Adrian Murdoch was somewhat of a pioneer in the world of history blogging. A historian and journalist, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the author of several books on the Roman Empire, he set up his blog ‘Bread and Circuses: Adventures in the later Roman Empire’ five years ago.

This month, on January 3^rd, he launched a new weekly series entitled ‘Emperors of Rome’ to mark the fifth anniversary of his blog. Over the course of 2011, Murdoch will post on his blog, every Monday morning, a new two-minute video exploring the life and reign of one of the Roman emperors. Through the series of podcasts his aim is to cover every Roman emperor from Augustus to Romulus Augustulus.

The first episode, published this Monday, is devoted to Augustus (63 BC – 14 AD). Concise, yet highly informative, it provides an excellent overview of his life and of some of the major themes and issues of his reign. A series well-worth following.

Augustus Down the Centuries by John Carter, from our 1983 archive, provides useful further information about the posthumous reputation of Augustus.