Dan Snow's History Hit

The true nexus of power in the Roman Empire wasn't in the Emperor's box but in the shadowy ranks of the Praetorian Guard. First established in 27 BCE by Caesar Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome, they acted as his personal army and security escort. But it didn’t take long for their influence in Rome to become more insidious … they became kingmakers and power brokers with the ability to topple a d...

Spartacus is probably the most famous gladiator in history but how much of his legend is actually true? Dan is joined by Dr Rhiannon Evans, from Melbourne’s Le Trobe University, a leading expert in Ancient History and one of the hosts of the Emperors of Rome podcast to find out. They trace what little we know of his origins, his life in the gladiator school where he led a kitchen revolution and es...

Join Dan at Rome's Colosseum as he separates fact from fiction in the world of the gladiators. He traces the origins of gladiatorial fighting from funerary celebrations to elaborate spectacles in the arena, what it would take to make it to the top and what really happens when a gladiator loses the fight. With the help of expert historians, Dan explores the myths perpetuated in Hollywood movies, th...

Join Dan on an adventure in Rome as he traces the true history of the gladiators. He begins his story in 64 AD with the great fire of Rome that left the city in ruin. From the ashes rose a new Emperor and his dreams for a gargantuan amphitheatre, unlike anything the Empire had ever seen. With the help of leading experts, Dan explores the building of the Colosseum, the biggest stage in the Roman wo...

In this dramatic episode, Dan tells the incredible story of how Shackleton saved every single man on the fated Endurance expedition from perishing in Antarctica. In late 1914, the charismatic and brilliant explorer Ernest Shackleton led 27 men on a voyage to cross Antarctica from one side to the other. But what should have been a successful expedition turned into a two-year nightmare of hardship a...

From the Clinton 'crime family' to businessman JP Morgan sinking the Titanic to kill off his rivals, conspiracy theories are rife on the internet. Dan Snow teams up with BBC journalist Gabriel Gatehouse, creator of hit The Coming Storm podcast, to unravel the journey of conspiracy theories from whispered suspicions to narratives that have shaped modern American politics. Beginning with the mysteri...

In the western nave of Westminster Abbey, nestled between illustrious tombs and beneath a slab of black Belgian marble, lies the body of an unidentified soldier of the First World War. He is remembered as the Unknown Warrior, a symbol of the half a million Commonwealth servicemen who went missing between 1914 and 1918, their earthly remains lost to the chaos of conflict. As Remembrance Day approac...

The 2024 US Presidential election is just around the corner, and it seems like the result is balanced on a knife's edge. As the polls continue to roll in, pundits are predicting the closest US election ever. But we history lovers are always wary of the word 'ever', and so in this special Explainer episode, Dan gets under the hood of the US electoral system. How does it work, and is this truly the...

In 1974, a pioneer of the SAS and master of military deception, Dudley Clarke, passed away. His death went almost entirely unnoticed by the British public, despite the fact that he carried out some of the most dramatic deception campaigns of World War Two. He waged a covert war of trickery and misdirection across Europe, which ended up getting him arrested by Spanish authorities while dressed as a...

In the second episode of our Wars of the Roses series, Edward IV secures the English throne after his victory at the bloody Battle of Towton. But his betrayal by Warwick the 'Kingmaker' throws the house of York into disarray once again. The civil war reignites, and only after immense bloodshed will a new dynasty will arise - that of the Tudors. England's political landscape would be changed foreve...

This is the first episode in a two-part series on the brutal, three-decade-long civil war that tore England in two. Today, we explore the complex allegiances, rivalries, and personalities that made it all happen before hearing about the first bloody battles between the houses of York and Lancaster. For this, we're joined by Matt Lewis, historian, author and host of our sister podcast, Gone Medieva...

Pumpkins, trick or treating and ghost stories are what we associate with Halloween, but what about turnips, fairies and a fortune-telling cake? Dan and hosts of History Hit’s After Dark podcast Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling go in search of the origins of Halloween, rooted on the island of Ireland in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when the harvest ends and winter looms. The trio try Ba...

