Many Christians saw in this new system an apostate union between the Church and the Powers of the World. ibid.
Dominic along with Pope Innocent III were the two original founders of Rome’s most dreadful engine – terror and destruction. ibid.
Last six Roman emperors were fags. Playhouse Presents: Nixon’s the One, Sky Arts 2012
Road to Rome, April 193 A.D. – Having declared himself Emperor, Severus moved on Rome with utmost haste ... The outsider was now the most powerful man in the world. The Untold Invasion of Britain, Channel 4 2011
Crippled by age, Severus was carried north. Riding alongside was his son and heir Caracalla. ibid.
York 210 A.D. – This is where Severus came to die ... Britain’s African Emperor died at York 211 A.D. ibid.
Reg: And what have they given us in return? ... I grant you the aqueducts and the sanitation ... All right but apart from the sanitation the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? Monty Python’s Life of Brian 1979 ***** starring Graham Chapman & John Cleese & Terry Gilliam & Eric Idle & Terry Jones & Michael Palin & Kenneth Colley & Neil Innes & Gwen Taylor & Terence barler & Carol Cleveland & Spike Milligan et al, director Terry Jones
The Colosseum: One legend in particular persists: that from time to time this massive stadium was flooded in order that famous sea battles could be re-enacted. Unsolved History s1e13: The Roman Colosseum, Discovery 2002
Only two gladiators would fight at a time. ibid.
So, Christians probably weren’t martyred here, gladiators didn’t always die, the thumbs gesture is a myth, and the place wasn't even called the Colosseum. ibid.
Sea battles were conducted here. ibid.
What was it like for the people, the ordinary Romans? Mary Beard, Meet the Romans I: All Roads Lead to Rome, BBC 2012
So what did the Roman armies bring back from the empire? ibid.
It does bring slaves but it does bring eventually new Roman citizens. ibid.
Almost everyone in Rome was descended from someone arriving from outside. ibid.
Rome ran on olive oil. ibid.
Two hundred thousand of them received free rations from the state. ibid.
Roman culture was in itself an amalgam. ibid.
There was a people’s palace here – the Colosseum. ibid.
Gladiators represented a violent fantasy of the outside world. ibid.
Ancient Rome was once the centre of a vast empire that stretched from Spain to Syria. Mary Beard, Meet the Romans II: Street Life
The world’s first global city. ibid.
It was a chaotic place, rambling and dirty. ibid.
The figure of the rent collector cum bailiff – it’s called extractor in Latin – was one that terrified the Roman poor. ibid.
In their time these tenements must have been the tallest residential buildings on the planet. ibid.
Rome was a rabbit warren. ibid.
This is a Roman communal toilet ... 144 public latrines in downtown Rome. ibid.
An incredibly mixed place. ibid.
Violence was an ever present danger. ibid.
But also teenage pregnancies, abandoned babies, drunken housewives, runaway slaves, ménage à trois, and a very nasty case of domestic violence … Mary Beard, Meet the Romans III: Behind Closed Doors
Romans’ homes came in just as many shapes and sizes as their relationships. ibid.
At least half the kids wouldn’t have lived till they were ten. ibid.
Schools: only for the well off and only for the boys. ibid.
One third might have been slaves ... Even some slaves had slaves. ibid.
Caligula was just twenty-eight years old. He had been in power for less than four years. Caligula with Mary Beard, BBC 2013
How much of his story is true? ibid.
The closer you were to power, the harder it was to survive. ibid.
Roman power had now become a family business. ibid.
It was said he turned his palace into a brothel. ibid.
Perhaps the most damning story was Caligula’s incest. ibid.
He insisted on being worshipped as a god in his own lifetime. ibid.
All they got was more of the same. ibid.
The story of the Roman empire opens with a fairytale … A princess gave birth to twin sons … They went on to found Rome … The centre of an empire stretching from the fringes of the Sahara to the damp moorlands of Northern Britain. From Spain to Israel, the Nile to the Rhine. Mary Beard’s Ultimate Rome, BBC 2016
How did it work? What difference did it make? Why did the empire eventually fall? And how did it come about in the first place? ibid.
Carthage was wiped from the Earth. ibid.
It was thanks to Greece that Rome started to become full of marble columns, elegant statues and objects d’art. ibid.
What shape would that one-man rule take? ibid.
One you’ve got an empire, what do you do with it? And what did it feel like to be part of it? Mary Beard’s Ultimate Rome II
It’s through the leftovers of the Roman world … that we can see how the Roman empire works. ibid.
One of the first examples of globalisation – this is the Roman brand. Through its roads and sea-routes, the Roman brand spread throughout the empire. ibid.
Citizenship – and their ability to turn people not from Rome into fully fledged Romans. Mary Beard’s Ultimate Rome III
An outsider could become Roman if he served twenty-odd years in the Roman army. ibid.
London was a brand-new Roman city. ibid.
They went on being Greek under Rome. ibid.
One of the biggest puzzles about the Roman Empire has always been what caused its decline and fall. Mary Beard’s Ultimate Rome IV
Temples were everywhere, so why did they need so many? … Temples are public reminders of the gods’ support for the Roman state. ibid.
A series of rival powers … were more likely to be restoring the monuments of the Roman past … The cultural hegemony of Rome remained. ibid.
The conversation we can still have with the Romans … Rome still matters. ibid.
He is perhaps the most famous ancient Roman of them all. When his name is mentioned we think power, victory and betrayal … Mary Beard, Julius Caesar Revealed, BBC 2018
He took all the power the emperors had … A masterclass in how to be top. ibid.
Caesar left Italy to lead the conquest of Gaul. ibid.
[Caesar] made his fellow politicians back in Rome increasingly nervous. ibid.
Ordinary Romans loved him. He was seen as the anti-establishment candidate. ibid.
Caesar was generous to the Roman people on a spectacular scale. ibid.