Episode CLXXXIII - Philippics

How did Octavius become Octavian? We trace what we know of Octavius’ early life in Rome during a tumultuous era of violence and civil conflict, through to Julius Caesar's unexpected adoption of a perennially sickly teenager. Come and see a live recording of the Emperors of Rome p ...  Show more

Before Augustus reached his great heights as Emperor, before he was even Octavian, he was Giaus Octavius, born to a relatively humble family and giving no indication of the greatness he would achieve. While his father had a reasonably successful political and military career, it’ ...  Show more

Caesar Octavian, Mark Antony, Decimus Brutus and Cicero: the Battle of Mutina, April 43 BC, was a clash of giants. It also became the beginning of the end for one of Ancient Rome’s greatest orators, Cicero. For this episode, Steele Brand came back to take Tristan through the batt ...  Show more

Marcus Tullius Cicero is one of the most famous orators in ancient history, and a central figure during the final years of the Roman Republic.

To explore his life and career, Tristan is joined by Dr Henriette van der Blom from the University of Birmingham. Together t ...

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas developed by Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43BC) to support and reinvigorate the Roman Republic when, as it transpired, it was in its final years, threatened by civil wars, the rule of Julius Caesar and the triumvirates that followed. As Con ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the speeches that became a byword for fierce attacks on political opponents. It was in the 4th century BC, in Athens, that Demosthenes delivered these speeches against the tyrant Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, when Philip appe ...  Show more