When Augustus rolled into town after defeating Marc Antony and Cleopatra, he was greeted as a hero—because the Senate ordered its people to stand outside the gates and cheer. The reality was, there was fear on both sides. Augustus was afraid to grab power too quickly—or he’d find himself meeting Caesar’s fate. The Senators feared bloody proscriptions, like the ones Augustus (Octavian) unleashed with the Second Triumvirate just a few years ago.

Standing outside those walls, anything could have happened. Octavian could have been murdered. He could have given Rome back its democracy, just like it was. Just like before. And for a while, it looked like he was going to do that. He kept promising he would.

But that’s not how it went down. Today we’ll explore how you kill a democracy—with a thousand tiny cuts, or one single stab to the heart.

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When we look at the demise of Roman democracy, we think of the time of Augustus—and maybe Caesar before him. But in reality, the seeds of the republic’s destruction were planted at the time of its birth.

It’s probably not too far out on a limb to say that Caesar couldn’t have grabbed so much power if there hadn’t been a Sulla, or a Marius, or the Gracchi brothers, or innumerable revolutionaries and power players of centuries before.

That is the subject of The Storm Before the Storm, the New York Times bestselling book by author and podcaster Mike Duncan. This week, Mike takes us back to the beginning—to show us the faultlines built into the very foundation of democracy. Sponsors and Advertising

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Join us as we return to Cleopatra’s Alexandria—the glamor, the political intrigue, the history—and take a second in-depth look at Egypt's last Pharaoh. Our guide for this episode is none other than Saara El-Arifi, bestselling author of The Ending Fire and Faebound trilogies and the exciting new release, Cleopatra: A Novel.

In this episode we’ll discuss Cleopatra’s life and loves, the challenges of breathing new life into a very examined historical figure, and exactly what we do and don’t know about the real Cleopatra.  

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This was the man who would be responsible for demolishing their democracy and ushering in an imperial military state that would last another 500 years (roughly).

What was it like to stand in the shadow of the walls that day? What questions were burning in the people’s hearts? What did they think that they did not dare say? Was the mood celebratory? Raucous? Rebellious? Join us as we travel back in time to the gates of Rome, to watch Octavian return.

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In this episode, we return to the beach at Actium with author, historian, and academic Barry Strauss as our tour guide. His new book, The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium, discusses the infamous sea battle Marc Antony and Cleopatra fought against Octavian and Agrippa for love, for supremacy, for their very survival.

Join us as we deconstruct this battle, paint a vivid picture of ancient war at sea, and tackle the one question everyone’s asking: why did Cleopatra flee the battlefield?

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This file contains the last two episodes in our series on Marc Antony and Cleopatra: Lovers in a Dangerous Time, all in one place.

This series has everything: love, war, violence, betrayal, Marc Antony barfing everywhere, and Cleopatra being extremely glamorous at all times. Please enjoy while you wait for us to return from hiatus on April 9.

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The romance between Mark Antony and Cleopatra has beguiled us for centuries. What most people don’t realize is that when Mark Antony met Cleopatra, he was already married—to someone just as epic. Her name was Fulvia.

Cleopatra had glamour and divinity and lots of money. But Fulvia had the gangs. She was a populist firebrand, military leader, and for a while, the undisputed power in Rome: both in the Senate and in the streets.

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We're on hiatus until April 9. Until then, enjoy this long, binge-able episode on Julius Caesar's early life.

Most accounts of Caesar's life start later on--such as during his time in Gaul or crossing the Rubicon. But his early life was just as fascinating; maybe even more so.

This is the Caesar who stood up to Sulla and refused to divorce his wife. The Caesar who made an early career of prosecuting corrupt governors to cement his cred as a populist--even as it made him powerful enemies. The Caesar who, when kidnapped by pirates, demanded they raise his ransom and spent his time in captivity hanging out on the beach and reading them bad poetry.

It's a fun, lighthearted introduction to Caesar's life before it takes its dark turn. We hope you enjoy.

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More than 1,800 years after Spartacus fought for his freedom, another rebel leader spearheaded the most successful slave revolt in history: the Haitian Revolution. That leader was a man named Toussaint L’Ouverture.

This week, we invited Mike Duncan of The History of Rome and Revolutions to help us compare these two revolutionaries and discuss what advice Toussaint L'Ouverture might have had for Spartacus.

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This file contains the first three episodes of our Spartacus series. You'll learn about the conditions in Italy that gave rise to the Third Servile War; how Spartacus rebelled and the pressures he was under in holding together a disparate crowd of rebels with differing priorities. It's a riveting tale that's sure to keep you hooked.

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Dionysus was a god of revolutions. He featured prominently in two out of three major Roman slave rebellions. Why is that? And why was that aspect of Dionysus forgotten?

In this episode, we'll focus on what happened after Dionysus won his place as a god on Mount Olympus--how people worshiped him on earth, and what made him so dangerous to the Roman status quo.

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Teotihuacan is an ancient pre-Colombian city in central America, founded two thousand years ago. It’s the home of some of the most iconic Mesoamerican monuments in existence, including the Pyramids of the Moon and Sun.

The city was abandoned after about 750 years of habitation. When the Aztecs first encountered it, it had stood empty for 600 years. Walking through the empty ruin, they marveled at the towering pyramids, the incredible murals, the enormous palaces—and wondered where the people had gone. They thought these people must have become gods.

This city has something for everyone: mysterious skeletons. Volcanoes. An eating of the rich. And so many mysteries, it’s hard to pick just one.

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The wars that came before Spartacus were larger, more all-encompassing, and maybe more violent—sweeping up hundreds of thousands of people before the rebellions were done. And their leaders—one a very salty birthday magician, the other a skilled astrologer —were just as epic.  

We’re on hiatus until April 9. Until then, enjoy our episodes on the First and Second Servile Wars, all in one place.

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Hundreds of years before European contact, the biggest city in North America was located along the Mississippi River. At its peak, perhaps 15,000 people lived there—and over 30,000 in the surrounding suburbs. Today, we call it Cahokia.

Nobody knows what the original name of this city was. But there was a time when everybody knew its name—from the Great Lakes to the Eastern Seaboard, and from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. What was that name, and why was it lost to time and memory? That’s just one of the many mysteries of Cahokia.

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We're on hiatus until April 9. Until then, please enjoy our entire Boudicca series, all in one place. 

The story of Boudicca’s revolt is as epic as you can get. It’s got murder and pillage, Romans behaving badly, cities on fire, and a layer of destruction that was scorched into the earth. But it's also the story of a people on a precipice of great change.

Who was Boudicca? Who was this iron-age warrior queen who stood up to the Romans—and whose name was so revered and feared that stories of her are still being spun almost 2,000 years later? In these episodes, we’re going to find out.

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It is the End of Season 14--a brief but intense season! Big changes have come in our lives over the past year, and in this episode we take you behind the scenes and discuss the past year and our upcoming plans!

Find Jenny's book, ⁠Enemy of My Dreams⁠, Here! (And preorder the sequel, Game of Thieves!)

Get Genn's most recent book, the ⁠Official Lore Olympus Cookbook⁠, here!

Find our book Women of Myth here!

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Janus is the two-faced god of the Roman pantheon. He was the god of beginnings and endings, of dual natures, of passageways and passage through time. He’s the god of thresholds and doorways and gates, and the god of change, both concrete and abstract. He’s constantly in motion; he’s the god who’s always just passing through.

Janus may not be very well-known. But in his time, he was considered one of the most important gods—perhaps more important than Jupiter himself. Today, we’re going to tell you all about him.

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Wish you had a holiday all about feasting, drinking, the upending of the social order, blood sacrifices, the harvest, pranks, novelty gifts, honouring a god who devoured his kids, and the returning sun? Don’t we all??? Welcome to Saturnalia.

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This year, we decided that the holiday season wouldn’t be complete without a mythological foray into one of the most famous characters of the season: The Krampus.

And some of you might be saying: wait a minute, Krampus isn’t ancient; he’s modern. Also, everyone knows about Krampus, the festive demon of Christmas. Why are you covering this well-trodden topic?

Wait until you hear the wild things we uncovered about him and his history, and then make your judgements about how old and well-trodden this topic is.

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What do you know about Yule? Maybe a lot. The holiday is widely celebrated in Scandinavian countries, and it's an important part of Wiccan and Pagan tradition. But for many of us, the version that's come down through history is strongly associated with Christmas--and heavily sanitized.

When we scratched the surface, however, we found that the origins of Yule were older and darker and weirder than we ever imagined.

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Ah, Christmas—it's a time of cheer, of gift-giving and generosity; and a time to eat yer babies.

This year, we’re focusing on two different cannibalistic monsters from Christmas folklore: Père Fouettard and Hans Trapp. Because it turns out that child cannibalism really is the reason for the season—and perhaps Santa Claus is the biggest cannibal of all.

What is Santa hiding under those jolly cheeks and that big white beard? Strap in, pour yourself your favorite holiday beverage, and get ready for a wild ride into the dark side of Christmas.

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For thousands of years, horses have been essential to human civilization from warfare to trade and empire-building. All over the world, people have captured horses, tamed horses, mythologized horses, and trained them to be ideal companions in the project of human advancement.

How has the relationship between human and horse changed over time? When did people start treating their horses as individuals and companions, rather than just livestock? How far back does the human-horse partnership go, and are there any truly wild horses left in the world today?

Today we’re joined by David Chaffetz, author of Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires, to answer some of these questions.

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In our last episode, we detailed the rise of the Beast of the Gevaudan, some of its most gruesome attacks, and the doomed efforts of professional hunters to take it down. In this one, we’ll discuss how the Beast finally died—and the theories that arose after its death about what exactly just happened in the Gevaudan.

 The thing is, even with a body—and a detailed autopsy—we’re still not sure what the Beast of the Gevaudan was. Theories and legends abound, from practical to mythological. In this episode, we unpack it all and try to come to a conclusion.

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From 1764 to 1767, an area of southeastern France called the Gevaudan was stalked and terrorized by a mysterious beast. Some said it was a wolf. Others that it was “like a wolf, but not a wolf”—far stronger, faster, more brutal and more intelligent than other wolves. Still others provided much more strange and otherworldly descriptions that did not resemble a wolf at all.

This was the Beast of the Gevaudan.

It didn’t hunt like a wolf. It didn’t eat like a wolf. And the rugged, poverty-stricken environment that became its hunting ground was a bigger part of the story than most accounts admit. To this day, the Beast of the Gevaudan is a seminal cryptid mystery—and its legend forms the foundation for much of werewolf lore as we know it today.

 Join us as we unpack the eerie unsolved mystery of the Beast of the Gevaudan.

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We’ve covered werewolves in the ancient world before—and their connection to the Berserker myth. But wait til you hear what happened to werewolf mythology when the Catholics got their hands on it.

This episode is a wild ride, taking you from the ancient Greek and Roman werewolves to a Medieval monster tied to the mysteries of serial killing, mental illness, domestic abuse, and the paranoia of the Witch Trials. It turns out Catholic werewolves stalked a very dark, very violent landscape—and we are just itching to explore it. Join us.

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The werewolf myth as we know it today generally involves getting bitten by a werewolf, transforming during the full moon, and being very susceptible to silver bullets. But werewolves in ancient Greece and Rome were a little different.

Join us for a spooky-season deep dive into ancient werewolf mythology from thousands of years ago. We'll take a look at the pre-Christian origins of the werewolf myth and its connections to death, starvation, cannibalism, and transformation.

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Today on the podcast, we’re thrilled to welcome bestselling author Ayana Gray. Ayana is the author of the blockbuster YA novel Beasts of Prey, and is now joining us to discuss her adult fiction debut:  I Medusa, an exploration of one of mythology’s most misunderstood “monsters.”

Join us as we discuss all things Medusa—from the true nature of her snakelike hair to her identity as a sister and daughter, mortal and Gorgon—and why her story continues to resonate with us today.

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This is an episode about a plague that killed up to 100 million people by the time it was done—as many as 60% of its victims. It’s the first documented occurrence of a pandemic that we have, and it’s the first documented outbreak of the deadlyYersinia pestis. No, we're not talking about the Black Death of Medieval Europe. We're talking about the Plague of Justinian.

The Plague of Justinian was just one part of the fallout of the global volcanic eruption of 536 AD. Three eyewitness accounts have survived--and, in the grand tradition of this podcast, we decided to read them to you whilst Yule-level drunk. Buckle up. It is a wild, plague-tastic ride.

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Crater Lake is a caldera lake in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon—the remnants of an ancient volcanic eruption. It’s the deepest lake in the country and one of the deepest in the world. And this place is steeped in lore: unexplained events, murders and suicides, disappearances and hauntings, and a strange 200-year-old floating log that probably controls the weather.

But the history of this lake goes back even farther: to the volcanic eruption that created it 7,700 years ago. People were there to witness that event—and its memory is preserved, both in archaeology and an ancient mythological tradition that describes the eruption with scientific precision.

Join us as we plumb the depths of Crater Lake.

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In this episode, we’ll delve into the mystery of Aokigahara, known in Japanese as the Sea of Trees—and to the rest of the world as the Suicide Forest. After the Golden Gate Bridge, it is the second most popular suicide destination in the world.

 The forest is over a thousand years old. It grew over lava floes laid down in a devastating volcanic eruption on the slopes of Mt. Fuji, a holy mountain believed to be a gateway to the spirit world. Perhaps this is why it’s said to be the birthplace of the Yurei—a ghost in Japanese folklore created out of deep trauma. 

It’s no wonder Aokigahara is associated with death. But the forest is also filled with life and incredible natural wonders. Join us as we explore the haunting history and folklore of Aokigahara.

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Teotihuacan is an ancient pre-Colombian city in central America, founded two thousand years ago. It’s the home of some of the most iconic Mesoamerican monuments in existence, including the Pyramids of the Moon and Sun.

The city was abandoned after about 750 years of habitation. When the Aztecs first encountered it, it had stood empty for 600 years. Walking through the empty ruin, they marveled at the towering pyramids, the incredible murals, the enormous palaces—and wondered where the people had gone. They thought these people must have become gods.

