Real Roman History

Real Roman History

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Real Roman History episodes

  • Episode 94. Titus
    Works Cited Primary Sources
    • Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 25, verse 23. Used in Part Two for the early biographical context of Berenice. She appears at Caesarea with her brother Agrippa II to hear Paul's defence before the Roman governor Festus, establishing her as a recognised political figure in the eastern Mediterranean from her early adulthood.
    • Aurelius Victor. Liber de Caesaribus, Chapter 10. The fourth-century historian's characterisation of Titus as the only emperor whose reign was universally praised. Documents the consolidation of the friendly tradition in the later Latin sources; used in Part Eight.
    • Cassius Dio. Roman History, Books 65.15 and 66.18 through 66.26. The principal narrative source for the 79 to 81 reign, surviving through the eleventh-century epitome of John Xiphilinus. The treatment of the delatores at 66.19, the fire of 80 at 66.24, and the poisoning rumour at 66.26 all derive from the Xiphilinus epitome. The Berenice-as-Titus's-wife reference at 65.15 establishes the contemporary perception of the relationship before the dismissal.
    • Josephus. The Jewish War, Book 7. Used in Part Two for the Berenice background and the Jewish royal family's position during the war. Josephus also provides background for the Flavian dynastic establishment that Titus inherited.
    • Martial. Epigrams, Book 1, and Liber Spectaculorum. The contemporary literary voice from within the reign itself. Liber Spectaculorum (Spect. 29) preserves the Priscus and Verus combat with the dual rudis decision. Epigrams Book 1, published probably in 86 CE but containing earlier material, includes poems written during Titus's reign. Martial would later write comparably favourable poems for Domitian, and the modern reader should read the Titus poems with awareness of his professional flattery.
    • Pliny the Younger. Panegyricus and Letters. The Panegyricus of 100 CE, delivered for Trajan, contains retrospective characterisations of Titus that document the consolidation of the friendly tradition by the end of the first century. The Letters mention Titus incidentally in several passages but do not provide major narrative material.
    • Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Book 4.1.19. Quintilian's incidental mention of a case he argued before Berenice in a Roman judicial proceeding establishes that she had taken on a partly official position in legal and administrative matters during her time in Rome from 75 CE onward.
    • Suetonius. Life of Titus, in The Twelve Caesars. The principal biographical source for the reign. Suetonius writes within the broader Flavian-favourable tradition but preserves enough material from independent sources to allow critical reading. The amici diem perdidi anecdote (Titus 8), the dimisit invitus invitam phrase on Berenice (Titus 7), the stripping of imperial decorations during the fire response (Titus 8), and the death scene with the regretful final words (Titus 10) all come from this source. The amor ac deliciae generis humani epithet that defined the friendly tradition derives from Titus 1.
    • Tacitus. Histories. The text breaks off in late 70 CE; Tacitus's coverage of Titus's reign is lost. The loss is one of the most consequential gaps in the surviving Latin tradition. The episode operates within this constraint and acknowledges it explicitly in Part Eight.


    Archaeological Evidence
    • The Arch of Titus, Forum Romanum, Rome. CIL VI 945. The principal monumental memorial of the reign. Begun by Domitian shortly after Titus's death in 81 CE and dedicated probably around 85 CE. The reliefs show the Flavian triumph of 71 CE with the Temple spoils, including the menorah that has become one of the most famous images from the entire Roman tradition. The inscription names Titus as the deified emperor and son of the deified Vespasian.
    • The Baths of Titus, Esquiline Hill, Rome. Built on a portion of the Domus Aurea site, now largely lost but documented in Renaissance and early modern descriptions. The structure represented the continuing Flavian conversion of Neronian private space to public use, a programme Vespasian had begun and Titus continued.
    • The Colosseum dedicatory inscription, Rome. CIL VI 40454a (reconstructed). The fragmentary inscription suggesting ex manubiis funding from the Jewish War spoils. The reconstruction is contested in detail, but the manubial funding claim is widely accepted. Establishes the explicit connection between the destruction of Jerusalem and the Colosseum building project that Titus inherited from his father and dedicated as emperor.
    • Coinage of the reign, 79 to 81 CE. The IUDAEA CAPTA series continued from Vespasian's reign, memorialising the destruction of Jerusalem. The dedicatory issues for the Colosseum. The concordia and pietas issues from 79 and 80 documenting the public face of the reign. The consecratio issues from 81 documenting the Senate's response to the death.
    • The Pompeii and Herculaneum archaeological record. The eruption of 79 falls within Titus's reign. The recovery operations he directed are documented in the Vesuvian sites through the archaeology of incomplete tunnel-recovery operations and through the inscriptional record of imperial benefaction to the surrounding Campanian communities in the early 80s.


