The Late Republic: Marius, Sulla, Spartacus

Wildly stylised, gleefully bloody, and much smarter about slavery, patronage and Roman social climbing than its reputation suggests. Push through the first few episodes; the show finds itself and then does not let go.

Kubrick's, with Kirk Douglas, and the film that broke the Hollywood blacklist by putting Dalton Trumbo's name on the credits. The history is loose and the politics of the making are a story in themselves.

Forty-five hours on Plutarch's Roman lives, taken one figure at a time and argued with as they go, at full length.

Part of Cost of Glory

A hundred and one minutes closing the life, from the burning of the senate house after Clodius' murder to the end at Utica.

Part of Cost of Glory

Eighty-six minutes opening the life of Cato the Younger, from a childhood marked by the murder of his uncle. Rome's great Stoic starts here.

Part of HistoryMarche

The dictatorship as a template, and the argument that Caesar copied a working model. Sulla laid down the office voluntarily, which is the part Caesar left out.

Part of The Rest Is History

Holland and Sandbrook on the Cimbri and Teutones smashing into the Republic, and on Marius rebuilding the army to stop them. The moment the legions began swearing to a general.

Part of The Ancients

With Ben Kane

Seventy-six minutes with the novelist Ben Kane, the longest of the show's four passes at Spartacus and the one with room for the revolt itself: the route up and down Italy, the winter at Thurii, the six thousand crosses on the Appian Way.

Part of The Rest Is History

Part one, seventy-three minutes on Marius climbing from complete obscurity, which in Republican Rome was a more dangerous route than any battlefield.

Part of The Rest Is History

Seventy-three minutes on the first time a Roman general marched his legions on Rome itself. Sulla did it in 88 BC and every later civil war starts from that precedent.

Part of Cost of Glory

Seventy minutes on the general who won the eastern war and lost the credit to Pompey. Rome's politics beat him, not Mithridates.

Part of The Rest Is History

Seventy minutes on the younger Marius against Sulla, with Crassus and Pompey appearing as the next generation. The proscriptions are in here.

Part of The Ancients

With Catharine Edwards

The coup that made Cicero and then destroyed him, because executing citizens without trial turned out to be the kind of precedent your enemies keep.

Part of The Ancients

With Nick Rauh

Nick Rauh and Adam Dawson on piracy from Spain to Syria across the second and first centuries BC, and on Pompey clearing the sea in a single season. Sixty-three minutes.

Part of The Ancients

Mutina, April 43 BC, with Octavian, Antony and Decimus Brutus all fielding armies and Cicero holding only a voice. Steele Brand takes Tristan Hughes through the campaign that gave the Philippics their weight and then cost Cicero his head and his hands.

Part of Cost of Glory

Sixty-one minutes on Lucullus driving Mithridates out of Pontus and following him into Armenia, where the war stopped being winnable.

Part of The Ancients

Carrhae in 53 BC ended the richest man in Rome and opened three centuries of war with Parthia. Badly covered elsewhere.

Part of The Ancients

With Alex Petkas

The man who marched on Rome, won, posted lists of citizens who could be killed for their property, and then resigned. Everything after him is downstream of the first two of those.

Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast

Fifty minutes on Marius, consul seven times, who opened the legions to men with no property and is credited with more reform than he probably managed.

Part of The Ancients

Forty-nine minutes on the revolt of 73 to 71 BC: how a gladiator from Thrace held Italy for two years, and why the Roman writers who recorded it were more frightened by the slaves who joined him than by the man himself.

Part of The Ancients

Spartacus was Thracian, and this is forty-eight minutes on what that meant. Zosia Archibald on cavalry, worked gold and a people Rome mostly met as recruits and as slaves.

Part of The Ancients

Forty-seven minutes measuring the 1960 Kubrick film against the sources, which for Spartacus are Appian, Plutarch and Florus writing generations later and disagreeing with each other. The show ran it again in 2024 at the same length.

Part of The Ancients

The show's 2024 pass at the same question, in forty-seven minutes. Same ground as the 2020 episode, same running time; take whichever your app offers first.

