Podcast
Ancient Lives with Mary Beard
Hosted by BBC Radio 4 · EN
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.
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Episodes
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The Odyssey of Gamma 58
2w ago00:28:15Tap to summarizeWhen 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 was convinced that he had found more proof that the stories of Homer were based on historical fact. Here was the grave of one of the legendary commanders of the Greek forces in the Trojan War. Later analysis rubbished Schliemann’s romantic notions, but the graves on this hillside high above the Aegean hold many more fascinating secrets and, in this episode, Mary asks what we can learn from the bones and elaborate grave goods of a Mycenaean woman that archaeologists have labelled, Gamma 58. Homer’s stories of war, adventure, family and homecoming never lose their appeal. Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey is released in cinemas this month and Ralph Fiennes played Odysseus in last year’s highly acclaimed The Return. That film's director, Uberto Pasolini joins Mary and the novelist and historian Emily Hauser in a search for the real people that lie between myth and history. Gamma 58 isn’t Helen of Troy or Odysseus’s Penelope but she has her own story to tell of male power and female agency.Producer: Alasdair CrossResearcher: Anna CharalambouExpert Contributors: Emily Hauser of Exeter University, Pontus Skoglund and Eirini Skourtanioti of the Francis Crick Institute and Rachel Phillips of the British School at AthensSpecial thanks to the British School at Athens, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the Francis Crick Institute
Transcribe →Star of Stage and Temple
3w ago00:28:12Tap to summarizeIt 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 of Myrrhine survived for two and a half thousand years? We can find her name inscribed on a gravestone in the dusty corridors of the Epigraphic Museum in Athens, painted alongside the gods on an enormous funeral vase in the National Archaeology Museum. And she appears as the most cunning of the Greek wives withholding sex from their desperate husbands in the Lysistrata- the best known and most performed of the Ancient Greek comedies.So who was Myrrhine, how did she achieve her contemporary fame and why does she still speak to us from the stage today? Mary’s search takes her from the back streets of Athens to the peak of the Acropolis.Producer: Alasdair CrossResearcher: Anna CharalambouActors: Robert Wilfort as Cinesias and Laura Dos Santos as MyrrhineExpert contributors: Nikolaos Papazarkades of the University of California, Berkeley, Nick Lowe from Royal Holloway University of London, Tulsi Parikh of the British School at Athens and Andronike Makres of the University of the PeloponneseSpecial thanks to the British School at Athens, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, the Epigraphic Museum of Athens and the National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Transcribe →Courtroom Drama
4w ago00:28:04Tap to summarizeFrom 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, breathing human, witness to the cultural powerhouse that was Ancient Greece. In Being Greek, Mary Beard, Britain’s best-selling historian of the ancient world, rebuilds the lives of six people, from a priestess to a murderer. Her investigations reveal the limits of female independence and take us deep into the marriage of an Athenian power couple. Themes of faith, politics and justice reveal the foundations of Greek society, but it’s the thoughts, feelings and lifestyles of individual Greeks she’s really interested in. Gods and legendary heroes are easy to come by, but Mary looks behind the temples and beyond the classic myths, filling in her stories with the relatable detail of Greek life, uncovering what they ate, how they decorated their homes and raised their children.Mary visits the sites that help cast fresh light on past lives- the grave of a powerful woman in prehistoric Mycenae, an exquisite temple clutching the slopes of the Acropolis and the dusty plains of Marathon. Experts in Greece and the UK help Mary interpret the clues, along with film director Martin Scorsese who’s fascinated by the story of a gangster of the ancient world who pulled powerful strings to escape imperial justice.In the first episode we meet Euphiletos, on trial for the murder of his wife's lover. Can he convince the jury that this is a crime of passion, not a calculated act of mob violence?Producer: Alasdair CrossResearcher: Anna CharalambouExpert Contributors: Rosanna Omitowoju, Cambridge University and Rebecca Sweetman, Director of the British School at AthensActors: Robert Wilfort as Euphiletos and Laura Dos Santos as the old womanTranslations by Mary BeardSpecial thanks to Elizavet Sioumpara and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture
Transcribe →Trailer
Jun 1600:03:01Tap to summarizeFrom 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 a living, breathing human, witness to the cultural powerhouse that was Ancient Greece.In Being Greek- her sequel to Being Roman- Mary Beard, Britain’s best-selling historian of the ancient world, rebuilds the lives of six people, from a priestess to a murderer. Her investigations reveal the limits of female independence and take us deep into the marriage of an Athenian power couple. Themes of faith, politics and justice reveal the foundations of Greek society, but it’s the thoughts, feelings and lifestyles of individual Greeks she’s really interested in. Gods and legendary heroes are easy to come by, but Mary looks behind the temples and beyond the classic myths, filling in her stories with the relatable detail of Greek life, uncovering what they ate, how they decorated their homes and raised their children.Mary visits the sites that help cast fresh light on past lives- the grave of a powerful woman in prehistoric Mycenae, an exquisite temple clutching the slopes of the Acropolis and the dusty plains of Marathon. Experts in Greece and the UK help Mary interpret the clues, along with film director Martin Scorsese who’s fascinated by the story of a gangster of the ancient world who called in favours from powerful friends to escape justice.Producer: Alasdair CrossResearcher: Anna CharalambouSound Design: Suzy RobinsOriginal Music: McassoCommissioning Editor for BBC Radio Four: Daniel Clarke
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The Wolf of Via Vesuvio
