The Ancients

Before Boudicca, another British leader brought the Roman war machine to a grinding halt. Meet Caratacus; the cunning King of the Britons who spent seven years outmaneuvering the empire. Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr. Miles Russell to uncover the forgotten story of this charismatic guerrilla fighter. From leading fierce resistance in Wales to his betrayal, capture, and a life-saving speech in Rom...

The frozen continent of Antarctica was once a land of forests, rivers and thriving ecosystems. And millions of years before humans ever existed it was home to a whole host of ancient creatures, from the first sharks to the earliest marsupials. Tristan Hughes is joined by paleontologist Professor John Long to uncover what the trilobite and dinosaur fossils buried beneath the ice reveal about this l...

When the asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, one remarkable avian survivor traded the skies for the sea. Tristan Hughes and paleontologist Dr Steve Brusatte explore how prehistoric penguins emerged on ancient Zealandia, lost their flight and grew into colossal apex predators. But how did these giant ocean rulers eventually shrank to conquer the frozen continent of Antarctica? MORE Terror Birds Liste...

Babylon was one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. But what was life really like for the people who lived there? Behind its magnificent temples and royal palaces lay a city of crowded streets, disease, danger and everyday struggles. Tristan Hughes is joined by friend of the show and Babylonian extraordinaire Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones to uncover the realities of life in Hammurabi&#3...

How much can we really know about the historical Jesus? The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have shaped Christianity for nearly 2,000 years, but they were written decades after the events they describe. So how should we treat them as historical sources? Tristan Hughes is joined by Professor Helen Bond to examine where the Gospels came from, who wrote them and how closely they reflect the w...

Forget everything you thought you knew about the ancient Maya. Cracking their mysterious hieroglyphs didn't just reveal boring calendars, it exposed a cutthroat, Game of Thrones -style world of rival superpowers, Tikal and Calakmul. Tristan Hughes is joined by Professor David Stuart to uncover tales of powerful female warlords, dark pilgrimages to the underworld, and the secret jungle "whiteboard"...

WARNING: This episode contains descriptions of graphic violence from the start. When we picture human sacrifice in ancient Britain, the iconic, flaming Wicker Man often comes to mind. But how much of this is Roman propaganda, and what does the actual archaeology reveal? Tristan Hughes is joined by archaeologist Dr. Miles Russell to separate popular myth from gruesome reality. From perfectly preser...

Before the mammoths disappeared, people hunted them across Ice Age America. Armed with distinctive stone spear points, the mysterious Clovis culture left behind traces of a world filled with giant beasts and landscapes now lost to time. Tristan Hughes is joined by archaeologist Dr Madeline Mackie to explore the latest discoveries surrounding America’s prehistoric history. Who were these remarkable...

How did the Romans ambush a massive Carthaginian fleet from behind a Sicilian island to win one of history's fiercest sea battles? For over 20 years, Rome and Carthage fought a brutal war for supremacy over Sicily. Tristan Hughes is joined by Carthage expert Dr. Eve MacDonald to explore the epic First Punic War; a conflict defined by titanic naval clashes, lethal boarding bridges, war elephants......

How much of Iron Age Ireland is myth, and how much is archaeological reality? At the monumental Hill of Tara, sacred kings ruled over a landscape steeped in ancient ritual and ancestral memory. Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr. John Waddell, author of The Celtic World, to explore the truth to be found through the mist and beneath the hills. We hear about legendary rulers like Queen Medb, epic cattle...

The story of human origins is often imagined as a simple journey from Africa, but is the truth actually much messier? Tristan Hughes and leading palaeoanthropologist Prof. Chris Stringer dismantle the traditional narrative, discussing how recent breakthroughs in fossils and ancient DNA reveal a complex, shifting history of multiple migrations and cross-breeding to uncover where we truly come from....

What happens when an entire city disappears? Beneath the sands and wetlands of Egypt lie the remains of forgotten cities that once stood at the heart of one of the ancient world’s greatest civilisations. In this episode of The Ancients , Tristan Hughes is joined by Egyptologist Chris Naunton to uncover the story of Egypt’s lost cities. From the rediscovery of Tanis, the mysterious city immortalise...

Augustus was Rome's first Emperor. But who made his empire possible? Behind the throne stood Marcus Agrippa, the brilliant general whose victories secured the Roman world yet whose name was consciously erased from the record by his erstwhile great friend. In this very special episode Tristan Hughes is joined by bestselling author Robert Harris to uncover the remarkable life of Agrippa. How did a m...