This city has something for everyone: mysterious skeletons. Volcanoes. An eating of the rich. And so many mysteries, it’s hard to pick just one.

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Lucian’s A True History has been called the world’s first work of science fiction—but above all, Lucian of Samosata was a satirist. And he had a bone to pick with the famous historians of his time—guys like Herodotus and Ctesias of Knidos. They were Lying Liars who Lied, you see, and Lucian was mad about it.

So he set out to write his OWN monument to lies—lest he be the only writer out there “exempted from the liberty of lying.” The only true thing is what he tells us in his intro: “for this one thing I confidently pronounce for a truth: that I lie.”

This fabulous story has everything: sexy tree women, an intergalactic war, an interlude inside a whale—and we can’t get enough of it. Join us and Liv Albert from Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby! on this amazing adventure of which every word is a lie, and yet surprisingly relevant to our time.

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The story of Troy and its fall still resonates with us thousands of years later. Cowles and Stinsen have tackled this story from the point of view of the women who lived through it on both sides, in their novels Horses of Fire and Daughters of Bronze. Join us as we discuss the martial women of the Bronze Age, what it’s like to co-author a book, and why we keep returning to these ancient tales.

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It is the End of Season 13--and what a wild ride it's been. We've had so much fun triangulating the Goths for you--and we hope you now are as obsessed with them as we are.

Join us as we debrief the previous season, talk about how our year has gone (it's been a big year for BOOKS, for both of us!) and discuss what's coming up next!

Find Jenny's book, Enemy of My Dreams, Here! (And preorder the sequel, Game of Thieves!)

Get Genn's most recent book, the Official Lore Olympus Cookbook, here!

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In our last episode we talked about the opulence of Goth–Gothic architecture, fashion, and art of all kinds–and the connection between this and the opulence of the Visigoths and their vast state treasure plundered from Roman cities and towns.

But there’s more to Goth than plunder. There’s a romance to Goth. A dark romance steeped in obsession. Many of the original Gothic romances involve tragic deaths.

And what else do we know of that combines sex and death? That’s right: vampires. And it’s in ancient vampire mythology where we’ll attempt to uncover a nefarious connection to the Ostrogoths. 

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We have come to the end (or almost the end) of our long, sweeping epic history of the Goths. But we have one corner of Gothic history as yet uncovered: what is the connection between Gothic literature, music, art and fashion, and Goths (the Germanic / Hunnic / etc. people who sacked Rome and occupied Italy)?

Join us as we make some questionable leaps in logic and take some big swings in trying to connect Goth with Goth. In the first part of the episode, we discuss the dark opulence of Goth—and its connection to a legendary, possibly cursed Visigothic treasure gained via plunder.

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Long after the smoke from the battlefields died down, long after the ravens had eaten their fill, the Migration Era lived on in Germanic heroic legend, well into the Middle Ages.

For centuries after the battles and events of that era, people throughout Europe were crafting legends and sagas that repurposed and mythologized those events, sometimes recasting major figures from that time into villains and heroes of a later saga. Goths and Huns figured prominently.  And that is our subject today: who got mythologized, and how.

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We've told you the story of the Ostrogoths, the Amal ruling family, who built an imperial dynasty only to see that rulership dissolve within two generations. But what happened to their cousins, the Visigoths? The Tervingii tribe and the Balthi royal family? Alaric’s Goths?

 Turns out they lasted much longer. But they weren’t necessarily the ones who had it most together. Join us for a vast, sweeping tale of constant regicide and usurpation, vast internal religious and cultural divisons, and war on all sides—through which the Visigoths hung on longer than anyone thought they would.

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For a while now, Genn has been hinting at a "Secret Project" in the works--and now it's out in the wild: the Official Lore Olympus Cookbook. Genn was heavily involved in this project, weaving together the history and mythology of Greek cuisine with the world of Rachel Smythe's Lore Olympus to create a cookbook that's not only delightful to cook with, but fun and educational to read.

Join us as Jenny interviews Genn about the process of co-creating this beautiful cookbook in the world of Lore Olympus.

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When Alaric of the Visigoths sacked Rome, it shocked the world—not least because Rome hadn’t been sacked in a thousand years. But also, while Rome was a Christian city by now—it had been for decades—the Visigoths were Christian too.

 And they weren’t recent converts, either. They had all been Christian for over 160 years. Theirs was the earliest conversion of a Germanic people in recorded history. And their Christianity was different than the state religion of Rome. How did that happen, and why? Join us as we try to answer those questions.

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In our last episode about Amalasuintha and the end of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, we said we were next going to turn to the Visigothic Kingdom. But the story of the Visigothic Kingdom can’t be told without knowing a little more about the history of Gothic religion.

 Both Visigoths and Ostrogoths were Christian by the time they appear in ancient sources. They were the earliest Germanic group to convert to Christianity. But what was their religion like before that? We know almost nothing about it.

But not nothing entirely. Join us as we draw back the curtain on a mysterious world lost to time—the world of Gothic paganism.

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This is an episode about a plague that killed up to 100 million people by the time it was done—as many as 60% of its victims. It’s the first documented occurrence of a pandemic that we have, and it’s the first documented outbreak of the deadlyYersinia pestis. No, we're not talking about the Black Death of Medieval Europe. We're talking about the Plague of Justinian.

The Plague of Justinian was just one part of the fallout of the global volcanic eruption of 536 AD. Three eyewitness accounts have survived--and, in the grand tradition of this podcast, we decided to read them to you whilst Yule-level drunk. Buckle up. It is a wild, plague-tastic ride.

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In our last episode, we told you all about the rise of Theodoric the Great and the founding of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy. Now, we’re going to tell you all about the women in his family—and the effect they had on his kingdom.

Theodoric had a wife, a sister, and three daughters—all of whom played an important role in his empire-building. His wife was the daughter of another powerful Germanic tribe—the Franks—and he married off his sister and two eldest daughters to form strategic alliances. But three times he married off his kin, and three times it blew up in his face.

Amalasuintha was Theodoric’s youngest daughter—and when he died, she was the last woman standing. For a few years, the Ostrogothic Kingdom had a Queen—but these were turbulent times.

Join us as we explore the rule of Amalasuintha and the lives of Theodoric’s other tough-as-nails female kin.

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What was the worst year to be alive? Some researchers have a very specific answer to this question: 536 AD. 

This is a year when the global temperature dropped, and it was winter all year round—for multiple years. The sun disappeared for 18 months as the world was covered in a veil of sulfuric dust. Crops failed. People starved, and fell to eating each other and warring over scarce resources. From China to Mexico, thriving civilizations collapsed.

And the culprit? A volcano. Or maybe multiple volcanoes. But which ones are still a mystery. This is a historical mass murder, and it’s still unsolved.  

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After 75 years under Hunnic dominion, the Ostrogoths seized their freedom and set about taking over control of the Western Roman Empire. The man who led them was named Theodoric the Great. He was a member of an ancient Gothic family called the Amali, which went all the way back to the Crisis of the Third Century. Supposedly.

Theodoric was the founder of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, which upended a thousand years of Roman rule in Italy. While Alaric sacked Rome, he couldn’t hold it. He didn’t try to hold it. Theodoric did hold it, and rule it. This is his story.

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In our last episode, we talked about how the Visigoths came to be: forged in the fire of the Gothic War of 376-382 and the immigration crisis that went along with it. Now, we’ll take a look at what happened to their kin who stayed on the northern side of the Danube—the Greuthungi who were not allowed to cross. What happened to them was 75 years under Hunnic dominion.

This time changed them. Some were brutally exploited. Still others were enriched beyond their wildest imaginings, riding at the head of a Wild Hunt that devoured all in its path—utnil, when next they met their kin who crossed the Danube, it was on opposite sides of a battlefield.

Join us as we map the rise of the Ostrogoths.

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In our last few episodes, we’ve told you what we know about pre-Roman Gothic archaeology, culture, and history. We’ve told you about conditions both inside and outside the Roman Empire that kicked off the Migration Era.

And now we’re going to tell you the story of one of those Gothic Wars in detail: the war of 376-382 AD. A war that may have occurred during Alaric’s childhood—and that may have been a radicalizing event for him and for thousands of people who followed him.

It’s the war—and the accompanying immigration crisis—that sets off a chain of events in which a people called the Visigoths rise—and the most famous of them, a man called Alaric, leads them all the way to the gates of Rome. This is where it all begins.

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In our last episode, we took a look at the outside forces driving the engine of the Migration Era: Hunnic migrations and invasions, constant displacement and conflict at the Roman borders. But

Goths lived inside Rome too—in the heart of the Italian peninsula, and also in the outer provinces, in territories that were conquered by force.

This story isn’t just about Goths that lived outside Rome. It’s also about the Goths that lived inside the Empire—as everything from slaves to soldiers to free citizens. How they were treated within that empire fueled and fed the wheel of the Migration era. Hatred of immigrants played a major role in Migration-Era conflicts--in ways scarily similar to events today.

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It was the beginning of the Migration Era where the Goths’ history with the Roman Empire begins. The Migration era was a cycle of wars and conflicts lasting hundreds of years. Alaric’s sack of Rome was only a small part of it. 

What started it? Nobody knows. But it would have been an extremely chaotic time to be alive, when ordinary people had to leave all that they’d built and flee in the face of invaders—who were also refugees fleeing violence that had wiped out their own homes. There would have been no safety anywhere.

The Migration Era was a vortex of death, where displaced victims, starving refugees, desperate people often wound up enacting the next round of violence on the populations they crashed into. And in this episode, we try to plumb the depths of that vortex.

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In our last episode, we delved into the archaeology of the pre-Roman Goths. But what about Gothic culture? What do we know about pre-Roman Gothic culture, before the Goths were Romanized?

To get a real sense of what is authentically Gothic is really difficult. We don’t have much information about the Goths’ daily lives or culture. We know almost nothing about their pre-Christian religious practices and beliefs. What we do have is a lot of military history from a Roman lens, and accounts from chroniclers like Tacitus—which have a lot of issues.

In this episode, we try to peel back the layers and discover what we can about pre-Roman Gothic culture.

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The Roman Empire stood for a thousand years. Many causes have been given for its downfall—but if just one group of people could be said to be culpable, it would be the Goths.

They stormed its borders en masse, scored outsized victories that no one had won before, killed two emperors and raised up their own, sacked the city of Rome after a thousand inviolable years; and built their own kingdoms within the Empire’s decaying corpse. Their name has inspired the names of architecture, literature and fashion into the modern day. Whenever you set the date of the fall of Rome, there’s no question the Goths were instrumental in felling it. So who were these people? Who were the Goths?

In this episode, we’re going to find out.

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In Enemy of My Dreams, Jenny based her heroine Julia partially on Julia the Elder—rebellious daughter of Augustus who got herself exiled to Pandateria for being, as the ancients say, “too slutty.”

Julia the Elder refused, REFUSED to rein it in. And for that, we adore her. But accounts of her life are told by men, sometimes her political enemies. She may have been a victim of slander, or engaged in deeper plotting that her dad wanted to keep secret. And while Julia the Elder was exiled for roughly five years, her daughter, Julia the Younger, was exiled for 20.

Join us as we explore the lives of these indomitable women with historical fiction author and classics scholar Tana Rebellis, author of the Exile Duology and expert in Julio-Claudian exile.

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In 450 AD, the Imperial Princess Honoria--daughter of Galla Placidia--was desperate to escape her arranged marriage. So she made an indecent proposal--to Attila the Hun.

On this single action, cities were torched. Saints were raised. Thousands died. And Venice was founded. Find out how it all went down.

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He was a fierce barbarian warlord—a man who had stood between his people and the Roman Empire since the sack of Rome. She was a Roman Imperial princess with a core of iron strength.

Born enemies, the love of Ataulf and Galla Placidia is marked by tragedy—but in its time, it burned hot enough to reshape an Empire. This is their story.

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This week’s Book Club author interview is none other than up-and-coming romantasy and historical romance author Jenny Williamson, discussing her upcoming debut Enemy of My Dreams: her huge historical crush on Alaric of the Goths, the inspiration for her entirely-made-up hot-mess heroine, and how she adds “verisimilitude” to her fight scenes.

Join Genn and guest co-host Liv Albert, of Let’s Talk about Myths, Baby!, as they crack open a beverage, and conduct a wild and slightly tipsy author interview.

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Who was Alaric of the Visigoths, really?

It’s a difficult question to answer. Alaric left no manifesto. There is nothing in his own words to explain his motivations for sacking Rome, or all the choices he made leading up to that fateful day. All we have are the assumptions of his enemies, which sometimes don’t’ make a lot of sense.

Enter Douglas Boin. His groundbreaking biography, Alaric the Goth: an Outsider’s History of the Fall of Rome, explores Alaric’s experience as an immigrant, marginalized by the Roman Empire and fighting for his place in it. Join us as we explore the life and times of this fascinating historical figure and what his life still has to tell us.

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This week, we feature a conversation with the OG romance novelist—the one all our romance novelist friends list among their favorites. Nalini Singh has an impressive, multi-decade career with several long-running, blockbuster romantasy and paranormal series featuring sexy shifters, fallen angels, and dangerous psychic warriors.

Join us as we explore these fascinating worlds and discuss the secrets to a long-running career in romance and fiction.

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On August 24, 410 AD, Alaric and the Visigoths sacked the city of Rome. Before he sacked it, he starved it. Before that, he went toe to toe with the Roman Empire for fifteen years—uniting disparate tribes, holding a people together, and achieving more against Rome than any barbarian leader before him.

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It's the end of Season 12--and what a year it's been! We had some big things happen in 2024 and we hope that 2025 will be even bigger and more exciting.

Join us as we discuss what it was like covering the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, our upcoming books and novel projects, and our plans for the podcast going forward. Thank you so much for taking this journey with us!

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Janus is the two-faced god of the Roman pantheon. He was the god of beginnings and endings, of dual natures, of passageways and passage through time. He’s the god of thresholds and doorways and gates, and the god of change, both concrete and abstract. He’s constantly in motion; he’s the god who’s always just passing through.

Janus may not be very well-known. But in his time, he was considered one of the most important gods—perhaps more important than Jupiter himself. Today, we’re going to tell you all about him.

