The Ancient World

Synopsis:  The death of Octavian, elevation of Tiberius, and early military careers of Germanicus and Ptolemy. “Even during the years when he lived at Rhodes, in ostensible retirement and actual exile, (Tiberius) had studied nothing save anger, hypocrisy, and secret lasciviousness.” – Tacitus, The Annals, Book I  “Yet the temper of the soldiers remained savage, and a sudden desire came over them t...

Synopsis:  The death of Gaius Caesar, and Juba’s return to Mauretania.  Tropaion (Greek):  A battlefield monument, erected at the “turning point” where the enemy’s phalanx broke. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Synopsis: Juba accompanies Gaius Caesar on his Eastern expedition.  “Tigranes…marched forth with an army of such huge proportions that he actually laughed heartily at the appearance of the Romans present there.  He is said to have remarked that, in cases where they came to make war, only a few presented themselves, but when it was an embassy, many came.”  – Cassius Dio, Rome, Book 36  “Pompey…anno...

Synopsis: The birth of Juba and Selene’s children, Ptolemy and Drusilla, and the death of Cleopatra Selene. “The moon herself grew dark, rising at sunset, Covering her suffering in the night, Because she saw her beautiful namesake, Selene, Breathless, descending to Hades, With her she’d had the beauty of her light in common, And mingled her own darkness with her death.” – Crinagoras of Myteline, E...

Synopsis: Juba and Selene begin their rule of Mauretania. “Cato said…they must make no prayer for him; prayer belonged to the conquered, and the craving of grace to those who had done wrong; but for his part he had not only been unvanquished all his life, but was actually a victor now as far as he chose to be, and a conqueror of Caesar in all that was honorable and just.” – Plutarch, The Life of C...

Synopsis: Juba accompanies Octavian during the conquest of Egypt. “Thus was Egypt enslaved.” – Cassius Dio, Rome, Book LI Octavian Family Tree: https://audio.ancientworldpodcast.com/Octavian_Clan.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Synopsis: The early years of Juba II, fostered in the family of Octavian and Octavia. “(Scipio) increased the honor by observing, that among the Romans there was nothing more magnificent than a Triumph; and that those who triumphed were not arrayed with more splendid ornaments than those with which the Roman people considered Massinissa alone, of all foreigners, worthy.” – Livy, The History of Rom...

Synopsis: The early years of Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. “And herein particularly did he give offense to the Romans, since he bestowed the honorable and solemn rites of his native country upon the Egyptians for Cleopatra’s sake.” – Plutarch, The Life of Marcus Antonius “Pity fixed the eyes of the Romans upon the infants; and many of them could not forbear tears, and al...

“I am a faithful servant of the king, and I have not rebelled and I have not sinned, and I do not withhold my tribute, and I do not refuse the requests of my commissioner.  Now they wickedly slander me, but let the king, my lord, not impute rebellion to me!…If the king should write to me, ‘Plunge a bronze dagger into thy heart and die!,’ how could I refuse to carry out the command of the king?”  –...

“Surpassing all kings, powerful and tall beyond all others, violent, splendid, a wild bull of a man, unvanquished leader, hero in the front lines, beloved of his soldiers – fortress they called him, protector of the people, raging flood that destroys all defenses…” – the Epic of Gilgamesh  George Smith’s 1872 discovery of the Mesopotamian Flood tablet won him widespread acclaim.  Four years later,...

“Whilst fully recognizing his enterprise, devotion, and energy in carrying out these excavations, I cannot but express the regret that Dr. Schliemann should have allowed the ‘enthusiasm,’ which, as he himself admits, ‘borders on fanaticism,’ to make it so paramount an object with him to discover the Troy described by Homer, as to induce him either to suppress or to pervert every fact brought to li...

“Who will persuade me, when I reclined upon a mighty tomb, that it did not contain a hero? – its very magnitude proved this.  Men do not labour over the ignoble and petty dead – and why should not the dead be Homer’s dead?”  – George Gordon, Lord Byron, 1810 Three millennia after its fall, British archaeologist Frank Calvert used clues from Homer, and his own deep knowledge of the region, to estab...