Jun 11, 202400:28:08Tap to summarizeLucius 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 preservation of the ruins of Pompeii, we can still visit his house, look at his bronze portrait, and read his account books. 150 tablets of receipts, carbonised in the destruction of Pompeii, lead us through the deals that keep the city’s economy moving. If you want to buy a Ferrari-level horse but only have the cash for a Fiesta then Iucundus is your man. It might look like dry stuff, but it's as revealing of real life as snooping on someone’s Paypal account or leafing through their credit card receipts might be now. Never mind imperial plunder and luxury lifestyles, it’s a glimpse of how the economy works in a regular town. Mary Beard visits Iucundus's home and talks to the novelist Robert Harris about his fascination with the Pompeii moneylender.Producer: Alasdair CrossExpert Contributors: Sophie Hay, Parco Archeologico di Pompei; Matthew Nicholls, Oxford UniversitySpecial thanks to National Archaeological Museum, Naples and Parco Archeologico di Pompei
Transcribe →Three Lovers and a Funeral
Jun 4, 202400:27:30Tap to summarizeAllia 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 skills. But he didn’t have Allia to himself. She was shared in a ménage à trois with his male friend. It’s an unusual domestic arrangement and a surprising one to advertise on a tombstone. The lines themselves reveal an enormous amount about Roman morality and the sexual politics of the time, but the story between the lines is even more fascinating. Can we dig beneath the emotional turmoil of the man and guess what Allia herself thought about the arrangement? Mary Beard is joined in Rome by Allison Emmerson of Tulane University to examine this extraordinary funerary monument at the Baths of Diocletian.Producer: Alasdair CrossExpert contributors: Allison Emmerson, Tulane University; Helen King, Open University; Mairead McAuley, University College LondonCast: Tyler Cameron as AlliusSpecial thanks to Museo Nazionale Romano
Transcribe →A Bag of Snails and a Glass of Wine
May 28, 202400:28:17Tap to summarizeAn 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 Carry On films and the sitcom Plebs will instantly feel at home with the Roman sense of humour, but these two characters have so much more to offer than lame jokes and a glass of rough wine- they’re our window into the fascinating bar culture of the Romans.Most urban Romans had neither the facilities nor the time to cook their own food so meals were eaten and drinks drunk from bars. New discoveries at Pompeii reveal the complex stratification of the culture, from the most basic takeaways to dining rooms that mimicked the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Producer: Alasdair CrossCast: Robert Wilfort and Tyler CameronExpert contributors: Allison Emmerson, Tulane University, Claire Holleran, Exeter University and Sophie Hay, Archaeological Park of PompeiiSpecial thanks to Antonio Valerio of Campi Valerio and Museo Archeologico di Santa Maria delle Monache, IserniaTranslations by Mary Beard
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Soldiering for Softies
May 21, 202400:28:29Tap to summarizeThe 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 his father to send the most basic of equipment, from sandals to swords. Stuck in the marines, the poorly paid squad tasked with guarding grain supplies, he bribes and wangles his way into a more illustrious legion, but still seems to spend more time shopping than fighting.Mary Beard catches up with Terentianus at the British Museum's Legion exhibition and discovers more about his uncanny ability to avoid conflict and ensure a prosperous retirement.Producer: Alasdair CrossExpert Contributors: Carolina Rangel de Lima, British Museum; Livia Capponi, Pavia University and Claire Holleran Exeter UniversityCast: Terentianus played by Robert Wilfort
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The Whistleblower
May 7, 202400:28:13Tap to summarizeBeneath starched Shakespearean togas and the pungent fug of gladiator sweat there are real Romans waiting to be discovered. To know what it was to be Roman you need to gather the scattered clues until they form a living, breathing human, witness to the highs and horrors of Europe’s greatest empire.Mary Beard, Britain’s best-selling historian of the ancient world, rebuilds the lives of six citizens of the Roman Empire, from a poet to a squaddie. Her investigations reveal death and deceit on the Nile and the art of running a Roman pub, but it’s the thoughts and feelings of individual Romans she’s really interested in.It's 61CE. The rebellion of Boudicca has finally been quashed, but London and other Roman cities lie in ruins. A new finance officer for the province, Gaius Julius Classicianus arrives, to face an enormous recovery job. Standing in his way is the Governor, busy exacting terrible reprisals from the local population. Classicianus does what brave subordinates have done ever since. He whistle-blows – writing to the emperor to remove the Governor from British shores. The stage is set for an imperial face-off. For the people of Britain, the stakes could not be higher.Producer: Alasdair CrossExpert Contributors: Matthew Nicholls, University of Oxford and Michael Marshall, Museum of London ArchaeologyCast: Tacitus played by Robert WilfortTranslations by Mary BeardSpecial thanks to the British Museum
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Death on the Nile
May 7, 202400:28:13Tap to summarizeJulia 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 the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Colossus of Memnon, a statue that will sing for anyone blessed by the gods. Julia inscribes her poems on the giant foot of the statue, praising the power of Hadrian and the beauty of his wife, Sabina. It’s a charming scene, darkened only by the fact that Hadrian’s male lover, Antinous has only just drowned in the Nile. Was he murdered by jealous rivals, killed in a lover’s tiff or did he drunkenly slip from the deck? Hadrian is publicly bereft, founding a new city in the name of Antinous, but seems happy to continue his luxury cruise. Mary Beard hops aboard Ancient Rome's most intriguing cruise with historian T. Corey Brennan and archaeologist Elizabeth Fentress. Producer: Alasdair CrossExpert Contributors: Corey Brennan, Rutgers University and Lisa Fentress Cast: Julia Balbilla played by Juliana LiskSpecial thanks to Andrea Bruciati, Villa Adriana
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