Same-Sex Marriages in Renaissance Rome

How did two Indigenous men help shape Elizabethan England's dreams of empire? What do these early encounters tell us about the contested beginnings of colonial America?In the 1580s, English explorers ventured west in search of land, influence and advantage. But this was not an in ...  Show more

What effect did the Great Plague have on Londoners, their society and the wider state?Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Rebecca Rideal revisit the summer of 1665, as a few suspicious deaths grew into a crisis that swept through the city with devastating speed. Entire households van ...  Show more

Known as the Eternal City, ancient Rome was one of the greatest civilisations in human history, but how did it come about?

With a turbulent history of Kings, civil wars and imperial desires - Rome has an incredible history. But who founded it? Were Romulus and Remus ...

In Ancient Greece and the Roman empire homosexual relationships were an accepted and common practice. In this hyper-masculine society the male form was revered for its physical perfection while women’s virtue was jealously guarded to ensure the legitimacy of children. In Greece r ...  Show more

Coming up on this episode of Talking History: we're exploring entertainment, culture, religion and society in Ancient Rome, with Dr Jonathan Coulston, Senior Lecturer at the School of Classics at The University of St Andrews; Dr Rebecca Usherwood, Assistant Professor in Late Anti ...  Show more

In this episode of The Ancients, host Tristan Hughes speaks with historian Honor Cargill-Martin about the notorious Empress Messalina, third wife of Emperor Claudius. A lot has been said about Messalina over two millennia: that she was a nymphomaniac who organised orgies and e ...