Mary Beard

So there's still plenty to argue about.

Lots of gaps.

But we're on firmer ground here.

Well, the visual image of the city I think is quite interesting because when we close our eyes and think about Rome, we think about marble Rome and great shining, gleaming temples, et cetera, piazzas.

We're before that.

So Rome is still, in 100 BC, a city of brick and local stone.

So it's not grand, it's smelly, it's crowded.

It's coming up to, not quite reached yet, a population of a million people, so it's huge.

But if you'd come to Rome in 100 BC and you'd been brought up in Rome,

Alexandria in Egypt or Athens, you would have thought, this is a bit squalid.

Yeah.

I mean, I can't think of a modern equivalent.

But it's not glam in any way, except that, flip that, and by 100 BC,

This rather unimpressive slum is ruling the Mediterranean world.

But most of, not all, but most of the big bits of Roman imperial expansion have been done.

And Rome is ruling the Mediterranean world from Spain to Turkey.

I think it's hugely significant.

What's always a puzzle about Rome, or the way we speak about Rome, is the two senses of the word empire.

So you've got empire meaning all the places we have conquered, and you've got empires being a city and an empire ruled by an emperor.

when Caesar, in fact, marks the cusp, the turning point, between republicanism and one-man rule.