Curated playlist
Ancient history
- Julius CaesarJulius Caesar was stabbed at least twenty-three times by some sixty conspirators.
- Ancient GreeceAncient Greece was never one country. It was several hundred city-states that shared a language and religion.
- Greek mythologyIn Greek mythology, Zeus escaped being swallowed by his father Cronus.
- Alexander the GreatAt ten, Alexander the Great tamed a horse that his father had ordered taken away.
- PlatoPlato never speaks in his own voice in his dialogues. Socrates does the talking in every one but the Laws.
- AristotleOnly around a third of Aristotle's original writings survive, and none was meant to be published.
- HerodotusHerodotus, called the Father of History, was also nicknamed the Father of Lies.
- AssyriaAssyria began as a city with fewer than 10,000 people inside its walls and no army.
- Constantine the GreatConstantine, the first Christian Roman emperor, was baptized only on his deathbed.
- AugustusAt nineteen, Augustus accepted a dead man's will and took Julius Caesar's name.
- Etruscan civilizationA 2021 DNA study found the Etruscans were local to Italy, not migrants from Lydia.
- Marcus AureliusMarcus Aurelius wrote a private journal that sold 100,000 copies in 2019.
- NeroEmperor Nero was crowned winner of a chariot race he did not finish.
- SumerSumerian farmers grew so much extra grain that they built the first cities.
- Achaemenid EmpireIn October 539 BC, Cyrus the Great captured Babylon. His Achaemenid Empire had already toppled Media and Lydia.
- Seven Wonders of the Ancient WorldThe Seven Wonders of the Ancient World began as a travel guide. Greek travelers wrote lists of sights to see.
- CleopatraCleopatra was the first Ptolemaic ruler to learn the Egyptian language.
- StoicismStoicism began as conversation on a painted porch in Athens. Its founder taught in public, open to anyone passing.
- HomerHomer, credited with the Iliad and the Odyssey, may never have lived. No one can say for certain that he existed.
- IliadIn the Iliad, Priam sneaks into enemy camp to beg Achilles for his son Hector's body.
- OdysseyIn the Odyssey, a queen unravels her weaving each night to stall 108 suitors. Her husband is stuck on an island.
- Ancient EgyptIn ancient Egypt, a dead person's heart was weighed against a feather. If it failed, Ammit the Devourer ate it.
- SpartaSparta answered Philip II's threat with a single word: "if". The king had warned he would "turn you out" of Laconia.
- SocratesSocrates wrote nothing, so everything known about him comes from other people.
- CaligulaEmperor Caligula once rode a horse across a floating bridge more than two miles long.
- MesopotamiaThe oldest monument celebrating a massacre comes from Mesopotamia.
- Ancient historyWriting arose separately in five places, not just once. Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China and Mesoamerica each did it.
- Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic began with one act of violence and ended with another.
- HannibalAccording to tradition, Hannibal was nine when his father made him swear never to be Rome's friend.
- Trojan WarIn Greek myth, the Trojan War began with a golden apple. Eris, goddess of discord, brought it uninvited.
- Punic WarsCarthage's Hannibal crossed the Alps in 24 days while Roman troops were still in winter quarters.
- PhoeniciaThe Phoenicians never called themselves Phoenicians. The name came from the Greeks.
- Hellenistic GreeceHellenistic Greece began when Alexander the Great died in 323 BC with no clear heir.
- PompeiiPompeii grew from five Oscan villages into a Roman colony over roughly seven centuries.
- HatshepsutSomeone smashed Hatshepsut's statues and buried them in a pit. She had ruled Egypt as pharaoh.
- Ramesses IIRamesses II walked into a Hittite ambush at Kadesh, yet claimed a great victory. The wider campaign favored Hittites.
- ParthenonA single Venetian mortar round in 1687 blew the middle out of the Parthenon. The Ottomans stored gunpowder there.
- HammurabiHammurabi was declared a god while he was still alive. He ruled Babylon, a small city that grew into a power.
- Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire never called itself Byzantine. Its citizens called themselves Romans, and the name came later.
- Ancient RomeIn 88 BC, a Roman consul marched his own legions into Rome. Sulla did it to crush the supporters of Marius.
- AthensIn 1687, a shot ignited gunpowder stored inside the Parthenon in Athens.
- TroyTroy was rebuilt on the same hill so often that archaeologists count nine cities stacked there.
- Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire began as a republic run by elected officials. It still lasted, in one form or another, until 1453.
- ColosseumEmperor Vespasian drained Nero's private lake to build the Colosseum in its place. War spoils paid for it.
- GladiatorRoman gladiator games began as a gift to a dead father. In 264 BC, three pairs fought in a cattle market.