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Veni Vidi Vichy.

If you're not familiar with Latin, it translates as, I came, I saw, I conquered, and is a phrase attributed to

Julia Caesar after one of his many great victories in a battle in Turkey.

But it's a phrase that's equally applicable to many of the Roman emperors.

He swept through Europe, the Middle East and the Mediterranean, in their quest to build the greatest empire in the known world.

It wasn't all plain sailing.

They certainly had setbacks in places like England, the Middle East and what we now see as Germany, but typically

when the Romans set their sights on a particular territory, they generally got their way.

It may therefore surprise you to learn that Octavian, later known as Augustus, the first

and arguably the greatest Roman Emperor of the mall, met his match in a woman named Candace.

In this episode I speak to one of the leading experts on this period of history, Professor Emeritus Stanley Burstein of California State University.

Who was this woman, Candicay, often translated as Candace?

How is she able to stand up against the might of the Roman Empire?

And what impact did her defiance have on the Kush Empire?

The Kushai Empire's origins can be traced back to Kerma in what is today's Sudan in a period between 2,500 and 1500 BC.

Thereafter it grew into a powerful empire.

But to set the scene on the Romans side,

...