Ancient History 101

This week, Alexandra invites Debby Sneed onto the pod to chat about a topic far too often overlooked in documentaries and paperback histories - the lives of disabled people in the Greek world.

We cover some common misconceptions, archaeological evidence, and ancient attitudes. Can the ancient Greek world give our modern societies some pointers on how to make our world more disability friendly? The answer may surprise you...

Transcript

Make sure to click ‘subscribe’ so that you never miss an episode; we have a new topic every Wednesday!

Find Ancient History 101 on social media and our website, where you can learn more about our expert guests.

We have merch available at our RedBubble shop, or you can help support the podcast by buying history books and translations we’ve hand-chosen for you at our online bookshop in the USA or UK.

Or you can buy us a ko-fi! However you choose to support the show, we appreciate it!

Sick of being interrupted by adverts? We have an ad-free subscription here.

Ancient History 101 is a proud member of the Mnemosyne Memory Collective  

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

For this biography episode, Alexandra is joined by author L.J Trafford to piece together the life of Roman emperor Domitian - was he truly one of the worse emperors of Rome?

This episode has it's own page on our website, so if you want relevant images, a transcript, to read the poems mentioned in the episode or to find L.J's excellent books, head straight there!

Make sure to click ‘subscribe’ so that you never miss an episode; we have a new topic every Wednesday!

Find Ancient History 101 on social media and our website, where you can learn more about our expert guests.

We have merch available at our RedBubble shop, or you can help support the podcast by buying history books and translations we’ve hand-chosen for you at our online bookshop in the USA or UK.

Or you can buy us a ko-fi! However you choose to support the show, we appreciate it!

Sick of being interrupted by adverts? We have an ad-free subscription here.

Ancient History 101 is a proud member of the Mnemosyne Memory Collective  

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

Ben Paites, curator extraordinaire, is here to tell us exactly what happens behind the scenes to make museums work. How do museums acquire exhibits, who decides what gets displayed, and are museums always benignly ethical? Ben gives Alexandra answers to all these questions and more.

For Ben's book 50 LGBTQ+ Finds, click here to go to our UK bookshop, and here for the United States.

Make sure to click ‘subscribe’ so that you never miss an episode; we have a new topic every Wednesday!

Find Ancient History 101 on social media and our website, where you can learn more about our expert guests.

We have merch available at our RedBubble shop, or you can help support the podcast by buying history books and translations we’ve hand-chosen for you at our online bookshop in the USA or UK.

Or you can buy us a ko-fi! However you choose to support the show, we appreciate it!

Ancient History 101 is a proud member of the Mnemosyne Memory Collective  

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

This week we have battles, oracles, and a towering pile of ostraka - it can only be a life of Themistocles - the man who owed democracy his career, but was convicted of treason and condemned to die by the very democrats he'd saved in battle.

Michael Scott, author of the sterling new biography of Themistocles, steps aboard to tell us about the man credited with making Athens the greatest Greek naval power.

Buy Michael's book, find supplementary materials and a transcript, all in this one handy link.

Make sure to click ‘subscribe’ so that you never miss an episode; we have a new topic every Wednesday!

Find Ancient History 101 on social media and our website, where you can learn more about our expert guests.

We have merch available at our RedBubble shop, or you can help support the podcast by buying history books and translations we’ve hand-chosen for you at our online bookshop in the USA or UK.

Or you can buy us a ko-fi! However you choose to support the show, we appreciate it!

Ancient History 101 is a proud member of the Mnemosyne Memory Collective  

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

Owen Rees of Xenophon fame returns to the show to explain why everything we think we know about ancient Sparta is an illusion.

So what is the Spartan Mirage, and how in earth are we supposed to reveal the real picture of Spartan life hiding behind it?

For recommended reading, images, maps, and more information about Owen and his work, click here to go to the episode webpage.

Make sure to click ‘subscribe’ so that you never miss an episode; we have a new topic every Wednesday!

Find Ancient History 101 on social media and our website, where you can learn more about our expert guests.

We have merch available at our RedBubble shop, or you can help support the podcast by buying history books and translations we’ve hand-chosen for you at our online bookshop in the USA or UK.

Or you can buy us a ko-fi! However you choose to support the show, we appreciate it!

Ancient History 101 is a proud member of the Mnemosyne Memory Collective  

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

Alexandra strikes out on her on for a bonus episode this week, to celebrate 10,000 downloads! So as an extra treat, Alexandra chats about her favourite Greek tragedy, Euripides' Trojan Women.

