Ancient Lives with Mary Beard

About the show

Latest episodes

• BONUS: Mary Beard on Homer's Odyssey

  July 28, 2026 · 13 min

  Christopher Nolan's Odyssey, starring Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway is filling cinema seats around the world and is already a hot favourite for the Oscars. But what is it about this 3000 year old story that captures the imagination of…

• Martin Scorsese and the Godfather of Athens

  July 28, 2026 · 28 min

  Controlling the 2nd century city of Athens with their enormous wealth and intimate connections to the most powerful families in Rome were a local mobster, Herodes Atticus and his young Roman wife, Regilla. They spent their riches on lavish…

• The Greengrocer Who Saved Democracy

  July 21, 2026 · 28 min

  Meet Gerys, a Bulgarian slave who sells fruit and veg in the marketplace of Ancient Athens. He’s been bought and sold, he’s done his time rowing warships for the Athenian navy but now he’s at the centre of the Greek world. Passing his…

• The Odyssey of Gamma 58

  July 14, 2026 · 28 min

  When the German archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, pulled a shining mask from the bone-dry earth of Mycenae he is said to have telegraphed the King of Greece with the words, ‘I have gazed upon the face of Agamemnon’. The unearther of Troy…

• Star of Stage and Temple

  July 7, 2026 · 28 min

  It took quite an effort for a woman to capture attention in Ancient Greece. You could be a beautiful goddess or a savage monster but high profile career options for flesh and blood women were rather thin on the ground. So why has the name…

• Courtroom Drama

  June 30, 2026 · 28 min

  From Marvel movies to presidential elections their powerful influence endures on our stories, philosophies and politics, but what it was it like to be an Ancient Greek? Scattered clues need to be gathered until they form a living…

• Trailer

  June 16, 2026 · 3 min

  From Christopher Nolan blockbusters to presidential elections, their powerful influence endures on our stories, philosophies and politics, but what it was it like to be an Ancient Greek? Scattered clues need to be gathered until they form…

• The Wolf of Via Vesuvio

  June 11, 2024 · 28 min

  Lucius Caecilius Iucundus kept the economic wheels of Pompeii well greased. He was a middle man doing very nicely - part money-lender, part auctioneer, part banker, all hustler. Thanks to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the…