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A Day at the Theatre in Ancient Athens
18 december 2025 · 51 min
The Ancient Greeks, it’s often said, invented theatre - and the plays they wrote are still big box office today, particularly when you have a Hollywood star in the main part. In this episode, Mary and Charlotte wonder what a day at the theatre in Ancient Athens was actually like. Did it bear any resemblance to theatre-going experience in the West End or Broadway today? Lees meer
The more one gets into the nitty-gritty of Greek theatre festivals - the military parades, hymn singing, displays of war booty, processions of unmarried girls, orphans, and large phalluses - the more alien it seems. The fact that it took place in the open air and the actors wore masks is the least of it.
So what was really going on when the Athenians got together to watch a play? Why was the state so involved? And would Mary and Charlotte, as women, have even been allowed in?
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email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com
On Greek theatre, the context and the practicalities… Good accessible introductions are:
The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Theatre, ed. McDonald and Walton (Cambridge UP pb, 2011)
The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy, ed. Easterling (Cambridge UP pb, 1997)
There is a crucial academic article on the pre-performance ceremonies by Simon Goldhill: 'The Great Dionysia and Civic Ideology', reprinted in Nothing to Do with Dionysos? Athenian Drama in Its Social Context, ed. Winkler and Zeitlin (Princeton UP, pb 1992)
Greek Tragedy: Suffering Under the Sun by Edith Hall
Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci
Producer: Jonty Claypole
Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford
Video Editor: Jak Ford
Theme music: Casey Gibson
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (or did it?)
11 december 2025 · 42 min
From Asterix to Up Pompeii to Life of Brian, there are lots of modern comedies about the Romans, but what did the Romans themselves find funny? In this episode, Mary and Charlotte share their favourite Roman jokes and ask the bigger questions: what can Roman humour tell us about the world of ancient Rome itself? Can we still ‘get’ Roman jokes and do any of them still have the power to make us laugh now? Lees meer
Fortunately, there’s a surprising number of Roman jokes that survive today - whether graffiti, on papyrus and an actual joke book called Philogelos. Despite the contemporary image of Rome as an autocratic, relentlessly bloodthirsty society, their jokes tell a different story. Works like Apocolocyntosis (The Pumpkinification of the divine Claudius) by Seneca show a huge irreverence to imperial grandeur, while the surviving jokes we have very rarely exhibit the cruelty we associate with a society hooked on slavery and gladiatorial games. They also suggest a widespread anxiety around self-identity - jokes about people who don’t know who they are really or how they fit into society.
Finally, Mary reveals her favourite Roman joke of all time. But will Charlotte laugh? The stakes are high. Listen to find out.
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email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com
Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading:
Charlotte recommends Laughter in Ancient Rome: On Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up (UCal press pb, new ed. 2024) by one Mary Beard as ‘the’ book on Roman humour.
Mary got a lot out of: J, Bremmer and H. Roodenburg, A cultural history of humour (Polity pb, 1997)
J. Clarke, Looking at Laughter: Humour, Power and Transgression in Roman visual culture (UCal press, 2007). It includes the wonderful images of the philosophers on the lavatory.
S Critchley, On Humour (Routledge pb, 2002)
Though she warns that books on laughter are often quite serious!
Available online – a translation of Seneca’s Apocolocyntosi…
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Life, Death and Gladiators in Roman London
5 december 2025 · 1 uur 2 min
Recorded live in an actual Roman amphitheatre underneath the Guildhall Art Gallery in London, Mary and Charlotte uncover the (Roman) origins of one of the world’s great cities. Lees meer
London’s Roman amphitheatre may not be the Colosseum, but it’s thought it could hold up to 7,000 spectators, which is not nothing in the ancient world. London was founded soon after the invasion by the Romans in 43 CE as a port city, on the lowest bridgeable part of the Thames, and it quickly became a hub of trade and commerce. By the 60s CE, it was significant enough for Boudica to have a crack at burning it to the ground (and the archaeology suggests she was successful).
But what was the city like – and does it bear any relation to its modern counterpart? Evidence suggests, then as now, London was a multicultural city, and part of an administrative and trade network that connected it to the opposite edges of the empire and beyond. From London we have tombstones of men born in Antioch and Athens. And evidence of several religions with origins in far-flung parts of the empire, including the cult of Mithras, which developed in Iran; Isis, originally from Egypt; and Cybele, with its roots in Asia Minor.
