The Classical Antiquity Sidequest

#gladiators #ancientgreece #antiquity #romanhistory #ancientrome #classicalantiquity Our next Sidequest takes us to Greece during the Roman era as we discuss gladiators with Alexandra Sills . Ms. Sills just released a book on the topic , "Gladiators in the Greek World: How a Roman Bloodsport Took Ancient Greece by Storm", which I highly recommend to all. During this episode, we discuss a...

#gladiator #gladiators #rome #ancientrome #movies #antiquity #classicalantiquity We are finally getting around to reviewing the movie that started a string of copycat Roman history movies by reviewing the blockbuster that is Gladiator. For reasons that me and Victor don't understand, people like this movie. We, if you couldn't tell from the episode's title, don't particularly care...

#iranwar #iran #gaza #palestine #genocide #israel #culturalheritage As you may know, the US-Israeli Axis launched a preemptive, and unnecessary, war on Iran. This war of choice has destablized the region, caused economic disruptions at home and created a humanitarian crisis throughout the Middle East. One somewhat overlooked part of this war includes the destruction of UNESCO recognized cultural h...

#antiquity #mediterranean #rome #greece #islam #thelevant #history #classicalantiquity #lateantiquity Friend of the podcast Dr. Rhiannon Garth Jones returns to discuss the time period that some scholars refer to as "The First Millennium". This period covers ... And now I'm using a word to define itself, so instead of that, let me just say that it's the period from 1 CE to 1000 CE...

#palestine #thelevant #palestinian #antiquity #history Back in February, Dr. Chance Bonar was kind enough to stop by the podcast to talk about a completely non-controversial topic that doesn't generate strong opinions from anyone - Palestine and the Levant. We recorded this before Iran and Israel launched an unnecessary war in the United States, so we don't get into any issues surrounding...

#pompeii #movie #moviereviews #movies #romanhistory #rome #ancientrome #antiquity #classicalantiquity #kitharington In this episode, me and Victor test my wife's theory that a volcano exploding makes a movie better by reviewing 2014's Pompeii . TLDL - this movie was pretty awful. However, the volcano exploding did improve what was otherwise a flaming pile of garbage. In our review, we brin...

#classics #whitenationalists #whitenationalism #rome #greece #ancientrome #ancientgreece #history #theclassics I've been a fan of Dr. Curtis Dozier for a while. I stumbled on his podcast, The Mirror of Antiquity , and thoroughly enjoyed it. I then came across his website, Pharos , where he chronicles (mostly horrible and some who are only somewhat horrible but still horrible) people invoking t...

#ancientrome #romanempire #romanantiquity #labormovements #strike #unions #union #unionmovement #classicalantiquity #antiquity Dr. Sarah Bond , Roanoke, Virginia native and author of the hit book Strike: Labor, Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire , stopped by the podcast to talk about how people engaged in collective action in Antiquity. In addition to discussing how Roman workers engaged i...

#magic #christianity #history #religion #religioushistory #antiquity #rome #romanhistory #romanempire In response to a suggestion from Dr. Rhiannon Garth Jones , I reached out to Dr. Shaily Patel at Virginia Tech (GO HOKIES!) to see if she would come on the podcast. Turns out she was willing to do so and this led to a discussion about the complex relationship between early Christianity and magic....

#highereducation #highered #historiography #ancientgreece #drinkinggames #odysseus #theodyssey #antiquity #classicalantiquity Our friend Amy Pistone returns to the podcast to educate us on drinking habits in Ancient Greece. During this episode, we'll hear about the current climate in higher education and discuss the uncertainty professors have. We will also cover what would go down at a sympos...

#troy #bradpitt #movie #moviereviews #antiquity #ancientgreece #history #movies Victor returns to the podcast to discuss 2004's Troy . But not just Troy. No, we skip the theatrical release version and go straight into the 196 minute (not a typo) director's cut . Why did we do this? Good question. Anyway, we take some time to figure out what went wrong with this movie, what good parts it ha...

#theodyssey #thoseabouttodie #christophernolan #chariots #antiquity #antiquityonscreen #ancientrome #antiquity #classicalantiquity #chariotraces Our friend Monica Cyrino returned to the podcast to discuss Those About to Die and the upcoming Christopher Nolan film, The Odyssey . Those About to Die is a Peacock series which is set in the Flavian dynasty . It's an ambitious project that has some...

#rome #ancientrome #romanhistory #allroadsleadtorome #romanempire #classicalantiquity #antiquity #history As we all know, people spend a lot of time thinking about Rome. If you've ever wondered why that is, Dr. Rhiannon Garth Jones just published All Roads Lead to Rome , a book that attempts to answer and explain just why it is that so many of us think about Rome and why we've done it for...

