Rome Beneath the Marble

Cleopatra's enemies turned her relationships into a headline. Clara follows the queen behind it: a family power struggle, her alliances with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and Octavian's fight to control the story. A warm, witty, slower-paced special episode with clear chapters and three memorable takeaways.

With Clara, solo host.

Content note: War, bereavement and a brief non-graphic mention of suicide.

Chapters

0:00 A queen becomes the headline

Why Cleopatra lost control of her own story.

2:00 Chapter one — The queen before the romances

The ruler, the royal family feud, and the need for support.

6:02 Chapter two — The entrance, and the dangerous favour

A secret entrance and the risks of depending on one ally.

9:55 Chapter three — Romance, resources, and a spectacular arrival

The wealth, children and ambition behind the romance.

14:32 Chapter four — When gossip becomes a weapon

How Octavian turned a relationship into a political weapon.

18:28 Chapter five — The defeat, and the cost

The military defeat and its human cost.

22:28 Chapter six — Three things to remember tomorrow

A ruler, an alliance and a reputation; what comes next.

Three takeaways: Cleopatra was a ruler; alliances create both protection and dependence; reputation can become a political weapon.

Previous release: The Birthday Invitation at the Edge of the Empire. Next scheduled: Who Paid for the Colosseum?, 14 October, 07:00 Halifax.

Sources and further reading

Plutarch, Life of Antony

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Antony*.html

Plutarch, Life of Caesar

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Caesar*.html

Cassius Dio, Roman History 51

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/51*.html

The Met, Egypt in the Ptolemaic Period

https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/egypt-in-the-ptolemaic-period

The Met, Statue of a Ptolemaic Queen, perhaps Cleopatra VII

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/547702

Corrections: [email protected]; include episode and timestamp.

A friend asks another friend to come over for her birthday. Clara and Felix follow the handwriting, travel arrangements, staffing problems, socks and anxious business letters that make Roman Britain feel unexpectedly close.

With Clara and Felix. Two-host edition.

Content note: Roman occupation, enslavement and illness; no graphic detail.

Chapters
0:00 Please come over
0:46 A frontier with friendships
1:08 Before Hadrian's Wall
2:34 Severa takes the pen
6:30 The visit has to be arranged
9:12 How many people can actually do the job?
12:54 The sock problem and the wagon problem
16:50 Friendship inside an occupation
18:25 The message that outlived its purpose

Sources and further reading: Bowman and Thomas, Vindolanda tablet 291: birthday invitation; Bowman and Thomas, Vindolanda Writing Tablets III, Introduction; Vindolanda Trust, preservation and chronology FAQs; Bowman and Thomas, Vindolanda Writing Tablets II, Introduction; Bowman and Thomas, Vindolanda tablet 292: correspondence of Lepidina; Bowman and Thomas, Vindolanda tablet 154: strength report; Bowman and Thomas, Vindolanda tablet 346: clothing letter; Bowman and Thomas, Vindolanda tablet 343: Octavius to Candidus; Bowman and Thomas, Vindolanda tablet 164: Britons

Corrections: [email protected]; please include episode and timestamp.

Pompeii had plans before it became a disaster. Join Clara and Felix at a food counter, a rental property, a public monument, a tomb and a bakery to meet a city of ambition, everyday business and unequal freedoms.

With Clara and Felix. Two-host edition.

Content note: Discussion of enslavement, constrained labour and deaths in the eruption; no graphic description.

Chapters
0:00 A city making plans
0:46 Before the volcano takes over
1:09 A place with a past
2:20 Lunch and a place to rent
6:47 Becoming somebody in Pompeii
11:35 The bakery behind the bread
15:53 The photograph that isn't a photograph
19:17 Five stops, five different lives
20:52 Letting Pompeii live

Sources and further reading: Archaeological Park of Pompeii, A Guide to the Pompeii Excavations; Park of Pompeii, Thermopolium of Regio V; Pompeii bakery excavation report (2023); Archaeological Park of Pompeii, Regio V excavation press kit; Park of Pompeii, Julia Felix; Park of Pompeii, tomb of Marcus Venerius Secundio; Augustus, Res Gestae, sections 32–35 and appendix; Pilli et al., Ancient DNA and Pompeii casts (2024); Pliny the Younger, Letters 6.16; Max Planck Institute: Pompeii DNA findings (2024)

Corrections: [email protected]; please include episode and timestamp.

An angry crowd throws bread at an emperor. Clara and Felix follow the grain from distant fields to Rome: ships, storms, harbours, public shares and the people who turn a supply line into dinner.

With Clara and Felix. Two-host edition.

Content note: Discussion of exclusion, forced removal and enslaved labour; no graphic description.

Chapters
0:00 An unusually direct review
0:46 A loaf with a very long journey
1:06 Food doesn't move because you want it to
2:24 The harvest isn't the delivery
7:09 A sea with its own opinions
12:53 Who gets a share?
17:26 The harbour doesn't cancel the weather
19:30 The hands behind the loaf
20:42 Dinner, power and the next city

Sources and further reading: Suetonius, Life of Claudius; Simon Keay, The port system of Imperial Rome; Tacitus, Annals 15.1-22; Paul Erdkamp, The Grain Market in the Roman Empire (2005), chapter 4; Augustus, Res Gestae, sections 25–31; Suetonius, Life of Augustus; Augustus, Res Gestae, sections 14–18; Seneca, Moral Letters 77; Michele Renee Salzman, The Falls of Rome, chapter 1 excerpt; Augustus, Res Gestae, sections 1–7; Modern shipping comparison: UNCTAD, Review of Maritime Transport 2025

Corrections: [email protected]; please include episode and timestamp.

Augustus said he gave Rome back. Clara and Felix ask who kept the armies, why the old job titles survived, and how a powerful man became a lasting system. A friendly conversation about the first emperor, the people who supported him, and the costs of stability.

With Clara and Felix. Two-host edition.

Content note: Discussion of civil war, proscriptions, conquest and enslavement; no graphic description.

Chapters
0:00 The man who gave power back
0:45 Meet Clara and Felix
1:07 One man, three names
2:52 A teenager enters a dangerous game
7:14 Keeping the passwords
12:12 Stability you could actually feel
18:32 The family question
20:57 Three questions to keep
22:17 Beyond the title

Sources and further reading: Augustus, Res Gestae, sections 32–35 and appendix; Cassius Dio, Roman History 53; Suetonius, Life of Augustus; Nandini B. Pandey, The Poetics of Power in Augustan Rome (2018), chapter 1; Augustus, Res Gestae, sections 1–7; Tacitus, Annals 1.1-15; Augustus, Res Gestae, sections 25–31; Augustus, Res Gestae, sections 14–18; Augustus, Res Gestae, sections 8–13; Augustus, Res Gestae, sections 19–24; Metropolitan Museum, Augustan Rule (27 BCE-14 CE); Modern comparison: HBO, Succession

Corrections: [email protected]; please include episode and timestamp.

Meet Clara and Felix, your guides to Rome Beneath the Marble. Warm conversations, surprising details and big questions about the Roman Empire: emperors, bread, Pompeii, birthday invitations, arenas and gold. Start with How to Become Emperor Without Calling Yourself King, then follow the show for the next story.