Finally, Mary and Charlotte come back to the ground beneath their feet. Who would have come to this amphitheatre back in the day? And what took place? In all honesty it’s best not to think of Russell Crowe and lions. Rather some local pot-bellied thugs and wild boar from the local forests. But there’s space for both, right?
Our thanks to the Guildhall Art Gallery, the City of London Corporation and the Cultural Mile Business Improvement District for hosting us. And do visit London’s Roman Amphitheatre. It’s open Monday to Sunday 10am-5pm. It is very much worth a visit and it is FREE.
Content warning: Mary and Charlotte have a squeamish conversation about a Roman instrument now in the British Museum which may or may not have been used for castration.
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Athena: Private Life of a Greek Goddess
27 november 2025 · 44 min
Athena: goddess, shape-shifter, helper of heroes, fashion guru, patron deity of Athens and a bit of a daddy’s girl. She’s also one of the most elusive and puzzling characters in Greek mythology. In this episode, Mary and Charlotte ask who exactly is Athena? Is she a female role model for feminine power? More importantly, what exactly is a god in Greek mythology? Lees meer
Part of Athena’s appeal is that she bucks the perception of Ancient Greece as inflexibly misogynistic. For Charlotte, discovering Athena as a girl was part of what drew her to the classical world. And, as Mary’s mother once said (to the young Mary): “If Athens was the kind of society you tell me it was in which women had no power,I don't understand why their patron deity was a goddess.” Many years later, Mary - and Charlotte - still struggle to answer this question, which is part of what makes her so enduringly fascinating.
In uncovering Athena’s story and contradictions, they also reveal the origins of the phrase ‘under the aegis’, where Nike shoes got their name from, and why - if Athena were around today - she’d probably be Mark Zuckerberg’s corporate guru.
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email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com
Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading:
For the Greek texts and myths to which we refer:
Homer, The Odyssey, tr Emily Wilson, Norton, 2018
Homer, The Iliad, tr Emily Wilson, Norton, 2023
Aeschylus, Oresteia, in James Romm and Mary Lefkovitz, eds The Greek Plays, 2017 (a really useful anthology of 16 translations of Greek plays). The Eumenides which we discuss is the third play in Aeschylus’ trilogy on the murder of Agamemnon and its upshot. The title means ‘Kindly Ones’, a euphemism for the Furies who are pursuing Orestes for the mudder of his mother.
Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myths, Johns Hopkins, 1996 (a mighty two-volume tome, for the serious student)
Charlotte Higgins, Greek Myths, Vintage, 2022
Susan Deacy, Athena, Rou…
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Boudica: The Woman Who Defied an Empire Pt2
20 november 2025 · 32 min
In the second of this two-part special, Mary and Charlotte rejoin Boudica as she marches on London, continues her path of destruction, and finally meets the Roman army on the battlefield. Lees meer
It’s a dramatic story, complete with Boudica’s rousing speeches to her troops and her death by suicide when she realises the battle is lost. The Roman historians who tell this story depict her as a brutal perpetrator of war crimes, but… they also present her as a victim, brave warrior and inspiring speech-giver, able to skewer the injustice of Roman imperialism.
The question is: why? Why do Roman historians, who had sole control of the narrative, portray Boudica as the agent of a just cause? Today, we rarely treat our enemies with such sympathy. The presentation of Boudica’s story gives fascinating insights into how the Romans not only tolerated but, to a certain extent, even encouraged criticism.
Finally, Mary and Charlotte investigate the after-life of Boudica’s legend, ending with her status as a hero in Colchester - the very town she razed to the ground. And if you fancy driving round the Boudica roundabout a few times, it’s on Turner Road near Colchester North Station!
