Category: Classical Antiquity

Dr. Sarah Bond, Roanoke, Virginia native and author of the hit book Strike: Labor, Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire, stopped by the podcast to talk about how people engaged in collective action in Antiquity. In addition to discussing how Roman workers engaged in actions that are similar to the modern labor movement, such as by forming collegia of various types, we cover a lot of topics including why Roanoke is so great, how we should approach the study of history and the power that laborers have. Another topic we get into is how the Roman state restricted collegia and why Christians were persecuted. And if that weren’t enough, we also discuss the Mint Strike during Aurelian’s reign. Not to give away the ending, but as Omar warned us, “You come at the king, you best not miss.”

Your reading assignments include The Great Leveler and Surviving Rome.

The theme music is from Brent Arehart. Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode. Let me know what you think about what we think in the comments, on Bluesky, on Mastodon, on Reddit, or on Instagram.

And never forget that The Classical Antiquity Sidequest is a podcast without end.

Our old friend Dr. Gerrish returned to the podcast to explain how it is that Caesar’s Civil War happened. While we all may know that Caesar and Pompey ended up fighting, we would all probably struggle to explain why that happened. During our interview, Dr. Gerrish explains the factors that led to the war, who ended up on which side and what the result of the war was for the Roman state. We also cover how some Roman elites during this era relied on “the people” as a power base without actually caring about “the people”. Consistent with that, we talk about how Caesar committed lots of crimes and then toppled the Roman state to avoid prosecution for said crimes. Cheerful stuff. In addition, we discuss Dr. Gerrish’s books which I recommend to all of you.

And I also go full “Old Man Yells At Clouds” complaining about the problems created by the Social Media Age. To paraphrase Sideshow Bob, I’m aware of the irony of utilizing social media in order to decry it, so don’t bother pointing that out.

Your reading assignment is the Robin Waterfield translation of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations.

The theme music is from Brent Arehart. Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode. Let me know what you think about what we think in the comments.

And never forget that The Classical Antiquity Sidequest is a podcast without end.

After our episode with Dr. Nat Katz on Roman regime change, I wanted to learn more about the Roman state’s governmental structures. That led me to an excellent article by Dr. Benjamin Straumann about whether Rome had a constitution. After reading it, I reached out to Dr. Straumann to see if he would be willing to discuss the idea of Rome’s constitution and, fortunately, he agreed to. The result is an episode covering whether Rome had a constitution, the ways in which Rome’s leaders expressed constitutional norms and how the framework of Rome’s constitution came into existence.

We also discuss the concept of a “constitutional crisis”, which is a term that is used a lot but is probably not well-defined and is imprecisely utilized. Turns out Dr. Straumann wrote a book on the subject which I would recommend to you.

Your reading assignments include The Constitution of the Roman Republic and The Roman Republic in Political Thought (Millar).

The theme music is from Brent Arehart. Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode. Let me know what you think about what we think in the comments.

And never forget that The Classical Antiquity Sidequest is a podcast without end.