    Secondary Sources
    • Crook, J. A. “Titus and Berenice.” American Journal of Philology, 1951. The standard scholarly treatment of the affair. The analysis of the political and personal constraints on Titus's decision in Part Two follows Crook's framework.
    • Jones, Brian W. The Emperor Titus. Croom Helm, 1984. The standard scholarly biography. The structural reading of the reign in this episode follows Jones at several points, particularly the analysis of the relationship between the Berenice dismissal and the broader political performance of the early reign.
    • Levick, Barbara. Vespasian. Routledge, 1999. Substantial coverage of Titus's role under Vespasian. Used here for the dynastic preparation of the succession and the family enterprise model of Flavian government.
    50 min
  • Episode 93. The Circus, the Factions, and the Politics of Spectacle
    Works Cited Primary Sources
    • Cassius Dio. Roman History, Books 59, 73, 78, 79. For Caligula's Incitatus stories (Book 59), Commodus's faction allegiance (Book 73), and Caracalla and Elagabalus (Books 78–79). Surviving through the eleventh-century epitome of John Xiphilinus. Flagged where the epitome is the only source.
    • Juvenal. Satires, Satire 10. The original source of the famous panem et circenses formula—Juvenal's compressed contempt for the urban plebs's reduced political horizon, framed as the loss of political agency in exchange for free grain and spectacle. Used here as the framing of the closing analytical question in Part Six.
    • Martial. Epigrams, various. For Scorpus, the celebrity charioteer killed in a Domitianic circus accident. Multiple epigrams in Books 4, 10, and 11 record his career. Used in Part Four as evidence of the charioteer celebrity culture under Domitian.
    • Pliny the Elder. Natural History, Book 36.102. The 250,000-spectator capacity figure for the Circus Maximus. The figure should be treated as the absolute maximum for major imperial occasions rather than routine games.
    • Pliny the Younger. Letters, Book 9.6. The famous letter to Calvisius Rufus around 107 CE on the chariot factions, in which Pliny questions why grown men are so partisan about coloured shirts—the educated observer's perspective on the institution. Quoted directly in Part Five; the Latin tags favent panno and pannum amant come from this letter.
    • Procopius. History of the Wars, Book 1.24, and Secret History, Chapter 7. The principal contemporary source for the Nika riots of 532 CE. Wars 1.24 contains the eyewitness account of the events, including Theodora's speech; Secret History Chapter 7 contains the famously contemptuous description of the Blue partisans' hair fashion and the broader factional culture of early sixth-century Constantinople. Both texts will receive full treatment at Episodes 192 and 200 of this series respectively. Used here in summary.
    • Suetonius. The Twelve Caesars. Various for individual emperors' faction allegiances. Caligula 18, 55 for the Greens partisanship and the Incitatus stories; Nero 22, 24 for the Olympic chariot race; Domitian 7 for the addition of Purples and Golds; Vitellius for the Blues allegiance. Used throughout Part Five.


    Archaeological Evidence
    • Charioteer funerary inscriptions across the empire. The broader corpus including the Calpurnianus inscription (1,127 victories), the Crescens inscription, and the Scorpus inscriptions. The drivers themselves typically commissioned these monuments during their lifetimes, with detailed career statistics for posthumous commemoration.
    • CIL VI 10048. The funerary monument of Gaius Appuleius Diocles. Set up at Rome in 146 CE. The principal epigraphic source for Diocles's career. The inscription preserves his Lusitanian origins, his career statistics (4,257 starts, 1,462 first places, 35,863,120 sesterces in lifetime earnings), and his progression through three factions across his twenty-four-year career. Used as the central primary source in Part Four.
    • The Circus Maximus site, Rome. Partially excavated and restored: the footprint of the original structure, the carceres outline at the open end, fragments of the spina, traces of the seating substructure. The Italian state has maintained the site as the Parco del Circo Massimo since the late nineteenth century. The Egyptian obelisk originally placed by Augustus on the spina in 10 BCE was moved in 1587 to the Piazza del Popolo, where it still stands.
    • The Constantinople Hippodrome site, Istanbul. The obelisk of Theodosius (originally from Karnak, erected at the Hippodrome in 390 CE) and the Serpent Column (originally from Delphi, commemorating the Greek victory at Plataea in 479 BCE, moved to Constantinople by Constantine in the early fourth century) still stand on the surviving spina remnants. The kathisma, the imperial box, is no longer visible above ground. The site is now a public square called Sultanahmet.
    • Contorniate medallions, late imperial period. Bronze faction-themed medallions distributed at games as souvenir items. The medallions preserve faction iconography, charioteer portraits, and racing scenes. Important for the late imperial visual culture of the factions.
    • The Piazza Armerina mosaics, Sicily, early fourth century CE. The elaborate arena and circus iconography in the villa decoration, including the famous Great Hunt mosaic showing the animal procurement supply chain. Reference for the late imperial visual culture of the games.