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@insta_classics for X
email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com
Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading:
The main ancient texts are: Tacitus, Agricola 14-16; Annals 14, 29-39; Dio Cassius, Histories of Rome 62, 1-2, all conveniently collected at https://www.roman-britain.co.uk/roman-conquest-and-occupation-of-britain/boudica-the-iceni-warrior-queen/boudica-classical-references/
Richard Hingley and Christina Unwin, Boudica: Iron Age Queen (Hambledon Continuum pb, 2006) is an accessible account of Boudica from the Iron Age to her modern representations. Hingley reviews the evidence and some of the books on the subject, including his own, at https://fivebooks.com/best-books/boudica-richard-hingley/
Charlotte tells the story of Boudica, and discusses some…
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Boudica: The Woman Who Defied an Empire pt 1
13 november 2025 · 30 min
Boudica. Britain’s original badass. A warrior queen who almost defeated the Romans, gave voice to the oppressed and inspired countless school children ever since. But what do we really know about her? Mary and Charlotte trace her story, asking how much of the myth is true and whether we should really celebrate her today. Lees meer
History is told by the victors - and everything we know about Boudica comes from the Romans. It’s almost certain that there really was a woman called something like Boudica who drove terror into the hearts of the Roman colony in Britain. Archeological evidence also suggests the scale of the devastation she wrought. But beyond that, we cannot be certain.
In this first episode of a two-part special, Mary and Charlotte look at the backdrop to her story - the Roman ‘conquest’ of a few patches of Britain, the delicate network of truces and bargains they forged with local leaders, and the emergence of Boudica as queen of a tribe called the Iceni. The episode ends with Boudica burning the Roman stronghold in (what is now) Colchester to the ground and marching towards London.
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email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com
Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading:
The main ancient texts are: Tacitus, Agricola 14-16; Annals 14, 29-39; Dio Cassius, Histories of Rome 62, 1-2, all conveniently collected at https://www.roman-britain.co.uk/roman-conquest-and-occupation-of-britain/boudica-the-iceni-warrior-queen/boudica-classical-references/
Richard Hingley and Christina Unwin, Boudica: Iron Age Queen (Hambledon Continuum pb, 2006) is an accessible account of Boudica from the Iron Age to her modern representations. Hingley reviews the evidence and some of the books on the subject, including his own, at https://fivebooks.com/best-books/boudica-richard-hingley/
The archaeological evidence for the revolt is very clear but can be difficult to interpret in detail. Some fascinating recent discov…
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A Trip To The Underworld
6 november 2025 · 46 min
Any Greek hero worth their salt makes a trip to the Underworld at some point during their adventures. Mary and Charlotte follow in their footsteps, crossing the River Styx to ask: what exactly was the Underworld? How was it different to the Judeo-Christian ‘Heaven’? And why has the idea of it proven so enduring even though nobody believes in it? Lees meer
The Underworld can’t be mapped (although some scholars have tried) because it didn’t exist, but there are consistent features in the many myths in which it features: the River Styx, Charon the Ferryman, the god Hades, his wife Persephone, and the numberless dead like autumn leaves. Orpheus and Theseus visited. Hercules - hard man that he was - went twice. A human princess called Psyche also went in search of her lover.
Mary and Charlotte dwell on the longish accounts in Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid. Through these stories they get some sense of what the Underworld really meant to the Ancient Greeks and Romans - and what it still means to us.
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email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com
Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading:
We focus on Odysseus’ encounter with the dead in Homer, Odyssey Book 11, and on Aeneas’ visit to the underworld in Virgil, Aeneid Book 6. But there are more!
https://www.thecollector.com/mortals-underworld-katabasis-greek-roman-mythology/ is an online, well-illustrated, article detailing 14 ancient visits to the underworld.
Modern fictions of the underworld based on the Odyssey are the theme of one chapter of Edith Hall’s Return of Ulysses (available free at https://edithhall.co.uk/)
Some of our very recent favourites are Carol Ann Duffy’s poem, “Eurydice”, from her collection, The World’s Wife (1999) and R. F. Kuang’s novel Katabasis (2025)
Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci
Producer: Jonty Claypole
Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford
Video Editor: Jak Ford
Theme music: Casey Gibson
Production intern:…
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Roman Ghostbusters
30 oktober 2025 · 38 min
As the Halloween season hits, Mary and Charlotte turn to the wealth of ghost stories from the ancient world to ask: did the Greeks and Romans really believe in ghosts and why are their stories so similar to ours when many of our beliefs are so different? Lees meer
Mary and Charlotte recount a ghost story recounted by Pliny the Younger about a haunted house in Athens and the successful attempt by a philosopher to both encounter the ghost and lay its spirit to rest. They also tell the story, written down in Greece in the 3rd century CE, about a young man who is seduced by a vampire. And they discover the Roman methods of exorcism, which involves chewing on some beans and throwing them behind you. When it came to ghostbusting, then as now, don’t cross the beans!
