Augustus was a pretty approachable guy (like us!). We tell some stories about how he made himself readily available to everyone from Senators to the general public. And yet they weren’t trying to assassinate him, which says a lot about his popularity by 18BCE. But he was concerned that the elite weren’t getting married and having…

Julia the Elder, the only legitimate biological child of Augustus (which makes her the daughter of the son of god), was definitely hot stuff. She had what you might politely call “a reputation”. We don’t know much about Julia’s childhood or early teenage years. But by her late teens she had become a popular figure in…

In this episode, we’re dealing with events around 18 BCE: The most important innovation Aug created around this time was his new small council, the consilium principis (advisers to the princeps). Another thing he did to reduce the numbers of the Senate was to raise the amount of wealth you had to have from 400,000 sesterces…

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…