Augustus: Visionary Statesman or Destroyer Of The Republic?

Join this channel to get access to perks, and to gain access to the rest of the series right now:    / @restishistorypod   Episode 2 of this series is available now:    • Tiberius: Rome's Most Underrated Emperor?   The entire playlist of our series on the Emperors of Rome can be shown here:    • Emperors of Rome   The Roman historian Suetonius’ The Lives of the Caesars, written during the early imperial period of the Roman Empire, is a seminal biography covering the biographies of the early emperors of Rome, during two spectacular centuries of Roman history. Delving deep into the personal lives of the caesars and sparing no detail, no matter how prurient, pungent, explicit or salacious, it vividly captures Rome at the peak of her power, and those colourful individuals at the heart of everything. It is an unsettling yet fascinating portrait of the alien and the intimate, that sees some of history’s most famous characters revealed as almost modern men, plotting a delicate line between private and public, respectability and suspicion. From the showmanship of Augustus, the first Caesar, and his convoluted family melodramas, to Tiberius, a monster in the historical record famed for his sexual misdeeds, to Caligula, who delighted in voyeuristic moral degeneracy, and the looming shadow of Nero; all will be revealed… Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Editor: Tabby Syrett Social Producer: Harry Balden Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor 00:00 A humble plug from Tom 02:55 The most spectacular 2 centuries in Roman history 05:25 The value of Suetonius as a biographer 08:43 Suetonius’ interest in the love lives of the Ceasars 12:58 Suetonius influence on popular culture 16:15 Augustus: Rome’s greatest actor 21:25 Roman politics as spectacle 21:55 Augustus as the model of a good emperor 24:30 What kind of monarchy was this? 28:00 The life of Suetonius 35:52 How did Roman histories work? 39:04 Why Romans had no idea of privacy 40:05 Did Roman emperors sexual misdemeanours matter 42:08 How we see sexual relations different to the Romans