swirled, but to t...
Apr 03, 2024•17 min•Ep. 36
The Pax Romana, and especially its period of five good emperors, is often thought of as a continuous period of peaceful and uncontroversial transitions of power. But, as we’ve seen on this podcast, there is far more to the story than that. Today’s topic is emblematic of the Pax Romana’s strange dissonance between superficial peace and its subtle undercurrents of intrigue and scandal. When Trajan died, and his successor took over, every effort was made to give the transition of power a planned an...
Mar 27, 2024•15 min•Ep. 36
The Roman emperor Trajan looked to emulate Alexander the Great. In AD 113, he began a campaign to push Roman borders eastward further than ever before. In his way was the Parthian Empire. These two powers were engaged in a complex geo-political chess match for virtually the entirety of the Pax Romana. Would Trajan be able to do what no previous Roman had done, and take Rome's eastern Nemesis?
Mar 21, 2024•19 min•Ep. 35
Our modern economy is miraculous. But did the kinds of market mechanisms that make modern economies so prosperous prevail in the Romain Empire? On the one hand, Rome's economy was impressive. It was highly monetized, unified by law and seemingly vibrant. But to what extent was Rome's economy "free market"?
Mar 13, 2024•20 min•Ep. 34
Around AD 112, Pliny the Younger, Roman governor of Bithynia wrote a letter to his emperor Trajan, on a subject that he thought fairly mundane, but this letter has become one of the most important sources in ancient history. What does the letter say? Pliny told Trajan that he had arrested several members of a strange and growing new religion; these men and women called themselves Christians, after a messianic figure—Jesus the Christ—who was crucified under Pontius Pilate in Judea some 80 years p...
Mar 06, 2024•17 min•Ep. 33
By the time of Trajan—at the beginning of the second century AD, one man—the emperor of Rome—ruled over 60 million people spread throughout the Mediterranean basin, from damp and dreary Great Britain to the hot dry and desolate wilderness of Syria. And, as I hinted at last time, Trajan would push the boundaries of this massive empire ever further east—and Trajan himself would stand upon the shores of the Persian Gulf. But one thing we haven’t yet addressed, is how the emperor actually managed su...
Feb 28, 2024•20 min•Ep. 32
It took two wars, but as we saw last time, the emperor Trajan finally got the job done in Dacia. By the year AD 107, the crafty Dacian king was dead, and Rome had itself a new province—one supposedly flush with gold and silver. And with Trajan’s new one-kilometer long bridge across the broad Danube River, Roman soldiers, merchants, workers and government officials would have no trouble exploiting Dacia for all it was worth. So suddenly, Trajan had several extra zeros in his imperial bank account...
Feb 21, 2024•18 min•Ep. 31
The Roman Emperor Trajan took office in the year AD 98. This new emperor was a friend of Roman soldiers, and he seem poised to expand Roman influence into the farthest reaches of the known world. His first aggressive step was to subjugate the treacherous Dacians—a people rich in gold and silver, and who harassed Roman forts along the Empire’s northern boundaries. But the Dacian king Decebalus was a crafty and clever strategists, with a proven track record against Rome’s legions. Once the war bro...
Feb 14, 2024•13 min•Ep. 30
Under Trajan, members of the Roman Senate had to face facts: the republic was gone, and elements of the military were equally if not more important than them. To us, this sounds like the kind of junta or military dictatorship that rarely lasts long—but in fact, with the accession of Trajan, the Roman Empire would enter its most dominant and prosperous period; it would also be an era free from major civil wars or usurpations; but how did Trajan manage to get this most remarkable phase of the Pax ...
Feb 06, 2024•14 min•Ep. 29
With the death of Domitian, we now enter the age that some historians call the High Roman Empire—the pinnacle of the pinnacle. For just shy of a century, from AD 96 to 180, Rome is ruled by a succession of five emperors. And while each of them had their flaws, some more obvious than others, they are generally regarded as among the best that Rome had to offer. Edward Gibbon, who wrote The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , published in 1776, would call this span of time: “the p...
