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A podcast for all ancient history fans! The Ancients is dedicated to discussing our distant past. Featuring interviews with historians and archaeologists, each episode covers a specific theme from antiquity. From Neolithic Britain to the Fall of Rome. Hosted by Tristan Hughes. New episodes every Sunday and Thursday.From History Hit, the world's best history channel and creators of award-winning podcasts Dan Snow's History Hit, Gone Medieval, and Betwixt the Sheets.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. Hos...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
The Ancients connects large historical change to practical detail while keeping uncertainty and surviving evidence firmly in view.
The Ancients makes distant history tangible by moving from scene-setting narration into conversations that test how we know what happened. Tristan Hughes asks practical questions, then gives guests room to distinguish surviving evidence from later assumptions.
Sparta loses its fleet; your neat story about who ruled Greece starts taking on water.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded Roman what-if that tests Caesar's unfinished future against Rome's real limits.
The episode treats Caesar surviving the Ides of March as a disciplined counterfactual rather than a loose exercise in invention. It is at its best when it links Caesar's speed, scouting, and strategy to a possible Parthian campaign, then broadens the frame through Dacia,…
Phoenician trade, seafaring, and the archaeology of a western Mediterranean network.
The Ancients turns to the Phoenicians as maritime builders of a western Mediterranean world, beginning with Tyre and a fleet that reaches the edge of the sea near Gibraltar carrying pottery, wine, and slaves.
A lively dinosaur conversation that favors evidence, engineering, and a few good uncertainties.
This episode gives the age of dinosaurs a brisk, curious tour, with Henry Gee revisiting the sweep from the Triassic to extinction. It works best when it keeps the scale of the story grounded in mechanics: how giants managed heat, why air sacs mattered, and what bones can…
Abu Simbel becomes a focused study of how Ramesses II turned kingship into worship.
Ramesses II comes through as a ruler intent on making divinity visible. At Abu Simbel, in ancient Nubia on the shores of what is now Lake Nasser, the four colossal seated images turn kingship into an object of worship, while the neighboring temple links Queen Nefertari with…
A conquest story where Bactria's geography and court politics start to strain the whole campaign.
Alexander's campaign is set against Bactria, an affluent crossroads shaped by river valleys, mountain ranges, minerals, and the Oxus at its center. That landscape matters more than scenery; it helps explain why conquest there is easier to win than to hold.
Ramesses II's rise is framed through Abu Simbel, royal image-making, and the power behind the throne.
Ramesses II's monumentality arrives before his biography. From Abu Simbel, the episode looks across four colossal statues that present the pharaoh as divine, a great builder, and the authority over Lower Nubia. It then steps back 3,315 years to a young prince at Thebes, with Dr.
A campaign story that treats terrain, records, and timing as part of the battle.
The episode uses Alexander's advance through Phoenike as its spine, but the real interest is how an ancient campaign is shaped by terrain and logistics.
A close look at Jericho's skulls and how shell, stone, and bitumen were used to make a face.
The Jericho skull anchors the piece, and the thread stays on a single question: how did these ancient makers give a skull a face? It moves cleanly from shell eyes and open or closed lids to the black line in the right eye, then widens to Jericho, Yiftahel, Tel Aswad, Baisamun,…
Greek myth told with fatal momentum.
Ancient empire told in old public-domain voices.
This episode explores the Hittite Empire, its origins, language, and role in the late Bronze Age Near East.
What if Julius Caesar survived the Ides of March?
Three thousand years ago, ships pushed toward the Mediterranean's exit.
Dinosaurs get the spotlight.
Ramesses II sits beside gods.
This episode concludes a four-part series on Alexander the Great, focusing on his later campaigns in Bactria, Sogdia, and India.
This episode explores the rise of Ramesses II, focusing on his family's ascent to power in the 19th Dynasty of ancient Egypt.
This episode covers Alexander the Great's campaigns after defeating Darius III at Issus, including the epic Siege of Tyre, his entry into Egypt as pharaoh, and the decisive Battle of Gaugamela.
The episode opens in 1953 at an ancient site atop a small hill.
This episode covers Alexander the Great's invasion of the Persian Empire in 334-333 BC, focusing on the crossing of the Hellespont, the Battle of the Granicus, and the early campaigns in Anatolia.
This episode explores Alexander the Great's early life, from his mythologized birth linked to the burning of the Temple of Artemis to his rise as king after Philip II's assassination.
The Ancients episode on Adam and Eve frames Genesis chapter 2 as a separate creation story that follows chapter 1 and reaches back to Mesopotamia, not Sunday School imagery.
This episode explores the origins of the papacy through the Liber Pontificalis, a 6th-century biographical work on early popes.
He is the most well-known of all Persian kings
This episode explores the origins of Rome's empire in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, focusing on key events like the sack of Veii and the Gallic sack of Rome.
The Ancients episode “The First Arabians” follows Tristan Hughes and Dr.
The Ancients podcast episode hosted by Tristan Hughes features Dr.
This episode explores the paradoxical fall of Sparta from dominant Greek hegemon following victory over Athens in 404 BC to a minor power within decades.
Historian Peter Heather joins host Tristan Hughes to explore how Christianity transformed from a persecuted 1-2% minority to the dominant religion of the Roman Empire within a century.
Dr.
The Ancients episode "The Minoan Labyrinth" brings Professor Nico Momigliano into a discussion of Knossos, the Minotaur, and the archaeological evidence behind a famous Greek myth.
The Ancients covers Emperor Diocletian, the Balkan soldier who rose as Diocles in 284 AD and voluntarily abdicated in 305.
The Ancients covers Pestum, the Greek city in Italy that the host calls his favourite ancient site, with surviving temples, a major agora, and the Tomb of the Diver.
Host Tristan Hughes interviews Dr.
King Herod is remembered only as the baby killer, though his actual reign transformed Judea's place in the world.
Host Tristan Hughes interviews Dr.