Some Romans even believed that the city itself was haunted by the restless spirit of Remus who - in one telling of Rome’s favourite origin story - was murdered by his brother Romulus to take sole control of the new city.
@instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube
@insta_classics for X
email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com
Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci
Producer: Jonty Claypole
Executive Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford
Video Editor: Jak Ford
Theme music: Casey Gibson
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Special Announcement! - Instant Classics Live
28 oktober 2025 · 1 min
Exciting News! Lees meer
Vespucci, in collaboration with the City of London Corporation and the Culture Mile Business Improvement District, is thrilled to present the very first live recording of Instant Classics on November 26th, 2025.
Join hosts Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins as they journey back nearly two millennia to uncover what life was really like in Roman London. What did a typical night out look like for a Londoner in the first century CE? Were they cheering on gladiators, swapping gossip in the baths, or making offerings to mysterious gods?
We’ll explore all this and more right where history happened, within the atmospheric remains of London’s Roman Amphitheatre at the Guildhall Art Gallery, dating back to the first century CE.
Book Club Members: Check your inbox today for an exclusive early-access link to purchase tickets before the general release on Friday, October 31st.
For those wanting to gain early access, you can join our Book Club at www.instantclassicspod.com. Spaces are limited, and this intimate setting promises an unforgettable evening.
Have any questions? Drop us a line at instantclassicspod@gmail.com.
We can’t wait to see you there and meet you in person (how novel).
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Did Nero Really Fiddle While Rome Burned?
23 oktober 2025 · 44 min
‘Fiddling while Rome burns’ is an accusation flung at every political leader at some point in their career. In this episode, Mary and Charlotte uncover the origins of this phrase and ask: why has it proved so resonant that it has carried through the centuries and right around the world? Lees meer
In 64 CE, a huge fire broke out in Rome. It lasted for over a week and devastated much of the city. Today, what is more famous than the fire itself is what the emperor Nero did while it was going on. He watched - and played his lyre.
This story, perhaps more than any other, has given Nero a bad rap, but ancient writers also say that he supervised rescue efforts, gave free food to the people, introduced sensible planning regulations and was visionary in rebuilding the devastated areas. So why has the fiddling image won out and why is it used so often in contemporary political discourse?
Mary and Charlotte explore these questions, pointing out in the process that fiddles hadn’t been invented at the time Nero is meant to have played one, that the Colosseum gets its name from a colossal statue of Nero, and that it’s the forgotten parts of the fiddling legend that make the modern use of the term so powerful.
Finally, they ask: all things considered, did Nero REALLY fiddle while Rome burned? And they give an answer.
Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading
The ancient sources are collected and analysed in detail here: https://dcc.dickinson.edu/tacitus-annals/introduction/annals-outline/annals-38-41-outline
Nero has always attracted a LOT of academic interest.
E. Champlin, Nero (Harvard UP, pb, 2005) is an accessible biography (rather favourable to Nero)
For a focus on the fire itself, and its wider context, see: A. Barrett, Rome is Burning: Nero and the Fire that Ended a Dynasty (Princeton UP, pb, 2020)
The history of modern cartoons of political leaders fiddling while Rome burned is explored by Ginna Closs here: https://eidolon.pub/x-fiddled-while-y-burned-80abf13e7c08…
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Underneath The Toga
16 oktober 2025 · 39 min
Can it really have taken seven episodes of Instant Classics to get to everyone’s favourite Roman meme: the toga party? Mary and Charlotte grasp the thistle - or rather the sinus (fold at the front of a toga) - and ask what exactly is a toga? Who wore them and when? And how do you make one? Lees meer
In this fact-filled episode, we discover that - despite the antics of students around the world today - a toga wasn’t a bed-sheet turned into a sort of cheap tunic for getting blind drunk in, but an elaborate, woollen garment more like a cloak or robe that signified power. We find out how many kilometres of woollen thread were necessary to make a toga, where the word ‘candidate’ (as in political candidate) comes from and which Roman emperor wore platform shoes to make himself look taller.
