Podcasts

The Silver Empress, written and narrated by Ed McWatt

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Episode 0

An introduction & historical note

 

Episode 1

Julius – July 405 CE.

i – The Peace of Rome

In which we meet Quin – a boy struggling to get on with his sister – and his father, a man struggling to survive a hunt for a Saxon raiding party gone bad

 

Episode 2

Martius – March 409 CE. Four Years Later.

i – In the villa garden

Maius – May 409 CE. Day of Mercury – Wednesday

i – Unexpected visitors

In which Quin’s temper is harshly punished, and late night visitors foreshadow a coming change. Amid the family’s wealth, a client of his uncle’s begs Quin for a favour, before being interrupted by the boy’s grandmother, Juliana.

 

Episode 3

Day of Mercury – Wednesday

ii – Acquaintances and friends

iii – A troubled town

In which Quin & Faustinus journey to town to meet Silvi’s fiance, and meet trouble along the way. In Scole, Duke Galerius has to deal with a lynch-mob intent on getting to his prisoners. Quin strikes a deal with the Duke, to the horror of his uncle.

 

Episode 4

Day of Mercury – Wednesday

iv – Guests of the Villa Ursicinus

v – The gorgon-god

Day of Jupiter – Thursday

i – A death in the woods

In which Quin and Silvi spar and Faustinus vents his rage. Quin, driven to find some solitude, learns more about his father from an inscrutable Galerius. A boar hunt in the woods brings Quin face to face with death, and with questions about his new slave and the Duke.

 

Episode 5

Day of Jupiter – Thursday

ii – An evening in the triclinium

iii – The ancestors in the cellar

In which Quin questions his slave, but learns little. Roasted boar cannot prevent the evening ending badly, as a drunk and suspicious Galerius lets his mask slip. In the act of securing his slave in the cellar, Quin makes a discovery from his past.

 

Episode 6

Day of Venus – Friday

i – Distant fires

ii – A conference sadly borne

In which distant trouble edges closer to the villa, and Quin discovers treachery at their very gate.

 

Episode 7

Day of Venus – Friday

iii – An officer of Rome

In which Wulfgar admits a dark secret from his past and Quin tries to make his uncle aware of what he’s overheard, before it’s too late.

 

Episode 8

Day of Venus – Friday

iv – Premonition of love

In which, despite the gathering clouds, the marriage feast goes ahead at Silvi’s insistence. But it does not quite go the way she dreamed it might

 

Episode 9

Day of Saturn – Saturday

i – The price of safety

In which the family prepare to leave the villa, with – or without – their riches. The Duke assumes control and Felix returns with news.

 

Episode 10

Day of Saturn – Saturday

ii – Manumission

iii – Thieves in the night

In which a midnight escape becomes something far more ambitious, and dangerous, as Quin tries to take things into his own hands.

 

Episode 11

Day of the Sun – Sunday

i – Return of the prodigal nephew

ii – In loco parentis

In which a fire closer to home brings things to a violent head, and Faustinus finds his courage.

 

Episode 12

Day of the Sun – Sunday

iii – The prison barn

iv – A desperate plan

In which desperate actions are all that remain open to Quin, with Galerius willing to go to any extreme to find the hidden chest.

 

Episode 13

Day of the Sun – Sunday

v – Prayers asked and answered

Day of the Moon – Monday

i – Buried treasures

In which, with their world irreversibly altered, the survivors from the barn must decide on their path. But danger is not far behind them.

 

 

The guest episode I recorded for David Crowther’s excellent ‘The History of England’ podcast can be found on his website. The episode focusses on the end of Roman Britain and the evidence we have for how it must have felt for the people of the time. There are even a few jokes in there – it’s well worth 15 minutes of your life.

 

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