Long reads, from BBC History Magazine

Shushma Malik argues that structural weaknesses plagued Rome's republic long before Julius Caesar's death

Susan Doran explores the pivotal moment of succession between the Tudors and Stuarts – and considers whether the arrival of a new king was all it was cracked up to be

Mary Wills shares the exploits and issues of the West African Squadron, a British naval taskforce charged with hunting down slave ships

Mary Beard takes listeners on an ancient cruise down the Nile, as she follows the Roman emperor Hadrian's journey through Egypt in AD 130

Saul David walks listeners through the earliest stages of the D-Day invasion, highlighting the significance of the initial airborne assault

Nicola Clark unveils the lives of six ladies-in-waiting who witnessed the tumultuous Tudor court of Henry VIII

Nick Hewitt shines a spotlight on the often forgotten role the navy played during the 1944 Normandy campaign

Jackie Uí Chionna reveals the hidden figure behind the translation of the Beethoven and Mozart's letters, who earned the status as Britain's most senior female codebreaker

Rosalind Crone reexamines eight scandals that rocked Victorian Britain and considers how they shifted attitudes and altered legislation

Guy de la Bédoyère unveils the hidden stories of the enslaved Romans who shaped the fate of their empire from behind the scenes

Sophie Thérèse Ambler and James Morris explore how the the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Cumbria held out against the invading Normans

Matthew Parker explains why, though an exotic festival of delights, the British Empire Exhibition also revealed an empire that was on its last legs

Helen Cowie marks the RSPCA's 200th anniversary by returning to its roots campaigning against vicious Victorian animal cruelty

Nicky Nielsen traces the progress of a brutal 15th-century BC battle that saw supercharged the rise of Egypt's greatest warrior pharaoh

Nick Lloyd considers why, despite its scale and legacy, the First World War's Eastern Front has been overshadowed by its Western counterpart

Sarah Gristwood delves into the diaries of women that have previously been lost to time to reveal what they can tell us about the past

Robert Bartlett considers why the medieval era has proven to be enduringly popular with filmmakers – from the crusading narratives of Kingdom of Heaven to the knightly escapades of Excalibur

Rob Attar delves into how historical conspiracy theories have become so pervasive today

Nicola Tallis untangles the turbulent relationship between Mary I and Elizabeth I from their younger years up until Elizabeth's succession to the throne

Islam Issa shares the colourful story of ancient Alexandria, a city dreamt up by the famed Macedonian empire-builder, Alexander the Great

Peter Coates explains why the grey squirrel has been an object of British hostility for over a century

Hannah Skoda considers how breastfeeding was seen and understood during the Middle Ages

Susan Law reveals how the canals of Britain were once a focal point of Victorian alcohol-infused disorder

Richard Toye considers how Britain's first Labour prime minister gave the party a spotlight – and its fair share of rivals