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How would Alaric of the Visigoths celebrate the midwinter holiday (Christmas? Solstice? Yule?). The idea was kicked around a lot between the two of us until it seemed imperative that we actually write this episode. And thus, an episode was born.

In this episode, Alaric is about six years old. He doesn’t exactly understand that his life is hanging by a knife’s edge – caught between the invading Huns and the colonizing Romans. This is the story of a little boy just trying to do the right thing and not get his belly slit open by the Perchta, as one does around this time of year.

So sit back, pour yourself a festive holiday beverage, and enjoy this very fictional, occasionally true episode. 

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This year, we’ve found one of the most metal and wild Yuletide goddesses yet – Frau Holle.

Human sacrifices, spindles in yer vag, plague, starvation, caves of offerings and bones, the Grimms brothers, golden showers, child cannibalism, ZOMBIES – are any of these putting you in the Yuletide spirit? They should. Because we’re about to share with you the story of a very Frau Holle Christmas.

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You may recognize Dr. Emily Rath from our series on Project 2025. Today, we’ve invited her on to discuss her most recent project—North is the Night, a historical fantasy story with a strong, sapphic romantic thread.

Join us as Emily introduces us to a world of terrifying metal death goddesses, mystical talking ravens, queer witches and warriors, and a Christianity that seeks to devour everything it touches. 

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Ah, Christmas—it's a time of cheer, of gift-giving and generosity; and a time to eat yer babies.

This year, we’re focusing on two different cannibalistic monsters from Christmas folklore: Père Fouettard and Hans Trapp. Because it turns out that child cannibalism really is the reason for the season—and perhaps Santa Claus is the biggest cannibal of all.

What is Santa hiding under those jolly cheeks and that big white beard? Strap in, pour yourself your favorite holiday beverage, and get ready for a wild ride into the dark side of Christmas.

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In our last two episodes we discussed what worship looked like at the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. How the goddess was worshipped, who worshipped her, and what they believed.

Now, we’re going talk about what the temple looked like, who built it, who burned it to the ground, who rebuilt it, and what people did at the temple (besides worship). It’s time to dig into the ground and build back up this temple, stone by stone, with the stories of the people who walked its hallowed halls.

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What do you know about Yule? Maybe a lot. The holiday is widely celebrated in Scandinavian countries, and it's an important part of Wiccan and Pagan tradition. But for many of us, the version that's come down through history is strongly associated with Christmas--and heavily sanitized.

When we scratched the surface, however, we found that the origins of Yule were older and darker and weirder than we ever imagined.

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This year, we decided that the holiday season wouldn’t be complete without a mythological foray into one of the most famous characters of the season: The Krampus.

And some of you might be saying: wait a minute, Krampus isn’t ancient; he’s modern. Also, everyone knows about Krampus, the festive demon of Christmas. Why are you covering this well-trodden topic?

Wait until you hear the wild things we uncovered about him and his history, and then make your judgements about how old and well-trodden this topic is.

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Last week, we discussed the history of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus—and just who served here, and why. This week, we delve into the mythology of the temple and the goddess worshipped there.

The Artemis at Ephesus was a far more ancient goddess than her Classical Greek counterpart. She has roots in the ancient Near East, and is cousin to ancient deities such as Kybele and the Egyptian cat goddess Bastet.

What happened to this goddess—and the people who worshipped her—as the world changed? Join us as we explore how the wild, untameable Artemis at Ephesus fared in the face of Roman occupation, Christian suppression, and natural disasters.

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What did it take to be a gladiator? Who ended up in the arena, and why? And how did the gladiatorial games—one of the bloodiest sporting events known in the ancient world—come to be?

From the ancient roots of Etruscan funeral games to the height of Roman spectacle, we examine the history of gladiatorial combat—and explore what life was like for gladiators in the time of Spartacus.

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This week, we welcome internationally bestselling author and noted enemies-to-lovers enthusiast Thea Guanzon to the podcast.

Thea’s debut novel, the Hurricane Wars, is an enemies-to-lovers romantasy with complex layers of worldbuilding and intrigue, rich with mythic resonance, airships, elemental magic, world-rending storms and eclipses, and passionate romance. Join us as we discuss the inspiration for her in-world mythology, our mutual love for hot-mess heroines, and what makes guys named Alaric so sexy.

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This week, we’re covering the final Wonder on our list of Seven Wonders: and this may be the one that broke us. It’s a Wonder located at the nexus of seawater and freshwater on the brackish headwaters of an epic river; a biodiversity hotspot. It was in this primal land that legend of a divine huntress grew.

This is not the Artemis of the Classical Greeks. This is the Artemis of Ephesus: a ferocious huntress, yes. But also a wild and fecund goddess of childbirth; a protectress of women and children, so fertile and fierce that she would tolerate no masculinity: men had to undergo castration before they could serve in her temple. And we’ve barely begun to scratch the surface of what it meant to serve.

Join us as we get to know the mysterious and primal Artemis of Ephesus.

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When you think of Artemis, what springs to mind?

 Perhaps it’s a fierce huntress with a bow and arrow, a sort of female Peter Pan—wild and untamed, haunting forests drenched in moonlight—a goddess who’s taken a stern vow of chastity, and refuses all company save that of her nymphs.

That’s one version of Artemis—the Classical version. But there’s an older, wilder version that pulls back the curtain on a more ancient way of life in Greece. Join us as we explore who Artemis was, how she was worshipped, and how she evolved into a goddess who fit into the Classical Athenian idea of what an ‘eternal maiden’ should look like.

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Think the Amazons of Greek myth were mythical? Think again. The Greeks based their Amazons on the real-life warrior women next door.

Centuries ago, ancient writers claimed that Scythian women of the Eurasian Steppe fought in battle alongside their men. Now, with modern bioarchaeology, the bones of real female warriors have emerged from their grave mounds and begun to speak to us. This is their story.

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Lucian’s A True History has been called the world’s first work of science fiction—but above all, Lucian of Samosata was a satirist. And he had a bone to pick with the famous historians of his time—guys like Herodotus and Ctesias of Knidos. They were Lying Liars who Lied, you see, and Lucian was mad about it.

So he set out to write his OWN monument to lies—lest he be the only writer out there “exempted from the liberty of lying.” The only true thing is what he tells us in his intro: “for this one thing I confidently pronounce for a truth: that I lie.”

This fabulous story has everything: sexy tree women, an intergalactic war, an interlude inside a whale—and we can’t get enough of it. Join us and Liv Albert from Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby! on this amazing adventure of which every word is a lie, and yet surprisingly relevant to our time.

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What tales kept people from thousands of years ago up at night?

This Halloween, Ancient History Fangirl teams up with Liv Albert from Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby! to delve into spooky stories from the ancient world that will send a shiver up your spine—tales of shrieking Banshees, deathly Furies, and the terrors of Samhain.

So spread some salt over your threshold. Settle into your favorite chair. Pour yourself a drink to take the chill from your bones. And if there’s a knock on your door, whatever you do—don’t answer it.

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We’ve covered werewolves in the ancient world before—and their connection to the Berserker myth. But wait til you hear what happened to werewolf mythology when the Catholics got their hands on it.

This episode is a wild ride, taking you from the ancient Greek and Roman werewolves to a Medieval monster tied to the mysteries of serial killing, mental illness, domestic abuse, and the paranoia of the Witch Trials. It turns out Catholic werewolves stalked a very dark, very violent landscape—and we are just itching to explore it. Join us.

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The werewolf myth as we know it today generally involves getting bitten by a werewolf, transforming during the full moon, and being very susceptible to silver bullets. But werewolves in ancient Greece and Rome were a little different.

Join us for a spooky-season deep dive into ancient werewolf mythology from thousands of years ago. We'll take a look at the pre-Christian origins of the werewolf myth and its connections to death, starvation, cannibalism, and transformation.

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In the last episode we discussed why the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are the only Wonder that historians don’t believe existed. There’s no archaeological evidence for it, and archaeologists have been scouring the ruins of Babylon since the 1800s. Also, Nebuchadnezzar himself—who could not shut up about all his own great building projects—never mentioned it.

But there’s one audacious theory that suggests the Hanging Gardens did exist—just not in Babylon. In fact, they were built by Babylon’s arch enemy 324 miles to the north. The theory goes that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were actually the Hanging Gardens of Nineveh.

Join us as we do a deep dive into this fascinating theory.

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What is it that makes the grimdark so sexy? NYTimes bestselling author Carissa Broadbent would know. She has been, in her own words, “concerning teachers and parents with mercilessly grim tales since she was roughly nine years old.”

Today, her worlds are dark, gritty, war-blasted magical realms featuring (hot) characters caught in desperate, heart-pounding situations—and relentlessly drawn to each other. Join us as we explore a world of tender and torrid love stories set amidst war and struggle.

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This week, we’re going to cover what may be the most mysterious of the Seven Wonders: a wonder that rose from the desert like a mirage, one whose name suggests it defied gravity itself; a wonder that may not have been a wonder at all: that may, in fact, never have existed.

Join us as we explore the enigma of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

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The hosts of the Partial Historians Podcast—Dr. Rad and Dr. G—have written a book! Your Cheeky Guide to the Roman Empire takes you from the regal period through to the so-called 'fall' in the 5th century, covering topics such as:

We Built This City on Rock and Roads - learn about the walls and aqueducts!

Let's Get Mythical 

Armed and Dangerous - the Romans didn't always win on the battlefield! 

Of course, no book on ancient Rome would be complete without covering Spartacus. Please enjoy this excerpt from the Spartacus chapter of their upcoming book, With a Rebel Yell. Your Cheeky Guide to the Roman Empire is available November 5 and can be pre-ordered here.

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Epic news alert! We're so thrilled that the cover for Jenny's Alaric historical romantasy, Enemy of My Dreams is here! As many of you know, the research for this book was her inspiration for this podcast, and our listeners have been with her every step of the way. We are so excited for you to continue following her on this journey.

To celebrate the cover reveal, we put together this brand new episode where Genn interviews Jenny and we both fangirl about Alaric, the Fall of Rome, and the Migration Era in a ridiculous manner. We hope you enjoy!

Enemy of My Dreams will be out in hardback, ebook and audio on February 4th, 2025.

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Today we’re going to talk about yet another giant statue in the Seven Wonders lexicon—one that was once pictured straddling the harbor at Rhodes, holding aloft a torch. He was supposed to depict the god Helios, although some said it looked more like Alexander the Great.

Rhodes was an island full of pirates, smugglers and ne’er-do-wells. What would have possessed them to build a giant statue of Helios in their harbor? Why that god? Why in that place? What did it all mean? And what did it have to do with Demetrius the Besieger? 

Join us as we unravel the mysteries that surround this statue, the cult of Helios, the island of Rhodes and meet a few of Jenny’s favorite historical figures from the War of the Diadochi.

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This week, we invited onto the show one of our all-time favorite romance authors—New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katee Robert. Katee has written over 100 books and sold over two million copies worldwide. They are truly an author who Goes Big, swimming in the currents of dark and taboo romance, romantasy, paranormal and monster romance—with relationships that are often queer, poly, and kinky.

Join us as we explore the dark and dangerous--incorporating kink into romance, what makes a dark romance so dark, and why we are all endlessly falling for the villain.

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Today, we’re going to talk about a wonder that was built for a man who was once extremely powerful. But today, he’s known primarily for the grandness of his tomb—a tomb commissioned not by him, but by his wife (and sister)—a tomb so great that much like the Pharos’ name has been used in some languages to mean all lighthouses, his name in English now means all tombs. 

Who was Mausolus? What made his tomb so great? And why was it named after him and not his wife, who was also buried there? Join us as we explore the mysteries of the Mausoleum.

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It's easy to get the impression that no women were allowed in the war games of the ancient world, but nothing could be further from the truth. Female generals and warrior queens were everywhere—leading armies into battle by land and sea.

In this episode, we cover five female military commanders—powerful allies and enemies of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

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This is a Podcast Takeover about the real threat that is Project 2025.

Joining us is Dr. Brad Onishi, co-host of the podcast Straight White American Jesus, a podcast that explores the culture and politics of Christian Nationalism from the perspective of two ex-evangelical ministers turned professors of religion.

In this episode, Brad walks us through the influence of Christian Nationalism on Donald Trump's second-term agenda--and exactly how, through Project 2025, Trump could dismantle our democracy, wield our military against us, and impose a rigid view of Christianity on a non-consenting public.

This may be the last election we ever get to vote in. So we all need to vote like our lives and our country depend on it.

 Sponsors and Advertising

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This is a Podcast Takeover about the real threat that is Project 2025.

If enacted, Project 2025 would touch on all aspects of American life—and we couldn’t get into all of it in one episode. This week, we invited Dr. Emily Rath onto the show to give us a first-hand perspective on what life would be like if Project 2025 was made into law.

In addition to a bestselling romance novelist, Dr. Rath has been a professor in Florida under the “Don’t Say Gay” law and other “anti woke” legislation, much of which is replicated in Project 2025, that put her livelihood and safety under threat.

Join us for a personal discussion of what Project 2025 will do to all of us—with a focus on LGBTQ+ people, queer creators, women and AFAB people, and the box these laws would imprison us in.

 Sponsors and Advertising

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This is a Podcast Takeover about the real threat that is Project 2025.

We decided to take a break from our usual ancient history episodes to tell you about the Christo-fascist playbook that’s closer to being enacted into law than you might think. Project 2025 is a 900-page document that, if enacted, would rearrange our government to put unprecedented power in the hands of the president. And that president would be Donald Trump.

Joining us to break down this document is Professor Buzzkill himself: Dr. Joseph Coohill, public historian and host of the Professor Buzzkill podcast. In this episode, Professor Buzzkill explains exactly how Project 2025 would change our government, the historical power and influence of the Heritage Foundation (its creator) and why we all need to VOTE this November.

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Angela J. Ford is the author of over 30 books, mostly steamy fantasy romance and romantic thrillers. Like Jenny, she fell in love with the Phantom of the Opera at an early age. And she wrote a romance novel inspired by that story--with the mysterious Phantom as the hero.

Join us as we discuss Angela's Phantom-inspired novel, Music of the Night, and what makes a certain Opera Ghost so sexy.

