A podcast for all ancient history fans! The Ancients is dedicated to discussing our distant past. Featuring interviews with historians and archaeologists, each episode covers a specific theme from antiquity. From Neolithic Britain to the Fall of Rome. Hosted by Tristan Hughes. 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.
614 episodes transcribedThe first ever outbreak of 'plague' - Yersinia Pestis, the most feared disease in human history - was long thought to be the Plague of Justinian...
Near the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most vital commercial chokepoints, lies an ancient trade route that powered civilisation 4,000 years ago...
In 79 AD, life in Pompeii unfolded beneath the shadow of a tremoring Mount Vesuvius. Streets bustled, businesses thrived, and merchants built fortunes...
What if the first technology was just a stone?Tristan Hughes and Dr. Emma Finestone travel back over 3 million years to Africa, where early hominins b...
A legend of the great Greek city of Athens, Themistocles rose from obscurity to save ancient Greece and helped shape one of the greatest naval powers...
What made the Hittites one of the great Bronze Age powers, and how did their empire survive on war, diplomacy and faith? Tristan Hughes is joined by P...
Tristan Hughes is joined by Ella Al-Shamahi, paleoanthropologist and presenter of the hit BBC series Human, to explore what interactions between early...
How did Roman silver travel from Egypt to China across monsoon seas, pirate waters, and bustling ports? Tristan Hughes is joined by legendary archaeol...
**Warning: This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence, including suicide**What really happened to Judas Iscariot? From shifting accounts i...
Fifteen thousand years ago, as the Ice Age loosened its grip on Northern Europe, humans returned to the previously inhospitable British Isles. But the...
What did it take to become a Roman centurion? To command, to punish and to lead from the very front of Rome’s armies?In this episode of The Ancients,...
What happens when a defensive alliance slowly turns into an empire? Tristan Hughes and Professor Polly Low explore the Delian League, the so‑called “a...
In 480 BC, at the narrow pass of Thermopylae, a vastly outnumbered Greek force prepares to face the advancing army of the Persian king Xerxes. At its...
What if Julius Caesar had survived the Ides of March? This episode explores his last known plans — vast eastern campaigns, sweeping reforms, and his v...
What drove Herodotus to write the first great story of history? Tristan Hughes speaks with Dr. Roel Konijnendijk to uncover the world of Herodotus of...
Three thousand years ago, Phoenician ships sailed west across the Mediterranean, their holds packed with pottery, wine and enslaved people to trade. P...
In 1999, a mysterious bronze disc buried for millennia in central Europe transformed how we see the prehistoric world. The Nebra Sky Disk - forged 3,6...
Before Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, Earth was rebuilding from catastrophe. Out of the ashes of the Great Dying rose a new prehistoric world and with...
“Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.” Ramesses II reigned as Egypt's unchallenged champion for more than sixty years. But within decades the dyn...
As friendships fracture and old alliances break, Tristan Hughes and Dr Adrian Goldsworthy chronicle the epic downfall of Alexander the Great. Alexande...