As they go deeper into the folds of the toga, Mary and Charlotte reveal how wearing one was about much more than looking smart but got to the very essence of what it meant to be Roman.
And… in case you’re wondering… one of our hosts has been to a toga party. But can you guess whether it’s Mary or Charlotte?
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Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading
Roman dress has been a bit of a boom area of study recently.
Mary Harlow explains many of the practical aspects (including a fun video showing how to actually put one on) here: https://romanleicester.com/2020/06/30/dress-to-impress/
There is good, accessible stuff on the rights and wrongs of toga-wearing here: https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/unromantest/chapter/the-roman-man-and-the-toga/
More specialised:
Camilla Ebert, Sidsel Frisch, Mary Harlow, Eva Andersson Strand and Lena Bjerregaard (eds), Traditional Textile Craft: An Intangible Cultural Heritage? (Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen, 2016)
Judith Lynn Sebasta and Larissa Bonfante (eds), The World of Roman Costume (Wisconsin UP, pb, 1994)
Jonathan Edmo…
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Cassandra: Prophet Of The Modern World?
9 oktober 2025 · 49 min
Who was the mythical Cassandra and why have pop stars started singing about her? Mary and Charlotte turn sleuth and track the elusive Trojan princess through the pages of ancient texts - from Homer’s Iliad to Virgil’s Aeneid. Lees meer
Today, Cassandra is most famous as a prophetess who could predict the future, but was cursed to never be believed. As a result, Troy burned and Agamemnon and Cassandra herself were murdered. Generally, that disbelieving was done by men. No wonder people talk of Greta Thunberg as a modern day Cassandra, or that Taylor Swift and Florence Welch have positioned her as a pin-up girl for misunderstood (female) celebrities.
But, with the greatest respect to Taylor and Florence, Mary and Charlotte think Cassandra is rather more interesting than that. From her warnings about the Trojan Horse right through to her very nasty end at the gates of Mycenae, Cassandra’s story tells us about the limitations of human communication and language more generally. That, not just because she said ‘I told you so’, is why she stays with us, meaning different things at different times.
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Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading
We focus on Cassandra’s role in Aeschylus’ play Agamemnon in the moments leading up to her death (easily available in translation in eg Penguin Classics or Oxford World’s Classics series).
Euripides’ Trojan Women (likewise easily available in translation) takes the women who appear at the end of the Iliad – Hecuba, Helen, Andromache and Cassandra – and asks: “What happened to these women after Troy fell?”
Lesya Ukrainka’s 1908 dramatic poem Cassandra, translated by Nina Murray (Harvard Library of Ukrainian Literature, 2024), a classic of Ukrainian literature now available in English, brilliantly puts Cassandra at the centre of her own story. A philosophically rich and very moving text.
Emily Hauser, Mythica (Doubleday, 2025; P…
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How did Rome begin?
2 oktober 2025 · 34 min
We all know what Rome became - largest empire of the ancient world, public bathing, gladiators, aqueducts, excellent roads and all that - but how did it begin? Who founded it? When? And why? Mary and Charlotte sift through the various myths that give some insight to these questions. Lees meer
Peel back the layers of history and Rome’s origins are lost in the bog on which it was built. Archaeology offers us evidence of Bronze Age huts, burial practice and trade with neighbouring (and far-flung) lands, but leaves many of the big questions unanswered.
This is a problem not only for classicists, but the countless men who apparently think of the Roman Empire several times a day. The Romans themselves struggled with their murky history. Even for them, the question of why they had risen to such extraordinary power was puzzling. The thought of humble origins sat uneasily with the grandeur and pomp of the imperial capital. So they did what many other cultures do and made up stories that explained their path to greatness.
If you’ve heard of outcast babies Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf, that’s just the icing on the cake. Accounts of the Romulus myth vary wildly. In some versions, he eventually ascends to heaven as a god. In others, he is hacked to death by his disgruntled subjects.
Other myths point elsewhere. The “Roman race” in Italy was founded by a Trojan exile called Aeneas, although he didn’t actually found the city of Rome itself. Maybe, that was a Greek called Evander, long before Romulus.
It’s easy to dismiss these stories, but Mary and Charlotte argue that they tell us a great deal about how the Romans understood themselves and their city (whether there is some grain of literal truth in them, who knows?). Most of all they point to the way that, at some deep level, they considered themselves to be an immigrant culture - outcasts, exiles and opportunists - searching for a better life.
