Episode 95: Rutilius Namatianus
In 417 CE, the Roman poet Rutilius Namatianus journeyed from Rome back to his homeland of Gaul, not knowing whether there was a home to return to. Epi...
Literature and History
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About
This podcast is an introduction to Anglophone literature, from ancient times to the present, done by a Ph.D. with lots of books and musical instruments. A typical episode offers a summary of a work, or part of a work of literature, followed by some historical analysis. The episodes include original music, some comedy songs, and goofy jokes. You can listen to the shows in any order, although from time to time, episodes will make brief mention of previous or upcoming ones.
Episode 94: Ausonius
One of the later Latin poets of the Empire, Ausonius’ expansive body of work gives us a window into the changing world of fourth-century Roman culture...
Episode 93: Severus' Life of Saint Martin
Sulpicius Severus’ (c. 363-425) life of St. Martin is one of the great hagiographies – a portrait of a timeless saint, but also of a human being and w...
Episode 92: Athanasius' Life of Antony
Athanasius (c. 297-373) wrote a wildly popular biography of the desert hermit St. Antony, touting the ideals of asceticism and triumph over demonic te...
Episode 91: The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity
In Carthage, in 203 CE, a Roman noblewoman and her retinue were butchered in an amphitheater. Learn her story, and the earliest history of Christian m...
Episode 90: Ante-Nicene Catholicism
Learn the documentary history behind how the Catholic Church was founded and set up as an organization, together with some of the works of the earlies...
Episode 89: The Aethiopica of Heliodorus
Heliodorus of Emesa (3rd/4th century CE) wrote the longest novel to have survived from antiquity, an adventurous romance that reemerged into Europe in...
Episode 88: Ancient Greek Sci-fi
In roughly the 160s CE, the Greek satirist Lucian of Samosata wrote A True History, one of history’s earliest surviving novels, with strong tinges of ...
Episode 87: Lucian of Samosata
The satirist Lucian (c. 125-180) was popular in his own time and during the Renaissance, among other things probably being the first author of science...
Episode 86: An Introduction to Late Antiquity
Once pervasively described as a period of fall and decline, today Late Antiquity is often understood as a period of cultural flowering and economic re...