Every­one in ancient Rome wore togas, sur­round­ed them­selves with pure-white mar­ble stat­ues, bayed for blood as glad­i­a­tors fought to the death in the Colos­se­um, pro­gram­mat­i­cal­ly imi­tat­ed the Greeks, and, after each and every debauch­er­ous feast, excused them­selves to the vom­i­to­ria, where they rit­u­al­ly vacat­ed their stom­achs. These may not yet be fea­tures of the Rome we imag­ine, but they could be if we make a habit of lis­ten­ing to Beard’s new pod­cast Instant Clas­sics. Relat­ed Con­tent:Empire With­out Lim­it: Watch Mary Beard’s TV Series on Ancient RomeMythol­o­gy Expert Reviews Depic­tions of Greek & Roman Myths in Pop­u­lar Movies and TV ShowsBased in Seoul, Col­in Marshall writes and broad­casts on cities, lan­guage, and cul­ture. His projects include the Sub­stack newslet­ter Books on Cities and the book The State­less City: a Walk through 21st-Cen­tu­ry Los Ange­les. Fol­low him on the social net­work for­mer­ly known as Twit­ter at @colinmarshall.