Jan 24, 2024•17 min•Ep. 28
Augustus Caesar set up a military autocracy in which he, and he alone, would be supreme leader. He then wrapped that autocracy in the tattered remains of Rome’s shredded Republican constitution. Emperors came and went, many of them claiming to secure and uphold the republican system; in reality, the new autocratic system became permanent. As we learned last time, the year AD 81 would mark the beginning of a new and infamous regime—that of the hated emperor Domitian. Ancient writers universally c...
Jan 16, 2024•17 min•Ep. 27
The reign of the emperor Titus, the son of Vespasian, was short—just a little over two years—but boy was it eventful. And for once, these events have little to do with the emperor—by all accounts Titus was a decent leader—but rather, it was nature that wreaked havoc on tens of thousands of Romans. First, the famous eruption of Vesuvius, the volcanos burial of the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Then a major fire in Rome. And finally, a plague that at least once source claims killed 10,000 Rom...
Jan 09, 2024•14 min•Ep. 26
Vespasian wrestled control of the empire away from several other claimants through a violent civil war. He marched into Rome with a fresh foreign triumph under his belt; Vespasian, through his son Titus, claimed conquest over the rebellious Jews in Judea. But despite his superficial similarities to Augustus, would Vespasian succeed in founding a lasting dynasty, and leave his mark on the Pax Romana? Primary Sources Referenced: Lex de Imperio Vespasiani (CIL 4.930). Suetonius, Life of Vespasian 7...
Jan 01, 2024•18 min•Ep. 25
In AD 70, the second dynasty of the Pax Romana was about to commence. Its founder, Vespasian, earned his opportunity to claim the empire largely because of victories in one of the empire’s most contentious provinces: Judea—the territory which now resides in the modern state of Israel. The relationship between Roman occupiers and the Jewish people gradually soured in the first century AD—culminating in a lengthy and bloody revolt in which Jerusalem, and the historic Jewish temple it contained—wer...
Dec 20, 2023•19 min•Ep. 24
On January 15, AD 69, the Praetorian Guard made Otho, legate of the now deceased Galba, the third emperor in less than a year. The military autocracy established by Augustus was developing serious fractures. Nero and then Galba had been assassinated in Rome. The new emperor, Otho, was hardly established. With so much uncertainty at Rome, ongoing conflicts and rebellions in places like Britain, Germany and Judea offered ambitious generals and governors opportunities to earn victories so epic that...
Dec 12, 2023•21 min
In the tumultuous year of AD 69, four emperors rose and fell in rapid succession--a period known as the Year of the Four Emperors. Among these fleeting rulers was Galba, an elderly general who seized power after the overthrow of Nero. Galba's reign, however, was short-lived. The new emperor attempted to reinstitute conservative governance, but ended up alienating his own soldiers. Within just a few months, he would be publicly beheaded in Rome's forum.
Dec 05, 2023•17 min•Ep. 22
We've discussed how Nero blamed the Great Fire in Rome on Christians. And that brings up a question: why were Christians seen as a potential scapegoats, especially so early in their history--less than 40 years after the crucifixion of Jesus? This episode takes a look at why many Romans thought Christians--despite such a small membership--so dangerous to public safety.
Nov 28, 2023•21 min•Ep. 21
July, AD 64. Much of Rome is still smoldering. Hundreds of buildings had been completed destroyed in the voracious blaze that burned unchecked for over a week in Rome. Thousands of people were dead. As we learned last time, Nero spent huge sums of money to provide relief. He also tortured and murdered Christians—claiming that these blasphemers and atheists were to blame for the calamity. But, deserved or not, Nero was still held responsible. In subsequent years, the chaos surrounding Nero began ...
Nov 21, 2023•24 min•Ep. 20
Nero was finally free of his mother’s influence. Agrippina had been stabbed to death over and over again by Nero’s soldiers in her belly—the place from which her treacherous son had sprung. Nero was 19 and without parents, but he had plenty of help. Many senators believed that this was finally their moment. If the pro-senatorial policies that had characterized the early years of Nero’s reign were a sign of what could be expected in the decades to come, the age of Nero would become a golden age f...