“I should weary the reader, were I to describe, step by step, the progress of the work, and the discoveries gradually made in various part of the great mound.  The labours of one day resembled those of the preceding; but it would be difficult to convey to others an idea of the excitement which was produced by the constant discovery of objects of the highest interest.”  – Austen Henry Layard, Ninev...

“The Major constantly and indefatigably employed himself, from daylight to dark, revising, restoring and adding to his former materials.  This was a work of great irksomeness and labour in the confined space he was compelled to stand in, with his body in close proximity to the heated rock and under a broiling September sun.” – Felix Jones, 1844 After the debacle of the First Anglo-Afghan War, Henr...

“What can all this mean?  Who built this structure?  In what century did he live?  To what nation did he belong?  Are these walls telling me their tales of joy and woe?  Is this beautiful cuneiformedcharacter a language?  I know not.  I can read their glory and their victories in their figures, but their story, their age, their blood, is to me a mystery.  Their remains mark the fall of a glorious...

“My antiquarian studies go on quietly and smoothly, and despite the taunt which you may remember once expressing, of the presumption of an ignoramus like myself attempting to decipher inscriptions which had baffled for centuries the most learned men in Europe, I have made very considerable progress…I aspire to do for the cuneiform alphabet what Champollion has done for the hieroglyphics.”  – Henry...

“His Majesty…has dispatched a few days ago by the vessel Greenland a group of scholars, who will travel by way of the Mediterranean to Constantinople, and thence through Egypt to Arabia Felix, and subsequently return by way of Syria to Europe; they will on all occasions seek to make new discoveries and observations for the benefit of scholarship…” – Copenhagen Post, 12th January, 1761 Carsten Nieb...

“To speak the name of the dead is to make them live again.” – Ancient Egyptian saying Rediscovered two millennia after its creation, the Rosetta Stone provided two brilliant scholars with the key to unlocking the history of ancient Egypt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A little time-travel, a quick world tour, and plenty of thanks all around! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Rome was not a monarchy, but a free City, and they had made up their minds to open their gates even to an enemy sooner than to a king.  It was the universal wish that whatever put an end to liberty in the City should put an end to the City itself.” – Livy, The History of Rome, Book 2  Publius Valerius Poplicola overcame Roman distrust and Etruscan aggression to set the young Republic onto firm fo...

“The Athenians, when ruled by tyrants, were no better in war than their neighbors, but freed from tyrants they were far superior.  This shows that when they were constrained they let themselves be defeated, since they were working for an overlord, but when they were freed each one was keen to do the deed for himself.” – Herodotus Delivered from Spartan destruction, the Athenians were forced to def...

“He added the Athenian people, who had formally not been in the center of things, to his own party, changed the names of the tribes and increased their number.  He made ten tribal commanders instead of four and distributed demes into the tribes ten at a time.  Once he had got the people on his side he had the upper hand over his rivals.” – Herodotus on Cleisthenes Darius enlisted Greek tyrants in...

“Black is your path, Agni, changeless, with glittering waves!  When like a bull you rush eager to the trees. With teeth of flame, wind-driven, through the wood he speeds, triumphant like a bull among the herd of cows, With bright strength roaming to the everlasting air: things fixed, things moving quake before him as he flies.”-  Rigvedas, Book 1, Hymn LVIII Darius retraced Cyrus’s footsteps to ex...

“After I became king, I fought nineteen battles in a single year and, by the grace of Ahura Mazda, I overthrew nine kings and I made them captive…As to these provinces which revolted, lies made them revolt, so that they deceived the people.  Then Ahura Mazda delivered them into my hand; and I did unto them according to my will.” – Darius I, Behistun Inscription Darius spent years reconquering the...

“So Darius son of Hystaspes was made king, and the whole of Asia, which Cyrus first and Cambyses after him had conquered, was subject to him…and everything was full of his power. First he made and set up a carved stone, upon which was cut the figure of a horseman, with this inscription: ‘Darius son of Hystaspes, aided by the excellence of his horse, and of Oebares his groom, got possession of the...