HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-04-21T15:06:17.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Friends, Romans, citizens: why Rome opened its doors to people across the empire
items: The long death of the Roman republic
items: Emperors, popes and Renaissance glory: exploring Rome’s history
items: History’s greatest cities: Rome
items: Everything you wanted to know about the Roman emperors
items: Corruption in the ancient world
items: Marcus Aurelius: Rome’s reluctant killer
items: Marcus Aurelius: thinker or fighter?
items: The Roman emperors: everything you wanted to know
items: Rethinking Nero: was the Roman emperor really so bad?

Friends, Romans, citizens: why Rome opened its doors to people across the empire
type: item
date: 2026-04-19T11:30:48.000Z
creator: Dr Shushma Malik
subject: General ancient history
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical people
subject: Life in ancient Rome
subject: Roman rulers
subject: Roman women
description: From Romulus’s open-city policy to Claudius’s reforms, citizenship was used by Rome as both a reward and a weapon. And, as Shushma Malik explains, it enabled the burgeoning empire to build power and define identity
encoded: What made Rome so powerful? Writing in the early 16th century in his Discourses on Livy, Niccolò Machiavelli (best known for The Prince) argued that the secret lay not in geography or luck, but in people – and in a ruthless flexibility in acquiring them. “Those who design a city to create a great empire must strive with great diligence to fill it full of inhabitants,” he wrote (as translated in 1997 by JC and P Bondanella). “This may be done in two ways: either through love or through force. It is done through love by keeping the pathways open and safe for foreigners who wish to come there to live… it is done through force, after nearby cities are destroyed, by sending their inhabitants to live in your city.” Rome enlarged its population through both of those two methods, enabling it to build enormous fighting forces – Machiavelli cited a figure of 80,000 men, compared with just 20,000 for Athens or Sparta at their peak. Rome flourished, said Machiavelli, not because it had an advantageous location but because of one simple but powerful policy: it made outsiders into Romans. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/04/GettyImages-113636408-4087aad-e1776332738730.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A bronze sculpture shows a she‑wolf standing alert with her head turned, while two human infants beneath her reach toward her teats." title="A bronze statue shows Romulus and Remus suckled by a she-wolf. According to legend the twins, who founded Rome in 753 BC, were themselves refugees (Image by Getty Images)" /> This concept was integral to the city’s founding story. Romans were not from Rome – as Athenians were thought to be born from the earth of Athens – but travelled and settled there as refugees. According to myth – specifically, Virgil’s epic Aeneid – Aeneas came to Italy after fleeing from a burning Troy. Romulus and Remus, twins supposedly descended from the line of kings that traced back to Aeneas’s son Ascanius, were rescued fr…

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The long death of the Roman republic
type: item
date: 2024-01-02T15:39:10.000Z
creator: Dr Shushma Malik
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Roman
subject: Roman rulers
description: Julius Caesar’s murder is often seen as the event that ushered in the age of emperors. Yet – writes Shushma Malik – structural weaknesses had plagued Rome’s republic long before his death
encoded: Few events in the long span of Roman history were as bold or as shocking as the murder of Julius Caesar. On 15 March 44 Dc, in the consecrated space of Pompey's theatre, the life of the man who had come to utterly dominate Rome's political landscape in the middle decades of the first century BC was brought to an end in a flurry of assassins' blades. The repercussions for Rome and its expanding empire were immense. Historians have been fascinated with the killing ever since – not just because of its audacity, but also because of what it meant for the future of Rome. When Marcus Junius Brutus and his fellow conspirators attacked Caesar on the Ides of March, Rome had been organised around a system of government called the ‘republic’ for almost five centuries. Quiz | How much do you know about Julius Caesar? Within 15 years of Caesar’s death, that republic had been transformed by a tidal wave of recriminations and civil war – to be replaced by the age of the emperors. It is this very reason that Caesar’s death has been seen as a decisive break in Rome’s history: when one period came to an end and another – dominated by men such as Augustus, Nero and Hadrian – began. Read more | Alternate history: what if Julius Caesar had not been assassinated? Yet to ascribe the fall of the republic solely to the upheaval that followed the events of 44 BC would be a mistake. The republic was a system of government already under immense structural pressure from a range of forces, and those forces had begun pulling at the system's fabric long before the rise of Caesar. The Roman Republic: A Glossary Patricians: members of Rome’s aristocratic families. Plebs: non-aristocratic citizens. Consul: one of two annually elected chief magistrates who jointly ruled the republic. Praetor: a magistrate whose role could include keeping law and order in the city, or taking charge of military affairs if a consul was away fighting. Aedile: an official whose responsibilities included staging the Roman ga…