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Decoding The Parthenon
25 september 2025 · 53 min
The Parthenon is one of the most celebrated and recognisable buildings in the world, but what did it mean to the Ancient Greeks? What role did it play in Greek society? And what did it look like in its heyday? Together, Mary and Charlotte decode the Parthenon. Lees meer
By happy coincidence, Mary is not just co-host of Instant Classics, but author of Charlotte’s favourite book on the subject: The Parthenon (Profile/Harvard University Press, 2002).
In this episode, Mary and Charlotte pick their way through the stones of Parthenon, beginning with its construction in the middle of the 5th century BCE. The building work only took fifteen years (significantly faster than medieval cathedrals), but demanded a huge amount of labour, both enslaved and free.
Today, the Parthenon looks austere, pale and hardly decorated. A simple monument from a simpler age, perhaps. But what we see bears little relation to what the Greeks saw - and the building, its function and decoration retain many mysteries. For instance…
It was built as a temple to the city’s patron goddess Athena, but who was Athena and what exactly went on in a ‘temple’?
We know that it was painted and covered in sculptures - some of which survive - but whether the painting was subtle or gaudy is hard to say, while the significance of some of the sculptures continues to elude us – some of it was hardly even visible from the ground.
Inside, there were two rooms: one housed a giant, golden statue of Athena; the other was a treasury filled with riches. But where did all this loot come from and how was it guarded?
Finally, if you are lucky enough to visit, what is the best time of day to go and – is it really worth it – or are you better off going to the beach?
Find out the answer - or possible answers - to these questions in Decoding the Parthenon.
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email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com
To join the Instant Classics Book Club and share our trip into Homer…
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Free Speech - An Ancient History
18 september 2025 · 48 min
In the wake of recent conflicts over free speech and acts of political violence, Mary and Charlotte discuss how - then as now - free speech dominated the political agenda in the ancient world, with wildly different interpretations about what it meant and who got to decide. Lees meer
They discuss two distinct, yet complimentary principles in Ancient Athenian democracy: Parrhesia (free or frank speech) and isegoria (the equal right to speak). In theory, parrhesia preserved the right to speak truth to power, including the scandalous sexual jokes about public figures which pepper the comedies of the Greek stage. Tolerance of these plays suggested the Athenians generally recognised the validity of frank speech - and one of the state warships was even named parrhesia.
Isegoria embodied the principle that any free man had an equal right to participate in public discourse, although in practice this was rarely the case. Polished public speaking came with a good education and those who lacked it could be physically silenced.
The principles of free speech and equality are deceptively simple, and - as with today - interpretation and implementation varied wildly, depending on who held power. The life and death of the philosopher Socrates provides an interesting case study. He is often celebrated as a martyr of free speech, dying in its name, but on closer examination this isn’t exactly what happened.
They also look at free speech in Ancient Rome and the sobering story of Cicero’s final hours, in which his tongue - allegedly - was stitched into silence.
Join the Instant Classics Book Club here: https://instantclassics.supportingcast.fm/
Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading
Plato’s version of Socrates’ response to the charges against him is found in his Apology of Socrates (this, like all ancient works we mention here, is widely available in translation in print and online). NB in Greek apologia means “defence” not “sorry”.
An important debate in the Athenian assembly …
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What Sappho Still Teaches Us About Love
11 september 2025 · 52 min
In Ancient Greece, the Iliad was the poem above all other poems - an epic full of war and bloodshed that tells of the great heroes who fought and died for Troy. Lees meer
But not so long after the supposed composition of the Iliad, a woman on the Mediterranean island of Lesbos, close to the coast of modern-day Turkey, introduced a new and enduring note to poetry: desire.
Her name was Sappho. She was revered through the Ancient World, but today only one work survives in its entirety: a poem usually known as the Hymn to Aphrodite. The rest is fragments - only about 600 lines of the 10,000 lines the Romans were still reading seven centuries after her death.
Sappho lived in the 7th Century BCE, long before the rise of Athens as the dominant city-state in Ancient Greece. It was before democracy, before the Parthenon and, arguably, before the extreme subjugation of women common in the later “classical” period. Women weren’t exactly liberated in seventh century Lesbos, but it looks like they were a lot freer than in fifth-century Athens. From her poetry, we can tell she was an aristocrat, a singer, a lover, and a mother.
