The Ancients

The new Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator II features two of Rome's most villainous emperors - the brothers Caracalla and Geta. And in today's episode of The Ancients were delving into the real history ...

Half man and half bull, the Minotaur is one of the most famous, and scariest, monsters of Greek mythology. The story goes that it was trapped in a great labyrinth beneath Knossos on the island of Cret...

Today, we often see the Amazon basin as an endless expanse of trees and rainforest. But 2,000 years ago, at the same time that great cities like Rome, Athens and Alexandria were at their height, this ...

From the arrival of the first humans reaching the Japanese archipelago some 50,000 years ago to the enduring Jomon culture, Japan has a fascinating prehistory. This is discovered in the rich archaeolo...

When they were discovered in the Qumran Caves in the mid-20th century, the Dead Sea Scrolls revolutionised our understanding of biblical history. But one particular scroll was different. It was not wr...

It’s 279 BC. On a large plain in Southern Italy near the town of Asculum, a famous Greek warlord likened to Alexander the Great faces down the legions of the Roman Republic. His name was Pyrrhus of Ep...

In this instalment of The Ancients we're going north of the Arctic circle to uncover the incredible story of the Thule Inuit. Expanding out from present day Alaska east across North America all the wa...

In the aftermath of Alexander the Great’s death his former generals carved out their own kingdoms in the chaos that was the Wars of the Successors. Arguably the most successful of those successors Pto...

What was the most popular sporting spectacle in ancient Rome? Gladiator bouts? Beast hunts? It was in fact chariot racing! For centuries the Romans were enraptured by the galloping of horses and the t...

The Edomites are in the Old Testament, an ancient people who lived around Petra, Jordan before the Nabateans and before Petra was even created. King Herod was a descendant of the Edomites, and perhaps...