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

The struggle for power

Civil wars, usurpers, and the years with four emperors in them.

978 entries · 1625 hours · 140 with a written verdict · British 396 · American 257 · Australian 243 · Mixed 14

Rome never wrote down how the throne passed on, and every generation paid for it. Marius against Sulla, Caesar against Pompey, four emperors in 69 and six in 238. Totalus Rankium has ranked every single claimant across two hundred episodes and argues about them like a football pundit, which turns out to be the right register for a man who ruled for sixty-six days.

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With a written verdict

207hRoman Emperors: Totalus Rankium EssentialPodcast

Two men work through every single emperor in order and then score him out of a hundred on legacy, war record and sheer madness. It sounds like a gimmick and it is the most efficient way ever devised to remember two hundred emperors, because the argument about the scoring is what makes them stick.

All 201 episodes, in order →
65hThe History of Rome EssentialPodcast

179 episodes, Romulus to Romulus Augustulus, made by one man in his spare time before podcasting was a job. Everything else is a footnote to it. Start at episode one and clear your calendar.

All 189 episodes, in order →
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.

175hThe History of Byzantium Podcast

Picks up the exact week Mike Duncan put the microphone down and keeps going for another thousand years. If you have ever told someone at a party that the Byzantines called themselves Romans, this is the show that armed you.

All 352 episodes, in order →
170hLife of Caesar Podcast

A hundred and seventy hours of conversational Roman history, beginning with Caesar and carrying well past him at the pace of two people talking.

All 160 episodes, in order →
83hEmperors of Rome Podcast

Every emperor in order, in half-hour episodes, by a classicist and a broadcaster who asks what a normal person would ask. The gentlest way in of all of these, and the easiest to keep going with.

All 270 episodes, in order →
45hCost of Glory Podcast

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

All 38 episodes, in order →
42hAutocrat: A Roman History Podcast Podcast

Forty-two hours on the Republic turning into a monarchy, told by two hosts working forward through it without skipping the dull decades.

All 139 episodes, in order →
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.

6hAncient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire Ancient RomeDocudrama

The BBC's six-part dramatisation from 2006, each episode a single turning point carried by actors. Dated in places, and still the clearest television account of how the whole arc fits together.

4h 30mRoman Empire: Reign of Blood Roman EmpireDocudrama

Part of Roman Empire

Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, and the strongest of the three Netflix seasons because the historians on camera are given real disagreements to have.

4hThe Roman Empire in the First Century Documentary

The PBS series from 2001, four hours, and still the most sober television treatment of the period. No reenactment, no hyperbole.

Website
3h 45mRoman Empire: Master of Rome Roman EmpireDocudrama

Part of Roman Empire

The Caesar season, and the strongest of the three: reenactment cut with historians who are given room to disagree with the script. Season three is the weak one.

3h 08mThe Fall of the Roman Empire Film

Anthony Mann's, and the film Gladiator quietly borrowed its plot from. It flopped so badly it ended the Hollywood epic for a generation, and it is better than that history suggests.

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 51mQuo Vadis Film

Peter Ustinov's Nero is the reason to watch, and he is doing comedy in a film that does not know it. Historically the loosest film on this page.

2h 35mGladiator Film

Commodus did fight in the arena and everything else is invention. Watch it for what it is, then listen to the Marcus Aurelius episode above and enjoy how little survives contact.

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.

2h 04m146 Alexios Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

The longest emperor episode this show has made, two hours and four minutes on Alexios Komnenos. He inherited an empire that had lost Anatolia and handed on one that had it back, and the First Crusade arrived in the middle of that.

2h 04mJulius Caesar #29 – The Pardon Of Corfinium Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Two hours on the moment Caesar let a defeated garrison walk free, including its commander. Clemency as a weapon is the subject, and it worked: the next towns opened their gates.

2h 01mEpisode 265 - The 10 Greatest Emperors with Anthony Kaldellis The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

With Anthony Kaldellis

Two hours in which Anthony Kaldellis of Chicago names his ten greatest emperors and defends each one. It is the clearest short route into who actually ran the eastern empire well, and every choice comes with its argument.

