Ever wondered why the Romans were defeated in the Tudorburg forest?

What secrets lie buried in prehistoric Ireland?

Or what made Alexander truly great?

With a subscription to history hit, you can explore our ancient past alongside the world's leading historians and archaeologists.

You'll also unlock hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a brand new release every single week covering everything from the ancient world to World War II.

Just visit history hit.com slash subscribe.

Hello, I hope you're doing well. I'm all good here. I'm currently in my kitchen brewing a cup of tea, English breakfast tea, just before I'm about to

go off and record another ancient's interview, which is all about Mesoamerica, and that's

going to be coming out in a few weeks' time, so stay tuned for that one. Today, we are in the ancient

Mediterranean world. We're going to Imperial Rome, and the story of Rome's second emperor, the emperor Tiberius, who's quite an infamous figure

today, as you're going to hear, quite a complex character. Our guest is a good friend of

mine and a fantastic classicist and author who was also recently on the podcast to talk through

the story of Anthony and Cleopatra. She is, of course, Dr. Daisy

Dunn, the beloved Daisy, who I know so many of you wanted more episodes with, and we are

delivering. I really do hope you enjoy. Let's go.

Let's go. The year is 14 AD, and the much-loved Emperor Augustus, the man who established to the Roman Empire,

is dead at the ripe old age of 75. A new figure steps into the power vacuum, his grim and

taciturn stepson, Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus. Now ancient historians paint a portrait

of Tiberius as a man in slow, agonizing decline. We're going to trace his path from a brilliant

general and statesman to a paranoid tyrant

retreating to his palatial fortress on the island of Capri.

The place that gave birth to horrific legends of perversions, cold-blooded executions,

...