Sappho, famously, loved women. And in this episode, Charlotte and Mary explain why they also love Sappho. Not only is she the great poet of desire, but she also writes about nature, motherhood, middle-age, bad knees, and why war - despite what her brothers might say - is boring.
Charlotte and Mary recreate what they can of Sappho’s life and art. And they ask the big question: why is it that so little of her work survives compared to many male writers of the ancient world? Are medieval monks to blame? Was she, as Otis Redding sang, just too hot to handle?
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To join the Instant Classics Book Club and share our trip into Homer’s Odyssey, go to https://instantclassics.supportingcast.fm/
New episodes will be published every other Tuesday, and available exclus…
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A Day At The Races In Ancient Rome
4 september 2025 · 42 min
Think ‘Roman sport’ and images of Kirk Douglas, Russell Crowe, Paul Mescal and other Hollywood gladiators may come to mind. But while the Romans were partial to blood-sports, chariot-racing was the really big thing. Lees meer
The archaeological remains of chariot-racing tracks have been found all over the Roman Empire, but none suggest a scale or grandeur close to the Circus Maximus in Rome. At full capacity, we think it could take a quarter of a million people - that’s twice the largest football stadium today.
In this episode, Mary and Charlotte recreate what a day at the races was actually like for the Romans. They describe how chariot-racing worked as a sport, what the experience may have been like for the spectators (courtesy of the poet Ovid), although remain stumped by the not insignificant issue of how a quarter of a million people went to the loo when archeological labour has - so far - only discovered one, solitary toilet.
They also describe how the chariot-racing industry worked, and the phenomenal wealth that prize charioteers acquired (Cristiano Ronaldo looks underpaid in comparison).
Ultimately, it is impossible to draw comparisons with sporting events today because chariot-racing at the Circus Maximus was far more than entertainment. It played a hugely important role in the political life of the empire as one of the few places where the people in large numbers could encounter the emperor . As a consequence, it was not only a site for chariot-racing but for mass public protest. How the emperor behaved, before the gaze of the city, was critical to his popularity. While no emperor was ever unseated at the Circus Maximus, it gave his enemies a chance to see whether the people would mind if something unpleasant happened to him later.
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Which Roman Emperor is Donald Trump?
28 augustus 2025 · 44 min
For a long time being a classicist didn’t exactly make you a hit at a party. Then along came Donald Trump and suddenly everybody wants to know: Which Roman emperor is he most like? Lees meer
In this inaugural episode of Instant Classics, Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins confront the question they are asked the most. And, as ever when Mary Beard is involved, the answer isn’t always as simple as you might think.
Mary and Charlotte explain how most of what we know about the emperors is unreliable. We do get some extraordinary glimpses behind the palace walls (Suetonius, the biographer of the first “12 Caesars” was a real insider – having worked as palace archivist and librarian). But almost all our accounts of them come from after their reign and are part of “posthumous reputation making”. Often, the way to keep bloke in power pleased was to trash his predecessors. Did Caligula really have all his soldiers pick up every shell on a beach or plan to make his favourite horse a consul?
These stories may be fanciful, but they are hugely important nevertheless and were repeated for generations. They are some of the best evidence for Romans thought of their emperors, about their fears of imperial power and how it falls.
So one to one, real life comparisons are always misleading (insists Mary!). But the wider patterns of political power can be similar then and now. Donald Trump plays many of the tunes that you find in the emperors’ playbook: capriciousness as a political tactic (they’re always changing their mind); Julius Caesar was one who made a point of speaking directly to the people to bypass political institutions (Trump does it through social media); wanton cruelty mixed with sudden acts of generosity.
Charlotte doesn’t let Mary off the hook. Yes, it’s hard to draw direct comparisons, but - come on Mary! - which emperor is Trump most like?
Answers are given!
@instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube
@insta_classics for X
email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com
Mary an…
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Instant Classics - Trailer
19 augustus 2025 · 1 min
A new podcast hosted by Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins.
Ancient stories, modern twists… and no degree in Classics required. Lees meerEpisode 1 Available on Thursday, August 28th, 2025.
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