Is Trump a new Nero, Caligula, Caesar? Can the Roman Empire help us make sense of today's chaos? And other burning questions

About this episode

The episode explores parallels between President Trump and historical Roman emperors, discussing lessons from Ancient Rome in the context of modern political chaos.

Is President Trump a new Nero, or a contemporary Caligula? The Roman Empire was full of merchants of chaos, power-hungry emperors, epic wars, backstabbing, betrayals — the whole horror show. And it was a time of civilisational scale change. As we grapple with a rewriting of the world order, does Ancient Rome have lessons for us today — about the building and breaking of empires, or the rise and fall of autocrats? Or are these sorts of comparisons with the past fraught with complication? Join Natasha Mitchell and guests at this Melbourne Museum event to coincide with the opening of the ROME: Empire, Power, People exhibition . Speakers Rhiannon Evans Co-host of the Emperors of Rome podcast Author, Utopia Antiqua: Readings of the Golden Age and decline at Rome (Routledge, 2007)Adjunct Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient HistoryLa Trobe University Nick Bisley Author, Asian Crucible: Globalization, Geopolitics and the Contest for the Future (Bristol University Press, 2026); The Belt and Road Initiative and the Future of Regional Order in the Indo-Pacific (Rowman and Littlefield, 2020), Issues in 21st Century World Politics, 3rd Edition (Palgrave, 2017) and Great Powers in the…

People in this episode

Host: Natasha Mitchell

Guests: Rhiannon Evans, Nick Bisley

Topics covered

• Trump
• Roman Empire
• chaos
• autocrats
• civilizational change
• politics
• history

Keywords

• Trump
• Nero
• Caligula
• Roman Empire
• politics
• autocracy
• civilization
• history
• chaos
• empires

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: La Trobe University, Museums Victoria

Books & works: ROME: Empire, Power, People, Utopia Antiqua: Readings of the Golden Age and decline at Rome, Asian Crucible: Globalization, Geopolitics and the Contest for the Future, The Belt and Road Initiative and the Future of Regional Order in the Indo-Pacific, Issues in 21st Century World Politics, 3rd Edition, Great Powers in the Changing International Order

Places: Melbourne Museum

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