History of the World podcast

320 - 570 - Indian lands ruled by Indian people.  The lands of the subcontinent moved forward into their own prosperous Classical Age.  Find out what they did and how this era came and went.

30 - 375 - They migrated across the steppe as nomads and then plugged a gap between all of the mightiest empires of the world.  They controlled the interesting new trade route between east and west, but no-one talks about them much by comparison.  That is until this week!

304 - 232 BCE - One of history's most profoundly affected emperors who would have to turn to religion in order to combat his guilt.  Find out how Ashoka affected Buddhism and how Buddhism affected Ashoka.

600 - 185 BCE - It's time to bring our story of the Indian subcontinent up to date with particular focus of Chandragupta Maurya, Chanakya and Ashoka the Great, and the emergence of the early Vedic religions.

451 - In an era of kings and commanders, all of central Europe picked their side and clashed on the Catalaunian plains.  The battle was so brutal that it never ended.

370 - 469 - Attila the Hun was a very real threat to both the Eastern and Western Roman Empires.  How could a simple leader of the barbarian confederation cause so much terror to the most dominant players in Europe?

1000 - 100 BCE - Who's in for a round of drug-fueled blood drinking, alongside cutting chunks out of your own ears and fastening as many human scalps as possible onto your horse's bridle to see who the greatest warrior of the Steppe is?

300 - 570 - In an episode that could turn out to be worse than a sports programme reporting on a draft or a transfer window, we find out who was going where and at what price during the middle of the first millennium in Europe.

378 - A vital crossroads in the timeline of the Roman Empire comes when thousands of Germans come flooding across the Roman border looking for refuge and Romans look to exploit the situation.  Many interesting factors will contribute to the outcome which will leave scars in the minds of everyone involved.

450 BCE - 60 CE - The original barbarians to the Romans, with their appetite for war and their mysterious past.  There are bound to be a thing or two that you never knew about these peoples whose legacy is just as strong as the Romans.

41 - 476 - The story of the Principate and the Dominate which includes the struggles of the Jews and the rise of Christianity as well as the pressures from the barbarians and the factors that led to the ultimate split of the Empire and the fall of the West.

753 BCE - 14 CE - From the foundation of Rome by King Romulus to the beginning of the Empire with Emperor Augustus and everything in between.

337 - 476 - The fall of the western Roman Empire is the story of how barbarian tribes had learned and evolved from the empire on its doorstep, and when the Huns arrived in Europe, how those tribes were forced to pressurise the Romans and the subsequent consequences.

312 - Was this the battle that caused Christianity to become the globally mighty religion that we know today, or did the Christian scribes of history use Constantine as a propaganda tool to push the word of Jesus into the consciousness of everybody?

305 - 330 - This period begins with the retirement of Diocletian to the opening of the new capital city of Constantinople.  What is Constantine the Great's true legacy to history and was this the end of Classical Rome?

222 - 304 - The Roman Empire was on the verge of falling apart until some radical thinking by one particular Emperor looked like it could change the direction and save the future of the Empire.

193 - 222 - There were Five Good Emperors and then there seemed to be none.  Just how did the quality of the Princeps decline so dramatically and what pressures were responsible for making it happen?

90 BCE - 168 CE - The mysterious disappearance of the Roman Ninth Spanish Legion is a fascinating subject for historians. In this episode, we tell the story of the legion in an attempt to figure out what the likeliest reason is for the legion vanishing into history's mist.

98 - 192 - The Pax Romana continues and tells a story of Roman stability through the second century.  Gone are the egotistical megalomaniac emperors from the first century, or are they?

79 - The Romans could not have ever known the catastrophe that suddenly destroyed all civilisation around the Gulf of Naples in less than 24 hours.

68 - 98 - The Year of the Four Emperors came out of the chaos of the reign of Nero.  Find out how Vespasian managed to steady the Roman ship and whether his two sons would be able to continue his good work in the aftermath.

14 - 68 - Although we covered the life and reign of Augustus in previous episodes, we can now explore the reigns of emperors 2, 3, 4 and 5 as we find out more about the unpredictability of Rome deciding to go back to a monarchical constitution in order to regulate the powerful Roman Senate.

509 BCE - 284 CE - A whistle-stop tour of some of the aspects of Rome and how some of them changed over time.

69 - 30 BCE - One of the most famous women of ancient and classical history, but was she the irresistible lady that we might expect?

31 BCE - The Second Triumvirate had fallen apart and once again the place of conflict would be Greece.  An incredible naval battle with an unusual ending as Mark Antony and Octavian come to blows about the legacy of Julius Caesar and who would be at the forefront of its promotion.