Nov 14, 2023•19 min•Ep. 19
Agrippina—daughter of Germanicus, brother of Caligula, niece and wife of Claudius and now mother to the newly appointed emperor—likely enjoyed the greatest moment of her life on the day her son Nero was inaugurated as Rome’s fifth emperor. She had murdered so many people—including members of her own family—to get here. And there he was—her little boy, now 17 years old, the great grandson of Augustus—raised to the purple. The praetorian guard took Nero’s money, and would therefore support him. Se...
Nov 05, 2023•19 min•Ep. 18
Through deft social and political maneuvers, seduction and pure survival skills, Agrippina—age 34—has won marriage to the fourth Roman Emperor Claudius, her own uncle. Into the marriage she brought her only son—a twelve year old boy who would grow up to become the great villain known as Nero. Although the emperor Claudius already had a son to succeed him—the eight year old Britannicus—he adopted Nero as his own, making Nero legally his son, and older brother to Britannicus. With this move, Agrip...
Oct 24, 2023•19 min•Ep. 17
It is easy to think of Roman emperors as omnipotent rulers who could (and did) whatever struck their fancy. But as we’ve seen so far on this podcast, the truth was far more complex. The senate may not have been in charge anymore, but they still needed managing. The soldiers, especially the praetorians, were a source of power, but had also shown they could topple emperors. In the reign of Claudius, we see a third group that could both support and channel the emperor: his own household. The family...
Oct 17, 2023•17 min•Ep. 16
Claudius was often ridiculed by his family members, as well as senators. He may not have been as cruel as Caligula, but neither was he sufficiently deferent to the nobility. Claudius, however, carried on as he wished—and ended up creating a sustainable power base with the common people and his former slaves. He won popularity by securing the Roman food supply, and enthusiastically supporting Rome’s growing entertainment scene. But the senate remained hostile. How could the same emperor be so lov...
Oct 10, 2023•22 min•Ep. 15
Much of what we’ve talked about on this podcast has been focused on events in Rome, and especially with the major players in what would become Rome’s first imperial dynasty. But during the reign of Claudius, the Roman legions invaded the island of Great Britain, and this monumental event gives us an opportunity to better understand the wrecking ball that was the Roman military. Claudius never had the senate on his side, but his successes in Great Britain made many Romans feel like Rome was winni...
Oct 03, 2023•22 min•Ep. 14
The conspiracy to assassinate Caligula was a smashing success. But did the senate really wish to keep the Principate going? Why not go back to the republic? Well, the choice would be made for them; by the Praetorian Guard. For the first of many times, the right to rule the Roman Empire was simply purchased. Primary sources Referenced: Suetonius, Life of Claudius 3, 30. Claudius Coin ('Emperor Received'). Claudius Coin ('Praetorians Received'). Cassius Dio, Roman History 60.3.2-3Buy Professor Ell...
Sep 30, 2023•16 min•Ep. 13
Was the emperor Caligula mad or just bad? No one really knows. But on todays podcasts, we recount some of the worst excesses of Rome’s third emperor. At this point, not only was the republic dead and gone, but it seemed the arrangements put in place by Augustus were also reaching a devastating end. As Caligula’s antics, eccentricities and outright malice created a climate far worse—far more deadly—than any living Roman could recall, it became clear that a new member of Augustus family needed to ...
Sep 26, 2023•23 min•Ep. 12
Caligula—one of the most infamous names in Roman history. But before he became the cruel and debased monster that history would remember, he began his reign with all signs pointing to a return to the good old days of Augustus. Unlike the previous emperor Tiberius, Caligula was engaged and active—a princeps prepared to fulfill the calling of his office, to be an example of morality and nobility that would provide a renewed sense of purpose to a senate that had lost its way during the treason tria...
Sep 22, 2023•22 min•Ep. 11
