In late October 2024, under a Vienna sports field (Ostbahn-XI-Platz) on the Danube in the Simmering district, a site of ancient mass burial was discovered. 129 bodies were discovered (intermixed bones may mean there were up to 150 bodies buried), all male, mostly between 20 and 30 years old, all roughly 1.7 metres tall, and many with wounds consistent with ancient battle. Many skeletons had injuries to their skulls, torsos and pelvises. The radiocarbon dating of the remains put them in the range from AD 80-234. Finds included an iron pugio dagger, spear points, scales from suits of scale armour (lorica squamata) and the cheek piece of a helmet. Near the foot of one skeleton, archaeologists discovered shoe nails that came from distinctive Roman legionary caligae. These works were carried out by the Vienna City Archaeology Department in cooperation with the archaeological service provider Novetus GmbH. Initial research results were presented at the Wien Museum in early April 2025. Dur: 57mins File: .mp3

The French infantry passed by the farm at La Haye Saint and advanced up to the ridge where Picton's 5th Brigade were literally lying in wait. Dutch skirmishers retreated back to their parent regiments in Allied lines. The British troops of Picton's 5th Brigade were stationed 100 yards behind the Dutch who were now trading volleys with the ever-advancing wave of French troops. The Dutch could not sustain the defense and reformed with other regiments. The British troops under Picton then formed up 4 men deep (twice as deep as a standard British line) to match the French who had now also formed into battle lines. The contest between the 2 masses of infantry was hotly contested and the Allied centre began to falter. Dur: 21mins File: .mp3

The Congress of Vienna began in November 1814 and its aim was to provide a plan for a long-term peace within Europe after nearly 23 years of constant conflict and to redraw territorial boundaries so no single nation could become too powerful. Dur: 28 mins File: .mp3

"American Indian Wars" in the modern perspective focuses mostly on the American West in the second half of the 19th century with cowboys, Custer and the calvary, but the worst defeat of an American Army in the Indian Wars happened over eighty years earlier when George Washington was president. Dur: 16mins File: .mp3

Another poem, "Gwaith Argoed Llwyfain", refers to another campaign against the Angles of Bernicia. It also provides remarkable insights. Here, the leader of the Angles is named as Fflamddwyn – perhaps meaning "flamebearer" or "flamboyant one." It may refer to Theodoric of Bernicia (r. ca. 584-591) whose reign coincides with Urien's. The idea that it refers to Ida, the first king of Bernicia (r. 547-559), is probably too early to correspond to Urien and Owain's dates (although there is some crossover with the earliest dates of Urien's reign). Dur 22mins File: .mp3

The works of the sixth century AD Brittonic poet and bard, Taliesin, survive in a fourteenth century Welsh manuscript of the Llyuyr Taliessin, The Book of Taliesin. Taliesin is one of the most important figures in Welsh literature, one of the Five British Poets of Renown listed in the ninth century Historia Brittonum. Taliesin himself may have served at the courts of several kings and, although the book ascribed to him contains poems from others and from later ages, at least some of the poems are likely to be original. Others see the earliest poems as being from the ninth century (and so none are original). Several of the poems, however, describe reigns and battles which took place in sixth century Britain and shed light on what is usually regarded as a particularly dark age. Dur: 22mins File: .mp3

On 5 March, 1804, a group of 233 convict rebels revolted against their incarceration in the British colony of New South Wales (corresponding to modern Sydney, Australia). They were met by the local garrison, consisting of only 28-30 regulars and a few loyalist militia, at a place some 40km north-west of Sydney soon dubbed Vinegar Hill. Dur: 29mins File: .mp3

It is the dream of every ancient historian that some new discovery will solve a mystery of the past – some newly discovered fragment of a lost historian which will make everything clear. Such circumstances are very rare, but the Gothic War of Decius is one recent occasion where exactly the new discovery historians dream of took place. Dur: 24mins File: .mp3

The battle of Abritus saw the death of two emperors in battle against a foreign enemy – Gaius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius, usually known as Trajan Decius (r. 249-251) and his son and co-emperor Quintus Herennius Etruscus Messius Decius, known as Herennius Etruscus (r. 251). They lost their lives intercepting an invasion of Goths led by their king, Cniva, as it attempted to leave the empire weighed down with plunder after an immensely successful two-year raid. Dur: 33mins File: .mp3

At the conclusion of the Malayan Emergency in July 1960, plans were put into place to incorporate British North Borneo and Singapore into Greater Malaysia. This idea was met with fierce opposition from President Sukarno of Indonesia and in 1962 Indonesia began supporting revolutionary factions on the large, dense jungle island of Borneo. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3