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With the 2024 Olympics beginning any day now, you’re probably (if you’re a nerd like us) asking yourself one question: what would it have been like to attend a day at the world’s first Olympic Games?

The Games in ancient times were not like they are today. The punishment for cheating was being whipped before a screaming crowd, Opening Ceremonies involved making sacrifices at a thousand-year-old primordial mound of gelatinous flesh and bone—and women were not allowed to attend. On pain of death.

What would YOU risk to watch the Olympic Games? Come join us for a day at the ancient-world Olympics—from the perspective of someone who risked death to watch.

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Sav R. Miller is a USA-Today bestselling author of steamy dark romances often inspired by Greek mythology, including the Monsters and Muses series and the upcoming Monsters Within. Her romances are often contemporary, and frequently delve into the dark and steamy side of the underworld, the mafia, and the criminal element.

Join us as we discuss why we’re so intrigued by the dark side of romance—and what is it about morally grey villain-heroes that has us weak at the knees.

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Hera is one of the most unsympathetic goddesses in Greek mythology. Trapped in a toxic marriage with the King of the Gods, her vast power relegated only to wives and marriage, she often takes her fury at Zeus’s infidelities out on his victims and their children. But is there more to Hera’s story than tragically misplaced vengeance?

Today, we discuss this complicated, fascinating goddess with bestselling author Jennifer Saint—and uncover the hidden and surprising complexities that make this goddess more than what she seems.

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Introducing History Daily, a podcast that tells the fascinating stories of what happened “on this day” in history, with host Lindsay Graham.

The episode we chose to release tells the fascinating story of China’s Terracotta Army—an entire army of 8,000 terracotta soldiers, each one unique and human sized, along with horses, weapons, chariots and more, dating from the 200s BC.

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In our last episode, we discussed the Lighthouse of Alexandria during its early years--the Ptolemaic and Roman eras. In this episode, we'll take a look at its later history--during the Islamic era, which is where many of our most detailed descriptions--and fantastical legends about the lighthouse--date from.

The Lighthouse of Alexandria cast a long shadow. It's the shadow of the Dark Pharos, which lives in all of us. Join us as we discuss the real and the fantastical, try to sort out which is which, and explore how the lighthouse finally died--and was brought back to life in modern times.

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This week, we teamed up with the dynamic duo of Donna Herren and Bree Bridges--writing under the bestselling pseudonym of Kit Rocha. They're best known for gritty dystopian romances featuring queer relationships, why choose sexiness, badass mercenary heroines, and an extra dash of kinkiness.

Join us for a fun and fierce conversation where we discuss nontraditional publishing, queer and poly romance, tropes we love, and what rules are made to be broken. Kit Rocha's most recent romantasy, Consort of Fire, is out now--featuring the incendiary combo of sexy bisexual dragons and lady assassins.

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The Lighthouse of Alexandria became iconic in both the ancient and medieval worlds. People began to call it ‘The Pharos,” after the island it stood on. It changed drastically over the years—and so has what it represented.

It was built during the reign of the Ptolemies in Egypt, and stood for about 1,600 years. In that time it came to represent a beacon of light and learning. But it also represented other, darker things. And looking back at it today—trying to glean its picture—is like looking through a clouded mirror.

Join us as we try to unpack the mystery of the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

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We're re-releasing this episode because it mentions a Seven Wonder that appears in our next brand new episode!

When Cleopatra met Julius Caesar, sparks flew. The daring Egyptian queen beguiled the conquering Roman general—and then enlisted him to fight her battles.

Outnumbered five to one in a city full of ancient wonders, Cleopatra and Caesar spent the next ten months barricaded in a luxurious palace while outside, the enemy howled for their blood--fighting a deadly urban war for Cleopatra's throne and both of their survival.

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In our last episode, we took you on a tour of the Great Pyramid of Giza: perhaps the greatest of all the Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one that still exists today. We explored the outside of the Pyramid, the inside of the pyramid, we poked into all the nooks and crannies, and we explored all its secrets.

But we left one secret out—and that is the one we are going to discuss today: how was the pyramid built? And who were the people who built it?

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Carved from the very living bedrock of the Giza plateau, the Sphinx is shrouded in mystery. Archaeologists believe it’s about 4,500 years old. But there’s a fringe theory—the Sphinx Water Erosion Theory—that suggests it’s much, much older.

Join us as we explore this wild theory that completely explodes the prevailing wisdom, and asserts that the Sphinx is in fact 10,000 years old—or maybe even more.

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The list of Seven Wonders of the Ancient World has changed over the centuries. But there’s one item that’s almost always included—and when it’s not, the list-maker has to make it the honorary eighth wonder. Because leaving it out is so egregious.

This is the oldest and largest of the Seven Wonders, the only one to survive into modern times, and it is the mother, the daddy, the true parental unit of all wonders: The Great Pyramid of Giza. 

The Great Pyramid truly is a wonder. It’s an absolute masterpiece of human ingenuity, engineering, and sheer determination. And today, we’re going to get up close and personal with it. Join us!

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It’s our inaugural episode of AHFG Book Club, and we are so thrilled to feature Sunday Times bestselling author Elizabeth May! Join us for a wild conversation where we talk about our favorite tropes, writing queer romance, ne’er-do-well con artist heroes, and why we’re all so into dukes and dragons these days.

Elizabeth May has two recent books out in stores now: the epic romantasy To Cage a God, and the steamy historical romance A Touch Wicked, under the name Katrina Kendrick.

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The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is a tragic story of love and loss. In this gender-bent version, author and prize-winning poet Elyse John crafts the tale of the warrior-poet Orphia, her love for the handsome shieldmaker Eurydicius, and the lasting power of women’s voices. 

Join us and author Elyse John for a fresh new look at one of the most compelling and frequently-retold Greek myths—a story of love, loss, grief, and poetry.

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We're re-releasing our epic story about the Sacred Band--all three episodes in one place!

The time was the 300s BC. The place was Thebes. And in this place, in this time, there was an elite military force—the best of the best special ops shock troops—made up of 150 male lovers.

Their love for each other was the key to their strength. It made them better fighters. More effective. It made them strong enough to break the iron-fisted control of oppressive regimes. This is their incredible story.

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The Statue of Zeus at Olympia is not well remembered today. But in its time, it seared itself into the minds and memories of all who saw it. An enormous, glowering, formidable statue built into a temple of otherworldly, translucent light, it was as tall as a three-storey building. People said it crouched on its throne as if it was about to stand—and break through the roof of its temple.

Zeus’ skin glistened. Made of yards and yards of priceless hippopotamus ivory, it had to be oiled down each day so it wouldn’t crack in the heat. Yes, this was truly the sweatiest, oiliest, stickiest of all the wonders. And there’s more: curses. Lovers’ names engraved in secret places. So much daytime sex. So many naked, athletic men. THE OLYMPICS. Join us on a slightly unhinged deep dive into this truly unique wonder that once held the entire Hellenic imagination in its grip.

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Perhaps the most infamous bad girl of ancient Greek mythology, Medea is also so much more complex than her end game makes her appear. She’s also a betrayed wife, an isolated immigrant in a hostile new country, and a woman trying to survive in a dark and violent world—who is ultimately driven to the brink by the men around her.

In this episode, bestselling author Rosie Hewlett takes us on a deep dive into what makes Medea tick: her magic, her murder, and her surprising passion and vulnerability. 

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Perhaps the first list of Seven Wonders was written by Herodotus sometime in the 400s BC. But the list didn’t really get popularized until the 200s. Why was that? What did this list mean, and why did lists of “Wonders” become popular at this time in the ancient Greek world?

Before we get into each of the Seven Wonders, we thought we’d introduce our series by talking about that list itself: its history, where it comes from, what its original context was—and how it’s changed throughout the centuries. This is that episode: the history of the list of Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

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You’ve been transported almost 2,000 years into the past, to the streets of Pompeii. It’s a brisk autumn morning, around, oh…10 AM…and all hell is about to break loose. What's your next move?

You could live through it, maybe. If you were lucky. And made all the right choices. At exactly the right time. The actions you take in these first moments could make the difference between life and death.

Yes, this is Ancient History Fangirl – could you survive a volcano – Choose Your Own Adventure edition!

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We’ve covered the deadly day in 79 AD when Mt. Vesuvius erupted, burying Pompeii in a suffocating layer of ash and pumice. But we haven’t covered the aftermath: where did the survivors go? How were they received? And what did the recovery effort look like?

 Today, we’re joined by Elodie Harper—bestselling author of the Wolf Den trilogy, whose last installment, The Temple of Fortuna, has just been released. Join us in exploring how this eruption event left an indelible mark on the psyche of ancient Rome.

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What happened to people in ancient Rome who were freed from slavery? Turns out there were still invisible threads--economic pressures, imbalances of status, and debts owed to wealthy patrons--that kept many of them in bondage.

On the streets of Pompeii, freedom came at a steep price--especially for women. Today, we talk to Elodie Harper--bestselling author of the Wolf Den and the House with the Golden Door--about enslaved people, freedwomen, and glamorous sex workers whose lives were far more precarious than they seemed.

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The Lupanar, or “Wolf Den,” is the infamous brothel of Pompeii. Elodie Harper’s bestselling novel follows the lives of the sex workers who lived and worked there—their passions, their heartbreaks, and the tightly-knit community they built for themselves. 

Today, we’ve invited Elodie on the show to talk about the realities of sex workers’ lives in the Wolf Den—and how sex work was practiced in Pompeii near the time of the Vesuvius eruption.

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If you know anything about Aphrodite, then you know she is the ancient Greek goddess primarily associated with love, beauty, sex, reproduction, and passion. She was also the patron goddess of sex workers in the ancient Classical world.

Join us as we explore how Aphrodite was worshipped in ancient Greece, the goddess's history and ancient roots, and how the Romans transformed her into Venus.

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Last week, we told you about the lives of five courtesans in Classical Athens. But we left someone out--perhaps the most elite hetaera of them all.

Long-term partner of a leading Athenian statesman, darling of the philosophical set, survivor of the plague of Athens—she threw her own parties, and they were the best parties ever thrown within a hundred-mile radius of Athens. No one has done better since. Her name was Aspasia.

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In our last few episodes on sex workers in ancient Greece, we tried to paint a picture of a group of women, in some cases, with more freedom and independence than most in the ancient Greek world could dream of. But that freedom came at a price.

Now, we’re going to tell you about the lives of some of ancient Greece’s most famous Hetaerae.

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The symposia--all-male drinking parties--were the playground and hunting ground of Athens' elite courtesans. But they had their dangers, too.

Join us as we attend a symposium with the fast set of Ancient Athens. We’re going to hang out with the hetaerae, drink our faces off, flirt outrageously with everyone in range, and debate with the philosophers until the sun comes up.

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The conventional wisdom is that sex workers in ancient Greece were divided into two main categories: pornai who were enslaved in brothels, and hetaerae, who were elite courtesans. That’s actually a drastic oversimplification.

This is the beginning of a journey into the world of sex workers in ancient Greece. Join us as we explore what life was like for sex workers at every level of the profession—including those who didn't fit easily into these categories. 

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Janus is the two-faced god of the Roman pantheon. He was the god of beginnings and endings, of dual natures, of passageways and passage through time. He’s the god of thresholds and doorways and gates, and the god of change, both concrete and abstract. He’s constantly in motion; he’s the god who’s always just passing through.

Janus may not be very well-known. But in his time, he was considered one of the most important gods—perhaps more important than Jupiter himself. Today, we’re going to tell you all about him.

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It's the end of Season 11--and we had so much fun putting this season together! We've got some big changes in store for Season 12--tune in to find out more!

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This year, we’ve found one of the most metal and wild Yuletide goddesses yet – Frau Holle.

Human sacrifices, spindles in yer vag, plague, starvation, caves of offerings and bones, the Grimms brothers, golden showers, child cannibalism, ZOMBIES – are any of these putting you in the Yuletide spirit? They should. Because we’re about to share with you the story of a very Frau Holle Christmas.

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Ah, Christmas—it's a time of cheer, of gift-giving and generosity; and a time to eat yer babies.

This year, we’re focusing on two different cannibalistic monsters from Christmas folklore: Père Fouettard and Hans Trapp. Because it turns out that child cannibalism really is the reason for the season—and perhaps Santa Claus is the biggest cannibal of all.

What is Santa hiding under those jolly cheeks and that big white beard? Strap in, pour yourself your favorite holiday beverage, and get ready for a wild ride into the dark side of Christmas.

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What do you know about Yule? Maybe a lot. The holiday is widely celebrated in Scandinavian countries, and it's an important part of Wiccan and Pagan tradition. But for many of us, the version that's come down through history is strongly associated with Christmas--and heavily sanitized.

When we scratched the surface, however, we found that the origins of Yule were older and darker and weirder than we ever imagined.

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During the ancient Roman Republic and into the Empire, there was a place all the fabulously wealthy went. An escape from the real world. A place where they could unleash all their most hedonistic and murderous urges. That place was Baiae.

Baiae was the playground of Rome’s rich and infamous, whose baths alone were the size of palaces. It had many secrets—but perhaps the most deadly was that the entire city was built on a supervolcano. Long before Baiae was built, the ancients called this region “the Burning Fields.”

The caldera breathes out, and worlds end in fire. It breathes in, and an entire city sinks beneath the waves. This week, Julius Caesar (THAT Julius Caesar) joins us to walk the drowned streets of Baiae—and pull back the curtain on a secret world of sin.

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Wish you had a holiday all about feasting, drinking, the upending of the social order, blood sacrifices, the harvest, pranks, novelty gifts, honouring a god who devoured his kids, and the returning sun? Don’t we all??? Welcome to Saturnalia.

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Psyche and Eros is an ancient love story that has always had the power to compel. It’s the story of a god of passion who falls in love with the personification of the human soul—and the lengths these two will go to in order to be together.

But the lone source we have for this myth is The Golden Ass by Apuleius—a satirical novel about a man who gets turned into a donkey. What can we learn about this myth by looking at its original source? What was the author of The Golden Ass trying to tell us about love and women’s role in it (if anything)? Today we team up with Luna McNamara, bestselling author of Psyche & Eros, to try to get to the bottom of it.