2hJulius Caesar #28 – The Die Is Cast… Bitches Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Two hours on the weeks before 10 January 49 BC, in the detail the moment deserves: which senator moved what, which tribune vetoed it, and how a legal dispute about a provincial command turned into a civil war.

1h 59m164 John VI (Yes VI, not V) Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Two hours on John Kantakouzenos, taken out of order and before John V on purpose. He wrote his own history of his reign, so this is one of the few Byzantine emperors we can catch arguing his own case.

1h 59m171 Constantine XI Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Two hours on the last Roman emperor, closing a series that scored every one of them. He died in the breach in 1453 and no body was identified, which leaves the hosts scoring a man whose end is itself disputed.

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 58m169 Manuel II Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Nearly two hours on an emperor who toured western Europe in person begging for troops and came home with almost none. The empire was two cities by then, and the score has to mean something different at that point.

1h 58m137 Constantine IX The Lone Fighter Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Nearly two hours on the reign that followed Zoe and Theodora, when the empire still looked strong and the army was being cut. The decline that ends at Manzikert starts in this episode.

1h 56mEpisode 274 - The 10 Worst Emperors with Anthony Kaldellis The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

With Anthony Kaldellis

The companion to the ten greatest, and the more useful of the two: Kaldellis explains what an emperor had to do to lose an empire. Nearly two hours, and the failures repeat in ways the successes do not.

1h 56m131 Basil II Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Nearly two hours on Basil the Bulgar Slayer, the high-water mark of the medieval empire, and one host spends most of it unconvinced. The disagreement is the reason to listen.

1h 56m148 Manuel Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Nearly two hours on a fourth son who was never meant to rule and then held the empire at its last real height for thirty-seven years. What he built came apart within a decade of his death, and the score has to carry both.

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 52mAugustus Caesar #01 – Introduction Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

A hundred and twelve minutes opening the Augustus run from the day he died at 75, then working back. Starting at the end is the point: it sets up how much one man had changed before anyone could say how.

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 49m118 Theophilos Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

An hour and fifty on the last iconoclast emperor, who also built the palace automata that astonished foreign envoys. The first eight minutes carry an audio crackle the hosts apologise for, and it clears.

1h 48m145 Nikepheros III Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

An hour and three quarters on a man near eighty with no claim to the throne, taking it at the worst possible moment. The show scores him on what he inherited, which is the fairest way to take the 1070s.

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 47m111 Irene Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

The first woman scored in this series, a hundred and ten emperors and eight centuries in. She ruled in her own name after blinding her son, and the hosts have to decide what that is worth on a scale built for men.

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 46m58 Constantine Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

An hour and three quarters on the emperor with the most myth attached, and the show scores him against the myth. The conversion, the new capital and the sons all get weighed, and the number at the end is defended.

1h 43m147 John II The Beautiful Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

A hundred and three minutes on the second Komnenos, who took a recovering empire and kept it recovering for twenty-five years. Steady competence scores badly on most lists and the hosts argue with that.

1h 42m158 Theodore II Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

A hundred and two minutes on the short reign between John III and the recovery of the city, with the empire a hair away from its goal. Illness decided more than politics did.

1h 41mEpisode 332 - Not with a Whimper but a Bang The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Mehmed II becomes sultan in 1451 and starts planning at once. A hundred and one minutes covering 1448 to 1453, which is the planning and the diplomacy; the siege itself comes later.

1h 41m102 - Cato III: The Senate's Ashes Cost of GloryPodcast

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.

1h 39m62 Julian Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Ninety-nine minutes on the last pagan emperor, scored on a reign of twenty months and a body of writing that outlasts it.

1h 39m117 Michael II Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Ninety-nine minutes closing the story of Leo, Michael and Thomas, three friends who shared a prophecy that two would rule and one would die badly. The show scores Michael at the end, and the prophecy turns out to have been the accurate part.

1h 39m120 Michael III The Drunk Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Ninety-nine minutes on an emperor whose nickname comes from the dynasty that murdered him and needed him to look unfit.

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 37m69 Theodosius Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Ninety-seven minutes on the last man to rule both halves, who made Nicene Christianity the state religion and did public penance to a bishop.

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 36m64 Valentinian Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Ninety-six minutes on the soldier who took the empire after the Constantinian line died out and held the Rhine for eleven years. He is remembered for dying of rage at an envoy, which the episode spends its time on the Rhine instead.

