Is Shakespeare History? The Romans

In the second of two programmes marking In Our Time’s 20th anniversary on 15th October, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare’s versions of history, continuing with the Roman plays. Rome was the setting for Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus and parts of Antony and Cleopatra and these plays gave Shakespeare the chance to explore ideas too controversial for English histories. How was Shakespeare reimagining Roman history, and what impact has that had on how we see Rome today? The image above is of Marlon Brando playing Mark Antony in a scene from the film version of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, 1953

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Sir Jonathan Bate 16 episodes
  Provost of Worcester College, University of Oxford
• Catherine Steel 5 episodes
  Professor of Classics and Dean of Research in the College of Arts at the University of Glasgow
• Patrick Gray No other episodes
  Associate Professor of English Studies at Durham University

Reading list

• Shakespeare's Roman Trilogy: The Twilight of Antiquity
  Paul A. Cantor (University of Chicago Press, 2017) Google Books →
• Shakespeare's Rome: Republic and Empire
  Paul A. Cantor (University of Chicago Press, 2017) Google Books →
• Shakespeare and the Fall of the Roman Republic: Selfhood, Stoicism, and Civil War
  Patrick Gray (Edinburgh University Press, 2018) Google Books →
• Shakespeare and Republicanism
  Andrew Hadfield (Cambridge University Press, 2008) Google Books →
• The Early History of Rome: Books 1-5
  Livy (trans. Aubrey De Selincourt) (Penguin, 2002) Google Books →
• The Rise of Rome: Books 1-5
  Livy (ed. T. J. Luce) (Oxford University Press, 2008) Google Books →
• Shakespeare and the Constant Romans
  Geoffrey Miles (Oxford University Press, 1996) Google Books →
• Shakespeare's Rome
  Robert S. Miola (Cambridge University Press, 1983) Google Books →
• Roman Lives: A Selection of Eight Lives
  Plutarch (trans. Robin Waterfield) (Oxford University Press, 2008) Google Books →
• Fall of the Roman Republic
  Plutarch (trans. Rex Warner) (Penguin, 2006) Google Books →
• Rome in Crisis
  Plutarch (trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert) (Penguin, 2010) Google Books →
• The Rise of Rome
  Plutarch (trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert) (Penguin, 2013) Google Books →
• Cleopatra: A Biography
  Duane W. Roller (Oxford University Press, 2010) Google Books →
• From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome 133 B.C. to A.D. 68
  H. H. Scullard (Routledge, 2011) Google Books →
• Brutus: The Noble Conspirator
  Kathryn Tempest (Yale University Press, 2017) Google Books →
• Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny
  Edward J. Watts (Basic Books, 2018) Google Books →
• Et Tu, Brute?: A Short History of Political Murder
  Greg Woolf (Harvard University Press, 2008)

Related episodes

• Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets
  
  11 Oct, 2018 820 English and Old English literatures
• Julius Caesar
  
  2 Oct, 2014 930 History of the Ancient World
• Shakespeare’s Work
  
  11 May, 2000 820 English and Old English literatures
• Romeo and Juliet
  
  17 Feb, 2022 820 English and Old English literatures
• Cleopatra
  
  2 Dec, 2010 930 History of the Ancient World
• Plutarch’s Parallel Lives
  
  19 Dec, 2024 880 Classical and modern Greek literatures
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream
  
  18 Apr, 2019 820 English and Old English literatures
• Rome and European Civilization
  
  20 Dec, 2001 930 History of the Ancient World
• Tacitus and the Decadence of Rome
  
  10 Jul, 2008 930 History of the Ancient World
• The Augustan Age
  
  11 Jun, 2009 930 History of the Ancient World

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

---

Programme ID: m0000qnh

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000qnh

Auto-category: 822.33 (Shakespeare’s plays and poetry)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello, it's almost impossible to imagine Antony and Cleopatra or Julius Caesar and ignore Shakespeare's versions of their histories.