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This year, we decided that the holiday season wouldn’t be complete without a mythological foray into one of the most famous characters of the season: The Krampus.

And some of you might be saying: wait a minute, Krampus isn’t ancient; he’s modern. Also, everyone knows about Krampus, the festive demon of Christmas. Why are you covering this well-trodden topic?

Wait until you hear the wild things we uncovered about him and his history, and then make your judgements about how old and well-trodden this topic is.

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When we think of pyramids, hieroglyphs, and Pharaohs, most people think about Egypt. But there was a civilization to the south that was just as fascinating, just as complex, just as sophisticated—and it wasn’t Egypt. It was Nubia.

The Nubians built temples, cities, and pyramids to rival those of the Egyptians. And they had a fascinating history of strong female leaders, including warriors, generals and queens. And after Cleopatra lost to Rome, her fellow queen to the south—a one-eyed warrior queen of Nubia—successfully fought off the Roman Army, held a knife to its throat and wrung a peace treaty out of Octavian that kept her kingdom free.

This is the story of Nubia.

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Throughout history, there have been a number of women who had—shall we say—a penchant for poison. Women who poisoned for power and influence; to rid themselves of enslavers and abusive husbands; and for monetary gain.

Who were these women? How did they enact their deadly plans? How did they avoid getting caught (until they didn’t)? Join us as we acquaint ourselves with a dangerous sisterhood of lady poisoners—with Dr. Lisa Perrin, author of The League of Lady Poisoners, as our guide.

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We’ve covered the deadly day in 79 AD when Mt. Vesuvius erupted, burying Pompeii in a suffocating layer of ash and pumice. But we haven’t covered the aftermath: where did the survivors go? How were they received? And what did the recovery effort look like?

 Today, we’re joined by Elodie Harper—bestselling author of the Wolf Den trilogy, whose last installment, The Temple of Fortuna, has just been released. Join us in exploring how this eruption event left an indelible mark on the psyche of ancient Rome.

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Greek fire was an incendiary weapon of the ancient world—and perhaps the sole reason that the Byzantine Empire stood long after the rest of Rome. It was a terrifying weapon used for centuries to dominate on land and sea; intimidating vastly more powerful foes into backing down. Those who beheld its power always fled in fear.

Greek fire was a closely guarded secret of the Byzantine Empire. And eventually the recipe for making and using it was lost. Modern historians have tried and failed, many times, to reproduce it. We don’t know how it was made, or why it disappeared. It’s a mystery.

Join us as we explore the untold secrets of Greek fire.

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When we talk about the Vikings, who are we talking about, exactly? What can we learn about Viking culture by looking at their myths? And which of the ancient sources about them (if any) can we trust?

This week, we take a look at Norse mythology and history with Dr. Kelsey Fuller-Shafer, author of Norse Mythology: The Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes Handbook: From Vikings to Valkyries, an Epic Who's Who in Old Norse Mythology (a kind of companion book to our Women of Myth). Join us as we get to know the Vikings.

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Communities all over the ancient world had a problem: their dead wouldn't stay in the ground. They rose up as shambolic corpses, gusts of wind and evil spirits, draining human life force and devouring flesh and blood.

The vampire myth is an ancient one, found on every continent. Join us as we explore the oldest vampire myths we could find from Sumeria, Greece, Rome, and Germania--and discover the clues they leave us about those cultures.

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Introducing History Daily, a podcast that tells the fascinating stories of what happened “on this day” in history, with host Lindsay Graham.

This is a History Daily episode about the Great Fire of Rome–another natural or potentially man made disaster that we felt was perfect for our odds and sods season–topics that just didn’t fit into past arcs or that we didn’t get to.

The day was July 18, 64 AD. When the Great Fire of Rome reduces two-thirds of the city to ashes, Emperor Nero uses the catastrophe as an excuse to persecute a new religious group: the Christians.

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The Celts of the Iron age—roughly 600s BC to 43 AD—had a real preoccupation with severed heads. They took heads in battle. They displayed the heads of their enemies in prominent places. But what did all this decapitation mean?

Some believe there was a set of religious beliefs around severed heads—but nobody knows what they were. And the severed head keeps popping up in later mythology and legend, creating more questions than answers. Join us as we investigate the very mysterious Cult of the Severed Head.

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The werewolf myth as we know it today generally involves getting bitten by a werewolf, transforming during the full moon, and being very susceptible to silver bullets. But werewolves in ancient Greece and Rome were a little different.

Join us for a spooky-season deep dive into ancient werewolf mythology from thousands of years ago. We'll take a look at the pre-Christian origins of the werewolf myth and its connections to death, starvation, cannibalism, and transformation.

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We’ve covered werewolves in the ancient world before—and their connection to the Berserker myth. But wait til you hear what happened to werewolf mythology when the Catholics got their hands on it.

This episode is a wild ride, taking you from the ancient Greek and Roman werewolves to a Medieval monster tied to the mysteries of serial killing, mental illness, domestic abuse, and the paranoia of the Witch Trials. It turns out Catholic werewolves stalked a very dark, very violent landscape—and we are just itching to explore it. Join us.

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In 1942, a forest ranger was hiking on an isolated trail deep in the Himalayas. Rising over 16,000 feet in elevation, he climbed a ridge that looked down a steep-sided funnel of ice and boulders. At the bottom was a small, perfectly circular glacial lake, frozen in a solid blue lens.

And there, strewn about the icy, rocky beach, lay skeletons. Hundreds of skeletons.

Nobody knew whose bones they were. Theories and folklore would proliferate over the years, but the mystery would remain—and the more scientists found out about Skeleton Lake, the more the mystery deepened.

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Men aren’t the only ones who think about the Roman Empire (Or the Roman Republic!) all the time. We do too–and so does Dr. Emma Southon, creator of the History is Sexy podcast and author of many fascinating, women-centered books on ancient Rome. 

Her most recent book, a Rome of One’s Own—the Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire, tells the story of 21 fascinating women often overlooked by history–who nevertheless played a huge role in shaping ancient Rome. These women are rebels, empresses, lovers, firebrands, entrepreneurs, sex workers, whistleblowers, and survivors–and through their stories, we can see this period in history in a whole new light.

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This file contains the first three episodes of our Spartacus series. You'll learn about the conditions in Italy that gave rise to the Third Servile War; how Spartacus rebelled and the pressures he was under in holding together a disparate crowd of rebels with differing priorities. It's a riveting tale that's sure to keep you hooked.

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This is an episode about the shock troops of Viking Armies—the most violent, the most terrifying, the men who ran out ahead of the army to shatter shield walls and break the minds of the enemy. There are accounts of great acts of heroism and self sacrifice among them in the ancient histories—but they were also on the margins of society, mistrusted and despised even by their own side. Why is that? And what drugs were these guys on, exactly? 

What is truth, and what is fiction? What can we uncover about these men (and every once in a while, a woman) who were said to be so terrifyingly transformed? Today’s subject is that most terrifying enigma of the ancient world: Berserkers on the Battlefield.

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Most accounts of Caesar's life start later on--such as during his time in Gaul or crossing the Rubicon. But his early life was just as fascinating; maybe even more so.

This is the Caesar who stood up to Sulla and refused to divorce his wife. The Caesar who made an early career of prosecuting corrupt governors to cement his cred as a populist--even as it made him powerful enemies. The Caesar who, when kidnapped by pirates, demanded they raise his ransom and spent his time in captivity hanging out on the beach and reading them bad poetry.

It's a fun, lighthearted introduction to Caesar's life before it takes its dark turn. We hope you enjoy.

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We'll be back October 5. In the meantime please enjoy this episode from our vault about another ancient natural disaster--and the trauma it inflicted on a people.

High in the mountains of eastern Crete, there’s a secret that has been kept since the 1200s BC. It’s the secret of the strange and still-unexplained 80+ ancient villages hidden in the Cretan mountains that may have been the last refuges of the Minoan people.

The ancient Minoans were master seafarers. But sometime between the 1200s and the 1000s BC, they abandoned their coastal villages, their palaces, their fertile farmlands, their trade routes—and simply withdrew from the world.

Today, we’re going to look at where they went—and why.

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We'll be back October 5. In the meantime please enjoy this episode from our vault about another ancient plague--the Plague of Athens--and one of its most esteemed survivors.

Long-term partner of a leading Athenian statesman, darling of the philosophical set, survivor of the plague of Athens—she threw her own parties, and they were the best parties ever thrown within a hundred-mile radius of Athens. No one has done better since. Her name was Aspasia.

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We're taking a very brief hiatus this time--just until October 5. In the meantime, tune in to hear us talk rivers of pus, transformed worlds, and all things volcanoes--as well as our plans for the upcoming season.

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You’ve been transported almost 2,000 years into the past, to the streets of Pompeii. It’s a brisk autumn morning, around, oh…10 AM…and all hell is about to break loose. What's your next move?

You could live through it, maybe. If you were lucky. And made all the right choices. At exactly the right time. The actions you take in these first moments could make the difference between life and death.

Yes, this is Ancient History Fangirl – could you survive a volcano – Choose Your Own Adventure edition!

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Cultures on every continent have flood myths, and China is no exception. One of China’s founding myths is one about a singular hero, Yu the Great, and his brilliant works of water engineering that tamed a deadly flood—roughly four thousand years ago.

But did this great flood really occur? Was there really a Yu, or someone like him? Join us as we delve into the Bronze-age civilizations of ancient China, the history of its legendary rivers, and an ancient flood that could have been The Big One.

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Off the coast of Israel there is an underwater megalithic stone circle dating back to the 7000s BC – that is perfectly preserved, keeping its secrets from another time.

This is the story of a prehistoric city (well, village) off the coast of Israel. Thousands of years ago, it sank beneath the waves. Its discovery was revolutionary and changed what we thought about the people who lived in this area during the stone age.

Today, we’re going to dive into the past, to a time when the Mediterranean rose up and sunk a city – and froze a time, a people, and a way of life in place. 

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This is an episode about a plague that killed up to 100 million people by the time it was done—as many as 60% of its victims. It’s the first documented occurrence of a pandemic that we have, and it’s the first documented outbreak of the deadlyYersinia pestis. No, we're not talking about the Black Death of Medieval Europe. We're talking about the Plague of Justinian.

The Plague of Justinian was just one part of the fallout of the global volcanic eruption of 536 AD. Three eyewitness accounts have survived--and, in the grand tradition of this podcast, we decided to read them to you whilst Yule-level drunk. Buckle up. It is a wild, plague-tastic ride.

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What was the worst year to be alive? Some researchers have a very specific answer to this question: 536 AD. 

This is a year when the global temperature dropped, and it was winter all year round—for multiple years. The sun disappeared for 18 months as the world was covered in a veil of sulfuric dust. Crops failed. People starved, and fell to eating each other and warring over scarce resources. From China to Mexico, thriving civilizations collapsed.

And the culprit? A volcano. Or maybe multiple volcanoes. But which ones are still a mystery. This is a historical mass murder, and it’s still unsolved.  

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Imagine a desert stretching over 1,500 miles along the Peruvian coastline, between the high Andes to the east and the vast Pacific coastline to the west. A place of brilliant colors and contradictions. This is the driest desert in the world. Astronauts use it to simulate conditions on Mars.

This is the home of the Nazca Lines: huge, beautifully made 2,000-year-old geoglyphs, visible only from the sky. Some are elaborate images of animals, plants, and people. Others are perfectly straight lines that stretch for miles in the empty desert. 

What were they for? What did they mean? Their story–and the story of the people who made them–is so much more than it seems.

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Teotihuacan is an ancient pre-Colombian city in central America, founded two thousand years ago. It’s the home of some of the most iconic Mesoamerican monuments in existence, including the Pyramids of the Moon and Sun.

The city was abandoned after about 750 years of habitation. When the Aztecs first encountered it, it had stood empty for 600 years. Walking through the empty ruin, they marveled at the towering pyramids, the incredible murals, the enormous palaces—and wondered where the people had gone. They thought these people must have become gods.

This city has something for everyone: mysterious skeletons. Volcanoes. An eating of the rich. And so many mysteries, it’s hard to pick just one.

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Deep in the western Sahara—in perhaps one of the driest parts of the driest desert in the world—there are cave paintings that depict people swimming. These cave paintings date to 10,000 years ago. Back then, there would have been plenty of water to swim in. It was a time when the Sahara was green.

Join us as we pull back the curtain on a tantalizing time when the Sahara was a wetland paradise, with enormous megalakes, vast networks of wild rivers, and people who created stunning rock art, built complex megalithic structures, mummified their dead—and whose beliefs and culture may have formed the foundation of ancient Egyptian civilization.

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Crater Lake is a caldera lake in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon—the remnants of an ancient volcanic eruption. It’s the deepest lake in the country and one of the deepest in the world. And this place is steeped in lore: unexplained events, murders and suicides, disappearances and hauntings, and a strange 200-year-old floating log that probably controls the weather.

But the history of this lake goes back even farther: to the volcanic eruption that created it 7,700 years ago. People were there to witness that event—and its memory is preserved, both in archaeology and an ancient mythological tradition that describes the eruption with scientific precision.

Join us as we plumb the depths of Crater Lake.

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Mammoths existed on our planet for roughly five million years, and they were perfectly adapted to the ice age world they inhabited. So perfectly adapted that when the last ice age ended, so did they. No woolly mammoths have walked the earth for the last 10,000 years. Or did they?

It turns out that the last mammoths didn’t disappear 10,000 years ago. For thousands of years after their extinction in the rest of the world, a small population still lived on a remote island in the Arctic called Wrangel Island. And in their last days? In the end times? Things got weird.

This is a story about a natural disaster that happened—to mammoths. Let’s dig in.

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Ten thousand years ago, there was no North Sea. Instead, there was a vast landscape that connected the UK and Ireland to the rest of Europe. Archaeologists call it Doggerland.

This was a Mesolithic paradise. A great biodiversity hotspot where we had all the food and raw materials we could ask for within arm’s reach—an immense forest and wetland paradise as big as a second France. It was the beating heart of Mesolithic Europe.

But nothing good can ever stay. By some accounts, Doggerland was drowning from the day it was born. But its final end came in a single, cataclysmic day.

