The Ancients
Episodes
The Vestal Virgins
06 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Priestesses of Vesta, Goddess of hearth, home and family, the College of Vestal Virgins were Rome’s only full-time priesthood. They numbered only si...
Pax Romana
04 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Time for a delve into the History Hit ancient history archives! In this podcast Dan Snow sits down with the brilliant Adrian Goldsworthy to ask the bi...
Kingdom of Kush
28 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Along the banks of the River Nile, directly south of ancient Egypt and hundreds of miles away from the Mediterranean, there was a flourishing kingdom....
Battle of Artemisium
23 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Around this time 2,499 years ago the famous Battle of Thermopylae was raging. But it is important to remember that this clash was not happening on its...
Battle of Thermopylae
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
2,499 years ago the Persian 'Great King' Xerxes launched history's largest amphibious invasion of Europe before D-Day. Accompanied by a huge army and ...
War Elephants
16 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Move over Hannibal. More over Carthage. This podcast is all about a much BIGGER elephant power in antiquity. A power that, at its height, stretched fr...
'Killing for the Roman Republic'
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 281/280 BC, the Hellenistic King Pyrrhus ventured to southern Italy to aid the Italiote-Greek city of Tarentum against a rising power based in cent...
Combat Trauma
09 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From the 2000 historical blockbuster 'Gladiator' to the Total War series, brutal hand to hand warfare is something we commonly associate with antiquit...
Stone Circles
02 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From Cornwall to Orkney, stone circles are scattered throughout the length and breadth of the British Isles. Their history stretches more than 2 mille...
Agrippina the Younger
26 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Agrippina the Younger (AD 15 - 59) was one of the most prominent women in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Born during a time of radical political change i...
Horse Archery
19 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The horse archer was one of the most feared warriors of antiquity. Triumphing mobility and fluidity, these swift skirmishers came to epitomise a feare...
Antonine Wall
12 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In c.142 AD the Emperor Antoninus Pius ordered the construction of a new wall in Northern Britain. Situated between the Firth of Forth and the Firth o...
Housesteads and Hadrian's Wall
05 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Housesteads Roman Fort is one of the great, surviving treasures of Roman Britain. Once an auxiliary fort, it occupied a dominant position on Hadrian’...
Origins of Biological & Chemical Warfare
02 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The origins of biological and chemical warfare stretch far back; modern technology has not brought about these terrifying weapons. Throughout antiquit...
Fall of the Western Roman Empire
26 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the late 4th century and early 5th centuries two massive largely-Germanic confederations arrived on Roman borders, having been uprooted from their ...
Plague of Athens
24 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Plague in the ancient world was nothing unusual. Bouts of illness were common occurrences, but we do have accounts of some exceptional outbreaks: epid...