Ancient History Podcast

In this episode of the podcast, we talk to Jeremy Simmons about ancient trade in the Indian Ocean, sources for understanding such trade, and how people in both India and the Roman Empire interacted with the many goods merchants carried across the Indian Ocean.

In this episode of the podcast, we speak to Tara Mulder about pregnancy and childbirth in ancient Rome, the role and reputation of midwives, and how male medical writers attempted to usurp their authority.

In this episode of the podcast, we talk to Matt Simonton about the history of democracy and oligarchy in ancient Greece, how oligarchy declined, and democracy triumphed, and how democracy eventually disappeared in the Greek world.

In this episode of the podcast, we speak with David Stuart about the Classical Maya period, the decipherment of Mayan hieroglyphs, and the reconstruction of Classical Mayan history.

In this episode of the podcast, we speak with Scott Lawin Arcenas about stasis (political violence) in ancient Greece, how frequently the Greeks engaged in political violence, and how political violence was related to the ancient Greek world's economic and cultural efflorescence.

In this episode of the podcast, we talk to Katherine Backler about women in Classical Athens, what sources are available for the study of Classical Athenian women, the limitations of those sources, and how diverse women's experiences were in the ancient Greek world.

In this episode of the podcast, we talk with Curtis Dozier about how White Nationalists appropriate Greco-Roman Antiquity, why Greco-Roman antiquity appeals to White Nationalists, and how investigating the modern historiography can counter such appropriations

In this episode of the podcast, we talk to Jessica Clarke about the spread of theatre in ancient Italy, why the traditional Roman-centric narrative may be wrong, and how archaeology can offer an alternative perspective.

In this episode of the podcast, we talk to Carolina López-Ruiz about the many different variations of Greek cosmogony, how the Greeks thought about and interacted with mythology, and Near Eastern mythological parallels.

In this episode, we talk to Nathanael Andrade about Jewish society in the first century AD, Roman governance of Judea, and the trial of Jesus of Nazareth.

In this episode of the podcast, we talk to Michael B. Cosmopoulos about the history and archaeology behind the Homeric epics, the nature of oral poetry and social memory, and how these elements contributed to the creation of the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey'.

In this episode of the podcast, we speak to Walter Scheidel, the most cited Roman historian in an active faculty position, about the history of the study of ancient Greece and Rome, how this area of study came to mean 'ancient history', and what the future of the subject looks like.

In this episode of the podcast, we speak to Erica Stevenson, host of the YouTube channel MoAn Inc., about making Classics content for YouTube, the difference between Classics and Ancient History, and bringing the ancient world to new audiences.

In this episode we talk to Jane Draycott about Fulvia, the politics of the Roman Late Republic, and women's position within Late Republican Roman society, including marriage, childbirth, and informal political power.

In this episode, we talk to Rhyne King about the satraps of the Achaemenid Empire, their responsibilities, how one became a satrap, and how the satrapal system contributed to the stability of the Achaemenid Empire.

In this episode of the Ancient History Podcast, I share my thoughts on Daniel Ogden's new book, The Tyrants of Corinth, and discuss the relationship between history, myth, and folktale.

In this episode, we talk to Philip Davies about social status in ancient Sparta, how the homoioi were not all equals, and the many ways a Spartan could gain or lose social status.

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In this episode, we discuss the rise and fall of the Xiongnu Empire, stereotypes of nomadic pastoralists, and the administrative intricacies of ruling a nomadic empire.

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In this episode, we talk to Christopher Parmenter about racism in ancient Greece, how it differed from modern racism, and how commodity biography offers a useful theoretical tool for understanding it.

In this episode of the podcast, we talk to Charlotte van Regenmortel about the changes to the systems of recruitment in the late Classical and early Hellenistic periods, the importance of wage labourers in early Hellenistic armies, and how the military labour market impacted the wider Hellenistic economies.

In this episode of the podcast, we speak with Anna Källén about ancient DNA, the limitations of and issues with current studies of ancient DNA, and what can be done to make the study more transparent.

In this episode of the podcast, I take a look at the book In Blood and Ashes: Curse Tablets and Binding Spells in Ancient Greece by Jessica L. Lamont, exploring the content of book, the subject of Greek curse tablets, and my overall thoughts about the book.

In this episode we talk to John Ma about the ancient polis, what the key elements of a polis were, how the polis developed throughout antiquity, and why the polis declined.

In this episode, we talk to Rubina Raja about the caravan city of Palmyra, the city's place between the powers of Rome and Parthia, and how archaeology is being used to supplement the limited literary evidence.

In this episode, we talk to James Ford about atheism in ancient Greece, how it differed from modern concepts of Atheism, and how concepts of atheism in ancient Greece evolved over time.

In this episode, we talk to Justin Pollard about his work as a historical advisor and his new series "Those About to Die".

In this episode we talk to Andrew Michael Chugg about the Pharos Lighthouse, its construction, and the many theories around the light of the lighthouse.

In this episode, we talk to Eric Cline about his new book After 1177 B.C.: The Survival of Civilizations, the archaeology of the Early Iron Age, and how civilizations cope with collapse.

In this episode we talk to Anthony Kaldellis about his new book The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium, Byzantium's continuity with the Roman world, and the ins and outs of writing narrative history.

In this episode we talk to Dr Emma Southon about her new book A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women, the position of women in ancient Rome, and the struggles of working in academia.

In this episode episode we talk to Roger Gassman, the solo developer behind the game Pax Augusta, a city-building game set in ancient Rome, about what it takes to make a game set in the ancient world.

In this episode, we talk to Briana Jackson about Archaeogaming. This relatively new academic field combines Game Studies and Archaeology to investigate the representation of archaeology and the ancient world in video games, as well as the future of the discipline.

In this episode we talk to Denise Demetriou about her new book Phoenicians Among Others (Oxford, 2023), which discusses the Phoenician immigrants who moved throughout the Mediterranean and how they adapted to and influenced their host communities.