I was just interviewed for ABC radio about my upcoming public lecture about sex, poison, politics and the imperial women of Rome. The interview will be broadcast on Sunday 5 (AM 936 Hobart & AM 711 Launceston) sometime between 11am-1pm.

Lecture details:

SEX, POISON and POLITICS – The First Five Empresses of Rome.

Ms Tansy Rayner Roberts, PhD student, University of Tasmania.

Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero – each were famous (or infamous) for conquest, machinations and scandal. But what of the First Ladies of Rome? How have they been remembered through the centuries?

Livia: accused of poisoning her husband’s heirs to make room for her own;
Drusilla: Caligula’s sister, mistress and goddess;
Messalina: cheated on her imperial husband with half of Rome;
Agrippina: married her uncle and poisoned him to put her son in his place;
Poppaea: killed and then deified by Nero.

Friday, 10 October at 6:00 pm, Lecture Theatre 4, University Auditorium, Newnham Campus, Launceston

Friday 24 October at 6:00 pm Stanley Burbury Theatre, University Centre, Sandy Bay Campus, Hobart – with a visit to the Classics Museum after the lecture.