1h 36m116 Leo V Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Ninety-six minutes on Leo, Michael and Thomas, three friends who shared a prophecy that two would rule and one would die horribly. The show scores an emperor whose whole reign is told through that prediction.

1h 34mEpisode 260 - The Fourth Crusade (Part 2) The History of ByzantiumPodcast

Part of The History of Byzantium

Ninety-four minutes on the assault of 1204 itself, with the Venetian fleet at the sea walls and a puppet emperor already dead.

1h 34m53 Galerius Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Ninety-four minutes on the tetrarch who drove the persecution and issued the edict of toleration from his deathbed.

1h 33mArmy for an Empire: Augustus' new Roman army Ancient Warfare PodcastPodcast

Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast

Ninety-three minutes with the Ancient Warfare panel on how Octavian cut some sixty legions down to twenty-eight and made them permanent. The professional Roman army starts here, and so does the pension bill.

1h 33m26 Elagabalus Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Ninety-three minutes on the teenage priest-emperor, weighed against sources that were trying to justify his murder.

1h 33mBonus V- The Worst Byzantine Emperors (feat. Eastern Roman History) Autocrat: A Roman History PodcastPodcast

Part of Autocrat: A Roman History Podcast

Ninety-three minutes with Daniel of Eastern Roman History arguing about the worst emperors of the east. Two shows disagreeing about the same shortlist is a faster way into the period than either list alone.

1h 32m21 Didius Julianus Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Ninety-two minutes on sixty-six days, which tells you this show will not shorten an episode just because the reign was brief.

1h 32m27 Alexander Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Ninety-two minutes on Severus Alexander, thirteen years on the throne under his mother's management, killed by his own troops in Germany.

1h 30m160 Michael VIII Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Ninety minutes on the man who took Constantinople back in 1261 and founded the last dynasty. He blinded the boy he displaced, and the episode weighs the recovery against that.

1h 30m50 Diocletian Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Ninety minutes on the man who ended the third-century crisis by splitting the empire four ways and then walked away from the throne alive. The retirement is as remarkable as the reforms, and the score has to hold both.

1h 29m06 Nero Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-nine minutes on the last Julio-Claudian, scored against his own reputation. The hosts keep asking which of the famous stories has a source close enough to the events to be worth anything.

1h 29m19 Commodus Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-nine minutes on the son, with the arena career and the renamings taken seriously as policy before they are laughed at.

1h 28m151 Isaac II Angelos Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-eight minutes on the first of the Angeloi, the dynasty in charge when the Fourth Crusade arrived. The show scores the reign that made 1204 possible.

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 28m71 Honorius Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-eight minutes on the emperor who was on the throne when Rome was sacked, asking how much of that was him and how much was the men around him. The famous line about the chicken gets its two minutes and the rest goes to the Rhine.

1h 27m156 Theodore Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-seven minutes on the man who built a working Roman state in exile at Nicaea after the capital fell. Building a state in exile is a different job from inheriting one, and the score has to handle that.

1h 27m140 Isaac Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-seven minutes on a general who took the throne by coup with a plan for the finances, and then lasted two years. The plan is the interesting part.

1h 27mBeyond The Fall Of Rome - The 1000 Year Death Of The Roman Empire SandRhomanHistoryYouTube

Part of SandRhomanHistory

The argument that the fall took a thousand years and that 476 is an arbitrary line in it.

YouTube
1h 26m161 Andronikos II Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-six minutes on the reign after the capital was recovered, when the money ran out and the fleet was scrapped. What the empire could no longer afford is the subject.

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 26m85 Augustulus Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-six minutes on the boy whose father made him emperor and whose deposition in 476 is where most timelines stop. The episode is about how little anyone noticed at the time.

1h 26m122 Leo VI The Wise Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-six minutes on the lawgiver who married four times to get an heir and had to be readmitted to his own church.

1h 26mInterview: Rex Factor: Sulla Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-six minutes with the Rex Factor hosts, who score monarchs the way this show scores emperors. Two scoring systems arguing about the same dictator is a better introduction to Sulla than either alone.

1h 26mJulius Caesar #20 – Caesar Grows A Beard Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

The revolt of the Eburones and the loss of fifteen cohorts, after which Caesar swore not to shave until it was avenged. An hour and a half on the winter Gaul nearly turned.

