107- The Year of the Six Emperors

In 238, a revolt in Africa sparked a revolution in Rome that would eventually lead to six different men claiming the title of Augustus.

Update: Episode 107...now with fewer typos and audio glitches! Thanks for being so on the ball everyone.

107- The Year of the Six Emperors

Comments

[ZZ]

Oh God. What are the chances I can keep up with what happens in THIS episode. Pretty slim probably, but here goes...

[Luise (Tasmania,Australia)]

Hello All,
I'm up to this part in Gibbon and Herodian, it's actually very exciting, the story of power, corruption, love, hate, envy, suspicion, betrayal, murder and intrigue...who needs modern soap opera? Even the daily news pales against the tension of these dramas in history. As we're listening to the decline phase, I notice the tactics of the usurpers seems to get more and more desparate and the good men get squeezed out with more brutality, if that is even possible.
Keeping us all breathless with excitement, as usual!

[Simon C]

TYPO! EMPERORS, tired much mike?

[Benjamin]

Something funky is going on with the audio too.

At 0:27 - 0:35 and 1:57 - 2:14 it cuts out and (the) mike sounds really tinny and distant. I'm only those few minutes into the episode and it's happened twice. Maybe it's just my download but it's never happened before.

Anyone else?

[Miguel]

@Benjamin

Same thing is happening to me :(

[rsm]

Just dropped by to note the sound problem during the intro; it's the same times as Benjamin notes, although I'm hearing nothing.

[rsm]

And because sometimes I'm a bit slow...

Thank you for the fix!

I've been looking forward to my Rome fix all weekend.

[Andre]

Emperor inflation gone mad. Another great ep.

[Andrew]

I don't notice the correction on itunes...

[Christine Brown]

Dear Mike,
Discovered your podcasts by accident and am now hooked. The great JC (that is Gaius Julius Caesar) has just become Proconsul so I have many more episodes to enjoy. Thankyou for your incisive, witty broadcasts. Who said history had to be boring? When you have the time - and/or the inclination, Ancient Greek history cries out for your deft handling as well!

[Axel]

Dear Mike
yes there have been other history podcasts, even one about the city I currently live in (Istanbul, ehem Byzanz, ehem Constantinople), but your very endearing and humorous way of guiding us through history means you are clearly the Emperor of emperors in the realm of history podcasts...
Once your tour ends in İstanbul, it would be nice to catch up with you all on my doorstep so to speak

Best wishes

Axel, Istanbul

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=663873744]

I've been a fan of your podcasts from the very beginning. I also recently moved to Austin. Would you consider attending a meet up for local fans?

[Tribonian]

Enjoying the podcast - but will you keep going to the end of the Roman Empire in 1453, or stop with the death of the Western Empire

[gregorian]

Instead of worrying about the Byzantines, a handful of episodes going over what happened in the west after Romulus Augustulus would be cool. Transitions are always interesting.

That century afterwards with King Theodoric as the King of the Romans in Italy, and the rise of the Franks. It's interesting stuff how the Europe changed in that time.

[Andrew]

Would it be possible to fix the itunes edition of this episode as well? Thanks!!!

[Jon Thorsteinsson]

Hello,

Many thanks for an excellent podcast. It has been a trusted companion for many miles during my regular runs.

I thought you might be interested in this story from Discovery about a Roman charioteer that probably was the highest paid athlete in history. http://news.discovery.com/history/roman-charioteers-athletes.html

Best regards from Reykjavik, Iceland
Jon

[Michael Marcinko]

Another great podcast ... What edition of Cassius Dio are you using for your podcast? I would love to read what is left of his works.

[mitch]

this podcast is amazing, i forbid you from finishing with the end of the western empire when the east is still going strong :)

[Dan White]

I've a question. In this podcast you mention that Gordian the First was in the provincial capital of Carthage.

What, what, what?!

When, and why, did the Romans allow Carthage to be rebuilt? Didn't they level that city to the ground and sow the land with salt so that no one could ever live there again? What gives?

[Alex]

I think whats really preventing me from enjoying these podcasts is knowing that they will eventually end and I will have a giant entertainment hole to fill...

[Rebecca van Dorsten]

Just love all the intrigue in this episode and the last few episodes, altough sometime you could see the betrayel coming from a mile away and it keeps you wondering what they were doing, or in on of the last episodes i still can't understand why that guy thought up all the strategy and then just forgets to attack, the could finally be rid of their lifelong enemies. but yeah,
dan white:Carthage was indeed paved to the ground but unlikely couvered in salt>. way to valuable, however caesar augustus ( the adopted one by juliar caesar) rebuilt it, it was originally caesars idea. It got the same name again. In the ens after the vadals conquer it belasaurius the great general of the byzantine empire conquers it, afterwards it just fadesin history and Tunis was built just a few miles next to it

BTw great podcast, i love roman history, to bad i can't join the tour, btw there is a podcast about the byzantyne empire and their most important rulers... it's not a complete story though...

Greetings from the netherlands

[Peyton]

I have listened to all of them and I really like this episode. Most casual Roman histories fudge the 50 years between the Severans and Diocletian. This fills in the blanks nicely. I especially like the part where you discuss Maximinius plan to kill the Senate, the whole disgusting lot of them. Sometimes history is a bit to clinical and this sort of thing peps it up.

[Cheap True Religion Jeans]

philosophers and storytellers, not to argue, but to grope for commonality at the far reaches of their belief systems. The original dialogues, convened by Bohm and Leroy Little Bear (former director of Native Studies at Harvard) in Kalamazoo, Michadf., in 1992, came about because Little Bear, who was well-versed in the developments of quantum physics, realized that Western science had reached the end of linear thought and finally got it: The universe is a living, conscious, interconnected organism.