It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's podcast

we are talking about a battle that has been described as one of the biggest civil war

clashes of ancient Rome. Now this occurred at the start of 1907 AD or CE, whatever takes

your fancy, the traditional date I believe is the 19th of February and this battle occurred

near the modern city of Lyon in France, the Battle of Loup-Dinum, fought between the

forces of Septimai Severus on the one hand and his great foe Claudius Albainus. Now to talk

through this titanic clash, the background and what happened during the battle and its

aftermath, I was delighted to be rejoined by Dr Jonathan Eaton. Jonathan has been on the

show once before to talk about 69 AD and the rise of his patient so it was great to get

him back on the show to talk through the titanic clash of the battle of Loup-Dinum.

Jonathan, great to have you back on the show. Thanks Tristan and thank you again for inviting

me. I'm really excited to talk about this topic which I think is one of those battles

from antiquity which although we often don't discuss it in great detail actually has huge

significance in terms of understanding how the empire itself evolved. Absolutely, this

titanic battle at the end of the second century AD but let's dive into the background first

of all then Jonathan. 31st December 192 AD is the end of 192 AD. The infamous Emperor

of Commoders has just been assassinated. What happens next? It's a time of huge instability

in Imperial Rome and throughout Roman history and since the dawning of the empire under

Augustus the peak crisis periods have always been when a dynasty comes to an end because

at that moment it throws into the open the relative challenges and paradoxes that exist

within the Imperial system. In particular what Tacitus called in AD 69 the secret of empire

that an emperor could be made elsewhere than in Rome. In other words how the balance of power

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