Bloodlines · Who it happened to: the plotting, the gods, the beds, the graves.

Roman intrigue

Conspiracies, forged letters, poison and the Praetorian Guard.

177 entries · 176 hours · 159 with a written verdict · British 67 · Australian 57 · American 36

The Catiline conspiracy, the Pisonian conspiracy, the night the Praetorians auctioned the empire to the highest bidder and delivered it. If Spartacus and I, Claudius sharpened your appetite for people plotting against each other in corridors, the Republic and the Julio-Claudians will keep you fed for a year. Emperors of Rome and Life of Caesar are the two that linger on the plotting.

I feel like…

PeriodAny

when it happens

FormAny

how it is made

NarratorAny

who is talking

LengthAny

how much time you have

With a written verdict

20h 10mRome EssentialDrama

Two seasons, cancelled far too early, and still the only screen Rome that feels lived in. It follows two soldiers through Caesar's rise and Octavian's, and the politics of the street is as carefully built as the politics of the Senate.

10h 50mI, Claudius EssentialDrama

The 1976 BBC serial, thirteen episodes, made on a budget that shows and with a cast that does not care. Derek Jacobi's Claudius is the performance every later screen Roman is measured against. The history is Robert Graves', which is to say Tacitus at his most gossipy, but nothing has bettered it as drama.

8h 20mThose About to Die Drama

Roland Emmerich doing the chariot-racing and gladiator business under Vespasian. Historically loose and gleefully so; watch it for the machinery of the games, not for the dates.

7h 20mDomina Drama

Livia's story as drama, and much better than its lack of an audience suggests. Takes the standard hostile sources and asks what she would have said.

3hRoman Empire: The Mad Emperor Roman EmpireDocudrama

Part of Roman Empire

Caligula, tyranny and paranoia. The weakest season for accuracy and the one the historians on screen most visibly strain against, which is its own kind of interesting.

2h 29mJulius Caesar #46 (Take 2) – The Ides Of March! Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Two and a half hours on 15 March 44 BC alone: who was in the room, who held the knife, who stood aside. The length is the argument, because the conspiracy had sixty members and most accounts name four.

1h 59m101 Justinian II No Nose Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Two hours on the emperor who was deposed, mutilated and exiled, and then came back and ruled again with a gold nose. The second reign is the part most accounts skip.

1h 53mJulius Caesar #47 – The Aftermath, Part I Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

The hosts announced the Ides as their last episode and then found the aftermath needed two more. This is the first, nearly two hours on the days when nobody in Rome knew who was in charge.

1h 51mJulius Caesar #27 – Meanwhile Back In Rome… Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Nearly two hours on 54 BC in the city while Caesar was in Gaul, when bribery reached the point that interest rates doubled on election days. It explains why the Republic could not absorb a returning general.

1h 47m166 John V (Yes V, not VI) Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

The companion to John VI, an hour and three quarters covering kidnapping, imprisonment and fifty years on and off the throne. Between them the two episodes cover one civil war from both sides.

1h 47m121 Basil Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

An hour and three quarters on a peasant from Macedonia who became emperor by befriending the man he then murdered. The dynasty he founded lasted a hundred and ninety years, which is the awkward part of scoring him.

1h 44mJulius Caesar #16 – Clodius v Cicero Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

A hundred and four minutes on 57 BC, when Clodius and Cicero fought each other with gangs in the street and speeches in the senate at the same time. The episode takes the speeches as political acts with consequences, which is how Romans heard them.

1h 39m125 Romanos Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Ninety-nine minutes on Romanos Lekapenos, an admiral who took power without killing the boy emperor and handed it back before he died.

1h 37m130 John I Tzimiskes Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Ninety-seven minutes on the man who did that murdering and then campaigned to the gates of Jerusalem.

1h 28m25 Macrinus Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-eight minutes on the first emperor who had never been a senator, raised by the praetorians and gone within fourteen months.

1h 26m24 Caracalla Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-six minutes on the man who killed that brother, granted citizenship to every free inhabitant, and was stabbed at the roadside.

1h 25m163 Andronikos III Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-five minutes on an emperor who deposed his own grandfather and spent the reign losing Anatolia anyway.

1h 24m12 Domitian Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-four minutes on the emperor the senate erased, which means the sources are written by the people who hated him most.

1h 24mJulius Caesar #48 – The Aftermath, Part II Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

The months after the Ides, with the assassins discovering that killing the dictator had not restored the Republic. An hour and twenty on the vacuum.

