When Caesar had entered the chamber he was surrounded by about 20 conspirators who stabbed him to death. ibid.
The day that Octavian made his devastating final move on Mark Antony as the two of them struggled for mastery of a superpower: Octavian’s final victory would see him hailed as Augustus, the name by which he would rule Rome as her first emperor. Bettany Hughes, Eight Days that Made Rome e4: Rome’s First Emperor
Rome was being dragged into a destructive civil war. ibid.
Octavian and Antony now had the cash to recruit a serious fighting force and wipe out the last of their enemies. ibid.
Octavian knew this was his chance to become sole ruler. He made sure that Antony was stripped of his political titles, and then pushed for all out war in Egypt and Queen Cleopatra. ibid.
9th June 68 A.D. when Rome’s imperial dynasty came to an end with the pitiful death of a depraved and power-obsessed emperor: Nero. Bettany Hughes, Eight Days that Made Rome e6: The Downfall of Nero
Nero’s first speech to Rome’s senators was written by Seneca and promised a reign marked by modesty and restraint. ibid.
His own disturbing character began to emerge driving Rome into a political crisis that would ultimately end with his own death. ibid.
80 A.D. when a desperate emperor Titus unveiled the greatest monument in the history of Rome – the Coliseum. Bettany Hughes, Eight Days that Made Rome e7: Theatre of Death
Titus and Domitian were the beneficiaries of a bold power grab by their father Vespasian. ibid.
The seating plan was an incarnation of Roman society. ibid.
This grand temple to testosterone. ibid.
This is the day in 337 A.D. when the dying emperor Constantine was baptised in a final commitment to a new religion that would shape the next thousand years of Rome’s story and human history. Bettany Hughes, Eight Days that Made Rome e8: The Rebirth of Rome
His devastating victory at the Milvian Bridge meant he [Constantine] became the sole emperor of the western half of the Empire. The grand prize, Rome, was his. ibid.
Social justice was now on his imperial agenda. ibid.
The East had been brought together by an emperor called Licinius. But Constantine’s ambition couldn’t allow for a rival, so he’d need a pretext to go to war with another Roman co-ruler … They fought for eight years. ibid.
People all across the empire are celebrating the peace and the prosperity that Rome brought them, and they celebrate that by worshipping the Roman emperor as divine. He is called God, he is called son of God, he is called Lord, Redeemer, and all of those of course titles that are given to Jesus by the first Christians. Jonathan L Reed & John Dominic Crossan
They say when in Rome do as the Romans do. But in the history of the ancient world what exactly did the Romans do? Professor Richard Miles, The Ancient World V: Republic of Virtue, BBC 2010
What Rome managed to achieve had never been done before: it created a civilisation for export. ibid.
Rome didn’t merely conquer the world: it transformed it. ibid.
The legend of Romulus and Remus is revelatory. Romans clearly liked to see themselves from the School of Hard Knocks. ibid.
In 485 B.C. the Senate and the people had a falling out. ibid.
Law was one of the great building blocks of the Roman civilisation. ibid.
In this fluid social world everything is possible. ibid.
The Romans were armed lawyers whose instinct was to get and to hold territory. ibid.
Nothing could save Carthage; it took three years of brutal siege and in the end the city fell to Scipio. ibid.
The Romans were now the master of their universe. ibid.
The murder of the Gracci [brothers] was the original sin of the Roman Republic. ibid.
The burglars who came after – the ones we know so well – Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar – these would be the Republic’s undertakers. ibid.
Rome was now far more than just a Republic – it also had a huge empire. The complex system that was SPQR was as out of date as Cicero’s coalition of good men. The problem was the Roman Republic simply wasn’t designed to manage the great empire. ibid.
Julius Caesar was the one who saw most clearly what Rome needed – a benign autocrat aided and abetted by a tame Senate. But he famously crossed the Rubicon. ibid.
There was another solution: autocracy hidden beneath the thin veneer of a restored Republic. But to convince Roman people to give up many of their political freedoms in exchange for peace was going to take every ounce of Octavian’s political genius. With the help of a change of name the Emperor Augustus, formally known as Octavian, would transform Rome from a republic into the greatest empire the world had ever known. It would dominate the Western World for another five hundred years, only to be challenged by a new religious cult: Christianity. ibid.
The Roman Empire was the most successful the world had ever known. With its peak in the Second Century A.D. it covered five million square miles. From Hadrian’s Wall in the north to ancient Mesopotamia in the east. All of it run by a system of remarkable efficiency and stability. They called it Pax Romana – the Roman Peace. And its benefits were enjoyed by sixty million people. Professor Richard Miles, The Ancient World VI, City of Man, City of God
This mighty Empire would endure some mad, bad, dangerous emperors. ibid.
Emperors: and as you can see they come in various shapes and sizes. One of the interesting things about the Empire is that it often didn’t seem to matter what the man at the top was like – he could be mad, bad and dangerous – the Empire just carried on regardless. ibid.
The system was remarkably efficient and streamlined. The whole of the Empire was administered by just ten thousand of these bureaucrats. Modern Britain has half a million. ibid.
When it came to Religion the Romans were not fundamentalists ... In spiritual matters the Empire was like a sponge, absorbing foreign gods as readily as it had gobbled up foreign territory. ibid.
This weakness would be exposed and exploited by an obscure Jewish sect that began in the Roman province of Judea, and the execution of an unorthodox religious leader ... Christianity would go on to become the official religion of Rome and a major contributor to its downfall. The cult’s extraordinary growth began after the Jewish revolt of 66 A.D. and the destruction of the High Temple in Jerusalem by Titus, the son of the Roman emperor. ibid.
Constantine – always ready to give God the benefit of the doubt – showed his gratitude a year later by passing an edict of toleration granting Christians freedom of worship throughout the Empire. A decade later when Constantine emerged as sole Emperor the obscure messianic cult from Judea really came in from the cold. Constantine demonstrated his commitment to Christianity with hard cash. ibid.
In many ways the Roman Empire represents the zenith of ancient civilisation. It’s values had taken route throughout its far-flung territories. ibid.
Christianity spread. Its teachings touched the conscience of the most powerful man on Earth. Invited in from the cold, Christianity is to be enthroned as a religious and political force without compare. Michael Portillo, Christianity: A History s1e2: Rome, Channel 4 2009
Historians and churchmen have for centuries debated whether Constantine’s conversion was more political than sincere. We’re still guessing. ibid.
Rome: headquarters of the most powerful religious organisation in history. It all started 1,700 years ago when a pagan Roman Emperor Constantine had a vision, welcomed and converted to Christianity into his might empire. ibid.
312 A.D.: the Roman Emperor Constantine leads an army against a rival for the throne. At stake the future of the Roman empire ... Constantine adopts Christianity and begins to defeat the enemy. Rivals of Jesus, 2006
At the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. Constantine solidifies the Christian Church and makes it a single hierarchy with himself as leader. Constantine and his hand-picked Bishops will determine which gospels are considered sacred and which will be forbidden. Constantine makes Christianity legal. ibid.
No-one even knows where he came from ... He and his wife were seized and taken to the slave market in Rome. Spartacus: Warriors, BBC 2009
Spartacus would become known as the man who fought back ... But most of all he was a slave who took on the might of Rome to be free. ibid.
313 A.D.: Constantine would sign the Edict of Milan granting tolerance and protection to Christians. A Lamp in the Dark: The Untold History of the Bible, 2009
If Constantine were a true believer, how could he turn and persecute other Christians? ibid.