History of the World podcast · Chris Hasler

The History of the World podcast Magazine - 16th October 2024

·46 min·3 clips

At lunchtime, Vesuvius sealed Pompeii’s fate as ash began to rain down.

The magazine episode is framed as something to keep listeners going while they wait for the next one. It uses the alphabet as a loose organising device. Here, the focus is the letter E. Chris Hasler revisits earlier episodes and draws sound bites from the archive. The aim is to look at people and events that begin with that letter. The first subject is the Epic of Gilgamesh. The story is set in ancient Mesopotamia. Its date is still uncertain. The range given is roughly between 2100 and 1200 BCE. Gilgamesh is described as a semi-divine king of Uruk. The epic centres on friendship, the pursuit of fame and immortality, and the acceptance of being human. The episode then shifts to the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Christianity is described as a minor religion within a polytheistic state. That made it vulnerable in the empire's early years. Judaism had a degree of protection. Christianity was often seen as more radical because it stood against Roman polytheism. That made believers easy targets for rulers looking for scapegoats. Nero appears as an example of an emperor willing to blame Christians for wider unrest. The episode then widens the frame and notes that religious persecution was not unusual in the classical world. Tolerance often depended on the ruler of the day. A later crisis in the Roman Empire may have pushed more people toward Christianity. Diocletian and Galerius then intensified persecution. That campaign became known as the Great Persecution. After Diocletian retired, Galerius continued the pressure until he fell mortally ill in 311. Around that moment the Edict of Serdica ended the persecution. It granted Christians a recognised place in the Roman Empire. The episode then moves to Constantine and Licinius. The Edict of Milan follows in 313 as the next major milestone. The episode treats that event carefully and resists a simple triumphalist reading. Constantine and Licinius likely met near Mediolanum, the modern Milan. They are presented as forming a pact to stabilise the empire by sharing power. The religious dimension matters, but it is not reduced to a neat single cause. Across all of this, the episode keeps its explanatory tone and slows down when history gets messier than later summaries suggest. It works as a retrospective bridge between earlier subjects rather than a new deep dive into one topic.

As heard by us

A tidy archive sampler that turns familiar history into a clear, useful recap.

This magazine episode uses the letter E as a neat organizing device, moving from the Epic of Gilgamesh and ancient Mesopotamia to Christianity's emergence within the Roman Empire.

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Why you'd press play

You want an alphabet-driven history detour that still teaches you something real.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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