1h 20mSpecial Episode – Murder in Ancient Rome The Partial HistoriansPodcast

Part of The Partial Historians

With Emma Southon

Eighty minutes on Roman homicide: what counted as murder, who could be killed lawfully, and a legal system with no police force.

1h 18m95 Phocas Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Seventy-eight minutes on a centurion who took the throne by mutiny and lost it to a man who sailed from Carthage.

1h 18m134 Michael IV Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Seventy-eight minutes on a money-changer who married an empress, fought epilepsy through the reign, and died a monk.

1h 16mThe Assassination of Spurius Maelius The Partial HistoriansPodcast

Part of The Partial Historians

A rich plebeian who fed the city during a famine, killed in the street for it by the master of the horse. Seventy-six minutes on generosity read as ambition.

1h 16mClaudius #15 – A Mushroom & A Feather Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Seventy-six minutes on the death of Claudius, the poisoned mushrooms and the feather that may have finished the job. The sources disagree on almost every detail, and the episode lays out which ones and why.

1h 15mCaligula #15 – The Conspiracy Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Seventy-five minutes on the plot that killed him, including the praetorian commander who swung the sword. The episode follows how a suspicion of conspiracy produced a real one.

1h 14mThe Rise and Fall of Brutus The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

With Steele Brand

Seventy-four minutes on the man whose ancestor supposedly expelled the last king, which is a family expectation nobody should have to carry.

1h 10m78 - Lucullus III: Betrayal Cost of GloryPodcast

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.

1h 09m135 Michael V The Ship Smearer Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Sixty-nine minutes on four months that ended when he exiled his adoptive mother and the city rose and blinded him.

1h 09mCaligula #14 – The Great Purge Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

The turn of 39, when the trials came back and the senate learned that the good years were over. An hour and a bit on how quickly a reign can reverse.

1h 09mJulius Caesar #7 – The Catilinarian Conspiracy Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Sixty-nine minutes on Catiline, with Caesar arguing in the senate against executing the conspirators and nearly being lynched for it.

1h 07mRise of Nero The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

With Conn Iggulden

Nero at seventeen, with Seneca writing his speeches and Burrus running the guard. Start here and the reign reads as a decline; start at the fire and it reads as a monster story.

1h 06m537. Emperors of Rome: Claudius, Paranoia and Poison (Part 4) The Rest Is HistoryPodcast

Part of The Rest Is History

Part four, sixty-six minutes on the vacuum after Caligula was killed at twenty- eight, the brief talk of restoring the Republic, and the uncle the guard found and made emperor.

1h 06mNero #16 – Your Filthy Little Mouth Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

The informers, the treason trials and the deaths of Seneca and Lucan. An hour on the years when the court learned what it could not say.

1h 05mThe Praetorian Guard: Rise to Power The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

With Lindsay Powell

Lindsay Powell again on the Guard, sixty-five minutes this time. Same ground as the 2021 episode with more room for the emperors they made and unmade.

1h 04mThe Catiline Conspiracy The AncientsPodcast

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.

1h 04mEtruscan Evil Plans The Partial HistoriansPodcast

Part of The Partial Historians

With Marcus Manlius

Sixty-four minutes on the Etruscan cities as Rome's neighbours and rivals, told from the side that lost and left no history of its own.

1h 04mClaudius #10 Santa Claudius Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

The building programme: the Ostia harbour, the Claudian aqueducts, and the draining of the Fucine Lake that took eleven years and thirty thousand men. An hour on public works as legitimacy.

1h 04mCaligula #11 – Paranoia Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

The illness of 37 and the reign that came out the other side of it. An hour on the turn the sources all describe and none of them explains.

1h 03mThe Rise of the Praetorian Guard The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

With Lindsay Powell

Lindsay Powell on the cohorts that guarded the emperor and then started choosing him. Sixty-three minutes from the Guard's founding to the point where the job reversed.

1h 03mSpecial Episode – Agrippina the Younger with Dr Emma Southon The Partial HistoriansPodcast

Part of The Partial Historians

With Emma Southon

Emma Southon on Nero's mother: sister of one emperor, wife of another, mother of a third, and murdered by the last. Sixty-three minutes.

1h 03mCaligula #24 – Hoc Age Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

The last day, from the words at the sacrifice to the corridor under the palace. An hour on an assassination that left Rome briefly without an emperor and briefly a republic again.

