Back with Being Roman ...... with Mary Beard ... the whistleblower

Now I am a great fan of the Roman historian Mary Beard, and so I was pleased to see she is back on Radio 4 with a new series on Being Roman.*

Artemidorus, Hawara, Egypt, second century

It is a series which explores the lives of what we might call "ordinary" Romans.

"Beneath starched Shakespearean togas and the pungent fug of gladiator sweat there are real Romans waiting to be discovered. To know what it was to be Roman you need to gather the scattered clues until they form a living, breathing human, witness to the highs and horrors of Europe’s greatest empire.

Mary Beard, Britain’s best-selling historian of the ancient world, rebuilds the lives of six citizens of the Roman Empire, from a poet to a squaddie. 

Her investigations reveal death and deceit on the Nile and the art of running a Roman pub, but it’s the thoughts and feelings of individual Romans she’s really interested in.

It's 61CE. The rebellion of Boudicca has finally been quashed, but London and other Roman cities lie in ruins. A new finance officer for the province, Gaius Julius Classicianus arrives, to face an enormous recovery job. 

Standing in his way is the Governor, busy exacting terrible reprisals from the local population. Classicianus does what brave subordinates have done ever since. 

Boudicca. London

He whistle-blows – writing to the emperor to remove the Governor from British shores. The stage is set for an imperial face-off. For the people of Britain, the stakes could not be higher.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

Expert Contributors: Matthew Nicholls, University of Oxford and Michael Marshall, Museum of London Archaeology

Cast: Tacitus played by Robert Wilfort

Translations by Mary Beard

Special thanks to the British Museum"*

Models of Roman soldiers, 1974

Picture; portrait of Artemidorus, Hawara, Egypt, second century, British Museum, taken from cover image  of the Poems of Catullus, Penguin Classics, 1968, statue of Boudicca, from the collection of Stephen Hall, models of Roman soldiers, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Being Roman, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_fourfm