The Roman Republic

In the early years of the twentieth century, long before James Bond stepped onto the page, one man was at work as a new kind of spy. He crossed borders as easily as he changed names, slipped between governments and criminal networks, and dealt in secrets that could mobilise armie ...  Show more

The story of Franco’s rise to power and the painful, repressive regime he oversaw is fundamentally interlinked with that of the Spanish Civil War. A brutal three-year conflict that laid bare the ideological divisions of interwar Europe, it drew support from fascist governments ac ...  Show more

Politician, writer, warrior, lover... Julius Caesar was the dictator-for-life who became the absolute ruler of Rome and its domains. His life was a series of extraordinary and gruesome adventures. The young student kidnapped by pirates. The general who butchered the people of Gau ...  Show more

On the Ides of March, 44 BC, the most famous Roman in history was murdered. Julius Caesar’s killers hoped to save the Republic, but in the end they destroyed it. In the six episodes of Caesar: Death of a Dictator, Rob Attar is joined by a group of expert historians to revisit the ...  Show more

Caesar departs Egypt with his lover, Cleopatra, secure on the throne. After crushing Pompey’s allies, he returns to Rome. His rule proves popular with the masses. But senators grow concerned by his increasing megalomania. With the Ides of March approaching, conspirators hatch an ...  Show more

March 15th 44BC is perhaps the most notorious date in all of ancient history. On that fateful day, the Ides of March, 55-year-old Roman dictator Gaius Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of disaffected senators.

In this episode, Tristan (with a little help from ...