The Ancients11 Maj 2025

Did Plague Destroy the Roman Empire?

War, invasion, civil unrest… or plague? Could a series of deadly pandemics have helped bring down the mighty Roman Empire?

In the third episode of our Fall of Rome mini-series, Tristan Hughes is joined by Professor Kyle Harper – author of The Fate of Rome – to explore how disease and climate change may have crippled this superpower of the ancient world. From the Antonine Plague of the 160s AD to the terrifying Cyprianic Plague that ravaged Carthage and beyond, this episode investigates how pandemics devastated populations, shattered economies, and reshaped imperial policy.

Join us as we uncover the dark side of Roman history – a world of weeping sores, mass graves, and myths of divine vengeance – and ask the big question: Could nature have delivered the final blow to the Roman Empire?

Lessons from the Antonine Plague:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1wsEtmlqkwqLbQlgZ8TW1L

Plague of Athens:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1al8GluN7NBvuzXayHe74F

Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan, the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener survey here:

https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(661)

The Gospels: Are They Historical?

How much can we really know about the historical Jesus? The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have shaped Christianity for nearly 2,000 years, but they were written decades after the events they...

27 Sep 1h 3min

Maya Hieroglyphs Decoded

Forget everything you thought you knew about the ancient Maya. Cracking their mysterious hieroglyphs didn't just reveal boring calendars, it exposed a cutthroat, Game of Thrones-style world of rival s...

24 Sep 48min

Human Sacrifice in Ancient Britain

WARNING: This episode contains descriptions of graphic violence from the start.When we picture human sacrifice in ancient Britain, the iconic, flaming Wicker Man often comes to mind. But how much of t...

20 Sep 1h 1min

Ice Age America: The Clovis Culture

Before the mammoths disappeared, people hunted them across Ice Age America. Armed with distinctive stone spear points, the mysterious Clovis culture left behind traces of a world filled with giant bea...

17 Sep 57min

The First Punic War

How did the Romans ambush a massive Carthaginian fleet from behind a Sicilian island to win one of history's fiercest sea battles? For over 20 years, Rome and Carthage fought a brutal war for supremac...

13 Sep 1h 1min

Iron Age Ireland

How much of Iron Age Ireland is myth, and how much is archaeological reality? At the monumental Hill of Tara, sacred kings ruled over a landscape steeped in ancient ritual and ancestral memory.Tristan...

10 Sep 52min

Human Origins: Did We Begin in Africa?

The story of human origins is often imagined as a simple journey from Africa, but is the truth actually much messier? Tristan Hughes and leading palaeoanthropologist Prof. Chris Stringer dismantle the...

6 Sep 58min

Egypt's Lost Cities

What happens when an entire city disappears? Beneath the sands and wetlands of Egypt lie the remains of forgotten cities that once stood at the heart of one of the ancient world’s greatest civilisatio...

3 Sep 59min