1h 03mJulius Caesar #8 – Caesar Goes To Spain Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Sixty-three minutes on the governorship that paid off his debts and gave him a triumph he gave up to stand for consul.

1h 01mNero #10 – All Manner Of Depravity Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

An hour on the private life the sources dwell on, and on how much of it is standard invective aimed at a dead emperor with no heirs to defend him.

1hLivia: Empress of Rome The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

With Emma Southon

Livia had more influence than any woman in Roman politics and a reputation as a poisoner invented mostly by Tacitus. The episode separates the two.

1hCaligula with Mary Beard Documentary

Beard takes the maddest emperor and asks the awkward question: how much of this is Suetonius settling scores a century later? A masterclass in reading a hostile source.

1hNero #4 – Nero The Murderer Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Britannicus dead at dinner, the physician's excuse, and a court that agreed to believe it. An hour on the first killing.

1hJulius Caesar #42 – The Conspiracy, Part I Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

An hour on how sixty men were recruited without one of them talking, which is the hardest part of the story to believe.

58mJulius Caesar #45 – The Conspiracy, Part II Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Fifty-eight minutes on the day itself and the hours after, when the assassins found the forum empty of support.

58mThe Julio-Claudians: A Dynastic Soap Opera Ancient Rome LiveYouTube

Part of Ancient Rome Live

The first dynasty told as the family it was, which explains more of the murders than the politics does.

YouTube
57mEpisode CLIV – Messalina Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

Fifty-seven minutes on Claudius' third wife, the bigamous wedding held while he was away, and a name that became a byword within a generation.

57m304: The Murder of Julius Caesar The Rest Is HistoryPodcast

Part of The Rest Is History

The Ides of March at thriller pace, fifty-seven minutes. The detail that sticks is how many of the sixty-odd conspirators Caesar had personally pardoned after fighting them in the civil war.

56mEmperor Macrinus: Usurper of Rome The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

With Alex Imrie

Alex Imrie and Matilda Brown on the real Macrinus, a praetorian prefect who took the purple for fourteen months in 217, long before Denzel Washington played him. Fifty- six minutes.

54mCaracalla & Geta: The Real Emperors of Gladiator II The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

Two brothers, one murder in their mother's arms, and the citizenship grant of 212 that made every free inhabitant of the empire a Roman, largely for the inheritance tax.

54mMopping Up Maelius The Partial HistoriansPodcast

Part of The Partial Historians

Fifty-four minutes on the aftermath: his house torn down, the site left empty, and the killing written up afterwards as legal.

53mEmperor Tiberius: Monster or Misunderstood? The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

With Daisy Dunn

Daisy Dunn on the general who won back the German frontier and then spent eleven years on Capri. Fifty-three minutes; the episode opens with a warning about its subject matter and earns it.

53m220. Justinian & Theodora: The Secret History (Part 3) The Rest Is HistoryPodcast

Part of The Rest Is History

The last of three: the reconquest of Italy, the plague that arrived in 541, and the ledger afterwards. Fifty-three minutes.

53m77 Petronius Maximus Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Fifty-three minutes on seventy-seven days in 455, ending with a mob stoning him as the Vandal fleet arrived.

53mJulius Caesar # 6 – Amor Vincit Omnia Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Fifty-three minutes on Caesar's marriages and affairs as political instruments, including the wife he was told to divorce and did not.

51mThe Assassination of Julius Caesar: Explained The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

The shorter, tidier version of the same day. Take this one if you want the events and the other if you want the room.

51mCaracalla: The Common Enemy of Mankind? The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

With Alex Imrie

Fifty-one minutes on the emperor who killed his brother in their mother's arms and then gave citizenship to every free person in the empire.

50mThe Assassination of Julius Caesar The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

What happened on 15 March 44 BC, minute by minute, and how many of the sixty men involved Caesar had personally pardoned.

49mYoung Caesar vs Marc Antony The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

With Hannah Cornwell

Hannah Cornwell on the months after the Ides, when Antony held the consulship and the nineteen-year-old Octavian held Caesar's name. Forty-nine minutes on how that standoff became a triumvirate.

49m167 Andronikos IV Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Forty-nine minutes on a son who rebelled, was blinded in one eye, escaped and did it again.

49m38 Aemilianus Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Forty-nine minutes on three months in 253, which is a long time to spend on a man most lists give one line.

48mDivorced, Murdered, Survived: Nero's Wives The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

Lauren Ginsberg of Duke on Octavia, Poppaea and Statilia Messalina: the three women Nero married, and the two he is said to have killed. Forty-eight minutes given to their side of it.

