Real Roman History14 Jun

Episode 55. Actium: The End of the Republic and the Hellenistic World

Works CitedPrimary Sources

Cassius Dio. Roman History, Books 50–51. The fullest ancient narrative of Actium; read with awareness of the Augustan shadow.
Horace. Odes 1.37 (the Cleopatra ode). The most complex poetic response to the battle and its aftermath.
Plutarch. Life of Antony, chapters 60–86. The essential account of the final years, Actium, and the deaths.
Suetonius. Life of Augustus. Essential for Augustus's own account of his constitutional arrangements and the Eutychus anecdote.
Tacitus. Annals, Book 1 opening. The indispensable counter-reading; the most compressed and precise analysis of what the principate actually was.
Virgil. Aeneid, Book 8. The shield of Aeneas; the Augustan ideological framework at its most artistically powerful.

Secondary Sources

Carter, John. The Battle of Actium. Hamish Hamilton, 1970. The most focused scholarly treatment of the battle itself and the strategic question of what the plan actually was.
Goldsworthy, Adrian. Augustus: First Emperor of Rome. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2014. The best modern biography; presents the principate as improvised rather than planned, which is probably closer to the truth.
Roller, Duane. Cleopatra: A Biography. Oxford University Press, 2010. The most scholarly modern treatment; essential on the question of the asp versus prepared poison.
Schiff, Stacy. Cleopatra: A Life. Little, Brown, 2010. The most readable modern account; particularly strong on Cleopatra's death and the sources' disagreements about it.
Syme, Ronald. The Roman Revolution. Oxford University Press, 1939. The foundational modern analysis of how Augustus built his power; still indispensable after eighty years.

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Episoder(78)

Episode 77. The Origins of Christianity

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Episode 76. Roman Judaea: From the Covenant to Direct Rule

Works Cited Primary Sources The Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh). The principal source for the pre-Hellenistic period of the Jewish religious tradition. The five books of Torah preserve the foundational mate...

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Episode 75. Nero, Part Two: From the Matricide to the Great Fire

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14 Aug 35min

Episode 74. Boudicca and the British Revolt

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4 Aug 38min

Episode 73. Nero, Part One: The Quinquennium

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4 Aug 47min

Episode 72. Britain: The Province at the Edge of the World

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4 Aug 30min

Episode 71. Claudius: The Emperor Behind the Curtain

Works Cited Primary Sources Cassius Dio. Roman History, Book 60. The continuous Greek-language narrative for the full reign. Particularly important for the Britain campaign of 43 CE, where the Tacitea...

4 Aug 57min

Episode 70. Caligula: The Principate Without Restraint

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30 Jul 50min