The Ancients

What happened after the Ides of March? How did the Romans go from co-ordinated assassinations to the Pax Romana? From Tyranny to prosperity? In this third episode of our Ides of March series, Tristan ...

20 Mars 202249min

Man, myth or legend... who was the real Saint Patrick? Did he really banish all the snakes from Ireland? Where does the shamrock tradition come from? And was he even Irish?In this episode, Tristan is ...

17 Mars 202238min

Marcus Junius Brutus is best known as one of the conspirators against Julius Caesar, but there's so much more to his complex story. In today's episode, we continue our mini-series, all about the event...

13 Mars 20221h 14min

Helen of Troy, the face that launched a thousand ships - but is there more to her than a beautiful face? To mark Women's History Month, Tristan is joined by author and broadcaster Natalie Haynes to di...

10 Mars 202244min

March 15th 44BC is perhaps the most notorious date in all of ancient history. On that fateful day, the Ides of March, 55-year-old Roman dictator Gaius Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of disa...

6 Mars 202251min

It's not often we cover current affairs on The Ancients (the clue is in the name), but in light of Putin’s claims that Ukraine was “entirely created by Russia”, we wanted to highlight Ukraine’s extrao...

3 Mars 20221h 5min

Famous throughout antiquity, yet retold only in fragments today - who is Sappho? Her poetry inspired generations, from Catullus to Byron, so how come we know so little about her life? This week Trista...

27 Feb 202232min

Discovered by local farmers in 1974, the Terracotta Army is one of the most astounding archaeological finds on record. A piece of funerary art, dedicated to the First Emperor of China Qin Shi Huang, i...

24 Feb 202249min