    Secondary Sources
    • Bell, Sinclair, and Jasmin Nellis-Pellegrini, eds. The Roman Circus: Spectacle, Society, and Sport in the Ancient World. Cambridge University Press, 2024. Recent edited collection updating the field on the social and political dimensions of the circus across the empire. Used here for the contemporary scholarly state of the question.
    • Bury, J. B. “The Nika Riot.” Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1897. The foundational article on the Nika events, establishing the basic narrative reconstruction from Procopius and the other Byzantine sources. Still substantively relevant, though superseded in detail by subsequent scholarship.
    • Cameron, Alan. Circus Factions: Blues and Greens at Rome and Byzantium. Oxford University Press, 1976. The standard scholarly work on the factions across the imperial and Byzantine periods. The argument that the factions were principally sporting organisations rather than political parties or theological parties in disguise is Cameron's, and remains broadly accepted in modern scholarship. The interpretive framework of this episode follows Cameron throughout.
    • Cameron, Alan. Porphyrius the Charioteer. Oxford University Press, 1973. The companion volume on Porphyrius, the most famous late Roman charioteer, active under the emperors Anastasius and Justin I in the early sixth century. Used here for the charioteer celebrity culture in the immediate pre-Justinianic period.
    • Greatrex, Geoffrey. “The Nika Riot: A Reappraisal.” Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1997. The modern reassessment of the events, examining the political context and the question of whether the riot was spontaneous or partly orchestrated by senatorial opposition to Justinian. Used here for the political reading of the events that will receive full treatment at Episode 192.
    • Humphrey, John H. Roman Circuses: Arenas for Chariot Racing. University of California Press, 1986. The standard architectural treatment of circus structures across the empire. Used here for the technical reconstruction of the Circus Maximus dimensions and seating capacity, and for the Hippodrome at Constantinople.
    49 min
  • Episode 92. Gladiators and the Colosseum
    Works Cited Primary Sources
    • Cassius Dio. Roman History, Books 66.25 and 73. Book 66.25 for the Colosseum dedication and the 9,000-animals figure for the inaugural games; Book 73 for Commodus in the arena, used here as contextual reference. Surviving through the eleventh-century epitome of John Xiphilinus. The 9,000-animals figure should be treated as rough order of magnitude rather than precise count.
    • Juvenal. Satires, 6 and 10. Satire 6 (Eppia and the gladiator Sergius) for the cultural pattern of gladiators as celebrity figures. Satire 10 as the source of the famous panem et circenses formula in its original context as a condemnation of the urban plebs's reduced political horizon.
    • Martial. Liber Spectaculorum (On the Spectacles). Written for the dedication of the Colosseum in 80 CE. Thirty-six surviving epigrams; the only contemporary literary source for the inaugural games of the Flavian amphitheatre. Specific epigrams cited in this episode include Spect. 1 (the seven wonders comparison), Spect. 8 and 21 (the mythological executions), Spect. 11 (the rhinoceros), Spect. 15, 17, and 27 (the Carpophorus epigrams), Spect. 22 (the trained lion), Spect. 28 (the naumachia), and Spect. 29 (Priscus and Verus). The book is panegyric written for Titus and should be read as both contemporary testimony and political messaging held simultaneously.
    • Pliny the Elder. Natural History, Books 7 and 8. The principal Latin source for exotic animals brought for the venationes, the supply chain, and the early imperial scale of beast hunts. Pliny would die at Stabiae in October 79, before the Colosseum was dedicated. His Natural History was published in 77.
    • Suetonius. The Twelve Caesars. Throughout for individual games and emperors' arena activities. Augustus 43–45 for the Augustan formalisation; Caligula 18–20 for the Caligulan excess; Claudius 21 for the Fucine Lake naumachia; Nero 11–12 for the Neronian games; Titus 7 for the Colosseum dedication; Domitian 4 for the hypogeum and the addition of female and dwarf gladiators.
    • Tacitus. Annals, various. For specific games and political incidents under the Julio-Claudians. Tacitus's lost coverage of the Flavian period in the Histories would have provided substantial additional material on the games under Titus and Domitian. The loss is consequential.


    Archaeological Evidence
    • The Bignor gladiator mosaic, Britain, 4th century CE, and other provincial gladiator mosaics. Visual evidence for equipment, fighting stances, and combat scenarios across the empire. Bignor is particularly useful for the equites and provocator categories.
    • The Colosseum (Amphitheatrum Flavium), Rome. The standing structure remains the principal primary source for the building: the exterior wall, the partially preserved seating system, the exposed hypogeum, the velarium mast brackets on the upper exterior, the marble fittings, the surviving senatorial seat inscriptions. The visitor walks today through the venue this episode describes.
    • The El Djem (Thysdrus) animal procurement mosaics, Tunisia. Roman villa mosaics in modern Tunisia depicting the capture and transport of arena animals. The principal visual evidence for the supply chain feeding the venationes.
    • The Ephesus gladiator cemetery. Excavated in 1993. Approximately 67 skeletons of gladiators showing combat injuries, dietary patterns, and burial customs. The dietary analysis suggesting a substantially plant-based diet supports the literary tradition of gladiators as hordearii, barley-men.
    • Gladiator funerary inscriptions across the empire. The corpus systematically analysed by Georges Ville (1981) and Thomas Wiedemann (1992): the careers, win/loss tallies, and survival statistics that produced the modern mortality estimates. Inscriptions from Pompeii (CIL IV) and Rome principal.
    • The Ludus Magnus, Rome. Adjacent to the Colosseum. The principal imperial gladiator school. Partially excavated. The footprint and underground tunnels connecting it to the Colosseum are visible in modern Rome.
    • The Pompeii gladiator barracks, Quadriporticus of the Theatres, Region V. The principal provincial gladiator training site preserved by the 79 CE eruption. Equipment finds including helmets, greaves, and armour, currently held at the Naples National Archaeological Museum.
    • The Zliten mosaic, Libya, late 2nd century CE. One of the principal visual sources for arena spectacle. Shows venationes, executions, and gladiatorial combat in detail. Currently held at the Archaeological Museum of Tripoli.


