Daisy Dunn on Marcus Agrippa, ancient Rome's king of cement
Great Lives
BBC
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a Roman general best known for his military victories, but he also helped rebuild Rome, providing aqueducts, statues and the original Pantheon. Nominating him is Dr Daisy Dunn, author of The Missing Thread, who dubs him ancient Rome's king of cement. Joining her is Dr Shushma Malik from Cambridge University who throws light on the man who won the battle of Actium and was for many years second in command to the emperor Augustus.
The programme is presented by historian Helen Carr and was produced in Bristol by Miles Warde.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
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| 0:16.0 | It's been an incredible story with these drugs. |
| 0:18.1 | The uptake, the amount of product that's been sold, the amount of money |
| 0:21.2 | is cost. What the drugs do, how they work, and the knock-on effects of their widespread use. |
| 0:26.5 | We'll be sitting here in three years' time going, oh, it caused problems that we're now going |
| 0:31.3 | to have to fix. The Hunger Game with me, Professor Gilesio. Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:40.9 | Today. me, Professor Gilesio. Listen first on BBC Sounds. Today, we've gone back to ancient Rome |
| 0:43.5 | to discuss a man known for his military victories |
| 0:46.2 | and his engineering triumphs. |
| 0:48.9 | His name? |
| 0:50.0 | Well, he's a character in I. Claudius, |
| 0:52.5 | the HBO series Rome, |
| 0:54.4 | and he's featured in multiple documentaries about forgotten heroes of the ancient world. |
| 1:00.0 | Marcus! |
| 1:02.5 | Oh, it's been too long, too long. |
| 1:06.0 | Well, he's been chosen by Dr. Daisy Dunn, author most recently of The Missing Thread. Tell us, Daisy, |
| 1:12.9 | who is your great life? Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. And he is sort of rather a hero of mine, |
| 1:20.6 | I have to say, and I confess I have quite a weakness for 2,000-year-old Romans. But Marcus |
| 1:26.1 | Agrippa is up there on my list of definitive people |
| 1:29.4 | who really shaped the Rome that I know and I love. But I remember having this particular sort of |
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