How does an empire fall, from within or without, and would it make a good movie? Those are just some of the many questions we dig into with special guests and hosts of the Partial Historians podcast, Dr. Fiona Radford and Dr. Peta Greenfield (@p_historians), as we take on Anthony Mann's historical epic drama Fall of the Roman Empire. We dive into the history and reception of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, this movie's place in the pantheon of Hollywood sword-and-sandal epics and the tension between historicity and ideology in films such as these. We also make our Gladiator 2 predictions. They should call it GLADIATOR$!

It's British edu-tainment at its finest? Opinions, like empires, are divided over this movie, a raunchy comedy adapted from of a popular TV/Youtube series adapted from a popular book series. Joined by a new wonderful guest, Emma Coffey, we get into Boudica's revolt, representation of historical women in film and Britain's representation of its own colonial history as mediated through its ancient past. And poop jokes. All in all pretty standard fair. Is this a clever and effective way to teach history or Youtube sketch that overstayed its welcome?

Upload your stacks and get ready to get spun back up because we're taking on the labors of Netflix's cyberpunk action noir Altered Carbon. Super special guest Methuselah and Metal Classicist Jeremy Swist pitches to the Reception Police™ his idea on future super-soldier Takeshi Kovacs being a reception of the mighty Heracles. We get into this show's genre roots, the motivations of (anti-)heroes, the archaeology of spinning the dead back up and - in true Platonic fashion - the nature of the soul. It's Plotinus meets Philip K Dick. Verdict: you cannot disembody the embodied body. you can find Jeremy on Twitter @MetalClassicist and his website https://heavymetalclassicist.home.blog/

This might be perhaps the wildest piece of classical reception we've covered to date, at least if we're going by number of dismembered body parts. Joined by super special guest Pramit Chaudhuri, we dig into Julie Taymor's 1999 Titus, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. This is a real gold mine of reception: Shakespeare adapting ancient Rome, us adapting Shakespeare, us adapting Shakespeare adapting ancient Rome via a smoothie of Ovid, Seneca and Livy. As the references pile up, we consider whether this play a unmitigated disaster or secret masterpiece. Other important questions: What if Pee-wee Herman was a fascist? Why does Steve Bannon love this play so much? What's the best way to cook your enemy's children into a pie? There's a full menu to pick from. Pun intended. CW: This episode contains discussion of sexual violence

That's right all you hard boppers, we're back with a new episode on the 1979 cult classic, The Warriors. Joined by special guests Joel Christensen, Tim Gerolami and 60,000 soldiers, the streets are ours. We get into Xenophon's 5th c. travel blog that (maybe) inspired this tale, gang life in the movies, Tim's dad and the ultimate question one can pose on this show: CAN YOU DIG IT?