Podcasts by The Renaissance Times

#138–Toby Lester, Da Vinci’s Ghost–Leonardo da Vinci Part 27 from 2022-01-08T00:56:42

Our guest today, Toby Lester, has worked as a refugee affairs officer for the United Nations, helped with programmes in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, undertaken Peace Corps work in...

#136–Julia&The Vatican from 2021-12-10T23:58:45

Taking a short break from Leonardo, our guest today is Julia Charity, an official Vatican tour guide! Julia, who originally hails from the UK, tells us how she ended up as a Vatican tour guide a...

#120–Leonardo da Vinci Part 13–Curtis Wong from 2021-04-29T11:41:32

Curtis Wong has had an incredible career. He has produced critically acclaimed educational CD-ROMs at Corbis and the Voyager Co., as well as the definitive editions of feature films for the Crit...

#118–Leonardo da Vinci Part 11–Matthew Landrus from 2021-04-01T03:03:43

We chat with one of the world’s leading authorities on Leonardo da Vinci – Matthew Landrus from Oxford University, author of Leonardo da Vinci’s Giant Crossbow.  

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Where are rest of the episodes? from 2021-01-01T04:34:10

If you’re wondering “where are rest of the episodes?”, they are on our website as part of our membership program.

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#111–Leonardo da Vinci Part 4–Manscaping Jesus from 2020-12-24T03:47:34

Leonardo’s earliest surviving work of art is a landscape sketch of Vinci in his notebook dating from 1473 when he was 21 years old. The earliest surviving painting is BAPTISM OF CHRIST, a collab...

#110–Leonardo da Vinci Part 3–Frankenstein’s Monster from 2020-12-13T02:09:56

Leonardo's first known artwork is a Frankenstein monster and he invents sfumato.

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#109–Leonardo da Vinci Part 2–Back And To The Left from 2020-11-26T22:29:04

We examine Leonardo's writing style, and his apprenticeship at age 14 to Andrea del Verrocchio, an Italian painter, sculptor, and goldsmith, because even geniuses need a master to learn from (de...

#108–Leonardo da Vinci Part 1–A Complete Bastard from 2020-11-17T22:59:22

"Extraordinary power ... conjoined with remarkable facility, a mind of regal boldness and magnanimous daring."That's how Vasari described Leonardo da Vinci. But how much do we really know about ...

#107–Savonarola Part 14–Savonarola Burns from 2020-10-30T03:41:44

Savonarola was notified that he and his closest colleagues had been condemned to die. His most ardent believers had faith that the Lord would save him at the last minute, but, yet again, God did...

#106–Savonarola Part 13–Strappado from 2020-10-19T01:38:42

The trials of Savonarola begin. First he is put on trial by the Signoria of Florence for his political interference. Then he is put on trial by the Pope for his religious accusations and claims ...

#105–Savonarola Part 12–Trial By Fire from 2020-09-24T05:11:32

With Charles out of the picture, Piero de Medici figures it’s time for him to return to Florence. He marched into Tuscany with a force of four hundred lancers, light cavalry, and foot soldiers. ...

#104–Savonarola Part 11–Bonfire Of The Vanities from 2020-09-18T22:53:19

A miracle prevents Mad Max from invading Italy and Savonarola’s prophetic credentials continue to rise. But he still wants Florence to purify itself further so he orders his first Bonfire Of The...

#103–Savonarola Part 10 from 2020-09-11T04:46:20

Yes, we’re still talking about Savonarola! Deal with it! On this episode, Savonarola refuses the Pope’s summons to go to Rome and to stop preaching. He uses the ol’ Bill Clinton defence. During ...

#102–Savonarola Part 9 from 2020-09-04T03:29:53

By early 1495, Savonarola managed to get control of the Great Council of Florence and has his reforms passed. He may not be gonfaloniere, but he is a political force. He soon gets one of his ow...

#101–Savonarola Part 8 from 2020-08-27T04:38:01

With the Medici and the French both gone from Florence, Savonarola tries to influence the new Signoria to pass significant reforms - but they ignore him. Then another enemy appears - this time, ...

#100–Savonarola Part 7 from 2020-08-19T08:07:06

Savonarola meets with King Charles VIII of France in Pisa, calling himself a prophet of God and telling Charles that he was the instrument of God's divine plan. Then he returns to Florence where...

#99–Savonarola Part 6 from 2020-08-15T14:16:52

Savonarola’s predictions that God was going to punish the Florentines seem to be coming true when, in 1494, King Charles VIII of France invades Italy to take control of Naples. On his way south,...

#98–Savonarola Part 5 from 2020-08-01T04:03:40

In 1492, Lorenzo The Magnificent died. His heir was his eldest son, 20 year old Piero de’ Medici, a useless turd. The Pope died soon afterwards and was replaced by the corrupt Cardinal Rodrigo B...

