The Complete History of Rome, Summarized

What if YouTube video... but documentary?????? Join Blue on a feature-length journey through all of Roman history: from its origins, through the Republic, up and down the Empire, and out into the medieval world of Catholicism in the Latin West and the Byzantine Empire in the Greek East. It's a BIG tale, so Let's Do Some History!

SOURCES & Further Reading:
BOOKS
"SPQR" by Mary Beard
"Rome: A History in Seven Sackings" by Matthew Kneale
"The Roman Way" by Edith Hamilton
"The Aeneid" by Virgil
"Histories" by Polybius
"Ab Urbe Condita" by Livy
"De Bello Gallico" by Julius Caesar
"Odes" by Horace
"Parallel Lives" by Plutarch
"Rubicon" by Tom Holland
"The Storm Before the Storm" by Mike Duncan
"The Enemies of Rome" by Stephen P. Kershaw
"The Age of Augustus" by Werner Eck
"Augustus and the Creation of the Roman Empire" by Ronald Mellor
"Cleopatra: A Life" by Stacy Schiff
"Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants" By Garrett Ryan
"The Classical World" by Robin Lane Fox
"Ravenna" by Judith Herrin
National Geographic "Ultimate Visual History of the World" by Jean-Pierre Isbouts
"Byzantium" I, II, and III by John Julius Norwich
"The Byzantine Republic: People and Power in New Rome" by Anthony Kaldellis
"The Alexiad" by Anna Komnene
"Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire" by Caroline Finkel
"Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History" by John Julius Norwich
"A History of Venice" by John Julius Norwich.
ONLINE
GREAT COURSES LECTURES
"Piazza Farnese to the Ara Pacis" from "The Essential Guide to Italy" by Dr. Kenneth R. Bartlett
"The Pax Romana", "Rome's Golden and Silver Ages" & "Late Antiquity - Crisis and Response" & "Barbarians and Emperors" from "Foundations of Western Civilization" by Thomas F.X. Noble
"Roman Art and Architecte" & "From Commodus to Caracalla" & "The Crisis of the Third Century" & "Diocletian and Late Third-Century Reforms" from "The Roman Empire: From Augustus to The Fall of Rome" by Gregory Aldrete.
VIDEOS
UNIVERSITY
I have a bachelor's degree in Classical Studies.

CHAPTERS:
0:00 - Introduction
1:26 - The Birth of Rome
10:25 - The Roman Republic
15:59 - The Punic Wars
24:28 - Rome's First Assassination (uh oh)
35:38 - Julius Caesar
50:12 - Octavian vs the Assassins
57:45 - Octavian vs Antony
1:07:38 - Augustus as Emperor
1:25:26 - The Roman Empire
1:36:11 - The Crisis of the Third Century
1:46:58 - The Fall of Rome
1:58:08 - Rome After Empire
2:10:12 - The Byzantine Empire
2:24:26 - The Byzantine Golden Age
2:37:57 - The Decline and Fall of Byzantium
2:53:05 - Conclusion

MUSIC:
Courtesy of composer Austin Wintory / @awintory
I Know How It Feels To Be Lost, Mount Olympus, Reclamation, Welcome to the Real Underworld, Threshold, The Decision, Temptations, The Reliquary – from the Stray Gods Pantheon Edition and Journey scores.
Also Also, "Slaysenflite" from Age of Mythology, "Phoebe the Orphan" & "The Sacred Land of Artemis" & "Naxos Island" & "Kephallonia Island" from Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Additional thanks to our the members of our discord community who kindly checked over my video draft and helped me pick out video thumbnails: Jonny, Catia, Chehrazad, and Billy. Thank you for all your help across multiple videos and your endless commitment to sharing cool facts about Mediterranean civilizations, Rome and otherwise.

Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.

[Magicghost]

When you want to stop thinking about rome and then this comes along.

[UnaOwens-gq]

Today I realized: If you had no familiarity with elephants, you’d probably assume that these two-speared, snake-faced, gigantic *WAR MONSTERS* were probably carnivorous.

[DanGamingFan]

Less than 3 hours to summarize one of the largest, longest lasting, and most enfluential empires the world has ever seen. If anyone can do it, Blue can. Your content never disappoints. Thank you for this.

[Jarakin]

“It doesn’t take a lot of elephants to have a scary amount of elephant on the battlefield!”

Never really thought about it that way, but yeah.

[Nuttg]

Listening to this whole thing while deep cleaning a work kitchen is brilliant. If I am in a certain spot and I look in a certain direction, a period of Roman history will flash back to me. The entire cooking line is mentally smeared all over with byzantine history, and if I ever go behind the grills and clean again, the Byzantine reconquests will start recalling.

[michaelgrey]

Remember a couple of weeks ago when Red said that we would get back to our normal programming? And then Blue decided to make this absolutely unhinged and glorious video essay?

[nicholasbove]

Oh yes blue has joined the 2 hour video essay crew!

[mikewinans]

3 hours of blue talking about the classical world?! This is the dream!!

[garrettsmith]

As a history major, I like how you explain the origin of Rome while using a source you know is flawed. Nice.

[Rutgerman]

The Detail Diatribe wasn't kidding, Blue is on his Symbiote arc
....and the Symbiote wants to talk about Rome just as much as he does

So, 5 hour deep dive on all the nuances of Venice next week?

[Die_Hard_Historian]

Every Latin student who watches your channel thanks you for this, including me. I’m gonna find a way to make my teacher watch this in our class!

[mariachiaratramontana]

I am Italian and I live in Italy and in my opinion you have done a fantastic job at representing, describing and always with a pinch of comedy to mix it all up. It's always a pleasure to see you.
Thank you

💘💘💘💘💘

[TheLinuxCast]

"Alexander the Short Sighted." I laughed for 10 minutes.

[ottarak]

I fell asleep with youtube on autoplay, woke up 3 minutes into this video. Just kept watching and really learned something. Thanks!!

[Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

Ah, the history of Rome. I expected an Empire of your reputation to be a little more... definitive. My applause to you Blue for concocting such an excellent and thorough culmination of Roman history! But I must say, given your fondness of the subject matter (even with it being 3 hours long!) this video... it's shorter than I expected.

[danielmcgillis]

This is why men can not stop watching videos about the Roman Empire. It is just so damn cool. Wars, assassinations, people larger than life, dirty politics, violent politics, and on and on and on. How could a man with a shred of intellect not be interested in learning the history of this? It's like the second world war, its history, and it is important.

[cowboystormchaser]

I'm a high school science teacher; my hobbies include storm-chasing and birdwatching and I've rarely, if ever, had any special interest in history. But I watched every second of this video and DANG it was fascinating and informative. Great job, Blue, taking a subject I would have never given a second thought to and making it so cool and relevant! You would make an excellent teacher.

[vlooranthewise]

Rome: "OK guys, we want your stuff. We're gonna take it, if you don't mi-"
Hannibal: JENKINS!!!"*

[Patch-lzyi]

Three hours of Rome. The classics majors are going to have a field day watching this.

[jacktaylor]

Everyone: "YOU ATTACKED US!"

Role: "No, i self defensed you!"