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Ancient Lives with Mary Beard

by BBC Radio 4
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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…

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  • 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…

  • Three Lovers and a Funeral

    June 4, 2024 · 28 min

    Allia Potestas is a woman remembered in one of the most intriguing and affecting funeral orations of the ancient world. Her lover remembers her diligent application to housework before praising to the skies her beauty and her erotic…

  • A Bag of Snails and a Glass of Wine

    May 28, 2024 · 28 min

    An obscure carved stone dug up from a vineyard in southern Italy tells the story of a pair of publicans- the delightfully named Calidius Eroticus and Fannia Voluptas- and their bawdy adventures in the pub trade. Fans of Frankie Howard, the…

  • Soldiering for Softies

    May 21, 2024 · 28 min

    The image of the battle-hardened, well regimented Roman soldier has been set in stone by movies, novels and video games. The letters of Claudius Terentianus reveal something very different. A terrible moaner, the young soldier has to beg…

  • Death on the Nile

    May 7, 2024 · 28 min

    Julia Balbilla is an accomplished poet and close friend of the wife of one of Rome’s mightiest emperors. Hadrian loves to travel and takes Julia and an entourage of thousands on the ultimate elite tourist trip- a leisurely Nile cruise to…

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About the show

Mary Beard unearths the lives of the Ancients. Join Mary as she discovers the real lives of people from the ancient Greek world and the Roman empire.