48m159 John IV Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Forty-eight minutes on a boy emperor blinded on his eleventh birthday by the regent who then kept the throne.

48mClaudius #6 – The Revolt Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

The rising of Scribonianus in Dalmatia, which collapsed in five days when the legions changed their minds. Forty-eight minutes on how close the new emperor came to being a footnote.

47mThe Ides of March The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

Forty-seven minutes on 15 March 44 BC, a date that was the first full moon of the Roman year before it was anything else.

47mCaligula The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

With LJ Trafford

L J Trafford on Caligula, who ruled for under four years and has been paying for it ever since. Forty-seven minutes, including what the story about the horse actually says.

47mThe End of the Severan Dynasty The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

Forty-seven minutes on Severus Alexander, on the throne at thirteen and killed by his own soldiers at twenty-six, which opens fifty years of the same.

46mClodius: Best Villain of the Roman Republic? The AncientsPodcast

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.

46mEpisode CCXXVII - The Catiline Comparison (The Catiline Conspiracy VIII) Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

With Nick Bisley

Forty-six minutes closing the series by setting Catiline beside Caesar and Clodius, who ran the same debts and the same street politics and survived both.

46mEpisode CLV – Agrippina, Wife of Claudius Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

With Emma Southon

His niece, married after a change in the law, and the last four years of the reign run largely by her. Forty-six minutes ending with a plate of mushrooms.

45mNERO #24 – The Pisonian Conspiracy Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Forty-five minutes on the plot of 65: forty-one people named, nineteen dead, and a court that stopped trusting anyone.

43mEpisode CLXXXVI - Proscriptions Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

With Zachary Herz

Forty-three minutes on the lists posted in the forum with a price on each name, under Sulla and again under the triumvirs.

42mEpisode C - The Death of Caesar (Live in Melbourne) Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

The hundredth episode, live, on the Ides of March. Forty-two minutes on who was in the room, what they thought would happen next, and how badly they had thought it through.

42mEpisode CCXX - A Disordered Mind (The Catiline Conspiracy I) Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

Forty-two minutes opening a seven-part series with the man himself: a patrician with debts, two failed consular bids and nothing left to lose.

41m48 Numerian Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Forty-one minutes on an emperor found dead in a closed litter, which is how Diocletian's career began.

39mMessalina: Empress of Rome The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

With Honor Cargill-Martin

Honor Cargill-Martin on Claudius's third wife and, more usefully, on the charge sheet: who wrote it, how long after, and what they wanted from it. Thirty-nine minutes.

39mEpisode CCXXVI - The Reputation of Catiline (The Catiline Conspiracy VII) Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

Thirty-nine minutes on the afterlife of a man known entirely through two hostile writers.

38mEpisode 96 – Letters and Rumours The Partial HistoriansPodcast

Part of The Partial Historians

Thirty-eight minutes on the year's reported conspiracies, most of them arriving in the sources as hearsay, which the hosts treat as the interesting part.

38m23 Geta Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Thirty-eight minutes on the brother who lasted ten months and whose face was chiselled off every monument in the empire.

36mEpisode CXXI - Assassination Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

Thirty-six minutes counting how Roman emperors actually died, which turns out to be mostly at the hands of their own guards.

36mEpisode 50 - The Teenage Emperor The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Thirty-six minutes on an emperor who came to the throne as a boy, which in this empire usually meant somebody else was ruling.

35mEpisode CXIII - Fratricidal Discord (Caracalla I) Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

With Caillan Davenport

Two brothers left an empire between them and one of them dead in their mother's arms within a year. Thirty-five minutes.

35mEpisode CCXXIV - Indomitable Spirit (The Catiline Conspiracy V) Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

Thirty-five minutes on the last battle at Pistoria, where Catiline died in the front line with his men.

33mThe Rise of Octavian Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

From the reading of the will to the Second Triumvirate, including the proscriptions in which he signed away Cicero. Half an hour on the ruthless stretch that the Augustan peace was built on.

33mEpisode 224 - The Coup of Anna Komnene with Leonora Neville The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

With Leonora Neville

Thirty-three minutes with Neville on whether the coup attributed to Anna Komnene happened at all, and on who wanted the story told.

32mEpisode CCXXI - An Entire Farrago (The Catiline Conspiracy II) Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

Thirty-two minutes on the plot as Sallust and Cicero describe it, and on how much of it either of them could actually know.

