A quick break from the Augustus story and the usual frivolity to have one of our long-time listeners on to tell us his incredible story. Arsen Nisanyan has just graduated from the Classics department at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and has been accepted to both Oxford and Cambridge to continue his studies to become an Ancient…

Augustus returns to Rome and he comes up with a cunning plan. He also fires the entire Senate. And Cam finds out who Vanna White is.   

When we started this show, we never thought we’d see the day when the Princeps himself would appear on the show as a guest. I guess we’ve made it.  

Aeneas reflects Augustus in many ways – they both place duty and piety before their own comfort and interests.  Both have to endure great hardships and struggles for many years before final victory is won and the greater community can enjoy peace and prosperity. Sometimes they needed to do dreadful things for the greater good and…

It would be a mistake to see Virgil’s poetry as purely political propaganda.  It was a matter of self-respect for Augustus to allow artists to do their art.  He genuinely wanted to be admired for what he did for Rome – not for what he could do to you. His victory and the peace it…

“I sing of arms and the man”. Get ready for that classical education you missed out on because your parents couldn’t afford to send you to a real school (in the 19th century)! We’re going to spend the next THREE EPISODES talking about Publius Vergilius Maro, aka Virgil, and his masterpiece, The Aeneid. Why? BECAUSE…

Augustus does a deal with the Parthian King Phraates IV to return the standards and prisoners from their previous encounters with Crassus and Antony. And Lucius Cornelius Balbus gets a triumph – the last one awarded to a private citizen (eg who wasn’t a member of the Emperor’s family) – for five and a half centuries.

While Augustus is out in the provinces, he tends to give his speeches in Greek rather than Latin, to show how much he respects their regional cultures. He also treats them fairly magnanimously – except when he doesn’t.

One of the client rulers who is best known during these years is Herod The Great. He was brutal, but the Romans didn’t mind, as long he paid his respects and kept his people under control. He built the Second Temple in Jerusalem but it didn’t buy him much love from his main constituency – the…

For the people in the provinces, Augustus was just the latest in a long line of foreign rulers, like the Greeks and the Persians before him. For Augustus, the provinces provided him with the opportunity to let it all hang out.