    Secondary Sources
    • Coleman, Kathleen M., ed. M. Valerii Martialis Liber Spectaculorum. Oxford University Press, 2006. The standard scholarly edition and commentary on Martial's Liber Spectaculorum. Essential for the reading of the inaugural games material. The fatal charade formulation for the mythological executions is Coleman's.
    • Corbeill, Anthony. “Thumbs in Ancient Rome: Pollex as Index.” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, 1997. The principal modern study of the pollice verso and pollice presso gestures. The argument for the reversal of the traditional thumbs-up-equals-life image originates here.
    • Hopkins, Keith, and Mary Beard. The Colosseum. Profile Books, 2005. The standard accessible treatment of the building. Used here for the architectural description, the seating capacity estimates, and the historical reception of the structure across the centuries.
    • Köhne, Eckart, and Cornelia Ewigleben, eds. Gladiators and Caesars: The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome. University of California Press, 2000. The catalogue accompanying the major museum exhibition. The standard accessible visual reference for the categories of gladiator, equipment, and combat. Used here for the visual identification of the categories.
    • Kyle, Donald G. Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome. Routledge, 1998. The standard scholarly treatment of mortality, body disposal, and the broader institution of arena death. Used here throughout for the mortality statistics and the social structure of the games.
    • Ville, Georges. La Gladiature en Occident des origines à la mort de Domitien. École française de Rome, 1981. The foundational French scholarly study of gladiatorial combat. The mortality statistics across the early imperial period derive principally from Ville's analysis of the inscriptional corpus.
    • Wiedemann, Thomas. Emperors and Gladiators. Routledge, 1992. The principal scholarly treatment of the political and social function of the games. Used here for the structural reading of imperial sponsorship.
    55 min
  • Episode 91. Pompeii and Herculaneum: The Preserved Cities
    Works Cited Primary Sources
    • Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, Volume IV. Edited by Karl Zangemeister with Richard Schoene, Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 1871; supplementary volumes throughout the twentieth century. The principal printed source for the Pompeian graffiti, with over eleven thousand individual inscriptions catalogued. Specific items cited in the episode include CIL IV 1645 (Successus the weaver and Iris), CIL IV 1880 (the latrine inscription), CIL IV 1928 (Marcellus and Praenestina), CIL IV 2175 (the Lupanar wall), and CIL IV 7065 (the Apelles comparison).
    • Fiorelli, Giuseppe. Pompeianarum Antiquitatum Historia. 1860–1864. The principal source for the development of the plaster cast technique introduced in 1863 and the systematic recording standards that brought Pompeii from royal treasure house to scientific site. Fiorelli's regional and insula numbering system remains the standard reference system today.
    • Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità. Official publication of the Italian archaeological administration. The principal continuing record of excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum from the late nineteenth century to the present. The Great Pompeii Project publications since 2013 are the current standard for new discoveries.
    • The Pompeii and Herculaneum archaeological record. Continuous excavation and conservation, 1748 to the present. The cities themselves are the principal primary source for this episode; the literary frame is minimal. The archaeological evidence—the houses, the workshops, the streets, the bodies, the carbonised foodstuffs, the wall decorations—is the testimony.


    Archaeological Evidence
    • Bakery of Modestus. Region VII Insula 1, Pompeii. The carbonised loaves still in the oven, recovered in the early twentieth century. Eighty-one loaves preserved exactly in shape, now at the Naples National Archaeological Museum.
    • House of the Faun. Region VI Insula 12, Pompeii. Used here for the pre-Roman wealthy household's continuity into the Roman period and for the Alexander Mosaic (now at the Naples National Archaeological Museum).
    • House of the Vettii. Region VI Insula 15, Pompeii. Used here as the principal example of Fourth Style domestic decoration and freedman commercial success: the atrium frescoes, the dining room programme, the integration of decorative wealth with the household's freedman origins.
    • Lupanar. Region VII Insula 12, Pompeii. The only purpose-built brothel positively identified at the site. Used here as the principal evidence for Roman sexuality and for the integration of slave labour into urban commercial life: the frescoes, the small rooms with stone beds, and the graffiti recording prostitutes by name and price.
    • Thermopolium of Asellina (Region IX Insula 11) and the 2020 Region V thermopolium discovery. Used here as the principal examples of the Roman urban fast food economy, with counters, dolia, and (in the Asellina case) a box of coins still under the counter representing the day's takings.
    • Villa of the Mysteries. Suburban Pompeii. Used here for the fresco cycle depicting what appears to be the initiation into a Dionysiac mystery cult. The interpretation of the scenes remains debated in modern scholarship.
    • Villa of the Papyri. Herculaneum. Probably owned by Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, consul of 58 BCE and father-in-law of Julius Caesar. The library of approximately 1,800 carbonised Greek philosophical scrolls, primarily Epicurean texts including works by Philodemus of Gadara. The principal site for the Vesuvius Challenge computational reading project.


