Real Roman History

Real Roman History

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Real Roman History episodes

  • Episode 5. The Struggle of the Orders, Part One: City Divided
    Works Cited Primary Sources
    • Appian. Civil Wars. Book I. Later perspective; useful background on debt and agrarian crisis as a recurring structural problem.
    • Cicero. De Re Publica, Book II.56–63; De Legibus, Book III. Discusses the tribunate and its constitutional role.
    • Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Roman Antiquities. Books VI–VII. Gives a more detailed account of the negotiations than Livy; attributes a larger role to Sicinius.
    • Livy. Ab Urbe Condita. Book II, Chapters 23–33. The core narrative of the First Secession, including the Menenius Agrippa episode.
    • Plutarch. “Life of Coriolanus.” Plutarch’s Lives. Overlapping events; the most vivid literary treatment of patrician-plebeian tensions in the immediate post-Secession years.
    Secondary Sources
    • Cornell, T. J. The Beginnings of Rome. Routledge, 1995. Chapters 10–11. Essential treatment of the Secession and the creation of the tribunate.
    • Forsythe, Gary. A Critical History of Early Rome. University of California Press, 2005. Chapters 6–7.
    • Lintott, Andrew. The Constitution of the Roman Republic. Oxford University Press, 1999. Chapters 7–8. The fullest modern treatment of the tribunate and its powers.
    • Nicolet, Claude. The World of the Citizen in Republican Rome. University of California Press, 1980. On the social context of the early Republic.
    • Raaflaub, Kurt, ed. Social Struggles in Archaic Rome: New Perspectives on the Conflict of the Orders. Blackwell, 2005. Key collection; essays by Raaflaub, Cornell, and Richard Mitchell debate the origins of the plebs and the historicity of the Secession.
    On the Tribunate
    • Bauman, Robert A. Lawyers in Roman Republican Politics. Beck, 1983. On the legal dimensions of tribunician intercessio.
    • Stockton, David. The Gracchi. Oxford University Press, 1979. Chapter 1. Superb background on tribunician power and its evolution across the Republic.
    On the Menenius Agrippa Fable
    • Lloyd, G. E. R. Methods and Problems in Greek Science. Cambridge University Press, 1991. Chapter 11. On the body politic metaphor in ancient thought.
    • Ogilvie, Robert. A Commentary on Livy, Books 1–5. Oxford University Press, 1965. Pp. 311–316. Discusses the Greek parallels and the fable’s literary origins.
    On Debt and Nexum
    • Cornell, T. J. The Beginnings of Rome. Pp. 280–283, 333–336.
    • Finley, Moses. The Ancient Economy. University of California Press, 1973. Foundational.
    • Garnsey, Peter. Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman World. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
    On Women in the Early Republic
    • Gardner, Jane. Women in Roman Law and Society. Indiana University Press, 1986.
    • Treggiari, Susan. Roman Marriage. Oxford University Press, 1991.
    50 min
  • Episode 4. The Fall of the Monarchy
    Works Cited Primary Sources
    • Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Roman Antiquities. Books IV–V. Parallel account, often preserving variant traditions; particularly useful on the Porsena episode.
    • Fasti Consulares. The consular list, the institutional record that attests Brutus and Collatinus as the Republic’s first consuls.
    • Livy. Ab Urbe Condita. Books I.56–II.14. The principal narrative for the fall of the monarchy and the early Republic, including the Gabii stratagem, Lucretia, Brutus, Silva Arsia, Lars Porsena, and Lake Regillus.
    • Pliny the Elder. Natural History. 34.139. The passage preserving the alternative tradition that Porsena captured Rome.
    • Plutarch. “Life of Publicola.” Plutarch’s Lives. The primary character study of Valerius Publicola, one of the Republic’s founders; essential for the political atmosphere of 509–504 BCE.
    Secondary Sources
    • Cornell, T. J. The Beginnings of Rome. Routledge, 1995. The essential treatment, including careful analysis of the Porsena problem and the historicity of Lake Regillus.
    • Dench, Emma. Romulus’ Asylum. Oxford University Press, 2005. Illuminating on how Rome constructed its foundational myths, including the Lucretia narrative.
    • Drummond, Andrew. “Rome in the Fifth Century.” Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. VII.2, Chapter 4. The standard scholarly treatment of the transition from monarchy to Republic.
    • Forsythe, Gary. A Critical History of Early Rome. University of California Press, 2005. Particularly skeptical and useful on the Brutus tradition and the legendary elements of the early Republic.
    31 min
  • Episode 3. The Etruscan Kings
    Works Cited Primary Sources
    • Cicero. De Re Publica. Book II. A philosophical dialogue that includes a substantial account of the kings and the transition to Republic.
    • Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Roman Antiquities. Books III–IV. A parallel account, often more detailed than Livy, with a Greek rhetorical perspective.
    • Livy. Ab Urbe Condita. Books I.34–60. The principal narrative source for the Etruscan kings, written in the Augustan period.