Lieutenant Charles Hare was a young British naval officer who made an extraordinarily elaborate escape from a French prisoner-of-war camp during the Napoleonic Wars... with the help of his English Terrier dog. Captured at just 14, Hare spent years in captivity before devising an audacious plan to flee dressed in the uniform of a French customs officer. He took a convoluted 'trains, planes and auto...

In 2022 Dan was part of the international expedition that went in search of Shackleton's lost shipwreck Endurance in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica; what they discovered on the sea floor was more extraordinary than anything they could have imagined. It was no easy task, the Weddell Sea is one of the most remote and inhospitable places on earth and the crew found themselves facing the same dangers a...

He was one of the last men to see Antarctic Explorer Robert Scott alive and was Shackleton's right-hand man on the Endurance expedition. So why don't more people know the name Tom Crean? He was a steadfast and courageous Irishman whose legendary feats in Antarctica shaped the course of exploration history. Born in 1877, Crean joined the Royal Navy at 16 and his adventures took him to the perilous...

Dan charts the life, successes and failures of the charismatic and chaotic Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. In late 1914, Shackleton led 27 men on a voyage to cross the Antarctic. But what should have been a successful expedition turned into a two-year nightmare of hardship and catastrophe when their vessel the Endurance was crushed in the Weddell Sea pack-ice and sunk. In a miraculous feat o...

The union between the nations of Great Britain goes back to 1707. On each side of the border, statesmen started to realise that a closer relationship offered solutions to problems both countries were facing: Scotland needed economic security and England needed political safeguards against French attacks. In this episode, Scottish historian Professor Murray Pittock talks Dan through the benefits an...

In the late 17th century, Scotland tried to establish a colony in Panama - and it all went horribly wrong. In July 1698, a fleet of five ships departed from the Firth of Forth with some 1,200 people onboard. They were bound for the Isthmus of Panama, a paradise in Central America, and their goal was to establish Scotland's first colony - New Caledonia. It was a bold, desperate gamble, intended to...

Robert the Bruce is best remembered as a rebel king, and for good reason. He was an unrelenting thorn in the side of any English monarch with ambitions to subdue Scotland. His heroics at the decisive Battle of Bannockburn helped to finally free his country from English occupation. But under the surface, this legendary rebel was also an opportunist, quite willing to switch allegiances and kill riva...

The House of Medici ruthlessly wielded control of Florence for nearly 300 years. Through financial and political machinations, they transformed the city into a cultural powerhouse and the epicentre of the Renaissance, spawning popes and royalty along the way.  Across four special episodes, Not Just the Tudors takes a deep dive into this complex and controversial dynasty that left an indelible...

Robert Bruce Lockhart was one of the most extraordinary and unconventional agents of the 20th century. A British diplomat, spy, and propagandist, his life was one of scandal and deception - from the jungles of Malaysia to the streets of Moscow, he bore witness to some of history's most pivotal moments. He even took part in a plot to kill Vladimir Lenin and bring down the Communist regime. Today we...

On the 1st of October 1949, a huge crowd gathered in Tiananmen Square. In the shadow of Beijing's imperial Forbidden City, they listened as Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, proclaimed the birth of the People's Republic of China. The trials and tribulations of the Chinese people were over, he told them, and their liberation from the shackles of imperialism had finally arrived. T...

On the drizzly, grey morning of 30th April 1980, six heavily armed gunmen stormed the Iranian Embassy in London. They charged through the front door and took 26 people hostage, including embassy staff and a policeman. A nail-biting six-day siege ensued, culminating in an explosive SAS raid - broadcast live to the world - that thrust the secretive special forces unit into the limelight. For this st...

Mansa Musa's wealth is a thing of legend. It's impossible to know exactly how much he was worth, but he himself spread rumours that gold grew like a plant within the Mali Empire. When he embarked on a storied pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, he gave away so much gold in Egypt that the value of the ore depreciated. But there was much more to the ninth Mansa of Mali than his great wealth - under his rei...

Dan explains the bloody Battle of Stalingrad alongside exclusive, never before heard frontline accounts from the German soldiers who were there. They shed light on the agonising final moments of the men trapped in the ruins of Stalin's city, and the circumstances that brought them there in the first place. To watch the exclusive History Hit Original documentary 'Stalingrad: The Last Letters', sign...