The Legacy of Rome

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2023

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

Rome has attracted aspiring conquerors and leaders for millennia, not just as a great metropolis, but as an idea. It has long been a symbol of military might and universal power, defined by political and religious authority as well as great feats of engineering that would leave indelible marks on the regions it conquered, and overshadow empire builders for centuries to come. Dan is joined by Simon Elliott, a historian, archaeologist and author of 'The Legacy of Rome', to discuss how the experience of being part of the Roman world is still felt in the modern day.

This episode was produced by Beth Donaldson and edited by Dougal Patmore.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is sponsored by Audible, where you can now stream the new series of that brilliant Stephen Fry's
0:06.7	Secrets of podcast. It peaks behind the curtain of the 1920s this time. The life and times of the flappers,
0:14.1	police women, radio, the movies, jazz, the British sense of humour,
0:20.3	censorship and the secrets and lies, the financial crash. This is another installment of Stephen Fry that listeners love.
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0:33.5	Subscription required. See audible.co.uk for terms.
0:38.6	Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hits. Today I'm talking about Rome.
0:44.9	Rome, the Empire, but Rome, also the idea. The idea that's haunted us ever since its disappearance, which
0:52.2	happened in the western part of Europe in the fifth century. A subject of lively debate.
0:57.0	We also talk about on this podcast on other episodes. Rome has proved to be an irresistible force.
1:02.6	It's drawn in. It's like a tractor beam for would-be Caesar's, whether it's England's
1:08.4	Plantagenet kings, Charlemagne of course, who set himself up as an emperor,
1:13.4	holy Roman emperor, the Ottomans in the east, and even up to the more recently the caizers and the
1:19.6	zars, both of those words derived from Caesar. There's been something about their military might.
1:28.6	Something about the universality of their empire, the conformity, I think of their bureaucracy,
1:34.3	of their religion, their roads, their fortifications, that led subsequent generations of empire builders
1:42.2	to sort of hanker for Rome. And they always saw themselves by the way, needless to say,
1:47.7	as that ruling dominant Roman class, rather than feeling an empathy for the conquered
1:54.2	peoples of the empire. Our Roman past here in Britain is very visible, it's visible that our
1:59.4	road layout, the way we still move around this country, our cities where we live, our language of
2:05.4	course, but also the fault lines that run through our aisles. I think the fact that Ireland and
2:10.8	Scotland whenever conquered remains very important even in the 21st century. And the same is true
	...

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