32mEpisode 79 - A Mother's Love The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Thirty-two minutes on Irene blinding her own son to keep the throne, and on a court that accepted it.

32mVitellius #14 – Order 66 Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Thirty-two minutes on the proscription-style killings of the civil war year, where changing sides late was fatal.

32mEpisode #2 - Did Nero Really Fiddle As Rome Burned? Our Fake HistoryPodcast

Part of Our Fake History

The Great Fire of 64 AD spawned its own truther conspiracy asking whether Emperor Nero started the blaze and fiddled as Rome burned, a legend later fed by so-called pseudo-Neros.

31m168 John VII Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Thirty-one minutes on a claimant who held the city for five months and later governed it while his uncle toured Europe begging for help.

31mEpisode B32 – The Fourth Caesar The Ancient WorldPodcast

Part of The Ancient World

Thirty-one minutes on Severus and Plautianus, a friendship that cost him his family, and on the British campaign he used to close the account.

30mEpisode B26 – Emanes The Ancient WorldPodcast

Part of The Ancient World

Thirty minutes on the revolt of Avidius Cassius, who declared himself emperor on a false report that Marcus Aurelius had died, and was killed by his own men.

29mThe Roman Secret Service The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

Twenty-nine minutes on Roman intelligence: the frumentarii who started as grain officers and ended as the emperor's informers, and the couriers who carried it all.

29mEpisode 182 - The Double Agent The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Twenty-nine minutes on a figure playing both sides of a frontier, which in this period was a normal career.

28mEpisode CLXXXII - The Empty Throne Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

Twenty-eight minutes on the interregnum problem: no rule of succession, so every transition was improvised and several were fought.

28mEpisode 321 - The Worst Civil War, Part 1 The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Twenty-eight minutes on the fourteenth-century civil wars, fought while the Ottomans were crossing into Europe as somebody's allies.

28mEpisode B21 – Betrayal The Ancient WorldPodcast

Part of The Ancient World

Twenty-eight minutes on Sohaemus of Emesa being made to help Rome annex Commagene, a client king used against a neighbouring client king.

28mEpisode 76 - The Dung Named The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Twenty-eight minutes on Constantine V, called Copronymus by his enemies because of what he supposedly did at his own baptism. The nickname outlived every victory he won.

28mEpisode 251 - A Lion Pouncing on a Large Prey The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Twenty-eight minutes on Andronikos Komnenos taking the throne and the purge that came with him.

27mEpisode CCXXIX - Clodius Pulcher and the Bona Dea Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

Twenty-seven minutes on a man caught in women's clothes at a women-only rite, the trial that followed, and the enmity with Cicero it started.

27mEpisode CLVI – Agrippina, Mother of Nero Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

With Emma Southon

Agrippina married her uncle, buried him, and put her son on the throne, then found she could not control him. Twenty-seven minutes on a career that ended with a staged shipwreck.

27mEpisode B35 – Bassus The Ancient WorldPodcast

Part of The Ancient World

Twenty-seven minutes on the Severans retaking the throne through Macrinus's mistakes, and on the black stone of Elah Gabal being shipped to Rome.

27mEpisode 107 - Keeping up with the Macedonians The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Twenty-seven minutes on Basil I, a peasant from Macedonia who murdered his way to the throne and founded the longest dynasty Byzantium had.

27mEpisode 311 - The Next Generation The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Twenty-seven minutes on the Palaiologan heirs inheriting a capital they could not afford to hold.

27mThe Road to Disaster Echoes of EmpiresPodcast

Part of Echoes of Empires

Twenty-seven minutes on Stilicho's fall in 408 and on Alaric taking his chance. Two years later Rome is sacked, and this is why.

26mEpisode 349 - Questions XVIII The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Listener questions on the Secret History, eunuchs, the Crown of Thorns and where the Doukas name came from. Twenty-six minutes.

26mEpisode XXXVIII - Domitian Must Die Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

The conspiracy in the palace, run by the people closest to him. Twenty-six minutes on an assassination the senate celebrated and the army resented.

26m058- Partner of my Labors The History of RomePodcast

Part of The History of Rome

Agrippa, who won Augustus' battles and married his daughter, and died first. Twenty-six minutes on the man the regime could least afford to lose.

26m070- Galba and Otho: The History of Rome The History of RomePodcast

Part of The History of Rome

The first two of the four emperors, each lasting months. Twenty-six minutes on the year that proved an emperor could be made outside Rome.

