🎓 5 picks

The best online courses on Roman history

From a free university lecture series to the big narrated survey courses — where to actually learn the emperors in order, not just read about them. Both paid and free, with what each is good for.

  1. The History of Ancient Rome

    Garrett G. Fagan · The Great Courses (48 lectures)

    The classic narrated survey — Republic through empire, emperor by emperor. The one most people mean by “the Rome course.”

  2. Roman Architecture

    Diana E. E. Kleiner · Open Yale Courses (free)

    A full Yale course, free online — reads the empire through what its emperors built, from the Colosseum to Hadrian’s villa.

  3. Emperors of Rome

    La Trobe University · podcast course (free)

    A long-running lecture podcast working through the emperors one at a time — free, deep, and easy to listen along a commute.

  4. Ancient Rome

    Khan Academy (free)

    The free primer: short lessons and videos that lay the timeline and the key emperors down fast. Best starting point.

  5. The Roman Empire: From Augustus to the Fall of Rome

    Gregory S. Aldrete · The Great Courses

    Focused squarely on the imperial centuries — a tighter companion to Fagan if you only want the emperors, not the Republic.

See also