Tides of History

A century of expansion and conquest in Italy transformed Rome from a minor spot on the Tiber to the hegemonic power in the peninsula, but what did that actually mean for the Republic and the city itse...

The First Punic War put Rome on the map as a major power in the Mediterranean. For 23 grueling years, the war between Rome and Carthage dragged on and on, causing immense destruction and tens of thous...

There was no particularly pressing reason for Rome and Carthage to go to war in 264 BC over the small city of Messana, but one small incident nevertheless sparked a conflict that lasted for 23 years a...

The medieval world relied on peasants. They grew the food, maintained the buildings, produced the craft goods, and made up the vast bulk of the population. But they were never particularly happy with ...

The decades after the death of Alexander the Great saw a massive increase in the scale and intensity of warfare over an area stretching from Italy to Afghanistan. Dr. Charlotte van Regenmortel joins m...

The German Peasants' War was the largest popular revolt in Europe before the French Revolution, but it's largely been forgotten. Why? Professor Lyndal Roper of the University of Oxford joins me to dis...

Pyrrhus of Epirus won costly but clear victories over the Romans in their first battlefield meetings, but couldn't win the war. Rome's dogged determination eventually won the war for them and placed t...

Early modern Europe was a violent place, full of duels, bloody encounters, and decades-long feuds. In many ways, it was more fractious and dangerous than it had been during the Middle Ages. Professor ...

By 281 BC, Rome controlled much of Italy, but the city was still a minor player on the larger Mediterranean scene. That changed when King Pyrrhus of Epirus crossed the Adriatic with a powerful army of...

While the Punic Wars mark the stage of Roman history with which most people are familiar, Rome's entrance onto the stage of Mediterranean power politics actually came a decade earlier, with a bloody, ...