12. The Wolf of Via Vesuvio
Lucius Caecilius Iucundus kept the economic wheels of Pompeii well greased. He was a middle man doing very nicely- part money-lender, part auctioneer, part banker, all hustler. Thanks to the eruption...
11 Juni 202428min
11. Three Lovers and a Funeral
Allia Potestas is a woman remembered in one of the most intriguing and affecting funeral orations of the ancient world. Her lover remembers her diligent application to housework before praising to th...
4 Juni 202427min
10. A Bag of Snails and a Glass of Wine
An obscure carved stone dug up from a vineyard in southern Italy tells the story of a pair of publicans- the delightfully named Calidius Eroticus and Fannia Voluptas- and their bawdy adventures in the...
28 Maj 202428min
9. Soldiering for Softies
The image of the battle-hardened, well regimented Roman soldier has been set in stone by movies, novels and video games. The letters of Claudius Terentianus reveal something very different. A terrib...
21 Maj 202428min
7. The Whistleblower
Beneath starched Shakespearean togas and the pungent fug of gladiator sweat there are real Romans waiting to be discovered. To know what it was to be Roman you need to gather the scattered clues until...
7 Maj 202428min
8. Death on the Nile
Julia Balbilla is an accomplished poet and close friend of the wife of one of Rome’s mightiest emperors. Hadrian loves to travel and takes Julia and an entourage of thousands on the ultimate elite tou...
7 Maj 202428min
6. Love in the Borderlands
At the very edge of Empire, inscribed on a beautifully carved tombstone, there’s a story of love across the tracks. On Hadrian’s Wall a slave girl from Hertfordshire and a lonely traveller from Syria...
8 Nov 202328min
5. Battling Bureaucrats
What does it take to run an Empire? Armies and slaves, of course, but also bureaucrats. At its height the Roman Empire employed thousands of men charged with keeping Rome and its provinces fed, wate...
8 Nov 202327min