    Secondary Sources
    • Allison, Penelope. Pompeian Households: An Analysis of the Material Culture. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, 2004. The standard work on Pompeian domestic evidence. The reading of the houses as evidence about household organisation, rather than as architectural showcases, follows Allison's approach.
    • Beard, Mary. The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found. Harvard University Press, 2008. The standard accessible treatment in modern scholarship. Used here for the broader context of Pompeian daily life.
    • Benefiel, Rebecca, and Peter Keegan, eds. Inscriptions in the Private Sphere in the Greco-Roman World. Brill, 2016. For the scholarly treatment of the Pompeian graffiti as a body of evidence for vernacular Latin and ordinary social life.
    • Levin-Richardson, Sarah. The Brothel of Pompeii: Sex, Class, and Gender at the Margins of Roman Society. Cambridge University Press, 2019. The current standard scholarly treatment of the Lupanar. The handling of the slavery dimension in this episode follows Levin-Richardson's analysis; the work approaches the site with the clear-eyed attention that the evidence requires.
    • Sider, David. The Library of the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum. J. Paul Getty Trust, 2005. The standard scholarly treatment of the Villa of the Papyri library through the late twentieth century, prior to the computational recoveries beginning in 2023.
    • Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew. Herculaneum: Past and Future. Frances Lincoln, 2011. The standard treatment of Herculaneum's distinctive preservation profile, including the carbonised wood corpus and the Villa of the Papyri context.


    Contemporary Developments
    • The Vesuvius Challenge. Founded March 2023 by Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross. Project website and published academic papers, ongoing. The computational reading of the Herculaneum scrolls using micro-CT scanning data from Brent Seales's team at the University of Kentucky and the Diamond Light Source synchrotron. The October 2023 first-word recovery (porphyras) by Luke Farritor, the February 2024 grand prize award to Farritor, Youssef Nader, and Julian Schilliger, and the continuing recoveries through 2024, 2025, and the June 2026 reading of the first complete scroll are documented in detail on the project's open archive.
    54 min
  • Episode 90. The Eruption of Vesuvius
    Works Cited Primary Sources
    • Cassius Dio. Roman History, Books 66.21–66.23. The eruption account, surviving only through the eleventh-century epitome by John Xiphilinus. Includes legendary elements about giants emerging from Vesuvius and visions in the air, which should be read as later cultural processing of the event rather than primary testimony.
    • Pliny the Younger. Letters, 6.16 and 6.20. The two letters to Tacitus describing the death of Pliny the Elder and the flight from Misenum. Eyewitness testimony from a survivor who was seventeen years old at the time of the events and roughly forty-five at the time of writing. Together they form one of the most extraordinary primary sources for any single event in the ancient world, and are drawn on directly at several key moments in this episode.
    • Seneca. Natural Questions, Book 6. The most extensive surviving Roman discussion of the 62 CE earthquake and of Roman thinking about the natural philosophy of volcanic and seismic phenomena. Seneca treated the earthquake as a substantial puzzle of natural philosophy. He does not appear to have recognised it as a volcanic precursor.
    • Strabo. Geography, 5.4.8. For Strabo's awareness of Vesuvius's volcanic origins. Strabo, writing under Augustus, looked at the mountain and noted that its summit appeared to have been burned by fire. He thought this was ancient history.
    • Suetonius. Life of Titus, Chapter 8, in The Twelve Caesars. For the imperial response to the eruption. Suetonius's account of Titus's relief commission of ex-consuls and his two personal visits to the region is brief but informative.
    • Tacitus. Annals, 15.22. For the earthquake of 62 CE. Tacitus would have covered the eruption itself in the lost books of the Histories. The loss is consequential.


    Archaeological Evidence
    • Carbonised autumn produce, braziers, and pressed-grape fermentation evidence. Pompeii archaeological record, accumulating since the 1990s. The supporting body of evidence for the October dating, including pomegranates, walnuts, figs in autumn ripeness, charcoal-burning braziers in living rooms, and dolia containing actively fermenting must from the just-pressed vintage.
    • House V.6.12 charcoal inscription. Great Pompeii Project, Italian Ministry of Culture, discovered October 2018. The decisive epigraphic evidence for the autumn dating of the eruption. The date stamp XVI K. Novembres—the sixteenth day before the calends of November, October 17—on a charcoal graffito that could not have survived long exposure, constraining the eruption to after that date.


    Secondary Sources
    • Beard, Mary. The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found. Harvard University Press, 2008. The standard accessible treatment of Pompeii in modern scholarship. Used here for the broader context of the eruption and for the structure of the surviving evidence.
    • Great Pompeii Project. Italian Ministry of Culture. Ongoing publications. Continues to update the archaeological record. The 2018 inscription discovery is the most consequential single contribution to the dating problem in the modern period.
    • Sigurdsson, Haraldur, et al. Volcanological reconstructions of the 79 CE eruption. The scientific reconstruction of the eruption mechanics, including the column height, the fall rate, the pyroclastic surge sequence S1 through S6, and the temperature profiles at the leading edges of the surges. The figures used in this episode follow Sigurdsson's published estimates.
    • Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew. Herculaneum: Past and Future. Frances Lincoln, 2011. For the Herculaneum boatshed bodies and the distinctive preservation profile of the western settlement.
    44 min
  • Episode 89. Vespasian's Reign
    Works Cited Primary Sources
    • Cassius Dio. Roman History, Books 65–66. Surviving only through the eleventh-century epitome compiled by the Byzantine monk John Xiphilinus. The narrative continuity for the reign depends substantially on Xiphilinus's selection and compression, and is flagged where relied on. Cassius Dio's original treatment was almost certainly considerably more extensive than what Xiphilinus preserved.
    • Epictetus. Discourses, 1.2.19–21. Used for the exchange between Vespasian and Helvidius Priscus. Epictetus is writing perhaps fifty years after the events, around 100 to 120 CE, but had heard the story from people who were present in the Senate. A partisan source—Epictetus was himself a Stoic, and Helvidius was the model he was holding up to his students—but the substance of the confrontation is consistent with everything else we know.
    • Josephus, Flavius. The Jewish War, Book 7. Used here for the Flavian triumph of 71 CE. Josephus was an eyewitness to the triumph, living in Rome at the time as a freedman of the Flavian house. His account is the most detailed extant description of a Roman triumph from anyone who watched one.
    • Pliny the Elder. Natural History, 3.30. Contemporary source, written during Vespasian's reign and dedicated to Titus. Used here for the Spanish ius Latii grant and for scattered references to the Flavian court throughout the work. Pliny would die at Stabiae during the Vesuvius eruption of 79 CE, three months after Vespasian's death.
    • Suetonius. Life of Vespasian, in The Twelve Caesars. The principal biographical source for the reign, used throughout. Suetonius's Flavian sources were broadly favourable to Vespasian, but he also draws on hostile material where available. The narrative shape of the reign in this episode follows Suetonius's structure, with selective use of his anecdotal material where independent corroboration exists.
    • Tacitus. Histories, Books 4–5. The text breaks off in late 70 CE. The principal Latin narrative of Vespasian's reign was almost certainly contained in books now lost—one of the most consequential gaps in the surviving Latin historical tradition. What we can reconstruct of Tacitus's view of the reign comes from his Agricola and Annals.

