The Roman Republic

In Our Time: History

BBC

History

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2004

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise and eventual downfall of the Roman Republic which survived for 500 years.Around 550 BC, Lucretia, the daughter of an aristocrat, was raped by the son of Tarquin, the King of Rome. Lucretia told her family what had happened to her and then in front of them, killed herself from shame. The Roman historian Livy describes what was believed to have happened next:"Brutus, while the others were absorbed in grief; drew out the knife from Lucretia's wound, and holding it up, dripping with gore, exclaimed, "By this blood, most chaste until a prince wronged it, I swear, and I take you, gods, to witness, that I will pursue Lucius Tarquinius Superbus and his wicked wife and all his children, with sword, with fire, aye with whatsoever violence I may; and that I will suffer neither them nor any other to be king in Rome!". The King was duly expelled from the city and the Roman Republic was founded and lasted for 500 years. But in what form did this republic evolve, what were its values and ideals and what ultimately caused the end of the world’s first true experiment in constitutional government?With Greg Woolf, Professor of Ancient History at St Andrews University; Catherine Steel, Lecturer in Classics at the University of Glasgow; Tom Holland, historian and author of Rubicon: the Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading the Inartime podcast. For more details about Inartime and for our terms of use
0:05.4	Please go to bbc.co.uk forward slash radio for I hope you enjoy the program
0:11.5	Hello around 550 BC Lucretia the daughter of an aristocrat was raped by the son of Tarquin the king of Rome
0:19.3	Lucretia told her family what had happened to her and then in front of them killed herself from shame
0:25.3	The Roman historian Livy describes what was believed have happened next
0:30.1	Brutus while the others were absorbed in grief drew out the knife from Lucretia's wound and holding it up dripping with gaw
0:37.0	exclaimed by this blood most chased until a prince wronged it
0:40.9	I swear and I take you gods to witness that I will pursue
0:45.4	Lucius Tarquinius superbus and his wicked wife and all his children with sword with fire
0:51.2	I with whatsoever violence I may and that I will suffer neither them nor any other to be king in Rome
0:58.2	The king was duly expelled from the city and the Roman Republic was founded and lasted for five hundred years
1:04.2	There were to be no more kings
1:06.4	But in what formed a disrepublic evolve what reached values and ideals and what ultimately caused the end of the world's first
1:13.8	plausible experiment in constitutional government when we to discuss the ideals of the Roman Republic is Greg Wolf
1:19.9	Professor of ancient history it's in Anders University Catherine steel lecturer in classics at the University of Glasgow and Tom Holland
1:27.0	Historian and author of Rubicon the triumph and tragedy of the Roman Republic Greg. Well, can you
1:33.2	Tell us about Tarquin and how the Roman Republic is said to have come into being in the first place
1:41.0	Romans believed that the Republic was an antidote tyranny that it was the opposite of monarchy and
1:47.7	That with the throw over throwing Tarquin the last king of Rome that
1:52.6	Rome then moves into a period in which from the point of the Aristotus at least they have enormous freedom and that this freedom
1:59.0	Is what allowed them to go on over the next five hundred years to conquer the world to become the premier power in the Mediterranean
2:05.8	Basin by the time Livy's writing the words you started with
	...

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