The Resident Judge of Port Phillip

History of Rome Podcast. We left Julius Caesar with his one legion, banned from returning to Rome until he stood down his men. In Episode 43 Insert Well Known Idiom Here, Caesar feared that if the Senate found him guilty of bribery, then his political life would be over. (Everyone bribed everyone else, but they were more subtle about it). So he crossed the Rubicon (a small river) to invade Italy. But the Senate and Pompey had already decamped for Capua so it was a bit of a fizzer. In Episode 44 Caesar Triumphant he pursued Pompey and the Senate over to Brundisium and then to Greece, leaving Mark Antony in charge of Rome (big mistake). Pompey escaped to Egypt, but the Egyptians, hoping to curry favour with Caesar, killed Pompey when he got into the small boat to convey him to land. Caesar was furious (Pompey was, after all, part of the First Triumvirate) so Caesar supported Cleopatra, who had been tricked out of her claim to the Ptolemy throne. They became lovers, and when Caesar sailed back to Rome he left Egypt as a client state (rather than a colony) with Cleopatra in charge. Episode 45 The End of the War sees Caesar taking the overland route back from Egypt back to Rome and along the way pacifying what little resistance he came across. After a brief stay in Italy he sailed for North Africa where he defeated the regrouped Republican army (after a rather inglorious stumble onto the beach- he claimed he was ‘hugging’ Africa. I must remember to do that if I fall.) Having emerged from the Civil War triumphant he returned to Rome and began his ambitious reform programs. Although Cicero acquiesced, Cato killed himself. The conservatives were becoming uneasy at Caesar’s self-aggrandizement. Episode 46 Sec Semper Tyrannis Caesar was trying to get his internal reforms passed but he had to go to Spain to fight the Sons of Pompey who had raised an opposition force. He also planned a Parthian campaign to avenge Crassus’ death in the east, and to circle round and take Germania while he was at it. He had himself declared Dictator for ten consecutive terms, but went one further by having himself declared Dictator for Life. After all these centuries, people were still wary of Kings, and there were rumours that he wanted to become King. His enemies began conspiring and planned (and carried out his assassination on 15 March- the Ides of March). He probably didn’t say ‘et tu Brutus’ and Brutus didn’t say ‘Sec Semper Tyrannis’ either. So there, John Wilkes Booth (Lincoln’s assassin- he claimed to have said it as he attacked Lincoln). Episode 47 Octavius- Octavian. The now-dead Caesar had a little surprise for Mark Antony, who fully expected to be named Caesar’s heir in his will. No, instead it was his 19 year old great nephew Gaius Octavius. Caesar adopted him posthumously (can you do that?) and he changed his name to ‘Octavian’ to denote that he was adopted (he would later change it again to Augustus). Both Mark Antony and Octavian vied for the loyalty of the legions. Even though he was no great fan of either man, Cicero spoken out against Mark Antony who was trying to usurp Octavian’s popularity. In Episode 48 The Second Triumvirate, Marc Antony, Octavian and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate in 43 BC. After using the tried and true method of proscriptions to raise funds through land and wealth confiscations and as a way of purging their enemies, the Triumvirs headed east, where they defeated Brutus and Cassius at Philippi. Then Mark Antony headed off to Parthia, where he was hoping to reinforce his authority by beating them, and then he wouldn’t have to work about this pesky Second Triumvirate any more. Episode 49 Apollo and Dionysus sees Mark Antony and Octavian circling round each other warily. After winning the Battle of Philippi Antony and Octavian divided the empire into two halves. Antony took control of the east where he formed an alliance with Cleopatra (who was in need of powerful patrons now that Caesar was dead), while Octavian commanded the west. They extended the Triumvirate for a further term, but neither trusted the other.

Nothing on TV Enough Rome. I want to hear something Australian, and nothing sounds more Australian than Robyn Annear! In What is Really Real, Robyn has been given some more recent REAL crinkly newspapers instead of having to scroll through on Trove. She starts off talking about the moon landing and ends up talking about girdles- as you do. She then looks at the Advertiser, the forerunner to the Leader newspaper group, from the 1930s. I was excited about this, because the Advertiser (formerly the Evelyn Observer) covered the Shires of Eltham and Whittlesea and the City of Heidelberg- why, it’s my home turf. This episode differs from her other ones, because there is no over-arching theme, but it was good fun and especially being local (to me!)

The History Hour (BBC) My son was in Nairobi in September 2013, and I remember the fear I felt on hearing of the Westgate Mall attack. On my later trips, I didn’t ever visit Westgate, but I visited enough other shopping malls to be able to imagine what this must have been like (hint- they are very much the same as shopping centres in Melbourne). This episode Kenya: Westgate Mall Attack also has a story about a 1990s ‘miracle water’ craze just outside of Mexico City, and the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. Plus the amazing story of how a journalist revealed the secret romance between Aristotle Onassis and Jackie Kennedy, and, with the launch of the new James Bond movie, a segment on how James Bond has changed since Ian Fleming first created him in 1953! God, he’s older than I am.

