Podcasts on Roman History

[Ludovicus]

Podcasts are free audio or video files available on the Internet for you to listen to and/or watch on your computer or on your iPod, iPad, or other hand held device. A podcast can also refer to a series of these audio or video files (similar to how a TV or radio "show" can be a series of shows or just one show). When using the word "podcast", most people refer to the entire series and not just one audio or video file. Lately, universities have begun offering their courses via podcasts.

One of the best sources for high quality podcasts on Rome is iTunes University, available free through the iTunes Store. You need to download the free iTunes browser before ordering any of the podcast lectures. For more on iTunes: http://www.apple.com/itunes/what-is/

 

Here's a series from Santa Clara University in California, History 110, The Roman Republic:

 

http://www.cordinc.com/blog/2010/01/history-110-roman-republic.html

 

Professor Isabelle Pafford from The Ancient Mediterranean World podcasts returns for another series of Ancient History podcasts. This time a course on the Roman Republic given during Fall 2008 at Santa Clara University.

 

There are 19 podcasts - 1 is a slide show video, but the others are audio only. Each podcast is around 50 minutes in length and around 50MB. In the audio podcasts there are often references to slides that are not available online. The course starts with the stories of Rome's foundation along with details of the surrounding area and people, which presumably influenced early Rome. The Roman Kingdom is quickly passed over (perhaps due to a lack of information on the era) for the Roman Republic. Most attention is focussed on the Late Republic, with over half the lectures on the period from the Gracchi to Caesar - around 133BC to 49BC.

 

These lectures are full of engrossing details. There is a bit of historical timeline talk (on this date this happened and on that date that happened), but the series is more about the life and times of ancient Rome. For instance, there is often discussion of the Cursus Honorum (a series of military and administrative positions that provided a semi-formal structure to a political career) and how it affected the way people sought or achieved power. There was also a strong patron-client system, where a person's power could, in part, be measured by the number of clients/followers they had. Thus, manumission was common as freed slaves were typically clients of their previous owner. There is also some interesting consideration of which events are definitely known to have occurred, the fixed-points of history, and those parts of the primary sources that may be apocryphal.

 

Professor Pafford can be an engaging speaker, and it is clear this is an area she knows well. Indeed the extra colour provided as cracks began to appear in the republic had me hooked. It was a classic fight between two political parties, the Optimates and Populares - modern analogies are too easy to make. Although the ability to raise private armies and the tendency of losers to be executed adds an epic scale to proceedings. The final result may be well-known, with Caesar the unlikely Populares triumphing...

Edited September 27, 2010 by Ludovicus