Podcast
The Pax Romana Podcast
Hosted by Professor Colin Elliott · EN
The assassination of Julius Caesar 2,000 years ago unleashed a wild era of Roman emperors, dark conspiracies, intense battles, economic booms and busts and profound religious shifts. Was this truly the Roman Empire's golden age? On the weekly Pax Romana Podcast, Historian Colin Elliott brings gripping stories from Roman history to life. Dive into history starting in episode 1 , or pick your poison from our catalogue: the birth of the empire in the Age of Augustus, Nero's Great Fire, the rise of Christianity, the wisdom and wars of Marcus Aurelius or the military chaos of the third century AD.
33episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Did the Emperor Aurelian Break or Fix the Monetary System of the Roman Empire? - The Pax Romana Podcast 96
Jan 1400:40:08Tap to summarizeDid the emperor Aurelian's big coin reform in the 270s AD shatter public trust in the money system? Did it shift value from faith in the government to just the metal in the coins? I wrote most of an article addressing these issues, but never got around to publishing it. So I use this podcast episode to make an argument that the system was already crumbling decades before Aurelian. And Aurelian's changes were in fact a clever fix. The price inflation that followed was disruptive, but it also proved the reform worked, clearing up confusion and stabilizing markets.Read Haklai (2011), 'Aurelian’s Monetary Reform: Between Debasement and Public Trust'.Donate: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/WZTWCMWCJJYFCYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfCPEBuy Professor Elliott's book:Pox Romana: The Plague that Shook the Roman World.
Transcribe →Did Smallpox Plague Ancient Rome? - The Pax Romana Podcast 95
Dec 2400:21:04Tap to summarizeDisease shaped population levels, military strength and the stability of imperial institutions in the Roman Empire. Smallpox, a highly lethal viral disease known from the early modern period and eradicated only in the twentieth century, has long been assumed to have been part of that ancient disease environment. A recent-ish article in the Journal of Roman Studies challenges that assumption, showing that there is no firm evidence that the classical form of smallpox existed in the Roman world. This article helped shape my own thinking in my book, Pox Romana, and I'm thrilled to take the time to explain the article's argument and why it matters for Roman history.Read Newfield et al. (2022), 'Smallpox's Antiquity in Doubt'Donate: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/WZTWCMWCJJYFCYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfCPEBuy Professor Elliott's book:Pox Romana: The Plague that Shook the Roman World.
Transcribe →Julian The Apostate's Persian Disaster - The Pax Romana Podcast 94
Dec 1200:21:20Tap to summarize363 AD: Emperor Julian, Rome’s last pagan ruler, wagered everything on a massive invasion of Persia to eclipse Alexander the Great and prove that the old gods blessed his empire. He crossed into Persia with tens of thousands of soldiers and a thousand supply ships. Fortresses fell, cities burned and Ctesiphon itself lay within reach. But Julian's careful efforts were undone by his own hubris. His death in battle ended both an emperor and pagan Rome’s final hope. Donate: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/WZTWCMWCJJYFCYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfCPEBuy Professor Elliott's book:Pox Romana: The Plague that Shook the Roman World.
Transcribe →Julian and the Pagan Counter-Revolution - The Pax Romana Podcast 93
Nov 2100:19:19Tap to summarizeIn AD 361, Flavius Claudius Julianus--Julian "The Apostate"--entered Constantinople as the unexpected sole Augustus of the Roman world. Here was a thirty-year-old philosopher-king who had spent the previous decade dissimulating Christianity while privately offering midnight sacrifices to pagan gods.He had roughly twenty months left to live. In that brief span he attempted nothing less than the systematic reversal of forty years of Constantinian religious policy. Was Julian genuinely committed to a pluralistic empire in which paganism would simply be allowed to reassert itself, or was his proclaimed “toleration” from the very beginning a calculated strategy of cultural and institutional strangulation designed to break Christianity without ever giving it the propaganda gift of martyrs?Donate: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/WZTWCMWCJJYFCYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfCPEBuy Professor Elliott's book:Pox Romana: The Plague that Shook the Roman World.
