大象传媒

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman historian Tacitus who chronicled some of Rome鈥檚 most notorious emperors, including Nero and Caligula, and whose portrayal of Roman decadence influences the way we see Rome today. 鈥淭he story I now commence is rich in vicissitudes, grim with warfare, torn by civil strife, a tale of horror even during times of peace鈥�. So reads page one of The Histories by the Roman historian Tacitus and it doesn鈥檛 disappoint. Convinced that Rome was going to the dogs, Tacitus depicts a Rome which is a hotbed of sex and violence, of excessive wealth and senatorial corruption. His work is a pungent study in tyranny and decline that has influenced depictions of Rome, from Gibbon鈥檚 Decline and Fall to Robert Graves鈥� I, Claudius. But is it a true picture of the age or does Tacitus鈥� work present the tyranny and decadence of Rome at the expense of its virtues? And to what extent, when we look at the Roman Empire today, do we still see it through Tacitus' eyes?With Catharine Edwards, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of London; Ellen O鈥橤orman, Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Bristol and Maria Wyke, Professor of Latin at University College London