All podcasts lead to Rome.
January 2, 2009 3:01 PM   Subscribe

The History of Rome A breezily-told, yet surprisingly thorough podcast covering the entire history of Rome from Aeneas onward. 15 minute episodes, updated weekly, he's currently up to the Catiline Conspiracy of 62BC.
posted by empath (35 comments total) 145 users marked this as a favorite
 
Awesome! I've been wanting to get some more info on early Rome, this may be the ticket!
posted by Science! at 3:20 PM on January 2, 2009


Sweet sweet sweet. Many thanks, empath!
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 3:47 PM on January 2, 2009


Excellent! Here's the direct iTunes link, by the way.
posted by Kattullus at 3:52 PM on January 2, 2009


Very interesting! Thanks!
posted by gomichild at 3:53 PM on January 2, 2009


Thanks for the iTunes link; very helpful.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 4:10 PM on January 2, 2009


Been listening for a few weeks now and the entire thing is quality.
posted by josher71 at 4:18 PM on January 2, 2009


I like.
posted by absalom at 4:19 PM on January 2, 2009


Well, I'll be suckled by a she-wolf!
posted by Abiezer at 4:23 PM on January 2, 2009 [6 favorites]


Greatness, thanks. It reminds me of a cool Byzantine podcast I listened to once upon a time.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 4:30 PM on January 2, 2009


Ooh! This sounds great! Thanks!
posted by brundlefly at 4:36 PM on January 2, 2009


Extremely informative, but not nearly as many naked breasts as in HBO's ROME, so I'll call it a tie.
posted by Justinian at 4:54 PM on January 2, 2009 [2 favorites]


This is cool. Anyone know of something similar on the early history of Britain?
posted by grubi at 4:58 PM on January 2, 2009


How auspicious. (My new Touch was waiting on my doorstep when I got home.) Thanks!
posted by weebil at 5:02 PM on January 2, 2009


My favorite anecdote in the series so far is Scipio Africanus and Hannibal dining together at the palace of Antiochus in Syria after the Punic wars were over, reminiscing and discussing who was the greatest general of all time.

Another blogger posted the exchange here.
posted by empath at 5:06 PM on January 2, 2009


If you're into Rome and the Punic wars, check out the 3 excellent episodes of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History Podcast. Awesome!
posted by blue_beetle at 5:29 PM on January 2, 2009 [2 favorites]


I may have to take back certain a certain comment.
posted by caddis at 5:43 PM on January 2, 2009 [2 favorites]


I can second both this and Dan Carlin's Punic War episodes. The rest of Dan Carlin's stuff I haven't really gotten into -- his tone is a little too commercial talk radio -- but he painted a helluva picture of the key battles in the second Punic war. You can almost smell the elephant poop.
posted by condour75 at 6:07 PM on January 2, 2009


The History of The Byzantine Empire. 12 Rulers in 12 podcasts. Has a ton of good reviews, pro quality. Probably in MeFi archives under a different URL.
posted by stbalbach at 6:17 PM on January 2, 2009


I must say, it's amazing that such quality podcasts are available for free. I agree with stbalbach, btw. The Byzantine History podcast is also excellent.
posted by Cataline at 6:23 PM on January 2, 2009


Man I was bummed when this podcast stopped updating back in April (or so?). We weren't even up to the fall of the republic yet! Glad Mr. Duncan was able to find time to start recording more episodes.
posted by good in a vacuum at 6:31 PM on January 2, 2009


I third the Dan Carlin endorsement.
posted by brundlefly at 6:46 PM on January 2, 2009


Very cool. Thank you for this post.
posted by Flood at 7:05 PM on January 2, 2009


Nice few podcasts links here...anything good on Ancient Egypt these days? King Tut is coming to SF this summer, and I thought it would be a neat winter project. I'm already halfway through Stargate SG-1, though.
posted by troybob at 7:12 PM on January 2, 2009


Wow, awesome! I'm a complete fan of Roman history, and this will be fun listening if it is indeed of the quality people say it is. I'm also a fan of the Byzantine, so I appreciate the links to that, but I really don't separate the Byzantine from the Roman in my mind.
posted by Eekacat at 7:29 PM on January 2, 2009


Very, very cool.
posted by Bookhouse at 8:38 PM on January 2, 2009


Nice, thanks!
That Byzantine programme was so engrossing, I just gobbled it all up. Should probably give it another listen and pace myself this time.

Extremely informative, but not nearly as many naked breasts as in HBO's ROME, so I'll call it a tie.


We'll see about that!

*Downloads podcasts, removes shirt, stands in front of mirror, cries, puts on headphones, cries*
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:54 PM on January 2, 2009 [2 favorites]


started at the beginning, now on episode 15a, and still enjoying.

this is a nerdy friday night I wish I'd had more often-
posted by localhuman at 8:57 PM on January 2, 2009


These podcasts are what gets this history-major-turned-IT-guy through the day. I am glad so many good historians are doing podcasts.
posted by Deep Dish at 9:32 PM on January 2, 2009


I found it! British History Podcast!: http://bh101.wordpress.com/
posted by grubi at 10:37 PM on January 2, 2009 [2 favorites]


Well, there's my weekend at work well spent.
posted by cthuljew at 12:29 AM on January 3, 2009


47 items, 12.7 hours, 349.2 MB

So far ...
posted by RavinDave at 7:28 AM on January 3, 2009


I'm so disappointed. I was really looking forward to these podcasts. But I just tried listening to the first one, and it sounded really stilted -- as if the guy is uncomfortably reading from typed pages (that I could just read myself).

I feel guilty writing this. The guy is doing a service by giving away his hard work for free. But I guess I'm too used to professional (dynamic) readers of Audibe.com and The Teaching Company. The latter -- or maybe it's Portable Professor -- has a course on Roman emperors by a speaker who is really natural and conversational.
posted by grumblebee at 6:36 PM on January 3, 2009


Would it helped if you imagined him reading it wrapped in an old sheet and a wreath placed jauntily on his head?
posted by gomichild at 11:04 PM on January 3, 2009 [1 favorite]


grumblebee: At episode 10 (Barbarians at the gate) the audio quality goes up quite a bit, and it no longer sounds like he's recording in his kitchen. That may or may not make a difference for you. His reading style does not change, but I find the later episodes more pleasant to listen to.
posted by Anything at 2:23 PM on January 4, 2009


I sat and knitted while listening up to episode ten. These are fantastic! And after this, I'll try the Byzantine and British ones, too. Thanks everyone!
posted by bristolcat at 6:41 PM on January 4, 2009


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