    Inscriptions
    • CIL VI 40454a. Reconstructed dedicatory inscription of the Colosseum. The fragmentary inscription suggesting ex manubiis funding from the Jewish War spoils. Discovered and reconstructed in the late twentieth century. The reconstruction is contested in detail, but the manubial funding claim is widely accepted.
    • The Fasti of the Flavian period. The official lists of consuls and other magistrates, used here for the censorship of 73–74 CE and the joint consulships of Vespasian and Titus throughout the reign.

    Secondary Sources
    • Birley, Anthony R. The biographies of the second-century emperors. Various publishers. Birley's biographies of Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, and Septimius Severus collectively provide the long-arc context for the Flavian foundations laid by Vespasian's reforms.
    • Jones, Brian W. The Emperor Domitian. Routledge, 1992. Essential for the Flavian background, particularly for the dynastic arrangements and Domitian's position during Vespasian's reign.
    • Levick, Barbara. Vespasian. Routledge, 1999. The standard scholarly biography of Vespasian. The structural reading of the reign in this episode follows Levick's analysis at several points.
    51 min
  • Episode 88. Josephus
    Works Cited Primary Sources
    • Cassius Dio. Roman History. Greek narrative of the early Flavian period. Includes brief reference to Josephus's prediction at Dio 66.1.
    • Josephus, Flavius. Antiquitates Judaicae, or Antiquities of the Jews. The twenty-book history of the Jewish people from creation through the outbreak of the war in 66 CE. Composed across the 80s and early 90s and published in 93 or 94 CE under Domitian. The principal source for substantial portions of Second Temple Jewish history, and the location of the Testimonium Flavianum at 18.63 through 64.
    • Josephus, Flavius. Bellum Judaicum, or Jewish War. The seven-book history of the war from the Hasmonean background through the fall of Masada. Composed in Greek under Flavian patronage and published in the late 70s CE. The principal source for both the war itself and for Josephus's own conduct during it.
    • Josephus, Flavius. Contra Apionem, or Against Apion. The two-book defense of the Jewish religious tradition against Greek anti-Jewish polemic. Composed in the late 90s CE.
    • Josephus, Flavius. Vita. The autobiographical work published as an appendix to the Antiquities in 93 or 94 CE. The principal source for the biographical material in this episode. Substantially defensive in its construction and often in tension with the earlier Jewish War account of the same events.
    • Suetonius. Life of Vespasian. Includes brief reference to the prediction that Josephus made to Vespasian, preserved at Suetonius Vespasian 5.


