Dr Simon Elliott

And the whole Roman system is being bent, bent to breaking point.

Hugely unstable.

Hugely unstable.

It's interesting with Caesar.

Well, I was doing my research for my biography of Caesar.

Basically, it's called Julius Caesar, Rome's Greatest Warlord.

And I came in the book with a series of traits that all these warlords had to a greater or lesser extent.

So the ability to communicate with people high and low, true bravery, leading from the front when you need to, tactical and strategic acumen, various traits.

And Caesar's the only one for me who has them all.

The whole package.

And that's why he becomes so, so dominant.

That is early in the first century BC, and it's the third Servile Revolt.

So it's the third major slave revolt, actually.

So gigantic.

The Romans are absolutely terrified all the time of slave revolts.

It's a big deal.

That's why in the Roman world it's very rare to get a ratio of slaves to freed people of any more than about 20% because they're terrified of slave revolts.

Money.

It's the Hellenistic wealth.

I think the access to the Hellenistic wealth, which Alexander the Great captured from the Achaemenid Persians, was so great, it bent the nature of Roman society at the very top.