#caesar #juliuscaesar #rome #romanrepublic #ancientrome #romanhistory #civilwar #civilwars Our old friend Dr. Gerrish returned to the podcast to explain how it is that Caesar's Civil War happened. While we all may know that Caesar and Pompey ended up fighting, we would all probably struggle to explain why that happened. During our interview, Dr. Gerrish explains the factors that led to the war...

#ancientrome #romanrepublic #rome #romanempire #constitution #constitutionalcrisis #romanhistory #ancientrome #antiquity #classicalantiquity After our episode with Dr. Nat Katz on Roman regime change , I wanted to learn more about the Roman state's governmental structures. That led me to an excellent article by Dr. Benjamin Straumann about whether Rome had a constitution. After reading it, I reach...

#byzantine #theodora #byzantineempire #ancientrome #romanempire #classicalantiquity #antiquity #justinian #justinianthegreat In an effort to help bridge the gap between "Byzantine" and Roman history, I reached out to Madeleine Duperouzel to see if she'd be interested in talking about Empress Theodora. Madeleine was more than happy to, so the result is an outstanding episode regarding...

#moviereview #romanhistory #ancientrome #antiquity #classicalantiquity #thelastlegion #centurion First, apologies for my audio at times in the podcast. I'm not sure what happened. Second, apologies for the two movies we're about to review. While the Centurion squandered a chance to be good, The Last Legion is just awful. As we discuss these movies, we reference the brilliant Black Zeus X and then...

#stoicism #stoic #stoicphilosophy #seneca #philosophy #ancientrome #ancientgreece #classicalantiquity #antiquity As I mentioned on an earlier episode, I've been wanting to put together a series of episodes about what we collectively consider to be significant works from Antiquity. One such work is Seneca's Letters. Fortunately, I was able to find Dr. Liz Gloyn who is an expert on Seneca ....

#coins #coincollecting #numismatics #ancientcoins #antiquity #ancientgree #ancientrome #romanhistory #greekhistory As a companion to our recent episode with Dr. Le Blanc , I thought it would be interesting to do an episode about collecting ancient coins. I reached out to Kinzer Coins and the result is this episode with Dean and Josh. After discussing their origin stories, Dean and Josh tell us wha...

#ancientcoins #romancoins #greekcoins #antiquity #classicalantiquity #coins Those of us who are casual fans of Antiquity spend a lot of time talking about our favorite emperors and kings, in addition to discussing specific battles of significance along with myths and legends. One thing we probably don't spend enough time talking about is ancient currency and the various purposes coins were use...

#ancientrome #romanempire #romanemperors #romanhistory #antiquity In follow up to a suggestion by Dr. Kaldellis as to future podcast episodes, I reached to Dr. Nat Katz at Arizona to discuss how the Roman state handled transitions of power. During our discussion, we delve into general types of imperial transitions and the risks associated with such events. This includes detailing risks to those wh...

#ancientrome #ancientgreece #ancienthistory #apollonius #pagan #jesus #religioushistory #classics #classicalantiquity #antiquity #dccomics The latest Sidequest takes us to the First Century CE to study the interesting historical figure that is Apollonius of Tyana. Apollonius is typically associated with Jesus and serves as a sort of "Pagan Jesus", whatever that term may mean. It turns out there's...

#theeagle #theeaglemovie #moviereview #romaneagle #romanscotland #romanbritain #channingtatum #donaldsutherland #kevinmacdonald #ancientrome #rome #romanempire #romanhistory #antiquity #classicalantiquity For our second movie review, Victor stops by to talk with me about the 2011 film The Eagle . While this movie got overlooked when it was released, it's a pretty darned enjoyable flick that we hig...

#byzantineempire #byzantium #byzantines #romanempire #rome #romans #ancientrome #ancientgreece #classics #antiquity #classicalantiquity #ancienthistory In the latest episode of the Sidequest, Anthony Kaldellis , author of many books including The New Roman Empire , stops by to discuss his podcast Byzantium & Friends , how the academic community is starting to embrace podcasts as a medium to co...

#lateantiquity #paganism #pagans #rome #ancientrome #earlychristianity #antiquity #julian #juliantheapostate Dr. Jeremy Swist , a professor at Grand Valley State University, stopped by to discuss the historical period of time known as " Late Antiquity ". This is an era of time I know very, very little about, so I enjoyed the introduction to what is a fascinating area of study. It turns out that th...