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Exploring Antiquity
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Instant Classics
by Vespucci
Today: #79 in History, United Kingdom on our combined chart.
Today: #186 in History, Canada on our combined chart.
Today: #126 in History, Australia on our combined chart.
Today: #153 in History, Germany on our combined chart.
Today: #112 in History, New Zealand on our combined chart.
Today: #137 in History, Ireland on our combined chart.
Today: #38 in History, Philippines on our combined chart.
Today: #192 in History, South Africa on our combined chart.
Chart positions today · United States
Not on the United States charts we track today.
Not on the Brazil charts we track today.
Not on the Mexico charts we track today.
Not on the India charts we track today.
Not on the Japan charts we track today.
If you like Instant Classics, try…
Empire: World History
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Ranking history · United States
Latest daily rankings: Oct 27. New rankings will appear after the next update.
Recent history only — this show has no current ranking on the History chart. These are recorded positions from the last 14 days, not current rankings.
Position on the History combined chart over the last 14 days. Toggle platforms to compare their positions. Lower rank numbers are better.
Episode releases
View as table
| Date | Combined Rank | Apple Podcasts |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 27 | — | — |
| Oct 25 | #183 | #177 |
| Oct 24 | — | #195 |
| Oct 18 | #193 | #187 |
| Oct 17 | #194 | #188 |
| Oct 14 | #197 | #190 |
Latest episodes
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Exploring Anne Carson
October 22, 2026 · 1 hr 2 minIt’s not every year that a classicist wins the Nobel Prize for Literature (in fact, it hasn’t happened since 1959), so Mary and Charlotte interrupt the schedule to reflect on Anne Carson’s extraordinary career as both a classicist and a…
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Roman Cancel Culture
October 15, 2026 · 52 minWe think of cancel culture as a 21st-century phenomenon, but it’s been going on since the ancient Egyptians (if not earlier) and the Romans were enthusiastic adopters as a strategy for control. Mary and Charlotte discuss ‘damnatio…
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What did Roman emperors really look like?
October 8, 2026 · 59 minThere are thousands of surviving busts and sculptures of Roman emperors, but… do we actually know what they looked like? The problem is that the function of these statues was less to do with realistically representing the supreme ruler (if…
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The Bayeux Tapestry: Britain’s Lost Latin masterpiece
October 1, 2026 · 56 minMary and Charlotte delve into the stitching of the Bayeux Tapestry, a 224-foot long narrative embroidery charting William the Conqueror’s successful invasion of England in 1066. Little is certain about the creation of the textile, but it…
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Classic Chats: Daniel Mendelsohn on translating the Odyssey
September 24, 2026 · 60 minMary and Charlotte talk to Daniel Mendelsohn, one of America’s most revered classicists, whose new translation of the Odyssey was published last year. Daniel’s decision to translate the Odyssey occurred rather unusually. In 2011, his…
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How Homer’s Odyssey Conquered the English-speaking World
September 17, 2026 · 60 minLast episode, Mary and Charlotte looked at how Homer’s Odyssey was reinterpreted in the Ancient World by writers like Euripides, Virgil and Ovid. In this episode, they show how it shaped English fiction - from Shakespeare through to…
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How Homer's Odyssey Conquered the Ancient World
September 10, 2026 · 53 minEver since the Odyssey was composed, people have retold the story, played with it or used it as a departure point for similar or related stories. In this episode, Mary and Charlotte look at what happened next. How the Odyssey inspired…
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The Vestal Virgins - just how virginal were they?
September 3, 2026 · 54 minFew elements of ancient Rome have inspired quite such lurid speculation – by the Romans as well as ourselves – as the vestal virgins. Mary and Charlotte enter the (imaginary) temple of Vesta to separate fact from myth. The Vestal Virgins…
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Classic Chats: Robert Harris on ‘Agrippa’
August 27, 2026 · 54 minMary and Charlotte talk to best-selling author Robert Harris about his new novel ‘Agrippa’. Robert Harris has published 16 novels, of which nine have been made into films, including The Ghost Writer, Enigma and the Oscar-winning papal…
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Marcus Agrippa: Power behind the throne
August 20, 2026 · 54 minOf all the Roman Emperors, Augustus has the reputation of being the most… well… august. That is to say, competent, level-headed and judicious. Not to mention one of the few who died of natural causes. But, according to Mary and Charlotte…
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BONUS Emily Wilson on translating the Odyssey
August 18, 2026 · 50 minA few months back we spoke to Emily Wilson on our subscriber series Exploring the Odyssey. Emily has been in the news recently, partly because her acclaimed 2017 translation of The Odyssey inspired Christopher Nolan, and partly because her…
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Classic Chats: Charlotte Higgins on Ukrainian Lessons
August 13, 2026 · 1 hr 8 minMary talks to Charlotte about her book Ukrainian Lessons: Art in a Time of War. For the last four years, Charlotte has returned repeatedly to Ukraine to report on the cultural life of the nation as it defends itself against Russia. Part of…
About the show
Join world-renowned classicist Mary Beard and Guardian chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins for Instant Classics — the weekly podcast that proves ancient history is still relevant.
Ancient stories, modern twists… and no degree in Classics required.
Discover The Odyssey and join the book club at: https://www.exploringtheodyssey.com