I'd like to point out something, and since this isn't too specific a question, I feel I won't be breaking the rules for doing so.

I've heard people on here give Duncan some shit for various things, most of it happening when he did an AMA over at /r/history. Unfortunately, I forget exactly what criticisms were leveled against Duncan and his podcast, but I'd like to defend him here.

Is his podcast a good academic and thorough source on any period of Roman history? Well, no. It's really pop history in its clearest form. Did he get some things wrong, gloss over things he shouldn't have, simplify extremely complicated things, etc.? Possibly, depending on your viewpoint.

But I honestly believe that, right now, he is one of the most important people, if not THE most important person, to have anything to do with Roman history. My reason is that the History of Rome podcast is huge. Absolutely huge. And it will only continue to gain more listeners because anyone who might be interested in learning Roman history will ask around and most likely be referred to the podcast or perhaps just google "history of Rome", and Duncan's podcast will be the first thing they find.

And I love that.

His podcast is honestly the best entry into Roman history out there for someone who knows absolutely nothing about Roman history. It's light enough to even be feasible to produce (and the amount of work that went into even that is just amazing) and it's deep enough to leave the listener wanting to learn more about this Sulla guy, or this Constantine fellow, or that badass Attila. And they'll probably buy some pop history books, but when those don't go quite deep enough, they'll buy more academic, historian-approved sources on such figures.

And if they're young enough, which a lot of Duncan's audience is, I'm sure, they might realize that they love history, and it's what they want to do for a living. Maybe they're future high school teachers, or archaeologists, or novelists, or whatever the hell you crazy people do. Or maybe they'll just keep history as a hobby for the rest of their life, and that's fine.

What I'm trying to say in this rant is that Mike Duncan is spreading his love for history more than probably anyone else ever has, honestly. And it's great. It really is. And I want to see more of it.

And the very best thing? It's free (well, internet and all that jazz isn't, but the podcast is). Anyone with a comptuer, internet, and/or an Apple device can gain a basic understanding of Roman history from start to finish (excluding the Byzantines, which actually have their own podcast being made for them by someone else). Anyone who might not yet realize their fascination with history can easily find it thanks to Mike Duncan.

EDIT: Spelling errors due to my iPod's tyrannical autocorrect.