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 24m04 Caligula Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-four minutes putting the case that Caligula was a young man handed an empire after Tiberius, and scoring him against it. The aqueducts and the harbour works sit in the same episode as the cruelty, which is what makes the score hard.

1h 24m05 Claudius Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-four minutes on the emperor everyone underestimated, and the show refuses to settle whether the stammer was a disability, an act, or both. Britain, the harbour at Ostia and four wives all count toward the score.

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 24mTiberius Caesar #40 – I’M NOT DEAD YET Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Eighty-four minutes on March 37, when Tiberius was seventy-seven and had been emperor for twenty-two years. The title refers to the report that he woke up after being declared dead, and the episode weighs whether that happened.

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 23m107 Leo III Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-three minutes on the emperor who held Constantinople through the siege of 717 and then started smashing icons.

1h 23mJulius Caesar #41 – The War Is Over Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Munda, the last battle, fought against Pompey's sons and won at the cost of a thousand dead. An hour and twenty on a victory that ended the war and solved nothing.

1h 22mAW352 - Tiberius Ancient Warfare PodcastPodcast

Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast

With Lindsay Powell

Lindsay Powell on his own biography, eighty-two minutes on Tiberius as a commander: Pannonia, Illyricum, the Rhine after Varus. The soldiering fills the decades the scandal usually swallows.

1h 22m02 Augustus Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-two minutes on the first emperor, and the show spends much of it on the question of what to call him, because Octavius, Octavian and Augustus are three political positions with one man inside them.

1h 22m10 Vespasian Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-two minutes on the man who watched three emperors destroy each other in one year and then took the throne with the eastern legions behind him. The show scores him on what he stabilised, which is the fairest measure for a reign that inherited a ruin.

1h 22mSulla the Dictator: The Man Who Taught Caesar How to Rule: Sulla's Civil War (ALL PARTS) HistoryMarcheYouTube

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.

YouTube
1h 21m66 Gratian Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-one minutes on the emperor who removed the altar of Victory from the senate house and was killed by his own general at twenty-four.

1h 21m136 Zoe II Purple Born Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty-one minutes on an empress who made three emperors by marrying them, which was the only constitutional route she had.

1h 20m03 Tiberius Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Tiberius scored against the show's fixed categories, which produces a better defence of him than most narratives manage. Eighty minutes.

1h 20m11 Titus Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Titus scored on the show's fixed categories, which is awkward for an emperor who reigned twenty-six months and got Vesuvius, a fire and a plague.

1h 20m133 Romanos III Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Eighty minutes on an urban prefect handed the throne because a dying emperor needed an heir that week. The show scores what happens when the job goes to whoever is standing nearby.

1h 20mAugustus Caesar #05 – Another Civil War Begins Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Mutina, the two consuls dead in a month, and a nineteen-year-old marching on Rome to demand a consulship. Eighty minutes on the year the senate discovered what it had encouraged.

1h 19mNero #20 – BEAST OF BURDEN Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Nero on tour in Greece, competing in festivals that were rescheduled so he could win them all. Eighty minutes on an emperor who left the empire to go and perform.

1h 18m702. Roman Civil War: The Barbarian Invasion (Part 2) The Rest Is HistoryPodcast

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.

1h 18m88 Zeno Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Seventy-eight minutes on the man who ruled the east while the west disappeared, and who succeeded his own son. Everything that survived into the sixth century survived on his watch.

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 18m124 Zoe Coal Eyes Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Fifty-eight minutes on Zoe Karbonopsina, the fourth wife, who ruled as regent for the son the marriage produced.

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 18mVespasian #4 – Marc Hyden, author, “Emperor Titus” Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Seventy-eight minutes with Marc Hyden, who wrote the biography of Titus. Vespasian's reign makes more sense through the son he was grooming, and Hyden argues the succession was planned from the start.

1h 17m18 Marcus Aurelius Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Seventy-seven minutes on the philosopher king, scored against the wars he spent most of his reign fighting and the son he left in charge.

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 16m15 Hadrian Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Hadrian scored out of ten across the show's fixed categories, which forces the awkward comparison between the builder and the man who crushed Bar Kokhba. Seventy-six minutes.