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Emperors, popes and Renaissance glory: exploring Rome’s history
type: item
date: 2023-04-29T08:05:40.000Z
creator: Dr Shushma Malik
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Global cities
subject: History's greatest cities podcast series
description: Now capital of a united Italy, Rome has enjoyed eras of imperial might but also periods of conflict and chaos. Dr Shushma Malik guides us through the key events of the past 28 centuries.
encoded: Famously – or, at least, according to legend – Rome owes its existence to twin brothers Romulus and Remus, sons of the war god Mars, who had been abandoned and suckled by a she-wolf. Having established settlements on the Palatine and Aventine Hills, respectively, the two fought, and Remus was killed. By tradition, Rome was founded on that day, 21 April 753 BC, with Romulus becoming the first of seven kings. Remains of Iron Age settlement have been discovered on the Palatine Hill, and evidence of even earlier Bronze Age occupation in the region, so perhaps that story isn’t pure myth. The last of the seven mythical kings, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus – Tarquin the Proud – was a tyrannical ruler. His son, Sextus Tarquinius, was also a criminal; Sextus’ rape of another man’s wife, Lucretia, and her subsequent suicide was the highly disturbing episode that, according to the historian Livy (writing some five centuries later), prompted the expulsion of the king and the foundation of the Roman Republic in 509 BC. Read more | Sarah Peverley on why Italy’s ancient capital is her favourite place From kingdom to republic Rome would be governed by a senate headed by two consuls, ensuring that no one man had complete power. In that nascent republic, the centre of civic life, as well as religion, commerce and entertainment, was the Roman Forum, still a fascinating place to visit today. Initially a relatively small settlement with limited influence, over the following five centuries of the republic Rome grew as its territory expanded. Its power swelled throughout what’s now Italy, then across and around the Mediterranean with wars against the Macedonians and with Carthage in the third and second centuries BC. By the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BC, Roman territory covered parts of the Iberian Peninsula and what’s now Tunisia. The following century, as a result of conquests by generals including Julius Caesar, it grew to encompass much of mainland western Europe, swathes of coast…

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History’s greatest cities: Rome
type: item
date: 2023-03-11T10:05:15.000Z
creator: Dr Shushma Malik
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: History's greatest cities podcast series
description: In this series exploring the sights and stories of Europe’s most beautiful, intriguing and historic cities, historian Shushma Malik charts the rise, fall and resurgence of Italy’s capital
encoded: In episode three of this new series exploring the sights and stories of Europe’s most beautiful, intriguing and historic cities, travel journalist Paul Bloomfield is joined by classicist Dr Shushma Malik for a quick trip round Rome. Together they lead us through the rise, fall and resurgence of the remarkable city, stopping off at awe-inspiring monuments from the Roman Republic, medieval marvels and fascinating modern landmarks. Along the way, Shushma busts myths about the ancient Romans and offers some top advice for history-loving travellers. Explore the series so far – Listen to all episodes of History's Greatest Cities

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Everything you wanted to know about the Roman emperors
type: item
date: 2023-02-17T11:21:05.000Z
creator: Dr Shushma Malik
subject: Period
subject: Roman
description: How many emperors were there? What powers did they have? And were they as outrageous and scandalous as we think? Shushma Malik answers the key questions about the Roman emperors
encoded: Who was the first Roman emperor? Having emerged victorious from the ruins of the Triumvirate by 31 BC, Octavian, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, became the undisputed ruler of the Roman Republic. In 27 BC, he was granted the titles of ‘princeps’ (meaning ‘first citizen’) and ‘Augustus’ (‘revered), with the latter soon taken up as a title. As such, Augustus became the first Roman emperor. “He had handed back all of the extraordinary powers that he had during the civil war period,” says Dr Shushma Malik, speaking on an episode of the HistoryExtra podcast. “But the Senate gave him those powers back, and he was able to establish over a long period of time a new system of government in Rome, known as the principate.” Augustus ruled until his death in AD 14, and greatly expanded Roman territory, but he shrewdly maintained the façade of the republic and constitutional forms so as not to be regarded as a dictator. In all but name, however, he was building a monarchy. “We can’t necessarily say that dynastic succession was going to be automatic, but certainly from early on Augustus was thinking about who might succeed him,” says Dr Malik. “When he became ill, he handed powers to various people, including Agrippa, his friend, so there does seem to be a sense that there was going to be a transfer of power rather than, say, the Senate taking control again.” How many emperors were there? “That is a complicated question to answer with a straightforward number,” stresses Dr Malik. “I have a poster on my office door of the Roman emperors and that has 72, but the reason why it’s difficult is because there were quite a number of usurpers claiming to be emperors, particularly in the third century AD.” The issue lies in judging the legitimacy of each one. They may have had the backing of their own armies, their own spheres of influence in various parts of the empire, and their alleged reigns sometimes lasted only a few months, even days. The sources need to be scrutinised too: we tend…

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Corruption in the ancient world
type: item
date: 2022-04-11T16:15:46.000Z
creator: Dr Shushma Malik
subject: General ancient history
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Shushma Malik, Marta Garcia and Yehudah Gershon reveal what corruption was like in the ancient world
encoded: What was corruption like in the ancient world – and how can studying it help us make sense of shady dealings in the 21st century? Matt Elton speaks to Shushma Malik, Marta Garcia and Yehudah Gershon – three researchers behind a new project to reveal more about the murkier side of ancient Greece and Rome.

