005- Trials and Tribunlations

In 451 BC a committee was ordered to compile and then condense Roman law into a single text called the Twelve Tables of Law. Despite tyrannical machinations by the committee, the Twelve Tables secured an objective rule of law for all Roman citizens regardless of wealth or class. 

Cincinnatus was famously appointed dictator of Rome in 458 BC and then resigned soon after, securing his place in history as a paradigm of republican virtue. 

A generation before Julius Caesar etched his name into the history books, Republican Rome was dominated by two larger than life personalities, Marius and Sulla. To understand the world Julius Caesar was born into, you need to understand the great feud between these ...

Haroon al Rashid divided his realm among his children, and the young men were quickly goaded into conflict with one another by their advisors. The unexperienced princes found the underlying tensions simply too powerful to overcome. But the predictability of war was upended by its ...  Show more

We take a look at the pros and cons of the Komnenian system. Then trace why it was causing enough resentment to lead to provincial separatism.We then move on to discuss the army and the bureaucracy and the people of Constantinople. Looking at how each was affecting political stab ...  Show more

Now that we’ve covered Haroon al Rashid’s foreign wars, we can get started with the messy conflicts which took place within the umma, and within his administration itself. The caliphate’s distant west slowly broke away during his reign, but his armies faced off and defeated vario ...  Show more