Understanding Rome Podcast | Agnes Crawford | Substack

Understanding Rome Podcast

A chronological history of Rome focusing on a building, a sculpture, a painting, or an artefact each episode.

LATEST

·

14:36

A Podcast about Rome: Episode 28: The Aqua Alexandrina

14:36

A Podcast about Rome: Episode 28: The Aqua Alexandrina

One of the major public works during the reign of Severus Alexander was the last of the eleven major Roman aqueducts built over the course of the…

Jan 5 • Agnes Crawford

18:11

A Podcast about Rome: Episode 27. The Sarcophagus of Sextus Varius Marcellus, and the Roses of Heliogabalus

Cruel, extravagant, sexually omnivorous, and gender fluid: the brief reign of the emperor Elagabalus has given rise to many a colourful tale.

Sep 2, 2025 • Agnes Crawford

14:31

A Podcast about Rome. Episode 26: The Baths of Caracalla

Imposing beyond imagining, and bewilderingly almost always deserted, the Baths of Caracalla are among my very favourite places to take people to…

Jul 16, 2025 • Agnes Crawford

13:21

A Podcast about Rome. Episode 25. The Arch of the Argentarii

In 204 bankers and cattle merchants erected a monumental portal at the point the vicus Iugarius entered the Forum Boarium (cattle market) in the area of…

May 10, 2025 • Agnes Crawford

16:58

A Podcast about Rome. Episode 24. Commodus as Hercules.

Perhaps most well-known as the despotic psychopath played by Joaquim Phoenix in the original Gladiator movie, the life of the Emperor Commodus is…

Feb 3, 2025 • Agnes Crawford

15:20

A Podcast about Rome. Episode 23. The Villa of the Quintili.

At the fifth mile of the Appian Way, on a site built out from the lava ridge of the ancient road and redolent with ancient legends, the Villa of the…

Dec 10, 2024 • Agnes Crawford

20:35

A Podcast about Rome. Episode 22. Marcus Aurelius: the Philosopher Emperor and his Equestrian Statue

Marcus Aurelius is the last of those Machiavelli and Gibbon spoke of as the “Five Good Emperors”.

Oct 5, 2024 • Agnes Crawford

18:16

A Podcast about Rome. Episode 21: The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina

In the heart of the Roman Forum, overlooking the via Sacra, loom vast columns of Euboean marble.

Aug 29, 2024 • Agnes Crawford