Hello,

folks, Dan Snow here.

I am throwing a party to celebrate 10 years of Dan Snow's history hit.

I'd love for you to be there.

Join me for a very special live recording of the podcast in London,

in England on the 12th of September to celebrate the 10 years.

You can find out more about it and get tickets with the link in the show notes.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's history hits. Today, I'm talking about Rome. Rome, the empire,

but Rome also the idea, the idea that's haunted us ever since its disappearance, which happened in the

western part of Europe in the 5th century, a subject of lively debate. We also talk about on

this podcast on other episodes. Rome has proved to be an irresistible force. It's drawn in.

It's like a tractor beam for would-bees Caesars, whether it's England's Plantagenet kings,

Charlemagne, of course, who set himself up as an emperor, holy Roman emperor, the Ottomans in the east,

and even up to the more recently the Caesars and the Tsars, both of those words derived from Caesar. There's been something about their military might,

something about the universality of their empire, the conformity, I think, of their bureaucracy,

of their religion, their roads, their fortifications that led subsequent generations of

empire builders to sort of hanker for Rome.

And they always saw themselves, by the way, needless to say, as that ruling dominant Roman class,

rather than feeling any empathy for the conquered peoples of the empire.

Our Roman past here in Britain is very visible. It's visible

on our road layout, the way we still move around this country, our cities where we live,

...