This course will give you an insight in the world of the Roman emperors. In the late first century BC, Rome transitioned from a republic, where no man could rule Rome by themselves, to an empire. In doing so, Rome experienced a period of unprecedented success and innovation. Yet, this coincided with the rule of some of the most tyrannical and brutal emperors history has seen.
In many cases, they were no more brutal than they were mad. They would be a tabloid’s dream today, and some of the stories are scarcely believable. Our journey will introduce us to a range of characters, such as the emperor who tried to make his horse a consul and a mother who poisoned the emperor to get her son to power.
This will take us through arguably the most prosperous, but at times, the most tumultuous, period of Rome’s history, all the way to the fall of the Empire.
I am a classics graduate from the University of Exeter with a keen interest in Roman history. At university, I focused on Suetonius’s accounts of the Roman emperors and the Athenian Empire.
