Ancient history · 133 to 44 BCE
How Rome's Republic talked, rioted and marched itself into a dictatorship.
Told as five-minute narrated stories. In each one you take the seat, make the real decisions, then see what actually happened.
You play Tiberius Gracchus
Can you fix Rome's land problem without breaking its rules?
Rome, 133 BCE. The rich hold most of the land Rome won in war, and enslaved foreigners work it. The last man who tried to fix this, Gaius Laelius, quit.
You play Spartacus
An army of escaped slaves: where do you take it?
Italy, 73 BCE. Rome's wars have filled the country with captives, and Rome counts them as property. Some are sold to fight, and often die, in the arena.
You play Cicero
You have the plot in your hands. How far do you go to stop it?
Rome, 63 BCE. The city is full of broke men, from young nobles who gambled away their inheritances to the old soldiers of Sulla, the general who ran Rome alone.
You play Pompey
Caesar is coming. Do you stand or run?
Italy, January 49 BCE. Julius Caesar has spent nine years conquering Gaul, and he comes out of it rich, famous and adored by his legions. In Rome, that is the problem.
You play Pompey
You can starve Caesar out or finish him in one battle.
Thessalonica, northern Greece, winter. The Roman Republic has moved house: Pompey the Great has pulled out of Italy, and some two hundred senators have followed him here.
You play Julius Caesar
Everyone is warning you. Do you listen?
Rome, 44 BCE. The civil wars are over, and Julius Caesar won them. He is dictator for life, a ruler nobody can overrule, with no end date.
Five minutes a story. You make the call, history gives the verdict.
