Arvee listeners, if you want to see myself and Rianna and record a live episode of

Emperor of Rome on stage, then now is your chance. On the 22nd of November, in

Melbourne Australia at the Wheeler Center, we'll be discussing Cleopatra, her life, her rural, and her relationship with

both Caesar and Mark Anthony. You can the rulers of the ancient Roman Empire.

I'm your host Matt Smith and with me as always is Dr.

Rianna Evans, a lecturer in ancient Mediterranean studies at Latrobe University.

This is episode L-V-I-I-I-I-Tass.

If you've listened to the vast majority of the early episodes of Emperor of Rome,

you'll know that Tacitus is a renowned Roman historian.

He was one of our most reliable sources for information on the early emperors, so now we discuss his life and work directly.

He is Rianna Evans.

Tacitus is one of the most important Roman historians that we have due to his extensive

writings on the Giulio-Claudean and the Flavian periods.

Tacitus was also a senator and he became a consul and he actually

worked his way up into the senatorial rank because he was born in the

equestrian rank. So he's somebody who's clearly very important in Roman politics, but also he doesn't just have a

sideline in history. He's known even while he's alive as a really significant and great writer.

So people want to talk to Tacitus.

He's sort of a literary star of his times.

We've got a fair bit that Tacitus has written and we've discussed this to some extent in earlier

podcast and we'll discuss it a bit later.

But as far as facts about his life, we know surprisingly little, don't we?

...