Blindspot: The Road to 9/11 Episode 2 The Mole features Emad Salem, an ex-soldier from the Egyptian Army, who had migrated to America. He maintained his hatred for Omar Abdel-Rahman — known as The Blind Sheikh– for orchestrating the assassination of the Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat. When he is approached by NYPD Detective Louis Napoli and FBI Special Agent John Anticev who ask him to infiltrate the Brooklyn mosque led by the Blind Sheikh, he accepts. But then Napoli and Anticev are forced to pull him from the job, even though the members of the mosque were clearly plotting something. Meanwhile, you find yourself shaking your head at how these terrorists managed to get into America.

The History of Rome Episode 39 The Young Julius Caesar Chronicles goes back to Julius Caesar’s childhood and early career. His Aunt Julia was Marius’ wife, which meant that when Sulla took power he put Julius Caesar onto the list of 1500 nobles to be killed. But Sulla was persuaded to remove him from the list and Caesar kept his head down. He served in Asia Minor until Sulla died, then returned to Rome to work as a lawyer. While travelling, he was captured by pirates and joked with them that he would crucify them all one day. He wasn’t joking: after the ransom was paid he sailed back and captured them and crucified them all (although he did cut their throats before hanging them on crosses). When his widowed aunt Julia died, he took advantage of the funeral procession to display images of her former husband Marius, reminding people of Marius’ good points and his family relationship with him. He was appointed as quaestor to Spain, where he was successful. He supported Pompey, and was starting to put himself forward for election as Consul. Cato the younger tried to thwart him, but too late! Episode 40 In the Consulship of Julius and Caesar is a bit of an in-joke. Even though Caesar had a co-consul, Bibulus, really he was the only one who counted. He arranged with Crassus and Pompey that they would have each other’s back (later known as the Triumvirate) and he embarked on land reform. When Cato the younger fillibustered in the Senate to stop the reform, Caesar had him thrown in jail for a while, and then decided to bypass the Senate completely. Once his year of consulship was over, he made sure that his father-in-law would be the next Consul, in order to protect him from any revenge and he went up to Gaul, where he was governor. In Episode 41a The Gallic Wars, the Helvetians who lived beside Lake Geneva decided that they would come down into Roman territory, but the Romans built a wall! So, unable to enter Rome, they pushed up into Gaul instead. Caesar was asked by the Gauls to kick them out. Then the Germans over the Rhine tried to invade, so he defeated them too. The Gauls were grateful, but ready for the Romans to go back home, but Caesar had other ideas and decided that the legions should stay there on a permanent basis. In Episode 41b The Gallic Wars, now firmly ensconced in Gaul, Caesar crossed the Rhine by building a bridge in 10 days, defeated the Germans, then destroyed the bridge on the way back. He also went up into Belgium and defeated rebel tribes up here too. He made two inconsequential forays into Britain but the proper invasion would have to wait. The triumvirate hung together for a while with Caesar up in Gaul, Pompey in Spain and Crassus in Syria. But Crassus was killed, and the family connection between Caesar and Pompey was severed when Caesar’s only child, Julia, died in childbirth. Pompey started becoming more conservative and moved towards the Senate. Episode 42 Meanwhile Back in Rome starts off with Caesar up in Gaul, itching to come home. Clodius (i.e. Publius Clodius Pulcher) had been made Tribune of the Plebs with Caesar’s connivance, was running amok with his gang of thugs. Pompey had gone over to the Senate by now and he and Caesar were in a standoff, with the Senate threatening to arrest Caesar and charge him over all the dodgy things he had done if he dared come back with his army.

The Ancients (History Hits). While I’m learning about Clodius, by coincidence what should pop up in my feed for The Ancients than Murder in Ancient Rome: Milo and Clodius. In an interview with a rather giggly Dr, Emma Southon, this tells the story of Clodius, who she sees as a horrible character, and how he came to be killed. I don’t really know that she backs up that he was SO terrible, but certainly the republic is falling down around their ears.

Lit Century (Lit Hub) In this podcast series, the hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols discuss over one or two sessions one book for each year of the 20th century. For 1922 they chose Sigrid Undset’s Kristen Lavransdatter. I’m just about the only person that I know has read Kristen Lavransdatter, so I jumped onto these podcasts when I saw them. On Desire (and its Absence) discusses the novel as a romance (a bit problematic given that we’re talking about the 13th century) and the second episode On Catholicism and Doomscrolling includes author Timothy Paulson in the discussion. They talk about Lutheranism and Catholicism (and how many readers at the time felt betrayed by Kristen’s conversion to Catholicism) and whether it is a feminist novel (probably not, in the same way that Prohibition was not a feminist policy, but it benefited women).

Revisionist History Thanks, Mum, for training me to do my laundry the ‘right’ way. In Laundry Done Right, cold water washing gets a big tick. Doesn’t everybody separate their whites and coloureds? Doesn’t everybody hang their washing on the line?