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The story of The Ten Plagues of Egypt is important in both Jewish and Christian mythology. It’s a dark, haunting tale that features a capricious God meting out increasingly terrible punishments on the Egyptian people for their Pharaoh’s refusal to release the Israelites from slavery.

But that’s not all there is to this story. It’s also a Bronze Age narrative that may be based on an ancient psychic trauma. Just what was that trauma? And could the cruel, unpredictable behavior of the God of the Old Testament be a clue?

Join us as we try to get to the bottom of it.

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In this episode, we return to the beach at Actium with author, historian, and academic Barry Strauss as our tour guide. His new book, The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium, discusses the infamous sea battle Marc Antony and Cleopatra fought against Octavian and Agrippa for love, for supremacy, for their very survival.

Join us as we deconstruct this battle, paint a vivid picture of ancient war at sea, and tackle the one question everyone’s asking: why did Cleopatra flee the battlefield?

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In the second installment of our Cleopatra x King Herod arc, the slow-motion train wreck continues. Herod makes increasingly ill-advised decisions as schemes and intrigue simmer around him. Meanwhile, Cleopatra influences things from afar, empowering Herod's enemies and relatives (who are frequently one and the same). 

Find out how it all went down when their feud reached the boiling point. 

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In our episode Cleopatra x Marc Antony: Lovers in a Dangerous Time (Part 3), we alluded to a story about King Herod (yes, that King Herod) and Cleopatra—and an epic feud between them. We didn’t have time to go into that story in the bigger arc on Cleopatra and Marc Antony, but we thought it was a perfect topic for a minisode. 

Unlike Cleopatra and Marc Antony, Cleopatra and Herod hated each other. And not in a sexy-belligerent-sexual-tension way. They were intractable enemies—and it ultimately led to Cleopatra’s downfall. 

This is the first Ancient History Fangirl mini-arc--a two-episode series about two colossal personalities from the ancient world--and what happened when their interests collided.

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After the disaster at Actium, Marc Antony's entire army--100,000 strong--surrendered to Octavian. Marc Antony and Cleopatra fled to Alexandria to negotiate the terms of their defeat.

Those were dark, foreboding days. Friends and allies fled the palace. Marc Antony fell into a deep depression, while Cleopatra searched desperately for a way out--one that would keep her kingdom intact and her children alive.

But the reckoning was coming.

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As Marc Antony and Cleopatra lived and loved in Alexandria, Octavian whipped up a toxic garbage fire of racism, misogyny, and xenophobia in Rome--and then declared war. Not against Marc Antony, but against Cleopatra.

Soon, the lovers would be forced to defend their home, their family, and their life together on the shores of the Ambracian Gulf. Find out how it all went down--at a town called Actium.

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Many of us have preconceived notions about what the Illiad was like. Prepare to have those notions blown away.

In this episode, debut author Maya Deane methodically strips away the lenses of the Victorian era, Classical Greece, and the modern day to reveal an Illiad that’s older and darker and weirder than any of us could ever have dreamed.

This is the Illiad of your darkest and deepest imaginings, an Illiad like you’ve never seen before—but somehow always knew existed. It’s the Illiad of Wrath Goddess Sing—a novel about transgender Achilles and the love of found family in a Bronze Age world as deadly as it is beguiling.

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After four years of marriage with Octavia, Marc Antony followed Cleopatra to Alexandria—and settled into life there. He oversaw festivals and athletic contests, cheered Cleopatra on as she ruled Egypt, and showered her and their children with honors and territories.

For all intents and purposes, he was the consort of Egypt’s beloved Pharaoh, the father of her children—and he was home.

But the propaganda war between Antony and Octavian was building to a fever pitch in Rome, even as the Parthians loomed threateningly in the distance. Soon Antony would be called to war—and face the biggest battlefield test of his career.

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When Cleopatra and Marc Antony met by the River Tarsus, Antony was smitten. And when Cleopatra went back to Alexandria, he forgot about invading Parthia and followed her home.

The two then spent a magical few months in Alexandria, where they threw each other lavish banquets, made bets and compacts, played ridiculous practical jokes on each other and the public--and fell in love.

But nothing good can ever stay. The real world came knocking, and soon Marc Antony was forced to choose between his heart in Alexandria and his future in Rome.

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Shakespeare wrote about them. Hollywood glamorized them. For thousands of years, they've come down to us as the ultimate star-crossed lovers: the Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra, and the Roman commander Marc Antony.

In the wake of Caesar's death, Cleopatra fled to Egypt--and began picking up the pieces. Meanwhile, Marc Antony defeated Caesar's assassins in battle, and then set his sights on invading Parthia.

But to invade Parthia, he needed the money and support of Rome's richest client ruler: Cleopatra. And Cleopatra had an agenda, too: she needed another Roman protector to shore up her power in Egypt.

Find out what happened when these two met on the banks of the River Tarsus.

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When Cleopatra met Julius Caesar, sparks flew. The daring Egyptian queen beguiled the conquering Roman general—and then enlisted him to fight her battles.

Outnumbered five to one in a city full of ancient wonders, Cleopatra and Caesar spent the next ten months barricaded in a luxurious palace while outside, the enemy howled for their blood--fighting a deadly urban war for Cleopatra's throne and both of their survival.

Get ad-free episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/ancienthistoryfangirl

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When Julius Caesar arrived in Egypt, he walked into a civil war between the country’s new co-rulers: Ptolemy XIII and his sister Cleopatra.

The romance between Caesar and Cleopatra is one of the most epic of ancient times. But we can’t tell you that story until you understand who Cleopatra was. And to understand Cleopatra, you have to understand the political element in which she swam.

In this episode, we take you from the cutthroat intrigue of the Ptolemaic court to the volatile streets of Alexandria—and from Cleopatra’s early life to the events that led her to take an extreme gamble and team up with the man who’d just conquered Rome.

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It's the end of our Women of Myth season, and wow, has it been a whirlwind! We had a blast on this season and we hope you did too.

We'll be back July 6 with a brand-new season--one that's all about ancient history and returns to our roots. Listen in to hear some behind the scenes info, and all about our plans for the coming few months and the season beyond.

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Feminism in Lord of the Rings: let’s discuss. How were women depicted in the famous trilogy, and how has that depiction changed from the books to the movies and then to the Rings of Power TV show? Join us and Liv Albert from Let’s Talk About Myths Baby! for a very serious, very scholarly contemplation of women and feminism in Lord of the Rings.

LOL just kidding. Mainly this episode involves Jenny shrieking about Hot Sauron, Genn getting drunkenly aggressive in Lord of the Rings trivia, and Liv reciting huge swaths of Fellowship from memory. Scholarship is low, ridiculousness is high, and Liv may in fact be the One LOTR Nerd to Rule Them All. You’ve been warned.

(Spoilers abound for Rings of Power. Now you’ve been doubly warned.)

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We’re joined today by YA romance author and Tiktok star Bea Fitzgerald, who brings Greek mythology to life on her Tiktok channel Chaos on Olympus.

In this conversation, we talk about the female goddesses, monsters and heroines of Greek mythology: what makes them tick, which ones are the most fun to skewer in bite-sized video format, and the surprising queer romance hiding in monster mythology.

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Our guest Jasmine Elmer has been an educator in the classics for decades—through educational charity work, as a TV presenter and through her podcast, Legit Classics. She is passionate about making the classics accessible to all—and the new and important perspectives brought to the field by scholars of diverse nontraditional backgrounds. 

This week, we discuss how to make the ancient world more accessible to everyone, of all backgrounds—as well as Jasmine’s own upcoming book on women in world mythology, and what made us all fall in love with the ancient world.

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Join us as we get acquainted with the women of the Mabinogion.

Check out MythsnTits: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MariCatrinPhillips

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Join us as we take a deep dive into the story of Atalanta: a gender rebel and sexually liberated heroine who—maybe—peels back the curtain on what life was like for women on the margins, living pre-agrarian lifestyles outside of the traditional gender roles established by the scholars and writers of Classical Greece.

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Join us for a wide-ranging discussion where we talk about the most fearsome feminine monsters of Caribbean legend and African diaspora religion, as well as the bad girls of the Bible—including everybody’s favorite patriarchy-smashing rebel of Jewish lore, Lilith.

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Many were written at the behest of Spanish priests, and come to us through a Spanish lens. But some were written in secret, by Aztecs and for Aztecs, with no Spanish involvement at all. Long ignored by historians, these documents provide us with what is perhaps the most authentic history of the Aztec people in their own voice.

Today, we’re joined by Camilla Townsend, a leading scholar on the history and translation of these important documents. She is professor of history at Rutgers University specializing in Native American and indigenous history in the United States and Latin America, and author of the award-winning book The Fifth Sun: a New History of the Aztecs.

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But first and foremost, the Morrigan was a goddess of war. And to understand her, you have to understand her battlefield. Join us as we get to know the Morrigan—and explore the bloody waters in which she swam.

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Much is mysterious about Urduja--including whether her kingdom ever existed. However, her story has become so compelling over the centuries that today she is considered a national heroine of the Philippines. This week, we're joined by Agas Ramirez of HERstory: Southeast Asia to discuss the history and mythology surrounding this fascinating woman--and the tradition of female rulers and warriors in southeast Asia.

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Ancient depictions of this myth don’t always show Perseus as the hero. And there’s evidence that gorgons originally had a protective role in Greek iconography. In this episode, Natalie Haynes—bestselling author of Stone Blind—guides us in retracing the clues the ancients left us to reclaim our Gorgon Girl. 

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Join us for a wild conversation that will break down all your preconceptions about Norse mythology, its ancient roots and hidden goddesses, and women’s place and power in ancient pre-Christian Nordic cultures.

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Nikita’s poetry is haunting, fiercely feminist, and filled with insight and heartbreak. Join us for a conversation about the women of Hindu and Greek mythology, the feminist themes in both, and which “monsters” we identify with most. 

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We picked three entries to share, from three different areas of the world. These women are so fascinating and awesome that we're sure you'll love them as much as we did.

We hope you enjoy!

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Join us as we take you behind the scenes to discuss what it was like illustrating these incredible characters; which women of myth Sara felt the strongest connection to; Sara and Jenny's shared love of SKULLS and historic graveyards; and what's in Sara's Cabinet of Curiosities.

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The Spartacus of the First Servile War--a man named Eunus--was a worshipper of Atargatis, an ancient goddess of the sea often depicted as a mermaid.

Atargatis was one of the most important goddesses of ancient Syria--with roots that went all the way back to the Bronze Age. Her temple in Hierapolis had a lake hundreds of fathoms deep, filled with fantastical fishes, and a bejewelled statue of the goddess whose eyes followed your every movement.

But in Rome, Atargatis' religion was one of underdogs, foreigners, and the marginalized--much like the religion of Dionysus. And, like the cult of Dionysus, it threatened the Roman status quo. 

Find out what made this Syrian mermaid goddess so phenomenal, powerful, and dangerous to the Roman aristocracy.

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Today we try to answer the age-old question: which Southeast Asian country has the creepiest female monsters? Is it the Philippines, home of the bone-chilling manananggal? Or maybe Japan, home of the terrifying kuchisake-onna of urban legend? What about those nightmare-inducing Shadow People who always seem to be creeping around? Or perhaps the most fearsome monsters of all are the real-life female serial killers who walk among us?

Join us as we try to get to the bottom of it all.

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Listen in as we talk about our favorite Women of Myth from around the world with Liv Albert from Let's Talk About Myths, Baby!

Our book is about epic women in mythology from around the world. We cover a diverse range of cultures, from Greek and Roman mythology to important figures from regions such as Africa and African Diaspora countries, the Pacific Islands, Asia and the Middle East, indigenous cultures from North, South, and Central America; and more.  

We cannot wait to share these tales with you. Preorder here! https://linktr.ee/ancienthistoryfangirl

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We'll be plunging right into our next season the week after this drops--no break this time. Listen in to hear our thoughts about the previous season and our plans for the future. Thank you so much for coming on this journey with us?

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This is the home of the Nazca Lines: huge, beautifully made 2,000-year-old geoglyphs, visible only from the sky. Some are elaborate images of animals, plants, and people. Others are perfectly straight lines that stretch for miles in the empty desert. 

What were they for? What did they mean? Their story–and the story of the people who made them–is so much more than it seems.

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Human sacrifices, spindles in yer vag, plague, starvation, caves of offerings and bones, the Grimms brothers, golden showers, child cannibalism, ZOMBIES – are any of these putting you in the Yuletide spirit? They should. Because we’re about to share with you the story of a very Frau Holle Christmas.

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The city was abandoned after about 750 years of habitation. When the Aztecs first encountered it, it had stood empty for 600 years. Walking through the empty ruin, they marveled at the towering pyramids, the incredible murals, the enormous palaces—and wondered where the people had gone. They thought these people must have become gods.

This city has something for everyone: mysterious skeletons. Volcanoes. An eating of the rich. And so many mysteries, it’s hard to pick just one.

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There were no kings at Mohenjo Daro, no priests and few signs of organized religion. There are few if any signs of war, slavery, wealth inequality or violence. There was a very high standard of living for its time, including indoor flushing toilets in every home.

But they don’t call it “Mound of the Dead Men” for nothing. It turns out this peaceful, utopian ancient city has a gruesome secret…

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The place they got it all from was the Land of Punt—known to the Egyptians as the Land of the Gods. The Egyptians described just about everything about it, except how to get there.

Was Punt in Africa? Was it in Arabia? Was it an island in the far-flung Indian Ocean? Or did it ever exist at all? Today, we try to unravel the mystery.

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What did the people of Skara Brae get up to when the lights were out? Why did they build their village so that you had to go through your neighbors’ houses to get to your own? How many people were sleeping in a bed again? Was this in fact a sex cult??

In this episode, we try to get to the bottom of it.

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Nobody knows what the original name of this city was. But there was a time when everybody knew its name—from the Great Lakes to the Eastern Seaboard, and from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. What was that name, and why was it lost to time and memory? That’s just one of the many mysteries of Cahokia.

