Tristan Hughes

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I'll see you in the next episode.

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Hello and welcome to a very special episode of The Ancients, one that has been in the works for quite some time and I'm now really excited to share with you.

We are covering the rise of one of ancient history's most infamous figures, King Herod, the villain of the Nativity story and yet at the same time, at least in my opinion, one of the most extraordinary rulers from antiquity.

we are going to be taking you from Herod's beginnings to how he ultimately became King of Judea.

It is an action-packed story full of twists and turns, and we've moulded it into an epic narrative, featuring three great experts from the University of Edinburgh.

Professor Benedict Eckhart, Dr. Kimberly Tchaikovsky, and Professor Helen Bond.

Now, this originally came out as a History Hit documentary, which you can go and watch on History Hit.

But because it is such a great story, I also really wanted to turn it into a special Ancients episode too, just for you.

I really do hope you enjoy.