Mary Beard

A certain reservation on my part, it has to be said, but you persuaded me that we should do that.

And then, and these do link in a way as I hope people listening will discover.

Then we go from Alexander to Julius Caesar and then gladiators and with a special lookout for Spartacus of the movie.

They are, and I think we thought that it would bring out some of our differences of opinion as well as things we hold in common.

And I think also they're not just loads of men killing each other.

They are that.

Most of them, all of them, I think...

they kind of occupy that funny, fuzzy boundary between what's myth and what's history.

And that is one of the things I think is most interesting to explore in ancient history.

How do we know what's true or not?

And does it matter if it's true?

And some of the most important aspects of all these, some of the most important aspects are the mythical ones, whether or not they're strictly true.

So we're kind of, it's going to be a great tightrope, actually.

And I know that you think I'm going to be a downer.

You think I'm going to be a downer because you think Mary Beard, what's her trademark?

Her trademark is scepticism.

So we're going to have some great story and then I'm going to come in and say, none of it's true, you know.

So I'm going to try and hold myself in a bit.

But some of the best history is not true.

Yeah.