1h 15m13 Nerva Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Seventy-five minutes on the one emperor the senate actually chose, and on how quickly the army reminded him who decided. His solution was to adopt Trajan, which bought Rome eighty years.

1h 15m141 Constantine X Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Seventy-five minutes on the emperor installed by Psellos and the civil families, who cut the army to pay for it. Manzikert follows twelve years later, and this episode is where it starts.

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 14m144 Michael VII Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Seventy-four minutes on the emperor whose advisors ran the state into a currency collapse. His nickname translates as a quarter-short, which was about the coinage.

1h 14mGallienus: The Pragmatist Who Kept Rome Alive Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Seventy-four minutes on the emperor who lost half the empire and kept the other half working through fifteen years of crisis. He reformed the cavalry and stopped putting senators in command, and both outlasted him.

1h 13m701. Roman Civil War: Rise of the General (Part 1) The Rest Is HistoryPodcast

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.

1h 13m14 Trajan Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Seventy-three minutes scoring the emperor who ignored the advice to stop expanding and pushed the borders further than anyone before or after. The show weighs the conquests against what holding them cost.

1h 13mNERO #23 – The Great Fire Of Rome Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Seventy-three minutes on July 64 and the fire that burned for six days. Tacitus is the only near-contemporary and he was nine years old at the time, which the episode does not let you forget.

1h 13m703. Roman Civil War: Marching on the Senate (Part 3) The Rest Is HistoryPodcast

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.

1h 12mA Wrongheaded Man The Partial HistoriansPodcast

Part of The Partial Historians

Seventy-two minutes on 415 and 414 BC and the fall of Postumius, killed by his own soldiers. What a Roman army would and would not tolerate from a commander is the subject.

1h 12m63 Jovian Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Seventy-two minutes on the emperor elected in a Persian desert with the army surrounded and no supplies. He signed away five provinces to get it home and died within a year, and the show asks what anyone else would have done.

1h 12mNERO #21 – PROMISCUOUS THONG Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

The last year: Vindex, Galba, the senate's vote, and a suicide that needed help. Seventy-two minutes on the fall of the Julio-Claudians.

1h 12mEpisode #196- How Bad Was Caligula? (Part II) Our Fake HistoryPodcast

Part of Our Fake History

Caligula began his reign repairing relations with the Senate damaged by Tiberius and following the model set by Augustus, but something changed and he ended up at war with the Senate.

1h 11mEpisode #195- How Bad Was Caligula? (Part I) Our Fake HistoryPodcast

Part of Our Fake History

Ancient sources call Caligula's four year reign one of cruelty, sexual excess and bloodlust, but those same ancient writers rank among the most untrustworthy sources from the Roman period.

1h 10mCaesar and Pompey in the Balkans Ancient Warfare PodcastPodcast

Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast

Seventy minutes on Dyrrhachium and Pharsalus, where Caesar lost the first engagement badly and won the war a month later. The full panel on it.

1h 10m51 Maximian Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Seventy minutes on the colleague nobody discusses, which is the reason to hear it. Diocletian's tetrarchy needed a second man who would take orders and then step down, and Maximian did both and then unretired twice.

1h 10mCaligula #6 – The Maccabees Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Seventy minutes on one of Caligula's first acts, releasing Herod Agrippa from prison, and on what that did in Judaea. The New Testament Herod and the Roman emperor turn out to share a story here.

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 10m704. Roman Civil War: Master of the Republic (Part 4) The Rest Is HistoryPodcast

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.

1h 10mEpisode #197- How Bad Was Caligula? (Part III) Our Fake HistoryPodcast

Part of Our Fake History

Caligula's reign is remembered for bizarre stories, from declaring war on the ocean to building a floating bridge across the sea, yet the only eyewitness account calls him arrogant, not insane.

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 09m142 Eudocia Roman Emperors: Totalus RankiumPodcast

Part of Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

Sixty-nine minutes on Eudokia Makrembolitissa, who swore not to remarry, remarried anyway, and put Romanos Diogenes on the road to Manzikert.

1h 09mCaligula #25 – The Partial Historians Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

The Partial Historians as guests, arguing about how much of Suetonius can be used at all. An hour and a bit of two shows disagreeing about evidence.