The Vandals have gone down in history as the barbarians who helped bring down the Western Roman Empire. Their name became synonymous with violence and destruction, but who were they really? In this episode, Tristan Hughes is joined by Professor Andy Merrills to uncover the real story of the Vandals. From their migration across Europe to the conquest of Carthage, they explore how the Vandals emerge...

What kind of predator needs no teeth to terrify its prey? The terror birds were enormous flightless hunters that ruled South America for millions of years, standing metres tall and built for a life of pursuit and slaughter. In this episode, Tristan Hughes is joined by palaeontologist Dr Steve Brusatte to explore the world of the phorusrhacids. What were these extraordinary birds really like? How d...

A rubber ball. A stone court. And a sport where the stakes could be life and death. For more than 2,000 years, Mesoamerican peoples played a remarkable ballgame that became far more than entertainment; across the Maya world, it became a spectacle and a ceremony with religion, politics and power at it's heart. Today, Tristan Hughes is joined by archaeologist Ed Barnhart to uncover the oldest sporti...

Was the Roman Empire really made by conquest? Or was it powered by something much darker? For centuries, millions of enslaved people sacrificed their lives and their labour on the altar of Roman progress, an integral cog in the grinding imperial machine. And so today on The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Emma Southon, author of Servus: How Slavery Made The Roman World to bring their over...

The story of Romulus and Remus is one of the most famous myths from the ancient world. But the Romans believed the founding of their city stretched far beyond the tale of the twin brothers. Heroes, kings and exiles all played a part in Rome's legendary beginnings. Tristan Hughes is joined by Jeremy Armstrong to explore the myths behind the founding of Rome. Why did the Romans link their origins to...

Few rulers humbled Rome quite like Shapur I. A King of Kings, he rebuilt the Sasanian Persian Empire, defeated Roman armies and captured Emperor Valerian in one of antiquity's most remarkable military triumphs. In this episode of The Ancients , Tristan Hughes is joined by Eve MacDonald to explore the rise of Shapur the Great. Why did he find so much success against the ancient Roman behemoth? How...

Three thousand years ago, prehistoric Scotland was a landscape of rival communities, raids and warfare. Bands of warriors fought for power and territory leaving behind extraordinary weapons that reveal a more violent side to Scotland’s ancient past. In this episode of The Ancients , Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Matthew Knight, Senior Curator of Prehistory at the National Museum of Scotland, to e...

In 63 BC, Rome faced a conspiracy that threatened to tear the Roman Republic apart. At its centre stood two figures: Marcus Tullius Cicero, the grand old orator of Rome and Lucius Sergius Catilina, accused of plotting violence, rebellion and the overthrow of Rome’s political order. But was the danger as great as Cicero claimed? In this episode of The Ancients , Tristan Hughes is joined by Professo...

WARNING: graphic descriptions of violence and warfare Meet Diades, Alexander the Great’s overlooked military engineer, the man who made the impossible siege of Tyre happen. Tristan Hughes and Professor Edmund Richardson retell the thrilling, brutal, brilliant story of invention, ambition, and ancient warfare at its most extreme. In 332 BC, he turned a coastal blockade into a 1km causeway, then fac...

Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film Odyssey brings Homer’s epic roaring back to life and Tristan Hughes and Dr. Emily Hauser are here to unpack every storm, monster and star-making turn. From the brilliance of the adaptation to the ancient story beneath it, Tristan and Emily bring their expert historical knowledge to challenge what Nolan keeps, what he changes, and why Odysseus still captivates u...

What if the first New Zealanders crossed an ocean, landed in a brand-new world, and built a whole society in just a few generations? Tristan Hughes and Dr Richard Walter tell the story of East Polynesian voyagers who reached Aotearoa around the late 1200s, bringing canoes, knowledge, and ambition from Hawaiki to a vast, forested island world. From the moa-rich site of Wairau Bar to archeological e...

When Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca, his homecoming turns into a ruthless reckoning. Tristan Hughes and Dr. Emily Hauser dive into the shocking climax of Homer’s Odyssey, where hospitality, vengeance and survival collide in a blood-soaked finale. What drives Odysseus to unleash such fury, and what does the massacre reveal about power, justice and ancient heroism? We're going on * TOUR* to Aust...