A Day At The Races In Ancient Rome

Think ‘Roman sport’ and images of Kirk Douglas, Russell Crowe, Paul Mescal and other Hollywood gladiators may come to mind. But while the Romans were partial to blood-sports, chariot-racing was the really big thing.  The archaeological remains of chariot-racing tracks have been found all over the Roman Empire, but none suggest a scale or grandeur close to the Circus Maximus in Rome. At full capacity, we think it could take a quarter of a million people - that’s twice the largest football stadium today.  In this episode, Mary and Charlotte recreate what a day at the races was actually like for the Romans. They describe how chariot-racing worked as a sport, what the experience may have been like for the spectators (courtesy of the poet Ovid), although remain stumped by the not insignificant issue of how a quarter of a million people went to the loo when archeological labour has - so far - only discovered one, solitary toilet.  They also describe how the chariot-racing industry worked, and the phenomenal wealth that prize charioteers acquired (Cristiano Ronaldo looks underpaid in comparison).  Ultimately, it is impossible to draw comparisons with sporting events today because chariot-racing at the Circus Maximus was far more than entertainment. It played a hugely important role in the political life of the empire as one of the few places where the people in large numbers could encounter the emperor . As a consequence, it was not only a site for chariot-racing but for mass public protest. How the emperor behaved, before the gaze of the city, was critical to his popularity. While no emperor was ever unseated at the Circus Maximus, it gave his enemies a chance to see whether the people would mind if something unpleasant happened to him later.  @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: [email protected] To join the Instant Classics Book Club and share our trip into Homer’s Odyssey, go to  https://instantclassics.supportingcast.fm/ New episodes will be published every other Tuesday, and available exclusively for members beginning 30th September. Sign up now with the promo code EARLYBIRD25 to receive a 25% discount on membership.  Mary and Charlotte’s recommended reads: For good introductions to the “sport”, try: F. Meijer, Chariot Racing in the Roman Empire (Johns Hopkins, 2010) J. Toner, The Day Commodus Killed a Rhino: understanding the Roman Games (Johns Hopkins pb, 2015) The career of the super successful Diocles is the theme of an online article by Peter Struck: https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/greatest-all-time Mary discusses the problems that emperors had at the races  in her book Emperor of Rome (Profile pb, 2024) Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Executive Producer: Jo Meek  Senior Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

(We hope you enjoy this introduction to The Odyssey. To continue the journey, please join the Instant Classics Book Club at https://instantclassics.supportingcast.fm/ New episodes will be published every other Tuesday, and available exclusively for members beginning 30th September. Sign up now with the promo code EARLYBIRD25 to receive a 25% discount on membership). The Odyssey, along with its sister text, The Iliad, is often considered the bedrock of western literature. In it are the seeds of the road movie, the family drama, fantasy fiction, the Western, and any number of genres. It’s also being adapted in a soon to be released film starring Matt Damon as the wily hero, Odysseus. So what better choice of text for the inaugural Instant Classics Book Club?  The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, and his (literally) epic journey home after the Greek war againstTroy. He encounters the man-eating cyclops, the dangerously alluring sirens (the original femmes fatales) – and he stops in the land of the lotus eaters, the land of blissful forgetfulness. But there is so much more to the story than a series of adventures. It’s also a story of what’s going on at home while he is away: his wife Penelope is trying to avoid being married off to one of a horde of ghastly “suitors” and his young son Telemachus learns how to be a man. The end is both happy and a grisly bloodbath.  Over the coming months, Mary and Charlotte are taking a deep dive into this greatest of all stories - and inviting you to read along with them. They’ll be sharing their lifetime’s enjoyment of it, putting it in context, and unpicking some occasionally tricky bits!  In this first episode, they set the scene, explaining why The Odyssey is such a pleasure, as well as historically significant, and providing the basic facts necessary to get going.  Pick a translation - any translation - and get going. And send your thoughts to [email protected]  @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X +email: [email protected] Mary and Charlotte’s recommended reads: The translation we will be quoting from is that of Emily Wilson. But really any will do (there is another even more recent version by Daniel Mendelsohn, which we will be keeping an eye on too). There are also plenty available free online. Most of those are rather old (and sometimes sound a bit stilted), but you can find a more up to date version here: https://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/homer/odysseytofc.html Both Wilson and Mendelsohn start with very useful introductions to the poem. But try also: Barbara Graziosi, Homer: a very short introduction (OUP paperback, 2016) Edith Hall, The Return of Ulysses (IB Tauris paperback, 2012)  (you can download the whole book here: https://edithhall.co.uk/product/the-return-of-ulysses-a-cultural-history-of-homers-odyssey/) The Open University has a useful website (“free course”) on the Odyssey, with links all kinds of articles (including one by Charlotte on the theme of “warrior home-comings”): https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/exploring-homers-odyssey/content-section-3    Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Executive Producer: Jo Meek  Senior Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dropping tomorrow, and every other Tuesday, the Instant Classics Book Club. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For a long time being a classicist didn’t exactly make you a hit at a party. Then along came Donald Trump and suddenly everybody wants to know: Which Roman emperor is he most like?  In this inaugural episode of Instant Classics, Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins confront the question they are asked the most. And, as ever when Mary Beard is involved, the answer isn’t always as simple as you might think.  Mary and Charlotte explain how most of what we know about the emperors is unreliable. We do get some extraordinary glimpses behind the palace walls (Suetonius, the biographer of the first “12 Caesars” was a real insider – having worked as palace archivist and librarian). But almost all our accounts of them come from after their reign and are part of “posthumous reputation making”. Often, the way to keep bloke in power pleased was to trash his predecessors. Did Caligula really have all his soldiers pick up every shell on a beach or plan to make his favourite horse a consul?  These stories may be fanciful, but they are hugely important nevertheless and were repeated for generations. They are some of the best evidence for Romans thought of their emperors, about their fears of imperial power and how it falls.  So one to one, real life comparisons are always misleading (insists Mary!). But the wider patterns of political power can be similar then and now. Donald Trump plays many of the tunes that you find in the emperors’ playbook: capriciousness as a political tactic (they’re always changing their mind); Julius Caesar was one who made a point of speaking directly to the people to bypass political institutions (Trump does it through social media); wanton cruelty mixed with sudden acts of generosity.  Charlotte doesn’t let Mary off the hook. Yes, it’s hard to draw direct comparisons, but - come on Mary! - which emperor is Trump most like?  Answers are given!  @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: [email protected] Mary and Charlotte’s recommended reads: Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars. Written in the second century CE. There’s a new translation by Tom Holland, but plenty of others are available. It was written to be read from start to finish, but new readers might choose to start with the lives of Caligula, Nero or Domitian. The Lives of the Later Caesars (available in Penguin translation: its Latin title is the rather more opaque Historia Augusta). Much less well known, this is a series of ancient biographies of emperors after Hadrian that make Suetonius look very “proper”, with lurid anecdotes that no one has ever thought were true. If you want a good start, go to the life of Elagabalus (also called Heliogabalus). For those wanting to explore Elagabalus, there’s an awful lot of modern gossip-mongering masquerading as history. For a more reliable start, try Martijn Icks, The Crimes of Elagabalus (this is great on how he was represented in later art and culture), or Harry Sidebottom, The Mad Emperor. Advert alert: Mary discusses the stories told about Roman emperors, and how we can understand them in her book, Emperor of Rome.  Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole  Executive Producer: Jo Meek  Senior Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new podcast hosted by Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins. Ancient stories, modern twists… and no degree in Classics required. Episode 1 Available on Thursday, August 28th, 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices