Ancient Blogger
112 episodes listed below
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I'm all about ancient history so why not join me as I explore Greece, Rome and other cultures from antiquity. I cover a range of topics which are suitable for all levels of understanding. Have a scroll through and start listening. Find me on Instagram, TikTok, X and Bluesky as @ancientblogger. There's also the @ancientblogger YouTube channel and the Ancient History Hound subreddit. Come say hi!
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Ancient History Hound tests familiar Greek and Roman stories against sources, material settings, and the limits of historical certainty.
Neil approaches Greek and Roman antiquity by asking how familiar stories were built, what the surviving evidence can bear, and where uncertainty should remain visible.
Spartan legends meet Plato's account, and your certainty may have to drop its shield.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A careful look at Spartan battlefield performance, phalanx collapse, and the limits of Spartiate numbers.
This episode looks at whether Spartan citizen-soldiers could really hold up in battle, and it makes the case by following the strain, collapse, and rout of the phalanx.
A city-scale look at Rome's places, engineering, and myths, with a clear eye on what can and cannot be known.
Ancient Rome comes into focus through its sites and systems rather than through rulers: the Tullianum, a fruit controversy, the Circus Maximus, Ostia, and the problem of reading places that survive only in later traces.
A Halloween-adjacent look at Roman witchcraft that moves from definition into Virgil and Horace.
This episode treats Ancient Rome's witches as more than Halloween scenery. It starts by unpacking what witch and magic meant in Roman life, then moves into literary scenes with Virgil and Horace.
Roman festivals, river rites, and competing explanations shape a thoughtful walk through May and June.
Ancient History Hound moves through May and June by way of Roman festivals and rites, from the Argae procession and straw dolls thrown into the Tiber to the stranger image of a fiery phallus.
An April journey through Roman festivals, with Cybele's noisy arrival revealing Rome's flexible religious traditions.
April opens onto Rome's religious life as Neil follows the festivals in Ovid's Fasti, using the poet as both guide and problem. The episode is strongest when it keeps that tension in view: Ovid can make the calendar feel alive, but his flair for speculation means the evidence…
A March tour of Roman festivals where dancing, shield-clashing, and layered meanings reveal a city in flux.
Ancient History Hound's March installment approaches Rome's festival calendar as something layered, with older meanings still visible beneath later associations.
A grounded look at a North African revolt that exposed the limits of Roman control.
This episode treats Tacfarinas as a revolt, but the real interest is how it exposes the limits of Roman control in Northwestern Africa. Neil and Dr.
Regal Rome comes into focus through hills, bridges, ritual, and the logistics of movement.
Neil and the Partial Historians use regal Rome as a way to talk about hills, water, ritual, and movement. The Palatine, Aventine, the Tiber, the pomerium, bridge crossings, and the Tarpeian Rock all get folded into the same picture, so the myths feel tied to ground that was…
Greek myth told with fatal momentum.
Ancient empire told in old public-domain voices.
Dr.
Host Neil challenges popular stereotypes about classical Sparta by examining its education system (Agogae), secretive Cryptaea group, and communal dining (Syssitia).
Ancient History Hound's "Sparta in the Spotlight.
The host announces a series of episodes debunking misconceptions about Sparta, covering its education, military, and society, along with future plans for Roman festival episodes and a guest.
On Partial Historians, Neil argues that the Tullianum began as a sacred spring or cistern, not just the Mamertine prison later associated with Vercingetorix and St Peter.
Ancient History Hound's Night of the Livy Dead special, Witches in ancient Rome, opens with Neil separating Roman magic from the later English word witch.
Neil’s Ancient History Hound episode examines Roman festivals in May and June through Ovid’s Fasti, including the Lemuria on May 9 and the Vestalia from June 7 to 15.
Ancient History Hound’s “Festivals in ancient Rome: April” follows Neil through April’s Veneralia, Megalasia, Parilia, and Venalia using Ovid’s Fasti alongside Livy, Varro, Macrobius, Plutarch, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
Ancient History Hound's "Festivals in ancient Rome: March" examines why March may once have opened the Roman year and how its festivals connected war, agriculture, fertility, and social identity.
An interview with Dr.
An interview with author LJ Trafford about her new book on sex and sexuality in ancient Rome.
Host Neil and guest Helen McVeigh play a game of selecting six dinner guests from ancient history and myth, discussing their choices.
An interview with Dr.
An interview with archaeologist Jessica Venner about the gardens of Pompeii, their uses, and what was grown there.