Lindsay Powell
speaker
197 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Apr 2025
Lindsay Powell’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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So there's a scene that Tacitus describes where the Roman armies are deployed and they see these earth ramparts and they're going to go after them. They see there's a forest in the corner. In fact, Germanicus says, we're going to charge over there. So send the troops up against the wall and we're going that way. And the Praetorians go with him. So he takes out his sword and off they go charging.
So you can imagine that they are capable of fighting, but it's all these other things they do which probably makes them special. I think the other thing to think of is that if you think of them as being ordinary soldiers, I mean, there's a couple of people that I wanted to mention.
So, for example, there's one that was mentioned by Pliny the Elder, whose name is Vinius Valens, who was a Praetorian centurion. And the reason why he came to Pliny the Elder's notice, he famously wrote The Natural History. So he was always on the lookout for a good story and things to write about the natural world.
Apparently, this Valens character was immensely strong, one of the strong men of the Roman world. And that's why he came to his particular attention. So we know a little bit about him. I mentioned that guy who was killed in a fire. So that person actually just acted like a good citizen, a soldier.
And we mentioned also the fact that Claudius brought people, including the elephants and Praetorians to Britain. A guy called Vettius Valens, for example, who was originally with the 14th Legion, he came as a Praetorian of the eighth cohort to Britain. So he was one of that interesting detail.
So we actually have names of individuals who, while they're not in the classical sources, we know them and their stories because of the inscriptions. And the great thing is, is that they find inscriptions all the time. So there are lots more people that we're going to find out in the future. And what's striking about them is the ordinariness of those people, right?
I mean, they have the intimidating name of Praetorian legionary or whatever it is, or the centurion or something. And they were paid and rewarded and regarded highly when the Praetorians were around because there's no point in bringing a charge against them because they're first in the queue to get justice. And who's going to believe you against them?
And this is something that begins to become more important as they go into the future, because they will become kingmakers, effectively, because they control very influential parts of the government.
The one that was probably most relevant to this is Augustus at War, which is the struggle for the Pax Augusta, where I try to sort of present Augustus as a commander-in-chief. We tend to think the Roman Empire under him as being this wonderful world of peace. The point I make is that actually is what the history tells us. And in fact,
Pax, the Roman idea of Pax, peace in the way that we understand it as being this tranquil world only comes when you win wars. So there are an awful lot of wars under Augustus. And in fact, because it involves the army, that's how he held on to power. That's kind of the subtext. The two generals I mentioned, for example, Nero Claudius Drusus was his youngest stepson.
The son of his wife, Livia, was very important from the point of view of
consolidating Gaul because interestingly enough when Julius Caesar conquered it he didn't finish the job he didn't pacify it so in fact that territory was left to basically fix itself and he comes in and does censuses and there's something but he also leads campaigns into Germany which will mean that under him and through Tiberius the Romans occupy the lands on the other side of the Rhine which famously get lost after Varus
And Germanicus Caesar. I wrote a book about him because I was just fascinated by his popularity. And now that I'm knowing more about Tiberius, you can see why some of the popularity is manufactured in the history because they're trying to make Tiberius the villain and they need a guy to have as a counterfoil. And when you put all these people together, it becomes an amazing family.
I mean, Augustus created this family out of adoptions and marriages and so on and so forth. And they all had an impact on the story. And I think they're just fascinating people with wonderful stories. Lindsay, great to chat to you today.
After going through the process of the SAVE plan, it was whittled down to just over $400. And that was a huge relief.
After, you know, making a couple of payments at the lower level save plan amount, I'm feeling pretty good that I'm on the right path now. Turmoil began again.
And I got notified from my loan provider that my loan was going to be put into forbearance until this litigation was settled.
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