Where Life Is, Hope Can Survive
May 9, 2024
It needs to be said that, unlike some more recent cultures, the joy-loving and disarmingly honest ancient Greeks did not believe that suffering ennobled, educated, or improved the character of… READ MORE
Tag: ancient history
A New Audience for the World’s First Author
May 6, 2024
Sophus Helle— Authors in antiquity knew from prolonged experience the labor that is needed to carry a text through time. Books do not move across centuries on their own. They… READ MORE
Burning With Passion: Selected Poems from Catullus
April 19, 2024
Stephen Mitchell, who is known for bringing ancient texts to vibrant new life, has now translated Catullus’s poems for a new generation of readers in Catullus: Selected Poems. Join us as… READ MORE
Marcus Aurelius and How to Cope with Anxiety
March 20, 2024
Donald J. Robertson— When Marcus Aurelius was acclaimed emperor, in 161 CE, his first act was to insist that the Senate confer the same powers on his adoptive brother, who… READ MORE
Ep. 130 — Rome’s Last Pagan Emperor
January 15, 2024
In this episode of the Yale University Press podcast, we talk with Philip Freeman about Julian: Rome’s Last Pagan Emperor. Julian: Rome’s Last Pagan Emperor is part of the Ancient Lives Series,… READ MORE
A Shining Star of Kingship: Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd Century BCE
January 9, 2024
Patrick Olivelle— Few kings or emperors—or even people in power today—have been sufficiently self-aware and self-reflective to express regret or remorse for anything they may have done. When the king… READ MORE
Rome’s Secret Disrupter
November 6, 2023
Peter Stothard — Marcus Licinius Crassus was in his early sixties in the summer of 54 BCE, fit but old for a Roman army commander, red-cloaked and almost ready to… READ MORE
The Legend of Cleopatra
October 18, 2023
Francine Prose — If we view Cleopatra through any lens except that of her appearance, her seductiveness, her sexual agency, and her relationships with two men, we see a brave… READ MORE
What If Julian the Apostate Had Lived?
September 26, 2023
Philip Freeman— Sometimes when I’m teaching ancient history to my undergraduate students, I like to ask them how the world today would be different if some key event in the… READ MORE
Ep. 117 —What Do The Beatles and Measurement Have in Common?
July 28, 2023
This episode of the podcast features a conversation with renowned physicist Piero Martin about his new book, The Seven Measures of the World. In the podcast, Martin talks about how The Beatles are connected… READ MORE
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