# Classic Chats: Tom Holland Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/instant-classics-7455513/classic-chats-tom-holland Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/instant-classics-7455513/classic-chats-tom-holland.md Podcast: [Instant Classics](https://stenobird.com/podcast/instant-classics-7455513) Published: 2026-02-26T06:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NSR4085419094.mp3?updated=1772071589 Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NSR4085419094.mp3?updated=1772071589 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/instant-classics-7455513/episodes/classic-chats-tom-holland Duration seconds: 3386 ## Resource Mary and Charlotte talk to Tom Holland, co-host of the Rest is History. As well as being a podcasting megastar, Tom is a brilliant historian of Ancient Rome. His books include Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic, Pax: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age and his recent translation of Suetonius’ The Lives of the Caesars. In the first half of this episode, Tom talks about why Suetonius, with his interest in court gossip and trivia, is the historian for the current age. In the second half, he talks about his lifelong fascination with the Romans - from discovering the Asterix books as a boy, the poetry of Catullus as a teenager, and how writing a series of novels about vampires led him to write Rubicon. @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/instant-classics-7455513/episodes/classic-chats-tom-holland/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/instant-classics-7455513/classic-chats-tom-holland.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.