General ancient history

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A bust of Ashoka the Great

History hero Nihal Arthanayake chooses Ashoka the Great (c304–c232 BC) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Ornate water gardens of the ancient fortress of Sigiriya in Sri Lanka

General ancient history

From Nan Madol to Karakorum: 7 cities that history forgot

The Byzantines and a flamethrower

General ancient history

Q&A What was Greek fire?

Illustration representing various empires across history

General ancient history

Have empires ever been a force for good?

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Lecture Niall Ferguson on the politics of catastrophe . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Professor Matthew Restall tackles listener questions and popular search queries about the central American civilisation. (Image by Getty Images)

The Maya: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Dr Melanie Giles unravels some of the mysteries around amazingly preserved human remains found in bogs – and reveals what we can learn from them. (Image by Getty Images)

Bog bodies: what can they teach us? . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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John Withington discusses history’s most notorious political killings – from the first known assassination to the plots to kill Franz Ferdinand and JFK. (Image by Getty Images)

Assassinations: from the ancient world to JFK . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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In this lecture, Michael Wood uses the stories of five individuals from across the centuries to cast light on China’s rich and varied history

Voices of China . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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The assassination of Julius Caesar

What if… Julius Caesar had not been assassinated? . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An Athenian red-figure kylix (cup) dating from around 510–500 BC depicts a young pentathlete pulling his older lover towards him for a kiss. In many of the city-states of ancient Greece, sex between a man and a youth was an accepted – even idealised – form of love, its virtues extolled in works by writers including Plato. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

General ancient history

Pride and prejudice: same-sex relations through history

View of a gay pride parade in Boston, Massachusetts, c1977. (Photo by Spencer Grant/Getty Images)

From the ancient world to the 1969 Stonewall Riots: a brief guide to LGBT+ history

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Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley responds to listener questions about everyday life in ancient Egypt, from governance to dental care and cat mummies. (Image by Getty Images)

Daily life in ancient Egypt: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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origins of the werewolf legend in stories from ancient Greece and Rome. (Image by Getty Images)

Werewolves of the ancient world . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones responds to listener questions and popular internet search queries about one of the dominant powers of the ancient world, the Persian empire. (Image by Getty Images)

The Persian empire: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.