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But what if we told you that there is an archaeological site 10,000 years old whose shocking discovery did indeed require archaeologists to change the way they interpreted history? It’s like if the Sphinx really did turn out to be really 10,000 years old, except it’s not the Sphinx, and it’s not in Egypt. It’s in Turkey. It’s called Gobekli Tepe.

Join us as we explore a wild, weird world of decapitated megaliths, menacing animals in high relief, gardens of megapeens, and a lost culture far closer to the last Ice Age than they are to us.

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Today, we're hosting two episodes from History Daily, both about famous pirates from the Golden Age of Piracy!

First up: The arrest of famous pirate captain William Kidd ends the reign of plunder of one of history's most infamous pirates and sparks rumors of buried treasure. And second: The trials of notorious pirates Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and John Rackham begin in Spanish Town, Jamaica.

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Was it easier to be a serial killer in ancient Greece and Rome? Could they find victims more easily and operate more anonymously than they can today? Were there roles and professions that gave cover to those born with an urge to kill? Were the streets of Rome and the hills of Greece a playground for serial killers?

In this episode, author and expert Debbie Felton helps us answer those questions. 

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A Somethin’ Else & Sony Music Entertainment production. 

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 The forest is over a thousand years old. It grew over lava floes laid down in a devastating volcanic eruption on the slopes of Mt. Fuji, a holy mountain believed to be a gateway to the spirit world. Perhaps this is why it’s said to be the birthplace of the Yurei—a ghost in Japanese folklore created out of deep trauma. 

It’s no wonder Aokigahara is associated with death. But the forest is also filled with life and incredible natural wonders. Join us as we explore the haunting history and folklore of Aokigahara.

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Join us as we explore both mythology and history to uncover a forgotten world of clandestine magic, primarily wielded by women.

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And there, strewn about the icy, rocky beach, lay skeletons. Hundreds of skeletons.

Nobody knew whose bones they were. Theories and folklore would proliferate over the years, but the mystery would remain—and the more scientists found out about Skeleton Lake, the more the mystery deepened.

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Just what were the ancients seeing in the sea, anyway? In this episode, ancient sea monster expert Ryan Denson helps us unpack it all.

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The ancient Minoans were master seafarers. But sometime between the 1200s and the 1000s BC, they abandoned their coastal villages, their palaces, their fertile farmlands, their trade routes—and simply withdrew from the world.

Today, we’re going to look at where they went—and why.

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Join us as we explore this wild theory that completely explodes the prevailing wisdom, and asserts that the Sphinx is in fact 10,000 years old—or maybe even more.

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Hadrian’s Wall is a jaw-dropping engineering achievement stretching 73 miles across hundred-foot-high escarpments and rushing rivers, its earthworks dug deep into unforgiving igneous bedrock. From its walls, Roman and auxiliary soldiers had a unique view of the fall of the Empire.

We visited Hadrian's Wall this May, and are currently releasing videos on our Patreon that we filmed during our visit. Don't miss out!

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The story of Boudicca’s revolt is as epic as you can get. It’s got murder and pillage, Romans behaving badly, cities on fire, and a layer of destruction that was scorched into the earth. But it's also the story of a people on a precipice of great change.

Who was Boudicca? Who was this iron-age warrior queen who stood up to the Romans—and whose name was so revered and feared that stories of her are still being spun almost 2,000 years later? In these episodes, we’re going to find out.

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We've assembled here some of our favorite episodes dealing with Celtic myths and legends: including the Hound of Ulster, the Morrigan, and The Pictish Beast: What Is It?

Join us for a lighthearted, high-energy and very bingeable series that will put you in a good mood this summer.

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This file contains the first three episodes of our Spartacus series. You'll learn about the conditions in Italy that gave rise to the Third Servile War; how Spartacus rebelled and the pressures he was under in holding together a disparate crowd of rebels with differing priorities. It's a riveting tale that's sure to keep you hooked.

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This is the story of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object: Julius Caesar bringing the might of the Roman military machine to bear against a proud warrior culture that had existed for centuries.

Most accounts of Julius Caesar in Gaul focus on the Battle of Alesia. We broaden our scope, centering the Gauls, their culture and the increasingly terrible trade-offs Vercingetorix had to make to keep his people alive.

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Most accounts of Caesar's life start later on--such as during his time in Gaul or crossing the Rubicon. But his early life was just as fascinating; maybe even more so.

This is the Caesar who stood up to Sulla and refused to divorce his wife. The Caesar who made an early career of prosecuting corrupt governors to cement his cred as a populist--even as it made him powerful enemies. The Caesar who, when kidnapped by pirates, demanded they raise his ransom and spent his time in captivity hanging out on the beach and reading them bad poetry.

It's a fun, lighthearted introduction to Caesar's life before it takes its dark turn. We hope you enjoy.

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This series has everything: love, war, violence, betrayal, Marc Antony barfing everywhere, and Cleopatra being extremely glamorous at all times. If you've listened to our interview with Barry Strauss on the Battle of Actium, you may be in the mood to dive into this story--or revisit it.

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Some of you may be here because you saw our presentation on Transgender Aphrodite at Intelligent Speech. If so, welcome! We thought we'd put together our first long file all about the goddess so you can learn more about Aphrodite--how she was worshipped in the ancient world, the. main mythology about her, and our original deep dive into transgender Aphrodite.

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It's been a wonderful, weird, challenging, and heartbreaking season, for many different reasons. Find out what went on behind the scenes, and what we've got planned for the future.

We'll be back September 22. Have a great summer!

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Atalanta was an avatar of an older, wilder time, created in the image of an ancient Artemis—goddess of the fields and forests who had a strong association with bears. Perhaps Atalanta represents an older image of that goddess before Classical Athens got its hands on her.

Join us as we take a deep dive into the story of Atalanta: a gender rebel and sexually liberated heroine who—maybe—peels back the curtain on what life was like for women on the margins, living pre-agrarian lifestyles outside of the traditional gender roles established by the scholars and writers of Classical Greece.

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 Perhaps it’s a fierce huntress with a bow and arrow, a sort of female Peter Pan—wild and untamed, haunting forests drenched in moonlight—a goddess who’s taken a stern vow of chastity, and refuses all company save that of her nymphs.

That’s one version of Artemis—the Classical version. But there’s an older, wilder version that pulls back the curtain on a more ancient way of life in Greece. Join us as we explore who Artemis was, how she was worshipped, and how she evolved into a goddess who fit into the Classical Athenian idea of what an ‘eternal maiden’ should look like.

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In this episode, we return to the beach at Actium with author, historian, and academic Barry Strauss as our tour guide. His new book, The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium, discusses the infamous sea battle Marc Antony and Cleopatra fought against Octavian and Agrippa for love, for supremacy, for their very survival.

Join us as we deconstruct this battle, paint a vivid picture of ancient war at sea, and tackle the one question everyone’s asking: why did Cleopatra flee the battlefield?

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Well, not exactly. There’s this one story that tells of how, when Athena was young, she had a very intense relationship with another girl named Pallas—perhaps the only person Athena ever truly loved. This is their story.

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Get ready for a fun, gender-bending episode that completely overturns the ancient Greek binary.

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In this episode, debut author Maya Deane methodically strips away the lenses of the Victorian era, Classical Greece, and the modern day to reveal an Illiad that’s older and darker and weirder than any of us could ever have dreamed.

This is the Illiad of your darkest and deepest imaginings, an Illiad like you’ve never seen before—but somehow always knew existed. It’s the Illiad of Wrath Goddess Sing—a novel about transgender Achilles and the love of found family in a Bronze Age world as deadly as it is beguiling.

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Zeus and Ganymede were not gender rebels. In fact, they set the standard for the erastes-eromenos binary of the time. This story was used to send the message that the gods approved of pederastic practices that were widespread in ancient Greece and Rome.

It’s a dark story, but it’s an important one. Join us as we drag it out into the light.

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In this episode, we’re joined by feminist Biblical scholar and author Princess O’Nika Auguste to discuss the history of abortion in ancient Greece and Rome, as well as in Biblical times.

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It deals with the miracle plant of ancient Greece and Rome: Silphium. The people of Cyrene printed it on their money. It was considered a delicacy throughout the Greek and Roman world, as well as a powerful medicine that could be used to cure everything from baldness to epilepsy to poisonings.

And it may have even functioned as a contraceptive--and an abortifacent.

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In this re-release, Kate from the Exploress podcast joined us to discuss the intimate lives of sex workers in ancient Greece and Rome--including methods of contraception and abortion. Pliny the Elder interviewed sex workers to get the lowdown on how they dealt with unwanted pregnancies (but we suspect the ladies were having him on).

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On the streets of Pompeii, freedom came at a steep price--especially for women. Today, we talk to Elodie Harper--bestselling author of the Wolf Den and the House with the Golden Door--about enslaved people, freedwomen, and glamorous sex workers whose lives were far more precarious than they seemed.

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Abortion is a totally normal procedure that people have been doing for millennia--probably for as long as people could get pregnant, they've been trying to end their pregnancies. We have several episodes that discuss abortion, and in the next few weeks, we’ll be re-releasing those on our main feed twice a week. The series will conclude with a brand-new episode with a Caribbean feminist scholar, discussing the history of abortion in ancient Greece and Rome as well as the Bible.

So tune in to our main feed to hear the re-released episodes. We'll return to our regularly scheduled series on gender rebels on June 2.

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In this episode, bestselling author Jennifer Saint introduces us to Clytemnestra and Elektra--Agamemnon's wife and daughter--as well as the priestess and prophetess Cassandra, and the murderous curse that casts a shadow over their fates.

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As the Trojan War dragged on, the most respect went to those who were able to slaughter and pillage and plunder: gender for men devolved into “Smash and Grab” masculinity. Meanwhile, gender for women became “Gender as Property”—in the most explicit terms.

It's in this toxic wasteland that Achilles’ feud with Agamemnon rose to a fever pitch—over a woman called Briseis.

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Achilles left Pyrrha behind, but his time as a dancing girl followed him to that beach. This is where the wind stalled. This is where Achilles first clashed with that titan of fragile masculinity, Agamemnon. And this is where a girl named Iphigenia met her fate.

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We’ll also delve into his relationships with the women in his early life: his mom, Thetis, and a girl named Deidameia. 

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There are plenty of queer myths that break the binary as the ancient Greeks saw it—and heroes and gods who were gender rebels. Sometimes those gender rebels aren’t who you’d expect—and who they’re usually portrayed to be. That’s what this episode is all about.

Join us as we explore the mythology of a genderqueer Achilles and the man who loved him.

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But as Spartan control in Greece receded, opportunistic warlords and upstart city-states rose up to take advantage of a power vacuum. One of their most dangerous new opponents was a man named Philip of Macedon—and his 18-year-old son, Alexander.

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The Thebans had their city back. Now they had to figure out how to hold it against the Spartans, because the Spartans would strike back. Their solution was to form an elite 300-man fighting force to counter the dreaded Spartan hippeis—held together by the bonds of love. 

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Their love for each other was the key to their strength. It made them better fighters. More effective. It made them strong enough to break the iron-fisted control of oppressive regimes. This is their incredible story.

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Today, we're going to take a deep dive into their lives and circumstances.

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Today, we’re going to take a look at the history of people who underwent castration in the Roman Empire—why they did it, when they did and didn’t have a choice, and what their lives were like.

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But the ancient Romans saw Intersex people as imbued with a specific kind of magic associated with frightening signs and portents—and that made it dangerous to be Intersex in the ancient world.

Join us as we explore the lives of Intersex people in ancient Greece and Rome.

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It's a common belief that being trans is somehow a "modern" invention and there were no trans people in the ancient world. But nothing could be further from the truth.

From the trans women who led the worship of an influential state cult to the trans guys who lived right under the noses of Greek and Roman society, transgender people were gender rebels in an extremely patriarchal culture. Join us as we explore their lives and experience.

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Because how could we do a season about sex and sex magic without talking about the magical provenance of those who fell outside the accepted binary?

Women who loved other women were gender rebels in the ancient world. They challenged the gender binary in some of the most basic and fundamental ways—ways that the ancient Greeks and Romans found profoundly destabilizing.

Join us as we find out why.

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But what has come down to us about the life and times of Sappho?

Like her poetry, our picture of Sappho's life is very fragmentary. This week, we team up with Leesa Charlotte from Sweetbitter to try piecing the puzzle together.

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Janus may not be very well-known. But in his time, he was considered one of the most important gods—perhaps more important than Jupiter himself. Today, we’re going to tell you all about him.

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And some of you might be saying: wait a minute, Krampus isn’t ancient; he’s modern. Also, everyone knows about Krampus, the festive demon of Christmas. Why are you covering this well-trodden topic?

Wait until you hear the wild things we uncovered about him and his history, and then make your judgements about how old and well-trodden this topic is.

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In this episode, we team up with Kate the Exploress to delve into the most intimate aspects of daily life for sex workers in ancient Greece and Rome, including the most powerful sex magic of all: the blood magic of periods.

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Ancient writers tell us of mystery cults that worshipped Aphrodite as a transgender woman--or perhaps as nonbinary or intersex. And when you delve into her most ancient roots, there’s an even older tradition of worship led by transgender priestesses.

Join us as we uncover the historical and mythological evidence for a transgender Aphrodite.

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In this episode, we’ll examine the stories told about Aphrodite--and what they reveal about how the Ancient Greeks felt about women, love, lust, and relationships. 

Join us for a mythology-packed episode that will demystify the goddess of love.

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Join us as we explore how Aphrodite was worshipped in ancient Greece, the goddess's history and ancient roots, and how the Romans transformed her into Venus.

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This game immerses you immediately in Ancient Greece--and provides loads of historically accurate settings from the world we've been exploring this season: the symposia of Athens, the pleasures of Corinth, the Peloponnesian War and exactly who's responsible, and the mysteries of Crete and other Greek islands.

Come join us on a tour of Ancient Greece as Assassin's Creed Odyssey sees it. You may even meet some old friends. Warning: Spoilers abound.

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Join us for a spooky-season deep dive into ancient werewolf mythology from thousands of years ago. We'll take a look at the pre-Christian origins of the werewolf myth and its connections to death, starvation, cannibalism, and transformation. 

