Arve podcast listeners. Every now and then on the Emperors of Rome podcast, we decide to do a deep dive into an important text, analyze it chapter by chapter, and make it its own mini-series.

The limited run, available to supporters only, and you can get access through crowdfunding.

What you're about to hear is the first episode of a mini-series on the Gomania, a look at the ancient text by Tacitus.

It will run anywhere from between six to eight episodes, depending on the support, and it will get both interesting and quite nerdy, even by our standards.

If you'd like to listen to the entire thing, you can find the Gamania campaign on Kickstarter,

and there will be a link on our Facebook page and the show notes for this episode.

Thanks. I hope you enjoy.

Arve and welcome to Emperors of Rome, a Roman history podcast with Matt Smith and Rianne Evans.

This is episode C-C-C-L-V-I, Germania.

Tacitus's Germania is one of the most fascinating, strange and surprisingly modern texts to survive from the ancient world.

Part ethnographic survey, part moral provocation, part geopolitical warning.

It describes the tribes living along Rome's northern frontier.

Their customs, their gods, their warriors, their women,

and their stubborn refusal to become Roman.

Here's Riannon Evans.

We're talking today about a text that has been used in really egregious and outright racist way.

And there's a lot going on in the world that it might sort of set off anxious or traumatic feelings for you.

Two massive wars going on in the world at the moment.

Some of what we're discussing touches on anti-Semitism.

So I do want to shed carefully here.

I don't want to overstate this.

Most of what we're going to be talking about is an ancient text, but towards the end,

...