The History of Rome podcast (Mike, look here)

[EvilNed]

Let me just recommend to each and all of you this great little podcast called The History of Rome.

I think you can figure out what it´s about, but it's a delight listening too. I have a very keen interest in ancient and classical history, so of course I am intrigued but there might be many of you out there who are simply politically interested who might want to read up on how the very first republic was handled. How some stories of Rome parallell those of the US today. How various families and political parties of Rome fought each other over issues of civil rights and ownership.

Just like the US, Rome seems to have found itself in constant war against numerous parties and whenever peace was signed the Republic would look elsewhere to where there was somebody to fight. This became part of their culture, much like the US today is a very warlike nation. And just like now, Rome had their conservative party who preferred the "old ways" and had no qualms about how much land one could own, or how much prices of grain could be raised, etc. etc. and how these people were in constant conflict with the Plebian-class, who we could compare to our modern day "Middle Class" (although there are various differences and such a comparison is troublesome).

Anyway, what amuses me with this podcast is listening to all the roman political maneauvering and corruption. How individual people would drive certain issues, often just as much to spite their opponents to bring about reform. I imagine that the political game played in Rome 2000 years ago is not that different from what is being played in the US Senate today. Or indeed any senate.

Here´s the link anyway:

http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/

It's also on iTunes.

[Neil]

Thanks... Will give it a listen!

[Morto Vivente]

If anyone is interested in the brilliance and the excesses of Rome during its initial imperial era there's an entertaining read called "Private Lives of the Roman Emperors" by Anthony Blond.

I've found that the parallels between the modern era and ancient Rome are numerous. One that comes to mind is the Gracchi brothers and the Kennedys. These guys really tried to reform the Roman Republic to aid the plebeian class, their voting stronghold. Their political and social reform of land ownership lead to cheap bread for the lower class, which became the "bread dole", and eventually it was completely free. The social security system in the U.K. is often referred to as the "dole", and of course there are phrases such as on the "bread-line". Each individual who qualified for the "dole" had to be prepared to wait in line and present their token to receive the benefit. Eventually counterfeit tokens were produced allowing benefit fraud, popular in the U.K. before computers took over.;) Ultimately though both the Gracchi brother's were publicly assassinated.


I've noticed similarities between the emperor Nero and Elvis Presley. Nero had no real interest in ruling wisely, he preferred to compose songs and hold concerts with himself as the headliner, he even toured Greece. He became extremely unpopular in the western empire due to the fact that the construction of his Domus Aurea (some of which still remains today) was crippling the public treasury. Although for years following his forced suicide there was talk of conspiracy, a faked death and even reported sightings of the extravagant ruler, particularly in the east where he was worshiped.

[kidgloves]

You guys might also enjoy this then.

http://thehistoryofbyzantium.com/

Its an effort to continue the original podcast mentioned I think.
Bizarrely the guy also does a Walking Dead Podcast that I contribute to sometimes but uber TWD fans beware, he is super critical and will wind you up something chronic if you are a bit sensitive to criticism. All of his podcasts are very good and can be found on iTunes also.

Main website

http://www.thetvcritic.org/