The Ancients

Fifteen thousand years ago, as the Ice Age loosened its grip on Northern Europe, humans returned to the previously inhospitable British Isles. But they did not come alone. Among their number was a com...

What did it take to become a Roman centurion? To command, to punish and to lead from the very front of Rome’s armies? In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Ben Kane to uncove...

What happens when a defensive alliance slowly turns into an empire? Tristan Hughes and Professor Polly Low explore the Delian League, the so‑called “ancient NATO”, from its Persian War origins to Athe...

In 480 BC, at the narrow pass of Thermopylae, a vastly outnumbered Greek force prepares to face the advancing army of the Persian king Xerxes. At its head stands Leonidas, king of Sparta, ready to mak...

What if Julius Caesar had survived the Ides of March? This episode explores his last known plans — vast eastern campaigns, sweeping reforms, and his visions for Rome’s future. Could he have rivalled A...

What drove Herodotus to write the first great story of history? Tristan Hughes speaks with Dr. Roel Konijnendijk to uncover the world of Herodotus of Halicarnassus - the traveler, investigator, and st...

Three thousand years ago, Phoenician ships sailed west across the Mediterranean, their holds packed with pottery, wine and enslaved people to trade. Passing beyond the fabled Pillars of Heracles, they...

In 1999, a mysterious bronze disc buried for millennia in central Europe transformed how we see the prehistoric world. The Nebra Sky Disk - forged 3,600 years ago - is the oldest known depiction of th...

Before Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, Earth was rebuilding from catastrophe. Out of the ashes of the Great Dying rose a new prehistoric world and with it came the age of the dinosaurs. In this episode...

“Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.” Ramesses II reigned as Egypt's unchallenged champion for more than sixty years. But within decades the dynasty of Egypt’s greatest pharaoh had fallen apart....