Background Briefing (ABC) When I went to the ABC website to get the link for Unmasking Monsters, there he was – Dr Bob Montgomery, just as I remember him. Handsome, a bit of a larrikin and supremely confident: he is certainly a fallen man now, imprisoned for four years for historical sex abuse charges. He was my 1st Year psychology lecturer, I attended his ‘sex’ classes (which I must admit taught me more about sex than any other source of information), and I remember discussing the Milgram experiment, although I can’t recall if I actually participated. I’m not completely surprised by this podcast, although I didn’t realize that he was so brazen.

The History of Rome Podcast In Episode 34 No Greater Friend, No Worse Enemy Sulla comes back into Rome, and the nobles who had previously backed Marius began changing sides. That didn’t stop Sulla from putting 1500 of them onto a death list, ending up with about 9000 deaths. He had himself made Dictator, not just for a 6 month stint, but for life. There goes another Roman Republic principle. He was a conservative, and wanted to put an end to the populism that the Gracchus brothers had ushered in. He put all sorts of obstacles of age, career path, enforced breaks in the provinces etc. to make sure that there was no quick route to the Consulship, and then he retired. But all his changes were overruled anyway. Episode 35 Crassus and Pompey introduces two of the men who will later form a triumvirate with Julius Caesar. Crassus was really rich and Pompey was a golden general who just had good fortune fall in his lap. He was very ambitious, and determined to circumvent all Sulla’s plans to stop ambitious men. Episode 36 I am Spartacus introduces Spartacus. Confession here- I have never seen the Spartacus movie. In fact, I wasn’t really sure who he was. He was a slave gladiator at the gladiator school at Capua, and in 73BC broke out with 70 other slaves, was joined with others to make 7000 and ended up with perhaps 70,000 other slaves (although these numbers are pretty dodgy). He and his troops headed south, wanting to go to Sicily, but he was betrayed by pirates. They were defeated by Crassus, who saw this as a route to the Consulship. A small group escaped, and they were overcome by Pompey, who took all the credit. In Episode 37 Go East Young Man Pompey cleaned up all the pirates in the Mediterranean and polished off Mithridates for good. While he was in the neighbourhood, he marched on Jerusalem, where two Jewish families were fighting each other, made sure that his favoured family won, and then went home. The Roman Empire now stretched from Gibraltar to Jerusalem. Episode 38 The Catiline Conspiracy reinforces that by the 1st Century BC, the example of Marius and Sulla had reinforced that power came from the sword. Cataline came from an aristocratic family that hadn’t done anything for 300 years, combining entitlement and ambition. In 73 BC he was accused of adultery with a vestal virgin but was acquitted, probably because of dodgy dealings. In 63 BC he conspired to overthrow the Roman government but was stopped by Rome’s greatest politician and orator, Marcus Tullius Cicero. He ended up in exile and was killed. Having seen with Sulla the potential power of a returning general, Cicero wanted to clean up domestic politics in Rome before Pompey got back.

History Hit- The Ancients. Enough of all this Roman fighting! How about some sex instead? This episode Sex in Ancient Rome features L.J. Trafford, the author of the upcoming book Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Rome. Of course, the written sources that have come down to us are all written by men, and if their reporting on war and slaughter is anything to go by, not very reliable. However, penis sculptures and drawings seem to be everywhere throughout the empire, and sex was often the source of humour. There were strict rules about who could sleep with whom, especially under Augustus who yearned for a simpler, more honourable Roman past. She deals with adultery, contraception, prostitution etc. but mainly emphasizes how hard it is for us to enter into their pre-Christian mentality about sex.

And speaking of Spartacus, Spartacus Life or Legend has an Australian historian Dr Fiona Radford who studied the Kirk Douglas movie (which I haven’t seen) and the historic sources for her Ph.D. She’s very enthusiastic about the movie, which was produced during the Cold War competing with Ben Hur and another Spartacus movie being produced at the time. She points out that Spartacus has been picked up by multiple political movements since the enlightenment- the French Revolution, the Risorgimento in Italy in the 19th century, and the Spartacus League with Rosa Luxemburg Post WWI.

Blindspot: The Road to 9/11 Being the 20th anniversary, 9/11 is everywhere. Episode 1 The Bullet starts in an unusual place: in a Midtown Manhattan hotel ballroom where the radical, anti-Muslim Jewish rabbi Meir Kahane is assassinated by El-Sayyid Nosair who had become radicalized at a Brooklyn mosque.

New York Times: The Daily Journalist Dan Barry reads his article “What Does it Mean to ‘Never Forget’?” This essay explores the nature of memory during trauma. Interesting that graduate students who interviewed people in the days immediately following 9/11 found that when they re-interviewed their informants a year later, 40% had changed their memories of where they were and how they learned about the Twin Towers.

History Extra As a Good Unitarian Girl, I’m always delighted to hear podcasts about 19th century Unitarians. In this podcast Wedgwood: The Radical Potter Tristram Hunt, author of The Radical Potter discusses the business and politics of Josiah Wedgwood. I bet you never thought ‘Josiah Wedgwood’ and ‘Steve Jobs’ could go in the same sentence! Another book to add to the burgeoning To Be Read list.