Part of The Ancients

With Emma Southon

Emma Southon on Publius Clodius Pulcher, who had himself adopted by a plebeian to hold the tribunate and was killed in a street fight on the Appian Way. Forty-six minutes.

Part of Tides of History

With Douglas Boin

Douglas Boin on Clodia, known to most people only as the target of one of Cicero's nastiest speeches, and on the political weight that speech was written to destroy. Forty-six minutes.

Part of The Ancients

Ronald Hutton on the Druids of Britain and Gaul: what Caesar reported, what Cicero's meeting with one suggests, and how little of either can be checked. Forty-five minutes.

Part of The Ancients

With Federico Santangelo

Federico Santangelo on Marius, born 157 BC without rank, consul seven times, and called Rome's third founder by people who had just watched him save it. Forty-four minutes.

Part of The Ancients

Thirty-nine minutes on how a man from Arpinum with no consular ancestors talked his way to the top of Roman politics. Catherine Steel on why the speeches still work.

Part of HistoryMarche

Part one of the animated Sulla series, on the first Roman army to march on its own city.

Part of The Ancients

Henriette van der Blom on Cicero across the whole career, thirty-six minutes, from the prosecution of Verres to the head and hands nailed up on the rostra.

Part of The Ancients

With Peter Stothard

Peter Stothard on the richest man in Rome, who made it partly from fires and proscriptions and lost it all at Carrhae in 53 BC. Thirty-five minutes.

Part of Historia Civilis

Cicero in his sixties taking on Antony with words alone, and losing his head for it. The Philippics as a political campaign.

Part of The Ancient World

Thirty minutes on the last Seleucid claimants holding Syria against Parthians, usurpers and Rome closing from both directions.

Part of The Ancient World

Twenty-five minutes on Odaenathus of Palmyra declaring himself King of Kings, besieging the Sasanian capital twice, and then being murdered at the top.

Part of HistoryMarche

Vercellae in 101 BC and the reforms that made it winnable. Marius as the model Caesar inherited.

Part of HistoryMarche

Faventia in 82 BC, where the animation shows morale deciding a battle that numbers said should go the other way.

Part of HistoryMarche

The battle fought at the walls of Rome itself, which settled Sulla's war and began the proscriptions.

Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast

Fourteen minutes on Roman army medicine: what the evidence supports about surgeons, orderlies and field hospitals, and what the novels have added.

Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast

Ten minutes on a listener's sharp question: why Crassus did not fortify a camp after the first day at Carrhae in 53 BC, the way Caesar would have.

Part of Hardcore History · Dan Carlin, six parts, twenty-two hours

Part of History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps · Peter Adamson on the whole history of philosophy; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps · Peter Adamson on the whole history of philosophy; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Ancient History Hound · Ancient Blogger on Greece, Rome and antiquity for every level; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Podcast episodes – The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP) · The forgotten story of Western thought; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Ad Navseam · Two classicists in lively discussion; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Ithaca Bound · Andrew Schiestel on the Mediterranean, 2021 to 2022; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Ithaca Bound · Andrew Schiestel on the Mediterranean, 2021 to 2022; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Ithaca Bound · Andrew Schiestel on the Mediterranean, 2021 to 2022; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Ithaca Bound · Andrew Schiestel on the Mediterranean, 2021 to 2022; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Ad Navseam · Two classicists in lively discussion; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Ad Navseam · Two classicists in lively discussion; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Ad Navseam · Two classicists in lively discussion; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Podcast episodes – The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP) · The forgotten story of Western thought; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Greeced Lightning · Myths and movies with a doctor of classics; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Ancient History Hound · Ancient Blogger on Greece, Rome and antiquity for every level; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Ad Navseam · Two classicists in lively discussion; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Ad Navseam · Two classicists in lively discussion; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Lucretius Today - Epicurus and Epicurean Philosophy · Epicurean philosophy read line by line; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Kings and Generals · Military history in campaigns and battles; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Kings and Generals · Military history in campaigns and battles; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Kings and Generals · Military history in campaigns and battles; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of When in Rome

Part of Kings and Generals · Military history in campaigns and battles; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Kings and Generals · Military history in campaigns and battles; only the Roman episodes are indexed

Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast · The companion to Ancient Warfare magazine, since 2008