The History of Rome

An Anki flashcard deck following my own journey of learning Roman history, built alongside Mike Duncan’s The History of Rome podcast. Listening is fascinating, but not every name and story sticks.

The deck won’t provide a deep dive into any one event, but it conveys the overall history of Rome and provides the context of who was involved, what happened, why it happened, and what followed. Each card includes a mini-timeline showing where the event sits relative to its surroundings.

Two sample cards from the deck. Click to reveal the answer.

How It Works

The underlying data is structured YAML - eras, rulers, wars, battles, events, people, places, and institutions, each holding relationships to the others. A pipeline of scripts generates Anki cards and an HTML timeline from this data.

The actual creation of the cards is an iterative process: fill in the data objects, see what cards the pipeline generates, then go back and fix up the ones that need rewording or restructuring. Repeat until the output feels right. The pipeline handles the card generation, but the quality comes from careful curation.

Current Status

Artifacts

A generated HTML timeline covering the eras, rulers, wars, and key events covered so far. There are a few inconsistencies in how events are placed, which I intend to improve over time. At some point I might make a more interactive version of this, but for now it serves as a nice visual overview of the history covered in the deck.

An in-progress Anki deck following the full arc of Roman history from the founding of the city through the fall of the Western Empire. Covers rulers, wars, key events, and the people behind them. Each card includes a mini-timeline showing where it sits in the broader story. Updated as new content is added; currently covers 753 BC to 52 BC.