26m096- The Most Aptly Named Emperor The History of RomePodcast

Part of The History of Rome

Twenty-six minutes on Commodus, who fought in the arena and renamed the months after himself.

26mEpisode 140 - Magnificent and Insufferable The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Twenty-six minutes on Nikephoros Phokas, a general who took Crete and Antioch and was murdered in his own bedroom by his wife's lover.

26mEpisode 257 - What Could Be More Trustworthy than a Brother? The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Twenty-six minutes on a brother deposing and blinding a brother, which by this point in the story is a standard transfer of power.

26mThe Fall Of Byzantium Episode 1 "Civil War" Byzantium And The CrusadesPodcast

Part of Byzantium And The Crusades

Twenty-six minutes on the civil wars that hollowed the empire out long before the Ottomans arrived. The decline was internal first.

25mFalse Nero Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

With Zachary Herz

At least three men claimed to be Nero after his death, and the eastern provinces kept believing one of them. Twenty-five minutes on what that says about how he was actually regarded.

25mEpisode 327 - Vassals and Pawns The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

John V faces rebellion from his own sons and grandsons while the empire becomes an Ottoman vassal and a Venetian bargaining chip. Twenty-five minutes, 1371 to 1391.

25m148- The Cousin's Cousin The History of RomePodcast

Part of The History of Rome

Twenty-five minutes on Julian's rise from a scholar under house arrest to an emperor proclaimed by his troops in Gaul.

25mBetrayals and Massacres under the Sons of Constantine - The Pax Romana Podcast 89 The Pax Romana PodcastPodcast

Part of The Pax Romana Podcast

The purge of 337, in which the army killed most of the extended family and left the three sons in charge. Twenty-five minutes on a succession settled with knives.

25mEpisode LXXVII - Such was the End of Commodus Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

Twenty-five minutes on the murder by a wrestler after the poison failed, and the senate's vote to drag his body with a hook.

25m063- A Farewell to Claudius The History of RomePodcast

Part of The History of Rome

The end of the reign and the succession that passed over his own son for Agrippina's. Twenty-five minutes on a death that suited everybody except him.

24mEpisode B11 – Caedis The Ancient WorldPodcast

Part of The Ancient World

Twenty-four minutes on the end of Tacfarinas in Africa and the years when Sejanus ran Rome while Tiberius ran nothing from Capri.

24m048- The Second Triumvirate The History of RomePodcast

Part of The History of Rome

Three men dividing the state by law, with proscription lists to pay for it. Twenty-four minutes on a dictatorship that called itself a commission.

24m064- Smite My Womb The History of RomePodcast

Part of The History of Rome

Agrippina's end, ordered by the son she had made emperor, with the line she is said to have given the assassins. Twenty-four minutes.

23m168- The Rise of Aetius The History of RomePodcast

Part of The History of Rome

Twenty-three minutes on the general who held the west together with Hunnic allies and died at the emperor's own hand.

23mEpisode XX - Agrippina the Younger Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

Twenty-three minutes on the woman who was sister, wife and mother to emperors, and the only one of the three relationships she chose.

23m077- What Time is It? The History of RomePodcast

Part of The History of Rome

Twenty-three minutes on Roman timekeeping: hours that changed length with the season, and a calendar that had to be fixed by decree.

23m140- My Three Sons The History of RomePodcast

Part of The History of Rome

The empire divided between Constantine's sons and the purge that cleared the rest of the family. Twenty-three minutes.

23mConspiracies in the Age of Commodus - The Pax Romana Podcast 056 The Pax Romana PodcastPodcast

Part of The Pax Romana Podcast

Twenty-three minutes on the plots against Commodus, including the sister who tried and the chamberlain who succeeded.

23mJustinian, Theodora, and the Secret History Echoes of EmpiresPodcast

Part of Echoes of Empires

Procopius wrote the official history and then a private pamphlet calling the empress a whore and the emperor a demon. Twenty-three minutes on what to do with a source that contradicts itself on purpose.

22mEpisode LXXV - Flying Too Close to the Sun Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

Twenty-two minutes on Commodus in the arena, fighting beasts from a raised platform and billing the senate for the performance.

22mEpisode LXXXVII – Severan Stories I Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

With Caillan Davenport

Twenty-two minutes of the anecdotes around Septimius Severus, an African emperor with a Syrian wife who told his sons to enrich the soldiers and ignore everyone else.