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Marcus Aurelius: Rome’s reluctant killer
type: item
date: 2021-07-09T06:29:15.000Z
creator: Dr Shushma Malik
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Roman
subject: Historical people
subject: Roman rulers
description: Marcus Aurelius may not have sought war, but when it came he was more than ready. Shushma Malik reveals how a man of peace became one of Rome’s greatest warrior-emperors
encoded: It was the campaign season of AD 172, and one of Emperor Marcus Aurelius’s legions found itself staring into the face of disaster. After a series of hard-fought battles along the Roman empire’s north-eastern borders, the Roman soldiers found themselves holed up in enemy territory surrounded by a hostile group known as the Quadi. The legion put up a good fight but it had a problem: a chronic lack of water. The Quadi were confident that, if they kept the enemy enclosed, thirst would soon overcome them. And the Quadi’s confidence appeared to be justified. The sun beat down unrelentingly. Water began to run out. “The Romans,” Cassius Dio tells us, “were in a terrible plight from fatigue, wounds, the heat of the sun, and thirst, and so could neither fight nor retreat.” But then something remarkable happened: as if by some divine intervention, a storm broke over the beleaguered legion. Soon, so much rain was tumbling from the skies that the Roman soldiers were able to fill their shields and helmets with water and quench their horses’ thirst. As for the Quadi, they were assailed by a barrage of hailstones, lightning and thunderbolts. Such was the assault from the heavens on their ranks that some of the Quadi abandoned their own side and went over to join the Romans. The threat to Marcus Aurelius’s trapped legion was averted. But who or what was responsible for the “rain miracle”, as this dramatic episode in Marcus Aurelius’s 19-year reign as Roman emperor is now known? Cassius Dio says it can be accounted for by the invocations of Arnuphis, an Egyptian magician who had caused Mercury (the god of the air) to send rain to the legion’s aid. Other sources disagree. But whatever the veracity of Dio’s claim, the “rain miracle” offers us a fascinating window into the remarkable life of Marcus Aurelius. Here was a leader forced to face down a succession of deadly threats from the moment he assumed power in AD 161 to the day he died in AD 180. Unrest on the borders with Parthia in …

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Marcus Aurelius: thinker or fighter?
type: item
date: 2021-05-19T11:05:57.000Z
creator: Dr Shushma Malik
subject: Membership
subject: Roman
subject: Period
subject: Roman rulers
description: Shushma Malik explores the life and career of Rome’s renowned philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius
encoded: Classicist Shushma Malik explores the life and career of Rome’s renowned philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius, and explains how his greatest achievements may have been on the field of battle.

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The Roman emperors: everything you wanted to know
type: item
date: 2021-02-27T12:38:51.000Z
creator: Dr Shushma Malik
subject: Membership
subject: Roman
subject: Period
subject: Everything you wanted to know about history (podcast series)
subject: Roman rulers
description: Shushma Malik discusses some of the most admired and reviled Roman emperors, and considers whether the legends surrounding them stand up to scrutiny
encoded: In the latest in our series tackling the big questions on major historical topics, historian Shushma Malik responds to your questions on some of the most admired and reviled Roman emperors, and considers whether the legends surrounding them stand up to scrutiny.

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Rethinking Nero: was the Roman emperor really so bad?
type: item
date: 2020-12-16T09:00:27.000Z
creator: Dr Shushma Malik
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Roman
subject: Historical people
subject: Roman rulers
description: For centuries Emperor Nero has occupied a place in history’s hall of infamy, courtesy of tales of Christian burning, wife beating and mother murdering. Yet does he truly deserve his diabolical reputation? Shushma Malik considers the evidence
encoded: In the late 19th century, the French philosopher Ernest Renan wrote a seven-volume history of Christianity. It was a vast, wide-ranging publication, spanning centuries and continents. Yet one of these volumes was dedicated entirely to the reign of one man: the Roman emperor Nero. Nero ascended to power in AD 54 following the death of his step-father, Claudius. Fourteen chaotic, blood-spattered years later it was all over, Nero dying – perhaps by his own hand – at the climax of a rebellion against his rule. But this, Renan said, wasn’t the last the world would see of him. Nero would return to Earth again, and his second coming would signal the time of the apocalypse. “The name for Nero has been found,” the philosopher declared. “Nero shall be the Antichrist.” Listen | Roman historian Shushma Malik discusses the infamous crimes of the emperor Nero and considers whether he is deserving of his monstrous reputation Renan’s assertion was a bold one, but it was hardly original. Historians had been casting Nero as the epitome of evil – stitching a straight line between Rome’s fifth emperor and the end of the world – since the third century. And their lambasting of his reputation has stuck: today, everyone with an interest in ancient history ‘knows’ that Nero was one of the worst of all Rome’s emperors. But is what everyone ‘knows’ true? Surely, before accepting history’s verdict, we should re-examine the sources, and ask ourselves what motivated the emperor’s many detractors, and how material evidence can help to flesh out the picture. Only then can we answer the question of why Nero’s reputation is so utterly dismal – and indeed if his diabolical image is entirely deserved. Mutilated by dogs There are a number of reasons why, for almost 2,000 years, historians have lined up to denigrate Nero. But the most important is surely that his reign saw the first persecution of the Christians. In AD 64, a fire ripped through Rome, devastating 10 of its 14 districts. After the confla…

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