Transcribe →Julian the Apostate's Path to Power - The Pax Romana Podcast 92
Oct 2900:26:57Tap to summarizeJulian the Apostate is a well-documented and fascinating figure--a secret pagan who wound up ruling the Christian Roman Empire. This episode examines the formative years that transformed a survivor of a dynastic purge into the last pagan emperor. How did isolation shape his intellectual trajectory? How did he find himself second-in-command of the Roman Empire? And how did he win glory for himself, so much so that he was able to challenge the emperor that likely murdered his family?Donate: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/WZTWCMWCJJYFCYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfCPEBuy Professor Elliott's book:Pox Romana: The Plague that Shook the Roman World.
Transcribe →Ammianus Marcellinus, Forged Letters and a Conspiracy under Constantius II - The Pax Romana Podcast 91
Oct 1700:17:41Tap to summarizeIn 355 AD, Silvanus, a high-ranking officer in the Roman Empire faced treason charges from forged letters. The emperor, Constantius II had him executed. But also, after learning that the letters were forged, the emperor pardoned the conspirators. Why else would he do all this unless he was either gullible or cruel? Well, the ancient historian who wrote about this episode, Ammianus Marcellinus, may have lied about what happened. He also happened to have bene in the party that ultimately assassinated Silvanus. Something very fishy happened--and a recent article offers a new theory for sorting it all out.Read "Fraud and Forgery in the Reign of Constantius II: The Silvanus Affair of 355 CE" by Katherine Lagenfeld: https://biblioscout.net/article/10.25162/historia-2025-0020Donate: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/WZTWCMWCJJYFCYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfCPEBuy Professor Elliott's newest book:Pox Romana: The Plague that Shook the Roman World.
Transcribe →Constantius II and the Unity of the Roman Empire - The Pax Romana Podcast 90
Oct 100:21:08Tap to summarizeConstantine's sons fought one another for control over their father's Empire. The last one standing was Constantius II. But even after conquering the Empire, his problems were only just beginning. He had Alemanni invading in the west, the Persian threat in the east and religious schisms across the increasingly Christian Roman Empire. He would attempt to stabilize the Empire, but was he successful?
Transcribe →Betrayals and Massacres under the Sons of Constantine - The Pax Romana Podcast 89
Sep 1200:25:40Tap to summarizeIn AD 337, Constantine's sons--Constantine II, Constantius II, and Constans--and nephew Dalmatius, inherited a vast empire. But dynastic rivalries erupted in a brutal summer massacre. Who was killed, and who orchestrated the purge? How did the survivors divide the Roman world? What lasting impact did the civil wars that followed have on the Empire's stability?Donate: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/WZTWCMWCJJYFCYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfCPEBuy Professor Elliott's newest book:Pox Romana: The Plague that Shook the Roman World.
Transcribe →The Fall of the Tetrarchy and the Rise of Constantine - The Pax Romana Podcast 83
Jun 25, 202500:19:37Tap to summarizeThe Third Century Crisis prompted Diocletian’s Tetrarchy in 293 AD--a bold four-ruler system to restore order. Then, in 303, Diocletian inaugurated the Great Persecution of Christians. Religion and politics intersected when Diocletian abdicated in 305, setting in motion a chain of events which prompted a succession crisis and empowered a new usurper, Constantine, to make a play for Rome. How did Constantine come to power and how did his rise intersect with the fall of the tetrarchy and sweeping religious changes in the Roman Empire?Donate: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/WZTWCMWCJJYFCYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfCPEBuy Professor Elliott's newest book:Pox Romana: The Plague that Shook the Roman World.
Transcribe →Why the Military Replaced Rome's Elites - The Pax Romana Podcast 82
Jun 18, 202500:16:58Tap to summarizeWhat happens when a society’s protectors turn on its elites? Why did the Roman military, with its fierce loyalty and unity, eclipse the wealthy senators of the Pax Romana? How did Rome’s own soldiers, alienated and rootless, turn into “barbarians” within? Peter Turchin's insights offer some useful food for thought.Donate: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/WZTWCMWCJJYFCYouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfCPEBuy Professor Elliott's newest book:Pox Romana: The Plague that Shook the Roman World.
Transcribe →