22m102- The Common Enemy of Mankind The History of RomePodcast

Part of The History of Rome

Twenty-two minutes on the civil wars of 193 to 197, fought by three provincial armies whose commanders all had a claim.

21m046- Sic Semper Tyrannis The History of RomePodcast

Part of The History of Rome

Twenty-one minutes on the Ides and the miscalculation underneath: the assassins believed the Republic would restart on its own.

21mEpisode 3 - The Isaurian Emperor The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Twenty-one minutes on Zeno, a mountain chieftain from Isauria who became emperor and spent most of the reign being driven out of his own capital.

21mEpisode 66 - The Emperor Strikes Back The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Twenty-one minutes on a counter-offensive after a long stretch of losing, which in this period is rare enough to be an event.

21mEpisode 235 - Sundered by Gold The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Twenty-one minutes on money pulling the empire and its neighbours apart, with trade privileges handed to Venice that could not be taken back.

20m038- The Catiline Conspiracy The History of RomePodcast

Part of The History of Rome

Cicero's consulship, five executions without trial, and a plot whose scale depends entirely on who is describing it. Twenty minutes.

20mCaesar is Dead - The Pax Romana Podcast 1 The Pax Romana PodcastPodcast

Part of The Pax Romana Podcast

The opening episode of the series starts where most Caesar stories end, with the body on the floor and nobody in charge. Twenty minutes on the vacuum that made Augustus possible.

20mAn Age of Conspiracies - The Pax Romana Podcast 10 The Pax Romana PodcastPodcast

Part of The Pax Romana Podcast

Twenty minutes on the plots around Augustus, and on how a regime with no succession law generates one every few years.

19mWas the Assassination of Julius Caesar Justified? - The Pax Romana Podcast The Pax Romana PodcastPodcast

Part of The Pax Romana Podcast

The question put plainly, with the case for the assassins and the case against, in under twenty minutes. Useful precisely because it refuses to settle it.

19mMother Knows Best - The Pax Romana Podcast 17 The Pax Romana PodcastPodcast

Part of The Pax Romana Podcast

Nineteen minutes on Agrippina managing her son's accession and discovering that a grown emperor takes orders from nobody.

18mNero's Downward Spiral - The Pax Romana Podcast 019 The Pax Romana PodcastPodcast

Part of The Pax Romana Podcast

Matricide, the fire, and the persecution that followed it, in eighteen minutes. The pace is the point: the collapse was quick.

17mAmmianus Marcellinus, Forged Letters and a Conspiracy under Constantius II - The Pax Romana Podcast 91 The Pax Romana PodcastPodcast

Part of The Pax Romana Podcast

Seventeen minutes on a treason trial built on forged correspondence, reported by a historian who was there.

17mEpisode XII - Tiberius the Gloomiest of Men Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

Capri, Sejanus, and the treason trials run by letter from an island. Seventeen minutes on an emperor who governed Rome for eleven years without visiting it.

16mThe Terror of the Triumvirate - The Pax Romana Podcast 4 The Pax Romana PodcastPodcast

Part of The Pax Romana Podcast

The proscriptions of 43, three hundred senators and two thousand knights on the lists, and Cicero's hands nailed to the rostra. Sixteen minutes.

16mDeath Becomes Her - The Pax Romana Podcast 16 The Pax Romana PodcastPodcast

Part of The Pax Romana Podcast

Sixteen minutes on the imperial women who died conveniently, and on how often the sources reach for poison.

16mWhat happened To Mark Antony's Kids? Ancient Rome LiveYouTube

Part of Ancient Rome Live

The children Antony had with Cleopatra and with Octavia, and what Augustus did with them. Most of them lived.

YouTube
15mDid Roman Emperors Employ Spies? - The Pax Romana Podcast The Pax Romana PodcastPodcast

Part of The Pax Romana Podcast

Fifteen minutes on the frumentarii, grain officers who ended up doing the empire secret-service work nobody had designed an office for.

14mPlots at the Dawn of Hadrian’s Reign - The Pax Romana Podcast 036 The Pax Romana PodcastPodcast

Part of The Pax Romana Podcast

Fourteen minutes on the four executions of 118 and the question the sources never settle: how much Hadrian knew, and how much he needed not to know.

13mEpisode VI - The Death of Caesar Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

The Ides in thirteen minutes: the warnings ignored, the senate meeting in Pompey's theatre, and twenty-three wounds of which one was fatal.

