The plague that brought the Roman empire to i...

Long before the modern debates over gun control, Renaissance Italy was grappling with many of the same questions. As firearms became smaller and easier to conceal, guns spread rapidly through society: moving from battlefields to appearances at court, and the streets of the Italia ...  Show more

How did the sign of the Red Vampire help British surgeons during the Second World War? Roderick Bailey, author of 'The Life Savers', explains to David Musgrove how Britain led the way in blood banks during the war, and how such prowess saved lives, strengthened the war effort, an ...  Show more

Tom and Dominic are joined by friend of the show Kyle Harper to discuss how pandemics and disease played a far greater role in the decline of the Roman Empire than previously understood. On the show Kyle, Dominic, and Tom discuss life expectancy, how the Roman Empire was ‘bad fo ...  Show more

In the summer of 541, bubonic plague struck the Roman Empire. Known as the Justinianic Plague, it would be just as bad as the Black Death that 800 years later devastated Medieval Europe. Find out what happened here!Support the showFor a free ebook, maps and blogs check out my web ...  Show more

For centuries, the Roman Empire commanded unparalleled control over the world around it. It expanded its borders through trade and conquest, sucking resources from the periphery into its thriving centre - Rome. And then, suddenly, everything changed. The Empire entered a state ...

Was this the worst year in human history? Bubonic plague sweeps across the Mediterranean. The sun vanishes behind volcanic ash. Crops fail, famine bites, and the Roman empire lurches towards collapse.In this episode of The Ancients, the third in our special Great Disasters series ...  Show more