    • Tabula Claudiana (ILS 212). The bronze tablet from Lyon preserving Claudius’s speech identifying Servius Tullius with Mastarna.
    Secondary Sources
    • Bonfante, Larissa, ed. Etruscan Life and Afterlife. Wayne State University Press, 1986. The standard introduction to Etruscan culture and its relationship to Rome.
    • Coarelli, Filippo. Rome and Environs. University of California Press, 2007. Indispensable for the physical remains, including the François Tomb frescoes and the Capitoline substructure.
    • Cornell, T. J. The Beginnings of Rome. Routledge, 1995. The essential scholarly treatment of the regal period and early Republic.
    • Forsythe, Gary. A Critical History of Early Rome. University of California Press, 2005. A more skeptical assessment, particularly useful on the historiographical problems.
    46 min
  • Episode 2. The Latin and Sabine Kings
    Works Cited Primary Sources
    • Cicero. De Re Publica. Book II.12–33, on the first four kings.
    • Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Roman Antiquities. Books I–III.
    • Festus. De Verborum Significatu. Valuable for archaic religious institutions.
    • Livy. Ab Urbe Condita. Book I, Chapters 4–35, translated by B. O. Foster, Loeb Classical Library; also translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt, The Early History of Rome, Penguin Classics, 1960.
    • Ovid. Fasti. Books I–VI, on the Roman calendar and its religious associations.
    • Plutarch. “Life of Romulus” and “Life of Numa.” Plutarch’s Lives.
    Secondary Sources
    • Beard, Mary. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. Profile Books, 2015. Chapter 3.
    • Cornell, T. J. The Beginnings of Rome. Routledge, 1995. Chapters 5–9.
    • Forsythe, Gary. A Critical History of Early Rome. University of California Press, 2005. Chapters 4–5.
    • Ogilvie, Robert. A Commentary on Livy, Books 1–5. Oxford University Press, 1965.
    On Roman Religion and Numa’s Institutions
    • Beard, Mary, John North, and Simon Price. Religions of Rome. Vol. I, Cambridge University Press, 1998. The standard scholarly survey.
    • Scheid, John. An Introduction to Roman Religion. Indiana University Press, 2003.
    • Wissowa, Georg. Religion und Kultus der Römer. Munich, 1912. Foundational, though dated.
    On the Vestal Virgins
    • Staples, Ariadne. From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion. Routledge, 1998.
    • Wildfang, Robin Lorsch. Rome’s Vestal Virgins. Routledge, 2006.
    On the Horatii and Curiatii
    • Livy. Ab Urbe Condita. I.23–26, the primary account.
    • Historicity discussed in Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, pp. 116–118, and Ogilvie, A Commentary on Livy, pp. 107–116.
    On Just War
    • Harris, W. V. War and Imperialism in Republican Rome. Oxford University Press, 1979.
    • Phillipson, Coleman. The International Law and Custom of Ancient Greece and Rome. Vol. II, Macmillan, 1911. Dated but thorough on ius fetiale.
    On Ostia
    • Meiggs, Russell. Roman Ostia. 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 1973. The standard work; dates the earliest significant archaeological evidence to the fourth century BCE.
    • Zevi, Fausto, ed. Ostia. 2 vols., Banco di Roma, 1996.
    42 min
  • Episode 1. In the Beginning: The Origins of Rome
    Works Cited Primary Sources
    • Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Roman Antiquities. Books I–II, translated by Earnest Cary, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1937.
    • Livy. Ab Urbe Condita (From the Foundation of the City). Book I, translated by B. O. Foster, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1919; also translated by R. M. Ogilvie, Penguin, 1960.
    • Ovid. Fasti. Book IV, on the founding date.
    • Plutarch. “Life of Romulus.” Plutarch’s Lives, translated by Bernadotte Perrin, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1914.
    Secondary Sources
    • Beard, Mary. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. Profile Books, 2015.
    • Barker, Graeme, and Tom Rasmussen. The Etruscans. Blackwell, 1998.
    • Carandini, Andrea. Rome: Day One. Princeton University Press, 2011.
    • Cornell, T. J. The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars. Routledge, 1995.
    • Forsythe, Gary. A Critical History of Early Rome. University of California Press, 2005.
    • Pallottino, Massimo. The Etruscans. Penguin, 1975.
    • Scheidel, Walter. Debating Roman Demography. Brill, 2001.
    • Smith, Christopher. Early Rome and Latium. Oxford University Press, 1996.
    Notes on the Archaeological Evidence
    • Carandini, Andrea. Excavations on the Palatine, conducted from the 1980s onward.
    • Forum cemetery evidence: archaic burials indicate pre-urban use of the Forum valley.
    • Romanelli, Pietro, and subsequent work on the Palatine hut remains.
    27 min

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Real Roman History is a comprehensive, chronological account of Rome from its origins to its end—told with the depth the subject deserves. This is not a highlight reel. Every major figure, every…

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