Often misunderstood, this play remains painfully relevant to our modern world, even as the author's intentions have become difficult to see clearly through the mists of time. Alexandra puts her case forward, and invites you to make your own conclusions.

For a transcript of this episode as well as recommended further reading, click here.

Make sure to click ‘subscribe’ so that you never miss an episode; we have a new topic every Wednesday!

Find Ancient History 101 on social media and our website, where you can learn more about our expert guests.

We have merch available at our RedBubble shop, or you can help support the podcast by buying history books and translations we’ve hand-chosen for you at our online bookshop in the USA or UK.

Or you can buy us a ko-fi! However you choose to support the show, we appreciate it!

Ancient History 101 is a proud member of the Mnemosyne Memory Collective  

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

This week we have one of the messiest, bloodiest years of the early Roman empire, in which becoming emperor was pretty much a death sentence...

Our special guest of the week is Nathaniel Katz, here to find the meaning in the mess and help us understand how this one year changed the Roman empire forever.

Find recommended reading, images, and other supplementary materials here.

Make sure to click ‘subscribe’ so that you never miss an episode; we have a new topic every Wednesday!

Find Ancient History 101 on social media and our website, where you can learn more about our expert guests.

We have merch available at our RedBubble shop, or you can help support the podcast by buying history books and translations we’ve hand-chosen for you at our online bookshop in the USA or UK.

Or you can buy us a ko-fi! However you choose to support the show, we appreciate it!

Ancient History 101 is a proud member of the Mnemosyne Memory Collective  

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

This week we're tackling a heavy subject - slavery in the Roman world. Thank goodness we have such a lovely expert to guide us through it; Chance Bonar explains why the realities of Roman slavery are a little different to what we might expect, and why we certainly can't say it wasn't so bad, after all.

Make sure to click ‘subscribe’ so that you never miss an episode; we have a new topic every Wednesday!

Find Ancient History 101 on social media and our website, where you can learn more about our expert guests.

We have merch available at our RedBubble shop, or you can help support the podcast by buying history books and translations we’ve hand-chosen for you at our online bookshop in the USA or UK.

Or you can buy us a ko-fi! However you choose to support the show, we appreciate it!

Ancient History 101 is a proud member of the Mnemosyne Memory Collective  

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

Get your oars ready, we're going sailing this week with Bret Devereaux, as he guides us through the First Punic War.

To find Bret's amazing blog, head over to A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry.

For the texts and resources mentioned in this episode, recommended further reading, maps, images and more, click to go to the episode's dedicated webpage.

Make sure to click ‘subscribe’ so that you never miss an episode; we have a new topic every Wednesday!

Find Ancient History 101 on social media and our website, where you can learn more about our expert guests.

We have merch available at our RedBubble shop, or you can help support the podcast by buying history books and translations we’ve hand-chosen for you at our online bookshop in the USA or UK.

Or you can buy us a ko-fi! However you choose to support the show, we appreciate it!

Ancient History 101 is a proud member of the Mnemosyne Memory Collective  

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

The Aeneid - often mocked as a cheap Latin knock-off of Homer - is revealed in this episode to be a cleverly composed homage with its own purpose which, for a time, eclipsed Homer in popularity. Aven McMaster joins Alexandra to talk about the creation of the Aeneid, its content, and the crucial context of Virgil's understanding of Augustan Rome, which colours every line he wrote. If you've been hesitant to dive into the Aeneid, this is the perfect introduction you need before cracking open that book!

Aven recommends the following translations:

Scott McGill and Susannah Wright - available here in the UK and here in the US

Sarah Ruden - available here in the UK and here in the US

Shadi Bartsch - available here in the UK

Robert Fagles - available here in the UK and here in the US

Allen Mandelbaum - available here in the US

(the podcast receives a commission from every purchase made via these links, as well as supporting independent bookshops.)

Find out more about Aven's own podcast here.

Make sure to click ‘subscribe’ so that you never miss an episode of Ancient History 101; we have a new topic every Wednesday!

Find Ancient History 101 on social media and our website, where you can learn more about our expert guests.

We have merch available at our RedBubble shop, or you can help support the podcast by buying history books and translations we’ve hand-chosen for you at our online bookshop in the USA or UK.

Or you can buy us a ko-fi! However you choose to support the show, we appreciate it!

Ancient History 101 is a proud member of the Mnemosyne Memory Collective  

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