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The Ancient Greeks did ghost stories...a little differently. This week, we team up with Liv Albert from Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby! to bring you three ghostly tales from ancient Greece that will send a shiver down your spine.

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Today, we’ve invited Elodie on the show to talk about the realities of sex workers’ lives in the Wolf Den—and how sex work was practiced in Pompeii near the time of the Vesuvius eruption.

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Long-term partner of a leading Athenian statesman, darling of the philosophical set, survivor of the plague of Athens—she threw her own parties, and they were the best parties ever thrown within a hundred-mile radius of Athens. No one has done better since. Her name was Aspasia.

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Now, we’re going to tell you about the lives of some of ancient Greece’s most famous Hetaerae.

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Join us as we attend a symposium with the fast set of Ancient Athens. We’re going to hang out with the hetaerae, drink our faces off, flirt outrageously with everyone in range, and debate with the philosophers until the sun comes up.

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This is the beginning of a journey into the world of sex workers in ancient Greece. Join us as we explore what life was like for sex workers at every level of the profession—including those who didn't fit easily into these categories. 

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Close your eyes and imagine a loving family. Devoted parents and six children: three happy brothers and three happy sisters. The father, Germanicus, is a war hero—beloved by the people, and next in line for the throne. Life is good. Life is perfect.

But nothing good can ever stay. It begins with a cough—a funny turn—and suddenly the family of Germanicus is torn apart, caught in the political riptides of Imperial Rome.

This dynasty would give rise to two of Rome’s most infamous emperors and some of its most legendary women—before it ends in tragedy.

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Hippolyte and her golden belt. Penthesilea and the fall of Troy. The Daughters of Ares. Atalanta and the golden apples. They're everywhere in Greek mythology: fierce, deadly women warriors.

But in a society as male-dominated as ancient Greece, what did this obsession with strong warrior women mean? We take a look at some of the more well-known Amazon myths of ancient Greece--and the mystery of their meaning in context.

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In this episode, the epic story of the elephant of war continues. Join noted elephant adventurers King Pyrrhus of Epirus (he of the Pyrrhic victory), Julius Caesar, Hannibal Barca, and Lady Trieu of Vietnam as they stomp their enemies into submission on the ancient battlefield.

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Forget what you thought you knew about Dionysus and his cozy wine-drinking image. This is the Dionysus of Thrace. The Dionysus of Mithradates. Of Spartacus. Of revolutionaries across the classical world. This is the story of how one wandering god inspired people to rise up against injustice.

In this episode, we look at Dio's origin story, his mythography, and how his journey across the ancient world followed in the steps of winemaking.

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Think the Amazons of Greek myth were mythical? Think again. The Greeks based their Amazons on the real-life warrior women next door.

Centuries ago, ancient writers claimed that Scythian women of the Eurasian Steppe fought in battle alongside their men. Now, with modern bioarchaeology, the bones of real female warriors have emerged from their grave mounds and begun to speak to us. This is their story.

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Ancient Rome was full of rich, ambitious social climbers in a cutthroat political environment—people who had enemies to get rid of, and deep pockets to pay for the service.

Poison assassins were in high demand—and one of the most notorious was a woman named Locusta the Poisoner. Learn her story--and get a crash course on poison and poisonings in the ancient world.

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On August 24, 410 AD, Alaric and the Visigoths sacked the city of Rome. Before he sacked it, he starved it. Before that, he went toe to toe with the Roman Empire for fifteen years—uniting disparate tribes, holding a people together, and achieving more against Rome than any barbarian leader before him.

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Thank you so much for joining us on the wild ride that was Season 6. Listen in as we discuss some highlights and behind-the-scenes goings on, and find out what we've got planned for our upcoming season.

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This week, we asked bestselling urban fantasy author Ben Aaronovitch to take us on a tour of Old Londinium—say, the day before Boudicca’s arrival.

Join us as we explore the streets and rivers of this diverse and enterprising trading town, and then wander all the way up Watling Street to Hadrian’s Wall.  

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From there, Boudicca and her army set out on Watling Street, an ancient Iron-age road that led all the way to Wales—where the fires of rebellion still burned. If Boudicca could reach the Druids of Anglesey, perhaps together they could drive the Romans out of Britain for good.

But first, she would have to get through the Roman general Suetonius Paulinus.

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Years ago, the Romans had taken over their town, Camulodunum—and made it over into a veterans’ retirement colony, subjugating the Trinovantes in the process. When the opportunity came to drive the Romans out, they seized the opportunity.

But many of those living in Camulodunum were Britons themselves—some who had been enslaved, and others trying to maintain an uneasy peace with the Roman conquerors. Find out what happened when Boudicca’s army rolled into their town.

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Who was Boudicca? Who was this iron-age warrior queen who stood up to the Romans—and whose name was so revered and feared that stories of her are still being spun almost 2,000 years later? In this episode, we’re going to find out.

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At least, that’s how this episode starts.

For the past year, we’ve teamed up with Liv to bring a series of drunken myth retellings to both of our Patreon channels. We decided to bring a tipsy myth to our main feed in the second half of this episode. So settle in, pop open a beverage of choice, and get ready for a drunken retelling of Arachne.

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This week, Liv Albert from Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! joins us to talk about how Hadrian combined his obsession with architecture and his passion for all things Greek to transform the city of Athens.

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Is it an elephant? Is it a kelpie? Is it an ancient prehistoric monster the likes of which no living person has ever seen? What is it??

In this episode, Genn and Jenny spend roughly an hour debating what, exactly, the Pictish Beast might have been. We state our cases, lay out our supporting facts, get really opinionated, and knock back a few drinks along the way.

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In the centuries after Rome faded, they were the true Kings in the North—building a powerful kingdom in the northernmost highlands that lasted more than 600 years. Until, around 900 AD, they disappeared from the record. They simply vanished.

Who were the Picts—and what became of them? In this episode, we’re going to find out.

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Find out how the fall of Rome looked from the view of Hadrian's Wall--and what became of those stationed there, holding the frontiers of an empire as it swiftly crumbled around them.

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But conditions changed drastically in the decades and centuries after Hadrian died. New Emperors--Antoninus Pius, Diocletian, Septimius Severus, and others--would all leave their mark on the Wall and its territory.

This week, we’re going to talk about what became of the Wall—and those who lived there—after Hadrian’s death. 

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There's a treasure trove of archaeology at forts along the Wall--especially at Vindolanda, where fragile artifacts are perfectly preserved in deep anaerobic soil.

Find out what we've managed to piece together about life on the Wall from the well-preserved clothes, footwear, weapons, tools, jewelry, bodies, and the fort commander's private stash of mail.

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It’s the largest Roman artifact in existence, and yet we still have no idea why it was built. It’s barely mentioned in the ancient sources, but in its rise and fall, you can trace the rise and fall of Roman Britain as a whole.

 This is the epic story we’re going to tell you: the story of Hadrian’s Wall.

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Join us as we get acquainted with the women of the Mabinogion.

Check out MythsnTits: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MariCatrinPhillips

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Think of this as less of a seasonal episode, and more of a seasonal myth-busting episode. Get ready for the epic story of a bull-slaughtering, mushroom-tripping, light-bringing, Emperor-pee-drinking, hierarchy-maintaining, Smurf-hat-wearing cosmic warrior. 

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But first and foremost, the Morrigan was a goddess of war. And to understand her, you have to understand her battlefield. Join us as we get to know the Morrigan—and explore the bloody waters in which she swam.

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We decided to delve into Celtic culture, myth, and archaeology to see what we could uncover about female Druids in the ancient world.

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But eventually, the Romans followed. The Druids were driven to the island of Anglesey— the last stronghold of Druidic life and learning. From there, they incited rebellion among Welsh tribes, firing up a fierce resistance.

Until finally, standing on the last stretch of beach on the last island refuge, the Druids made a heroic final stand against the Roman invaders.

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This Halloween, Ancient History Fangirl teams up with Liv Albert from Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby! to delve into spooky stories from the ancient world that will send a shiver up your spine—tales of shrieking Banshees, deathly Furies, and the terrors of Samhain.

So spread some salt over your threshold. Settle into your favorite chair. Pour yourself a drink to take the chill from your bones. And if there’s a knock on your door, whatever you do—don’t answer it.

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Listen in as we discuss highlights of the previous season, our big plans for Season 6, and some other important developments.

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After Eunus’ death, the great Sicilian latifundia recovered. Within a few years, they were up and running again—just as strong, profitable, and cruel as before.

But just 28 years later, another major uprising—the Second Servile War—would shake that system to its core once again. Find out how it all went down.

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The Spartacus of this rebellion was a man named Eunus—a fire-breather and miracle worker whose courage inspired additional revolts throughout the Italian peninsula and beyond. This is his story.

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In this episode, we'll focus on what happened after Dionysus won his place as a god on Mount Olympus--how people worshiped him on earth, and what made him so dangerous to the Roman status quo.

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In this episode, we look at Dio's origin story, his mythography, and how his journey across the ancient world followed in the steps of winemaking.

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Those were dark, foreboding days. Friends and allies fled the palace. Marc Antony fell into a deep depression, while Cleopatra searched desperately for a way out--one that would keep her kingdom intact and her children alive.

But the reckoning was coming.

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When we scratched the surface, however, we found that the origins of Yule were older and darker and weirder than we ever imagined.

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For all intents and purposes, he was the consort of Egypt’s beloved Pharaoh, the father of her children—and he was home.

But the propaganda war between Antony and Octavian was building to a fever pitch in Rome, even as the Parthians loomed threateningly in the distance. Soon Antony would be called to war—and face the biggest battlefield test of his career.

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The two then spent a magical few months in Alexandria, where they threw each other lavish banquets, made bets and compacts, played ridiculous practical jokes on each other and the public--and fell in love.

But nothing good can ever stay. The real world came knocking, and soon Marc Antony was forced to choose between his heart in Alexandria and his future in Rome.

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This Halloween, Ancient History Fangirl teams up with Raven Forrest Fruscalzo from the Tiny Vampires podcast to explore the intriguing connection between vampires and disease.

Join us as we discuss some fascinating vampire myths from regions outside the Greco-Roman world—and the real diseases that may have given rise to these myths.

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In the wake of Caesar's death, Cleopatra fled to Egypt--and began picking up the pieces. Meanwhile, Marc Antony defeated Caesar's assassins in battle, and then set his sights on invading Parthia.

But to invade Parthia, he needed the money and support of Rome's richest client ruler: Cleopatra. And Cleopatra had an agenda, too: she needed another Roman protector to shore up her power in Egypt.

Find out what happened when these two met on the banks of the River Tarsus.

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Cleopatra had glamour and divinity and lots of money. But Fulvia had the gangs. She was a populist firebrand, military leader, and for a while, the undisputed power in Rome: both in the Senate and in the streets.

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We've got exclusive episodes up just for Patreon subscribers. For just $2 a month you can get more Fangirl episodes and support the podcast!

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But Caesar should have been more on his guard--because a secret movement to assassinate him was building steam. Find out how it all went down.

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All Caesar's barriers to power had been removed. Now there was no one to stop him from doing exactly what he wanted with the Roman Empire.

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Outnumbered five to one in a city full of ancient wonders, Cleopatra and Caesar spent the next ten months barricaded in a luxurious palace while outside, the enemy howled for their blood--fighting a deadly urban war for Cleopatra's throne and both of their survival.

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When Julius Caesar arrived in Egypt, he walked into a civil war between the country’s new co-rulers: Ptolemy XIII and his sister Cleopatra.

The romance between Caesar and Cleopatra is one of the most epic of ancient times. But we can’t tell you that story until you understand who Cleopatra was. And to understand Cleopatra, you have to understand the political element in which she swam.

In this episode, we take you from the cutthroat intrigue of the Ptolemaic court to the volatile streets of Alexandria—and from Cleopatra’s early life to the events that led her to take an extreme gamble and team up with the man who’d just conquered Rome.

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Now Caesar would face Rome's greatest general and his own greatest rival. Pompey had more experience, more troops, and more supplies, and he knew every move Caesar planned to make before he made it.

The odds were not in Caesar's favor. But that's just how he liked it.

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Caesar was backed into a corner. His only chance to survive involved taking an extreme action that he'd never be able to take back. An action that would catapult him to the pinnacle of Roman power—even as it put a price on his head.

Find out how Caesar got away with it.

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In Part 3, Vercingetorix has been in the field for less than a year--fighting Julius Caesar by burning his own towns, fields, and grain supplies to keep them out of Roman hands. And he's managed to hold his proud, independent people together--by any means necessary.

But now Vercingetorix will face his greatest challenge yet--at a town called Alesia.

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In Part 2, Vercingetorix steps onto the stage, and all of Gaul unites behind him against the armies of Caesar. But Vercingetorix faces an enemy that's better organized, better armed, and more cohesive--and his margin of error is razor-thin.

To save his people, Vercingetorix must do more than unite them. He must be willing to sacrifice everything.

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In Part 1, we send Julius Caesar and his army on a collision course toward the people of Gaul. This is an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object; the disciplined might of the Roman Republic coming up against an epic warrior culture that had existed in this place for centuries.

Find out how it all started.

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Maybe a lot. The Hound of Ulster is synonymous with Irish history. But it also draws back the curtain on a world we see echoed in the archaeology of ancient Gaul: a world of epic feasts, the hero’s portion, cattle raiding, magical cauldrons, and chariot warfare.

Think of this episode as a sort of Cauldron of Rebirth. We’re going to go out on a limb and operate under the assumption that a tall tale from Celtic Ireland can help us make the Gauls live and breathe again.

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Before we tell you about the Gallic Wars, we want to let the Gauls speak for themselves—or come as close as they can, through archaeology, myth, and other writers who got to know them not as conquerors, but chroniclers.

Meet the Celtic warrior poets, artists, Druids, bards, and artisans who lived in Gaul for thousands of years before Caesar was born.

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But as his power grew, his enemies multiplied. To fight back, Caesar made an unholy bargain with two very powerful players: Rome’s richest man and its most renowned general. With money in his pocket and soldiers at his back, there was nothing Caesar couldn’t strong-arm the Senate into.

But as Caesar tested the rules of Roman democracy, he started to resemble the thing every Roman feared most: a dictator.

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