    Secondary Sources
    • Bilde, Per. Flavius Josephus Between Jerusalem and Rome. Sheffield Academic Press, 1988. Major treatment of Josephus's biography, literary output, and political position.
    • Chapman, Honora Howell, and Zuleika Rodgers, eds. A Companion to Josephus. Wiley-Blackwell, 2016. Recent collection of scholarly essays on various aspects of the Josephan corpus.
    • Feldman, Louis H. Josephus and Modern Scholarship, 1937–1980. De Gruyter, 1984. Comprehensive scholarly bibliography of twentieth-century Josephan scholarship.
    • Mason, Steve. A History of the Jewish War, AD 66–74. Cambridge University Press, 2016. Already cited in Episode 87. The principal recent scholarly treatment of the war and substantial engagement with Josephus as the principal source.
    • Mason, Steve. Josephus and the New Testament. Second edition, Hendrickson, 2003. Major scholarly treatment of Josephus as a source for early Christianity, including the Testimonium Flavianum question.
    • Rajak, Tessa. Josephus: The Historian and His Society. Second edition, Duckworth, 2002. The standard scholarly biography of Josephus and the principal source-critical analysis of his work. The framework for the character treatment in this episode owes substantial debts to Rajak's analysis.
    59 min
  • Episode 87. The Destruction of Jerusalem
    Works Cited Primary Sources
    • The Arch of Titus. The triumphal arch on the Sacred Way in the Roman Forum, completed under Domitian after Titus's death in 81 CE. The relief panels on the inner walls preserve the visual representation of the triumph including the spoils from the Temple.
    • Cassius Dio. Roman History, Books 65 and 66. Greek narrative of the early Flavian period preserved in epitome form. Includes material on the Jewish War and its conclusion.
    • Josephus, Flavius. Antiquitates Judaicae, or Jewish Antiquities. Composed some fifteen to twenty years after the Jewish War and published around 94 CE. Where the two works overlap they sometimes disagree, and the disagreements are informative. On Tiberius Julius Alexander, the Jewish War at 2.220 reports that he left the ancient laws undisturbed, while the Antiquities at 20.100 through 103 states that he did not remain steadfast in his ancestral customs. The later and more hostile assessment was written when every Roman it might have embarrassed was dead.
    • Josephus, Flavius. Bellum Judaicum, or Jewish War. The principal narrative source for the entire Jewish War from 66 through 74 CE. Composed in Greek under Flavian patronage in the 70s CE. Books 5, 6, and 7 cover the siege of Jerusalem, the destruction of the Temple, and the residual operations including Masada. The work is one of the more extensive ancient narrative sources for any single ancient conflict. It is also one of the more politically problematic, as discussed throughout this episode. Josephus was writing under Flavian patronage, defending his own surrender at Jotapata, hostile to the militant Jewish factions, and sympathetic to the Pharisaic religious tradition that would develop into rabbinic Judaism. Every passage requires source-critical assessment. The passages of particular importance here are 5.446 through 451 on the mass crucifixion of those who fled the city, 6.250 on the date of the destruction, and 6.252 on the single soldier said to have thrown the burning brand into the sanctuary—the sentence on which the entire question of Titus's intentions turns.
    • The Judaea Capta coinage. The Flavian commemorative series issued across the 70s CE, depicting a mourning Jewish figure beside a standing Roman soldier. A material source for the official framing of the conquest, and one that circulated far more widely than any monument in Rome.
    • The Mishnah, Taanit 4:6. The tannaitic source for the tradition that both the First and Second Temples were destroyed on the ninth of Av, against the tenth given by Josephus. This is the foundation of the Tisha B'Av observance.
    • Suetonius. Life of Titus. Biographical material on Titus's career, including the conduct of the Jerusalem operation.
    • Sulpicius Severus. Chronica, 2.30. A Christian universal chronicle composed in Gaul around 403 CE. Its account of the fall of Jerusalem describes Titus convening a council of war which resolved, after debate, that the Temple should be destroyed—the direct opposite of the Josephan account. Since Jacob Bernays argued the case in 1861, the majority scholarly view has been that Sulpicius was drawing on the lost portion of Tacitus's Histories, which would make this the only surviving Roman testimony on the question. The passage's references to Christians are widely suspected of being later Christian interpolation, and the reconstruction is not universally accepted.
    • Tacitus. Histories, Book 5. The surviving fragment includes an ethnographic excursus on the Jewish people and a partial account of the siege of Jerusalem. The text breaks off before the destruction of the Temple is reached. The surviving material is substantially hostile to the Jewish religious tradition and reflects the assumptions of the early second-century Roman senatorial community. The lost conclusion is widely believed to survive, quoted, in Sulpicius Severus.
    • The Talmudic tradition. Various passages preserved in the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud preserve the rabbinic memory of the destruction. The material was composed substantially later—the Talmuds were progressively compiled across the third through sixth centuries—but preserves earlier traditions that supplement and sometimes contradict the Josephan account. The Gittin tractate of the Babylonian Talmud, at 55b through 58a, includes the principal rabbinic narrative of the destruction.


