Show Notes
00:00 // Welcome and IntroductionUploaded 14-08-2600:16 // Ovid's Claim: "Caesar Is the Republic"03:52 // Exile: The Danger of Writing Under Augustus04:17 // Tonight's Question: Charting Roman Autocracy05:30 // Tacitus and the Timeline of Roman History07:34 // Tacitism: Tacitus's Legacy in Early Modern Europe08:14 // Republic vs Empire: A Terminological Clarification09:01 // When Did the Roman Republic Really End?10:04 // Rethinking the Republic's "Fall"11:43 // Lecture Roadmap: Three Parts12:56 // Princeps: Augustus's Ambiguous Title15:09 // "Making the Emergency Permanent"20:39 // Did Augustus Really Limit His Own Power?22:21 // The 23 BCE Conspiracy and Constitutional Change25:33 // Autocratic Legalism: Law as a Tool of Power26:33 // From Tiberius to Nero: Eroding the Republic28:46 // Tacitus's Verdict on Tiberius and Nero32:36 // Seneca, Nero, and the Choice of Exit, Voice, or Loyalty36:29 // Tacitus as Author: Writing Truth Under Tyranny42:25 // Agricola: Survival and Courage Under DomitianWatch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/BwuejjL2LvwDid the Roman republic die with Julius Caesar? With Cicero? With the gradual consolidation of power in the hands of Caesar’s adoptive son, who would in 27 BCE receive from the Senate the additional honorific appellation ‘Augustus’? By looking at how imperial rule preserved remnants and facades of republican language and institutions, this lecture will interrogate the ways in which a popular constitution can be undermined and gradually transmuted into a dictatorial one.This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on the 18th of June 2026Melissa Lane is the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.She studied for her first degree in Social Studies (awarded summa cum laude) at Harvard University, and then took an MPhil and PhD in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, where she was a student at King’s College, supported by appointments as a Marshall Scholar, Truman Scholar, and Mary Isabel Sibley Fellow of Phi Beta Kappa.Professor Lane is an author, lecturer and broadcaster who has received major awards including being named a Guggenheim Fellow, and the Lucy Shoe Meritt Resident in Classical Studies at the American Academy in Rome. She has published widely in journals and authored or introduced nine major books including Greek and Roman Political Ideas; Eco-Republic; and most recently, Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political, which was awarded the 2024 Book Prize of the Journal of the History of Philosophy, and was published in a paperback edition with modifications in 2025.Professor Lane is the only person ever to have delivered both the Carlyle Lectures and the Isaiah Berlin Lectures at the University of Oxford.The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/death-romeGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.ukX: https://x.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Bach's Art of Fugue, Mozart's Requiem, Schubert's Symphony No. 8, Alban Berg's opera Lulu, and Elgar's 3rd Symphony are all pieces that are famously incomplete. Uploaded 10-06-26This lecture examines the fascination surrounding works that are left unfinished at their composers' deaths. It also looks at the urge that certain of us have to complete these uncompleted works, however unwisely and however unbidden. 'Don't let anyone tinker with it', said Elgar; but several have anyway, and with thought-provoking results.A lecture by Jeremy Summerly 6 FebruaryThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/unfinished-musicGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Efficient Market Hypothesis argues that stock markets are rational - they take into account all relevant information, and incorporate it in an unbiased way. Uploaded 11-06-26This talk will present evidence that stock prices are instead driven by human psychology. The market overreacts to some types of information yet underreacts to others; it is driven by emotions rather than purely economic fundamentals. The lecture gives profitable trading strategies that investors can use to exploit these biases.A lecture by Alex Edmans 22 SeptemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/market-psychologyGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
00:00 // Introduction: Why Pluto Isn't a PlanetUploaded 10-07-2603:28 // Discovery of Uranus and a Mysterious Orbit05:49 // How Neptune Was Found Through Math08:16 // Percival Lowell's Hunt for "Planet X"09:49 // Clyde Tombaugh Discovers Pluto (1930)14:09 // A Brief History of Counting the Planets18:02 // Pluto's Odd Orbit Raises Early Doubts22:21 // The Kuiper Belt Theory Takes Shape26:09 // Discovering Pluto's Moon, Charon30:12 // Eris and the Rise of the Trans-Neptunian Objects34:27 // The IAU's Chaotic 2006 Vote42:43 // New Horizons: Pluto Up Close at Last47:38 // The Verdict — Why Pluto Isn't a PlanetWatch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/k73e3lnz3pgIn 2006, the International Astronomical Union adopted a definition of a planet that demoted Pluto to just one of what is likely hundreds of dwarf planets in our Solar System. Exploring the remote Kuiper Belt, this lecture challenges us to think about what kinds of scientific questions are worth our attention, what it means to name something – and why Pluto is worth caring about anyway.This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on the 3rd of June 2026Professor Chris Lintott is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.Having been educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge and University College London, his research now ranges from understanding how galaxies form and evolve, to using machine learning to find the most unusual things in the Universe, to predicting the properties of visiting interstellar asteroids. He was the founder of the Zooniverse citizen science platform, which provides opportunities for more than two million online volunteers to contribute to scientific research, and which was the topic of his first book, 'The Crowd and the Cosmos’. His latest book is ‘Our Accidental Universe’. Professor Lintott is best known for presenting the BBC's long-running Sky at Night program, and as an accomplished lecturer. Away from work, he cooks, suffers through being a fan of Torquay United and Somerset cricket, and spends time with a rescued lurcher, Mr Max. He can often be found at the helm of Oxford’s science comedy night, ‘Huh, That’s Funny’.The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/pluto-planetGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.ukX: https://x.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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