Fantastic!

Not only educational, but entertaining as well!

Love listening to the show while I’m at work.
It helps to pass the time in the warehouse.

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Excellent, concise, entertaining

Fun concise episodes that give clear picture of events and evolution of Rome from minor settlement to empire

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Truly Awesome

I would get home and be unable to get out of the car cause I was so wrapped up in the episode. Very side when it was over. Looking for other podcasts by Mike.

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1 person found this helpful

A Timeline of Rome That History Buffs Will Love

I never was much into podcasts until I started using Audible. Then I started finding tons that range from informative to hilarious to emotionally-packed. As a history person, I was curious about this one and after seeing all the highly-related reviews, I chose to listen.

I can say that this is probably the most straightforward timeline about the history of Rome I've encountered so far. It's not easy to always extract what was fiction and what actually happened, especially in Rome's early years (which Duncan admits early on) but Duncan tries to approach things as logically and academically as he can. I'm glad that this is a podcast because in truth, Rome's history is so rich, varied and confusing that trying to write a book about the whole thing would be both long and hard to create a focus with. Each episode tries to focus on specific or important events/ figures, though it can cover up to 10 years of history depending on the topic because of the long-term consequences of historical moments. Duncan also approaches stories in a straightforward and nonfussy way, so whether you've never heard of these events or know your history already, the podcasts are approachable for even the nonscholarly type.

So far, I've especially enjoyed the episodes he's devoted to more down to earth matters in Roman history, such as how the Romans celebrated Saturnalia or how a child in ancient Rome progressed through life. These episodes are more sidetracks to the main events and less numerous than the main timeline, but they still give important and close to home details that the history books can't always give.

I only wish that I'd been aware of this podcast when he was giving the tours of the ancient Roman world back in 2011 (though I was in high school and couldn't have afforded a trip abroad). I would have loved listening to this since my enjoyment of history stems back to school; it also would've been helpful for AP World History, though Rome is a small part of the overall materials.

It also shows how well the material has held up, despite the podcast being over 10 years old now, that people are still listening and enjoying the podcast in 2022. I'm not close to being finished (still have 41 episodes to go) but I'm interested in his other podcast Revolutions based on how this podcast was done.

My only qualm was that I wasn't able to download a specific episode so I had to skip over to the next, but that could've been a technical issue with Audible for all I know. This podcast is definitely worth listening to, whether or not you're history inclined and interested in ancient Rome!

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excellent

I am woefully ignorant of world history. I do know some, but often when I try to look up information, it is like reading sand, difficult and boring. these podcasts are just the opposite, very interesting and understandable. thank you for putting your history knowledge and time into making these.

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Great, if dry, podcast

This is an interesting overview of Roman history. Think of it as a summary of highlights, not a deep dive. The founding to Julio-Claudian Dynasty is my area of interest but the podcasts covers much, much more.

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Mike Duncan is my hero.

Best series ever. Thank you Mike for all your work, just bought your book The Storm Before the Storm and know based on this podcast that it will be epic. would love to meet you one day and talk about Rome!

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An exellent podcast

Mike Duncan has an excellent way of simplifying while expanding history. He makes it easy to understand, while delving deeper into the intracasies of the Roman Empire.

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great history of Rome!

Love this podcast. Mike Duncan does an amazing job. very informative and easy to listen to

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One of the best Roman history podcasts.

Roman history is my favorite subject and I have high standards. This podcast does an amazing job in telling you all the juiciest histories while leaving out all the unnecessary and boring ones. It stays at a very manageable pace, going into great detail when it’s interesting and accurately generalizing when it’s necessary. For any person with any level of historical knowledge who can get past the few but annoying issues (inconsistent volume, minor historical errors, and most of all a very irritating buzzing noise in half the episodes), this is a 5-star podcast.

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