I’m looking for pointers as to where to start with learning about Ancient Rome as somebody who knows very little about the subject
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
This is definitely the answer. Best podcast ever. Literally the history of Rome from beginning to end (end of the western Roman Empire at least). You should also read Tacitus and Legions of Rome.
I started this podcast per this subreddits recommendation a few months ago and it's bona fide. I'm also reading "The Rise of Rome" by Everitt. I've learned so much about Roman history and it's crazy how many parallels there are to current events.
Podcast wise, the History of Rome is perfect to understand the narrative history from 753BC to 476AD and then the History of Byzantium is a worthy successor to it. If you want to simply learn the history from start to finish, those podcasts are pretty much the perfect thing.
Alternatively, you may wish to focus on specific, popular periods of Roman history and then build you knowledge forwards and backwards from there. I'd recommend the YT video 'Ranking periods of Roman history' by Romaboo Ramblings for this, which gives a good overview and breakdown of all the different eras, what they consist of, and thr best reading material to get into and understand them more.
Even though others have said it, the History of Rome pod is the way to go. You can’t be told this enough. It’s excellent.
Youtube. Invicta, history with Cy, maiorianus.
Mike Duncan’s “the History of Rome” is fantastic and expansive- the only thing I worry about with that podcast is that it can be a little dry for someone with no prior knowledge of Roman history.
To me, Historia Civilis’s late roman republic series is a better starting point- it does a great job of building on characters that new fans of roman history are probably already familiar with (like Ceasar, Antony, and Octavian), and it’s a little more narrative based than most Roman history content, so it might be a little more interesting and easier to follow than other content.
Personally, I stumbled across Historia Civilis by chance and absolutely loved it, having never learned a thing about Roman history beforehand. Once I watched everything in his Rome series two or three times, I moved on to Duncan’s History of Rome podcast and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Death Throes of The Republic
This is the perfect piece for the totally uninitiated IMO
Mary Beard has very good videos on youtube.
If the History of Rome podcast is too daunting to start off with, the Hardcore History podcast episodes “Death Throes of the Republic” tell an amazing slice of the Roman story in dramatic detail.
History of Rome is good. I've also been listening to the Partial Historians which is the same concept, but the episodes are much longer and it's more of a discussion.
The obsession is really, yo! I think starting with some ancient history podcasts that I don't think I can remember the names of the dudes would be a great. Sorry, that was useless. But I'm stoked for you!
If your into reading, I have enjoyed both Anthony Everett and Adrian goldsworthy as authors. Everett’s the rise of Rome is good into book then you can decide how deep you want to go from there
I'll just be the first guy to recommend Mike Duncan's "The History of Rome" podcast. Exactly what it says on the tin, a podcast taking you from the founding of Rome to 476 AD.
If you're looking for books, Adrian Goldsworthy, Mary Beard, and Tom Holland are some of the most popular historians writing about the Roman Empire, so any of their books could be a good place to start without getting too deep in the weeds.