    Secondary Sources
    • Ben-Yehuda, Nachman. The Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel. University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. The standard critical treatment of the modern Israeli reception of Masada and the distance between it and the ancient evidence.
    • Cohen, Shaye J. D. From the Maccabees to the Mishnah. Third edition, Westminster John Knox Press, 2014. The standard scholarly treatment of the Jewish religious developments from the Hasmonean period through the rabbinic period, useful for the consequences of the destruction.
    • Davies, Gwyn. “The Length of the Siege of Masada.” Scripta Classica Israelica. Argues that the siege lasted only as long as it took to build the assault ramp, which was raised over a natural rock spur, and that historical and experimental construction rates place this at four to seven weeks.
    • Goodman, Martin. Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations. Knopf, 2007. Major treatment of the broader relationship between Rome and the Jewish religious tradition, with substantial material on the war and its consequences.
    • Leoni, Tommaso. “‘Against Caesar's Wishes’: Flavius Josephus as a Source for the Burning of the Temple.” Journal of Jewish Studies 58.1 (2007), pp. 39–51. Surveys the scholarly tradition running from Bernays onward that prefers Sulpicius Severus to Josephus, and argues against it—holding that the Josephan narrative is clear, consistent, and substantially trustworthy. The minority position, and the best statement of it.
    • Mason, Steve. A History of the Jewish War, AD 66–74. Cambridge University Press, 2016. The principal recent scholarly treatment of the entire war. The framework for the historical reconstruction in this episode owes substantial debts to Mason's analysis.
    • Montefiore, Hugh. “Sulpicius Severus and Titus' Council of War.” Historia 11 (1962), pp. 156–170. Cautions against using Sulpicius systematically to reconstruct the lost Tacitus.
    • Price, Jonathan. Jerusalem Under Siege: The Collapse of the Jewish State, 66–70 CE. Brill, 1992. Major treatment of the siege itself with substantial source-critical analysis.
    • Rajak, Tessa. Josephus: The Historian and His Society. Second edition, Duckworth, 2002. The standard scholarly biography of Josephus and source-critical analysis of his work.
    • Schwartz, Seth. Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 BCE to 640 CE. Princeton University Press, 2001. Major scholarly treatment of the post-destruction Jewish religious development.
    • Stiebel, Guy, et al. Survey of the Roman siege works at Masada. Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2024. Drone imaging and three-dimensional modelling of the circumvallation, camps, and assault ramp, concluding that the siege works were raised in roughly two weeks and the siege itself lasted a matter of weeks rather than months.
    • Yadin, Yigael. Masada: Herod's Fortress and the Zealots' Last Stand. Random House, 1966. The excavator's own account of the 1963 to 1965 campaigns. Foundational for the archaeology of the site, and the origin of many of the identifications that later scholarship has questioned.
    1 hr 1 min
  • Episode 86. Vespasian and the Flavian Establishment
    Works Cited Primary Sources
    • Cassius Dio. Roman History, Books 65 and 66. Greek narrative covering the early Flavian period.
    • The lex de imperio Vespasiani. Surviving in bronze-tablet form in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. The principal direct source for the formal-legal structure of the early Flavian principate. The surviving text preserves approximately the second half of the original inscription. The first half is lost.
    • Suetonius. Life of Domitian. Biographical material on Domitian, including substantial treatment of his anomalous political position during the transitional period of 69 and 70 CE.
    • Suetonius. Life of Vespasian. Biographical material on Vespasian, with substantial treatment of his personal-political style and his administrative arrangements. The political-personal material at chapters 22 and 23 preserves substantial direct quotations and political-cultural anecdotes that inform the character treatment of this episode.
    • Tacitus. Histories, Book 4. Continues the narrative of the early Flavian period, with substantial material on Mucianus's transitional government and on the political-administrative arrangements that the early dynasty conducted.


    Secondary Sources
    • Brunt, P. A. “Lex de Imperio Vespasiani.” Journal of Roman Studies 67, 1977. Foundational scholarly treatment of the surviving text and its political-cultural significance.
    • Jones, Brian. The Emperor Domitian. Routledge, 1992. Standard scholarly treatment of Domitian's career, with substantial material on his experience during the events of 69 and 70 CE and on the political-cultural patterns that the transitional period established for his subsequent reign.
    • Levick, Barbara. Vespasian. Second edition, Routledge, 2017. The standard scholarly biography of Vespasian. The framework for the Vespasian portions of this episode owes substantial debts to Levick's analysis.
    • Millar, Fergus. The Emperor in the Roman World. Second edition, Cornell University Press, 1992. Major scholarly treatment of the formal-legal structure of the principate, with substantial material on the lex de imperio Vespasiani and its political-cultural significance.
    36 min
  • Episode 85. The Civilis Revolt
    Works Cited Primary Sources
    • Cassius Dio. Roman History, Books 64 and 65. Greek narrative covering the early Flavian period. Useful as a comparison to the Tacitean account, with substantial independent material on the suppression operation.
    • Pliny the Elder. Natural History. Various passages on the Germanic peoples and the Rhine frontier. Pliny had served in the Rhine command during portions of the Julio-Claudian period and preserved substantial direct knowledge of the political-military situation.
    • Tacitus. Germania. Brief but substantial ethnographic treatment of the Germanic peoples, including the Batavians. The Batavian treatment at Germania 29 includes the political-cultural characterisation that informs the Histories account.
    • Tacitus. Histories, Books 4 and 5. The principal narrative source for the Civilis revolt. Book 4 covers the autumn 69 CE beginning, the Treveran-Lingones expansion, and the early phase of the Roman suppression. Book 5 covers the principal phase of the Roman counter-operation under Cerialis. The text of Book 5 breaks off in mid-narrative at the meeting between Civilis and Cerialis on the destroyed bridge. The conclusion of the revolt and the terms of the eventual settlement are not preserved in the surviving Tacitean text. The fragmentary nature of the surviving account is one of the principal source-critical problems for the historical reconstruction of the revolt.


    Secondary Sources
    • Birley, Anthony R. The Roman Government of Britain. Oxford University Press, 2005. Substantial treatment of Cerialis's career, including the British and Rhine commands.
    • Brunt, P. A. “Tacitus on the Batavian Revolt.” Roman Imperial Themes. Oxford University Press, 1990. Major source-critical treatment of the Tacitean account.
    • Keppie, Lawrence. The Making of the Roman Army. Routledge, 1998. General treatment of the Roman military establishment, with substantial material on the Rhine frontier arrangements that produced the conditions for the revolt.
    • Roymans, Nico. Ethnic Identity and Imperial Power: The Batavians in the Early Roman Empire. Amsterdam University Press, 2004. The major scholarly treatment of the Batavian people and the political-cultural arrangements with the Roman administration that produced the conditions for the revolt. The framework for the Batavian portions of this episode owes substantial debts to Roymans's analysis.
    49 min

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