Episode 30: Risk and Reward

The Army of Italy pushes north to support a French offensive in Germany, but finds Wurmser already back on the march, leading to a major battle at Bassano and a frantic race down from the Alps. Conditions within Mantua worsen. We meet a young, capable Austrian commander: Archduke ...  Show more

Napoleon faces a new opponent, who gives the Army of Italy their toughest fight of the campaign so far. He suffers his first defeats as commander-in-chief. We examine an iconic moment of Napoleon's career: the assault on the bridge at Arcole. Support the show: https://www.patreon ...  Show more

By 711 Europe and the Frankish warlords were facing a graver threat than ever before. Bands of Northern African, nominally Muslim raiders had begun a steady incursion throughout the West, loosely unified under the banner of the Umayyads. Having already taken and plundered the Chr ...  Show more

A massive army of Odin-worshippers sail down the Seine and threaten Paris. With the Carolingians gone the Franks will have to fend for themselves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

With the first bricks laid for its foundations in the year 70 A.D., the Roman Colosseum was always fated to be the home of extravagance and excessive bloodletting. Its savage and brutal history has scarred the ground upon which it stands, and even to this day, people can still he ...  Show more

It was perhaps Hannibal’s greatest gamble — after years of victories, not least his famed trek across the snow-capped Alps, could he strike at Rome itself?

In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr. Louis Rawlings to explore the dramatic years a ...