Ancient Lives with Mary Beard

BBC Radio 4

Mary Beard unearths the lives of the Ancients. Join Mary as she discovers the real lives of people from the ancient Greek world and the Roman empire.

  1. 3d ago

    The Greengrocer Who Saved Democracy

    Meet Gerys, a Bulgarian slave who sells fruit and veg in the marketplace of Ancient Athens. He’s been bought and sold, he’s done his time rowing warships for the Athenian navy but now he’s at the centre of the Greek world. Passing his stall, squeezing his olives and buying his wares are poets and philosophers, judges and generals. He hears the debates over the future of Athenian democracy, senses its peril and witnesses its downfall as the city is conquered by Sparta and a military junta imposed on its defeated people. When the moment comes to rebel he’s one of the first in line to join the rag-tag army of democracy, march to the top of a hill in the port of Piraeus and face down the terrifying ranks of the Spartans and their Athenian anti-democratic allies. Victory is won against the odds but what reward do Gerys and his family win for his bravery? Mary Beard enters the world of the Greek slave and asks what it takes to become a true citizen of Athens. Producer: Alasdair Cross Researcher: Anna Charalambou Actor: Stavros Demetraki Expert Contributors: Rebecca Sweetman, Elizavet Sioumpara and Vincent Azoulay Special thanks to the British School at Athens and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture

  2. Jul 14

    The Odyssey of Gamma 58

    When the German archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, pulled a shining mask from the bone-dry earth of Mycenae he is said to have telegraphed the King of Greece with the words, ‘I have gazed upon the face of Agamemnon’. The unearther of Troy was convinced that he had found more proof that the stories of Homer were based on historical fact. Here was the grave of one of the legendary commanders of the Greek forces in the Trojan War. Later analysis rubbished Schliemann’s romantic notions, but the graves on this hillside high above the Aegean hold many more fascinating secrets and, in this episode, Mary asks what we can learn from the bones and elaborate grave goods of a Mycenaean woman that archaeologists have labelled, Gamma 58. Homer’s stories of war, adventure, family and homecoming never lose their appeal. Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey is released in cinemas this month and Ralph Fiennes played Odysseus in last year’s highly acclaimed The Return. That film's director, Uberto Pasolini joins Mary and the novelist and historian Emily Hauser in a search for the real people that lie between myth and history. Gamma 58 isn’t Helen of Troy or Odysseus’s Penelope but she has her own story to tell of male power and female agency. Producer: Alasdair Cross Researcher: Anna Charalambou Expert Contributors: Emily Hauser of Exeter University, Pontus Skoglund and Eirini Skourtanioti of the Francis Crick Institute and Rachel Phillips of the British School at Athens Special thanks to the British School at Athens, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the Francis Crick Institute

  3. Jul 7

    Star of Stage and Temple

    It took quite an effort for a woman to capture attention in Ancient Greece. You could be a beautiful goddess or a savage monster but high profile career options for flesh and blood women were rather thin on the ground. So why has the name of Myrrhine survived for two and a half thousand years? We can find her name inscribed on a gravestone in the dusty corridors of the Epigraphic Museum in Athens, painted alongside the gods on an enormous funeral vase in the National Archaeology Museum. And she appears as the most cunning of the Greek wives withholding sex from their desperate husbands in the Lysistrata- the best known and most performed of the Ancient Greek comedies. So who was Myrrhine, how did she achieve her contemporary fame and why does she still speak to us from the stage today? Mary’s search takes her from the back streets of Athens to the peak of the Acropolis. Producer: Alasdair Cross Researcher: Anna Charalambou Actors: Robert Wilfort as Cinesias and Laura Dos Santos as Myrrhine Expert contributors: Nikolaos Papazarkades of the University of California, Berkeley, Nick Lowe from Royal Holloway University of London, Tulsi Parikh of the British School at Athens and Andronike Makres of the University of the Peloponnese Special thanks to the British School at Athens, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, the Epigraphic Museum of Athens and the National Archaeological Museum, Athens

  4. Jun 30

    Courtroom Drama

    From Marvel movies to presidential elections their powerful influence endures on our stories, philosophies and politics, but what it was it like to be an Ancient Greek? Scattered clues need to be gathered until they form a living, breathing human, witness to the cultural powerhouse that was Ancient Greece. In Being Greek, Mary Beard, Britain’s best-selling historian of the ancient world, rebuilds the lives of six people, from a priestess to a murderer. Her investigations reveal the limits of female independence and take us deep into the marriage of an Athenian power couple. Themes of faith, politics and justice reveal the foundations of Greek society, but it’s the thoughts, feelings and lifestyles of individual Greeks she’s really interested in. Gods and legendary heroes are easy to come by, but Mary looks behind the temples and beyond the classic myths, filling in her stories with the relatable detail of Greek life, uncovering what they ate, how they decorated their homes and raised their children. Mary visits the sites that help cast fresh light on past lives- the grave of a powerful woman in prehistoric Mycenae, an exquisite temple clutching the slopes of the Acropolis and the dusty plains of Marathon. Experts in Greece and the UK help Mary interpret the clues, along with film director Martin Scorsese who’s fascinated by the story of a gangster of the ancient world who pulled powerful strings to escape imperial justice. In the first episode we meet Euphiletos, on trial for the murder of his wife's lover. Can he convince the jury that this is a crime of passion, not a calculated act of mob violence? Producer: Alasdair Cross Researcher: Anna Charalambou Expert Contributors: Rosanna Omitowoju, Cambridge University and Rebecca Sweetman, Director of the British School at Athens Actors: Robert Wilfort as Euphiletos and Laura Dos Santos as the old woman Translations by Mary Beard Special thanks to Elizavet Sioumpara and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture

  5. Jun 16

    Trailer

    From Christopher Nolan blockbusters to presidential elections, their powerful influence endures on our stories, philosophies and politics, but what it was it like to be an Ancient Greek? Scattered clues need to be gathered until they form a living, breathing human, witness to the cultural powerhouse that was Ancient Greece. In Being Greek- her sequel to Being Roman- Mary Beard, Britain’s best-selling historian of the ancient world, rebuilds the lives of six people, from a priestess to a murderer. Her investigations reveal the limits of female independence and take us deep into the marriage of an Athenian power couple. Themes of faith, politics and justice reveal the foundations of Greek society, but it’s the thoughts, feelings and lifestyles of individual Greeks she’s really interested in. Gods and legendary heroes are easy to come by, but Mary looks behind the temples and beyond the classic myths, filling in her stories with the relatable detail of Greek life, uncovering what they ate, how they decorated their homes and raised their children. Mary visits the sites that help cast fresh light on past lives- the grave of a powerful woman in prehistoric Mycenae, an exquisite temple clutching the slopes of the Acropolis and the dusty plains of Marathon. Experts in Greece and the UK help Mary interpret the clues, along with film director Martin Scorsese who’s fascinated by the story of a gangster of the ancient world who called in favours from powerful friends to escape justice. Producer: Alasdair Cross Researcher: Anna Charalambou Sound Design: Suzy Robins Original Music: Mcasso Commissioning Editor for BBC Radio Four: Daniel Clarke

  6. 06/11/2024

    The Wolf of Via Vesuvio

    Lucius Caecilius Iucundus kept the economic wheels of Pompeii well greased. He was a middle man doing very nicely - part money-lender, part auctioneer, part banker, all hustler. Thanks to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the preservation of the ruins of Pompeii, we can still visit his house, look at his bronze portrait, and read his account books. 150 tablets of receipts, carbonised in the destruction of Pompeii, lead us through the deals that keep the city’s economy moving. If you want to buy a Ferrari-level horse but only have the cash for a Fiesta then Iucundus is your man. It might look like dry stuff, but it's as revealing of real life as snooping on someone’s Paypal account or leafing through their credit card receipts might be now. Never mind imperial plunder and luxury lifestyles, it’s a glimpse of how the economy works in a regular town. Mary Beard visits Iucundus's home and talks to the novelist Robert Harris about his fascination with the Pompeii moneylender. Producer: Alasdair Cross Expert Contributors: Sophie Hay, Parco Archeologico di Pompei; Matthew Nicholls, Oxford University Special thanks to National Archaeological Museum, Naples and Parco Archeologico di Pompei

    The Wolf of Via Vesuvio

  7. 06/04/2024

    Three Lovers and a Funeral

    Allia Potestas is a woman remembered in one of the most intriguing and affecting funeral orations of the ancient world. Her lover remembers her diligent application to housework before praising to the skies her beauty and her erotic skills. But he didn’t have Allia to himself. She was shared in a ménage à trois with his male friend. It’s an unusual domestic arrangement and a surprising one to advertise on a tombstone. The lines themselves reveal an enormous amount about Roman morality and the sexual politics of the time, but the story between the lines is even more fascinating. Can we dig beneath the emotional turmoil of the man and guess what Allia herself thought about the arrangement? Mary Beard is joined in Rome by Allison Emmerson of Tulane University to examine this extraordinary funerary monument at the Baths of Diocletian. Producer: Alasdair Cross Expert contributors: Allison Emmerson, Tulane University; Helen King, Open University; Mairead McAuley, University College London Cast: Tyler Cameron as Allius Special thanks to Museo Nazionale Romano

    Three Lovers and a Funeral

  8. 05/28/2024

    A Bag of Snails and a Glass of Wine

    An obscure carved stone dug up from a vineyard in southern Italy tells the story of a pair of publicans- the delightfully named Calidius Eroticus and Fannia Voluptas- and their bawdy adventures in the pub trade. Fans of Frankie Howard, the Carry On films and the sitcom Plebs will instantly feel at home with the Roman sense of humour, but these two characters have so much more to offer than lame jokes and a glass of rough wine- they’re our window into the fascinating bar culture of the Romans. Most urban Romans had neither the facilities nor the time to cook their own food so meals were eaten and drinks drunk from bars. New discoveries at Pompeii reveal the complex stratification of the culture, from the most basic takeaways to dining rooms that mimicked the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Producer: Alasdair Cross Cast: Robert Wilfort and Tyler Cameron Expert contributors: Allison Emmerson, Tulane University, Claire Holleran, Exeter University and Sophie Hay, Archaeological Park of Pompeii Special thanks to Antonio Valerio of Campi Valerio and Museo Archeologico di Santa Maria delle Monache, Isernia Translations by Mary Beard

    A Bag of Snails and a Glass of Wine
See All (18)

Trailers

4.7
out of 5
135 Ratings

About

Mary Beard unearths the lives of the Ancients. Join Mary as she discovers the real lives of people from the ancient Greek world and the Roman empire.

Information

You Might Also Like