13mEpisode XV - The Assassination of Caligula Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

Killed in a corridor by his own guard officers after less than four years. Thirteen minutes on a murder that had no plan for the morning after.

13mEpisode XVI - Claudius the Unlikely Emperor Emperors of RomePodcast

Part of Emperors of Rome

Found behind a curtain by the praetorians and made emperor because he was there. Thirteen minutes on the limp, the stammer and the fifty years of being underestimated that kept him alive.

12mWho Were The Failed Heirs of Augustus? Ancient Rome LiveYouTube

Part of Ancient Rome Live

Marcellus, Gaius, Lucius and Agrippa Postumus, the four who were supposed to succeed and did not. Tiberius was the last option, not the first.

YouTube
8mBONUS Episode "The Strange Tale of Attila, Honoria and Milan"" Echoes of EmpiresPodcast

Part of Echoes of Empires

Eight minutes more on the same episode, including the meeting with Pope Leo that turned Attila around.

7mMini Episode – Beware the Ides of Jon Snow… The Partial HistoriansPodcast

Part of The Partial Historians

Seven minutes connecting the Ides of March to a television death scene, which is short enough to be a joke and sharp enough to land.

ongoingCaligula #22 – The Foot Stomp Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

On the ceremonial humiliations of senators, which is the sort of detail that survives because it was told and retold in the senate house.

ongoingTiberius Caesar #31 – Sweep The Leg Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Sejanus at the height of his power and the letter to the senate that ended him in an afternoon. The purge that followed ran for years.

Everything else

1h 27mJulius Caesar (Part 3) Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

Part of Lost Roman Heroes · Matteo and Matthew Storm, 101 episodes

1h 11mThe Psychology of Envy and the Fall of Caesar: w/ Rob Henderson Cost of GloryPodcast

Part of Cost of Glory · Alex Petkas on Plutarch, 45 hours

1h 09mCatiline I: Rome's Deadliest Conspiracy Cost of GloryPodcast

Part of Cost of Glory · Alex Petkas on Plutarch, 45 hours

1h 04mThe Conspirators Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

Part of Lost Roman Heroes · Matteo and Matthew Storm, 101 episodes

58mProcopius Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

Part of Lost Roman Heroes · Matteo and Matthew Storm, 101 episodes

56mAgrippina the Younger The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients · Tristan Hughes and the History Hit team, twice a week since 2020

50mCatiline III: The Last Stand Cost of GloryPodcast

Part of Cost of Glory · Alex Petkas on Plutarch, 45 hours

41mCatiline II: Cicero's Moment Cost of GloryPodcast

Part of Cost of Glory · Alex Petkas on Plutarch, 45 hours

20mSneaky, Sneaky Mettius Autocrat: A Roman History PodcastPodcast

Part of Autocrat: A Roman History Podcast · Vince and Cassie, 137 numbered episodes

18mTarquinian Succession Carnage Autocrat: A Roman History PodcastPodcast

Part of Autocrat: A Roman History Podcast · Vince and Cassie, 137 numbered episodes

18mThunderbolts and Lighting Part II: House Fire or Murder? Autocrat: A Roman History PodcastPodcast

Part of Autocrat: A Roman History Podcast · Vince and Cassie, 137 numbered episodes

9mPriscus Riggs an Election Autocrat: A Roman History PodcastPodcast

Part of Autocrat: A Roman History Podcast · Vince and Cassie, 137 numbered episodes

1h 06mCaratacus: King of the Britons The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients · Tristan Hughes and the History Hit team, twice a week since 2020

1h 03mThe Assassination of Julius Caesar Echoes of HistoryPodcast

Part of Echoes of History · History Hit for Assassin's Creed; only the Roman episodes are indexed

52mThe Assassination of Julius Caesar: Explained Dan Snow's History HitPodcast

Part of Dan Snow's History Hit · Dan Snow on history's defining moments; only the Roman episodes are indexed

42mMurder in the Roman World Dan Snow's History HitPodcast

Part of Dan Snow's History Hit · Dan Snow on history's defining moments; only the Roman episodes are indexed

22m117- Tarquin and Tullia's Excellent Conspiracy Autocrat: A Roman History PodcastPodcast

Part of Autocrat: A Roman History Podcast · Vince and Cassie, 137 numbered episodes

15mThe Dagger Men – Vespasian #28 Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar · Cameron Reilly and Ray Harris, 170 hours

More from Bloodlines