1h 09mCaligula #20 – Hairy Antipasto Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

The German and British expeditions, ending with soldiers ordered to gather shells on the beach. An hour and a bit on campaigns that produced a triumph and no conquest.

1h 09mCaligula #18 – Living God Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

The temple, the statue meant for Jerusalem, and the question of whether Caligula believed any of it. An hour and a bit on divinity as a weapon against the senate.

1h 08mThe Last Roman Emperors The AncientsPodcast

Part of The Ancients

With Adrian Goldsworthy

The men nobody remembers between 455 and 476, and the case that 476 is a date historians chose, and that nobody alive that year noticed.

1h 08mFulvia with Dr Jane Draycott The Partial HistoriansPodcast

Part of The Partial Historians

With Jane Draycott

Jane Draycott on Antony's third wife, who raised armies in her own name and besieged Perusia. Sixty-eight minutes on the first Roman woman on a coin.

1h 08m*Special Episode* – Totalus Rankium and the Partial Historians on Tiberius The Partial HistoriansPodcast

Part of The Partial Historians

Two shows on Tiberius for over an hour, disagreeing about how much of Tacitus is reporting and how much is literature.

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 07mVitellius #5 – The Mule Guy Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Sixty-seven minutes on Vitellius, a governor chosen for being harmless who was carried to the throne by the Rhine legions.

1h 07mCaligula #5 – Caligula’s Popularity Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

The first months, when he emptied the prisons, published the accounts and was cheered for it. An hour on a beginning that nobody expected to curdle.

1h 07mJulius Caesar #30 – Run Away, Pompey Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Sixty-seven minutes on Pompey abandoning Italy without a fight, which left Caesar the capital and the treasury in two months.

1h 06mSpecial Episode - Ancient Rome's Worst Emperors with LJ Trafford The Partial HistoriansPodcast

Part of The Partial Historians

With LJ Trafford

LJ Trafford on the standard monsters and on how a reputation gets fixed by writers with their own scores to settle. Sixty-six minutes.

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 06mClaudius #3 – The Emperor Life of CaesarPodcast

Part of Life of Caesar

Sixty-six minutes on the day Caligula was killed and Claudius was found behind a curtain and made emperor by the praetorians. The accident of that accession shaped everything he did to prove he belonged.

The next 40 of 978, longest first

22hDeath Throes of the Republic Hardcore HistoryEssentialPodcast

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

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2h 25mCaesar 3: Divus Julius Cost of GloryPodcast

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

2h 07mCaesar 2: Law and Nature Cost of GloryPodcast

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

2h 06mStilicho & Alaric (Part 2) Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 53mAetius (Part 2) Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 53mJulian Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 52mTheodosius I Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 51mCaesar 1: Man of Destiny Cost of GloryPodcast

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

1h 49mPompey II: Empire of Venus Cost of GloryPodcast

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

1h 48mStilicho & Alaric (Part 1) Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 46mCaesar's Civil War I: Breakdown Cost of GloryPodcast

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

1h 43mGalla Placidia Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 41mAmbrose of Milan Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 38mCato II: Seducers of Rome Cost of GloryPodcast

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

1h 34mConstantine (Part 4) Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 30mCaesar's Civil War III: Came Saw Conquered Cost of GloryPodcast

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

1h 28mOctavian (Part 3) Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

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

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

1h 26mHadrian Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 22mCrassus Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 19mCrassus I: Richest Man in Rome Cost of GloryPodcast

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

1h 17mTiberius II Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 17mConstantine (Part 3) Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 16mOctavian (Part 1) Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 16mSulla (Part 2) Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 15mJustinian I (Part 1 - The Rise) Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 14mCrassus II: Puppet Master Cost of GloryPodcast

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

1h 14mConstantine (Part 2) Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 13mZeno Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 12mSulla III: Vengeance Cost of GloryPodcast

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

1h 12mOctavian (Part 2) 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 11mOctavian (Part 4) Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 11mSulla (Part 1) Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

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

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

1h 09mSulla 2: Rogue Commander Cost of GloryPodcast

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

1h 09mMarcus Aurelius Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 07mSulla 1: The Lucky Cost of GloryPodcast

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

1h 07mJulius Caesar (Part 2) Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

1h 07mJulius Caesar (Part 1) Lost Roman HeroesPodcast

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

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