Ancient Rome: Inside the Emperors’ Clothes | Hacker News Reader

Ancient Rome: Inside the Emperors’ Clothes

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51 pointsflannery6 comments

To anybody interested in everyday lives of people in ancient Rome, I can recommend this three-part documentary by professor Beard:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_the_Romans_with_Mary_Bear...

> http://www.his.com/~z/gibbon.html

> http://www.his.com/~z/passage.html

As a side note, see these two links for some quotes and passages from Gibbon's magnum opus. The whole work (including footnotes) is amazing.

(A peculiar title ...)

I'll leave aside the professional historians, but if we're tossing in story telling like Tom Holland's, I'd put in a good word for John Maddox Ford's (also named) SPQR series - a dozen or so stories about a fictional character inserted in the critical final years of Roman republic. Best hard-nosed, not excessively modern look at those times I've come across.

> Between them they have done more to promote classical studies than all the professors who try to reach thousands through the electronic programs currently known as massive open online courses (MOOCs).

Was this side-swipe necessary?

I guess it's because Mary Beard is not fond of MOOCs.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/10675043/Prof-Mary-Beard-online-courses-risk-losing-focus-on-education.html

But it does seem a little odd. Perhaps some ill-advised editing?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/106...

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