#97–Savonarola Part 4 from 2020-07-24T01:10:05

In his sermons in early 1491, Savonarola attacked the people and priests who thought of Christianity as a merely ceremonial religion. He also criticised how ignorant the people were of the doctr...

#96–Savonarola Part 3 from 2020-07-08T02:48:15

In 1487 Savonarola left Florence for a new assignment in Bologna, to continue his studies toward a degree of master of sacred theology while teaching juniors. But apparently it didn’t go well. H...

#95–Savonarola Part 2 from 2020-07-03T02:19:38

Savonarola starts his preaching career but it doesn't go very well. One person who *is* impressed though is a young Pico della Mirandola. That would have far-reaching consequences. He also wrote...

#94–Savonarola Part 1 from 2020-06-24T20:42:25

After Lorenzo de Medici’s death in 1492, Botticelli gave up painting, abandoned his humanist studies, and became a hardcore fundamentalist Christian. As did a lot of Florentines. The reason? The...

#93–Sandro Botticelli 5 from 2020-06-11T01:39:53

When Giuliano de Medici gets murdered in the Duomo during the Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478, Booty was probably there. What should a Florentine painter paint after the Pope had your best friend kille...

#92–Sandro Botticelli 4 from 2020-06-04T03:32:32

Botticelli's first painting of a non-religious subject was FORTITUDE, 1470. It’s considered his first masterpiece. He then explored other stories like The Return of Judith to Bethulia from the O...

#91–Sandro Botticelli 3 from 2020-05-29T23:51:12

We go back to the beginnings of Botticelli's career as a solo artist to examine his progression from Lippi's apprentice to becoming the breakthrough Renaissance artist. We start by putting some ...

#90–Sandro Botticelli 2 from 2020-05-16T00:28:08

We continue talking about the life and art of Sandro Botticelli. We go deep on his paintings of The Adoration of the Magi, and the first of his pagan masterpieces, the Primavera.

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#89–Sandro Botticelli from 2020-05-08T02:41:18

During Lorenzo de Medici’s life, no fewer than three of the outstanding artists of the Renaissance are thought to have spent at least a brief formative period of their early lives in the Palazzo...

#88–Christian Terrorism from 2020-05-02T05:44:08

When King Manuel of Portugal evicted the Jews in 1497, he didn’t actually want the Jews to leave. He wanted them to convert to Christianity. When, instead, the chose to leave, he tried to stop t...

#87–The Alhambra Decree from 2020-04-17T07:05:37

This episode starts with a correction about the skin colour of the Moors, brought to you by our Moroccan listener Mohamed.
Then, to set the scene for this episode, we have a special song -"...

#86–Edicts Of Grace from 2020-04-08T02:13:11

When the Inquisition came to your town, they would grant you 30 days to confess to being a heretic. This was known as the"Edicts Of Grace". If you confessed, you might get a hefty fine, but at l...

#85–Torquemada from 2020-04-03T23:20:40

In 1482, as the Spanish Inquisition started to ramp up in more towns, the Pope appointed seven more inquisitors, including the infamous Tomás de Torquemada. However, critics of the Inquisition c...

#84–The Spanish Inquisition from 2020-04-01T08:27:26

The papal bull issued by Pope Sixtus IV on 1 November 1478 provided for the appointment of two or three priests over forty years of age as inquisitors. Powers of appointment and dismissal were g...

#83–The Crypto-Jews from 2020-03-20T05:16:19

By the 15th century, Christians, Jews and Muslims had lived side by side in Spain for centuries. The Muslims controlled a large region of modern Spain, as did the Christians. But the Jews contin...

#82–The Cathars from 2020-03-09T06:10:43

In 1184, Pope Lucius III issued a papal bull, Ad Abolendam, to combat the Albigensian heresy in southern France. They were known as Cathars, or Good Christians. They were going around doing horr...

#79–The Papal War from 2020-02-08T00:13:06

In the aftermath of the Pazzi Conspiracy, Florence found itself excommunicated en masse by Pope Sixtus IV unless they handed over Lorenzo De Medici. When the city refused, Pope Sixtus went to wa...

#76–Larry The Med from 2020-01-11T05:13:50

Two days after the death of Piero de’ Medici in December 1469, his eldest son, Lorenzo de'Medici, aka Larry The Med, became the new ruler of Florence. He was 20 years old. He was a major patron ...

#75–The Artist Who Stole A Nun from 2019-12-20T05:55:04

Piero de Medici engineers a commercial coup for the Medici family that makes up for all of their recent losses. He takes over the Pope’s alum business. Alum was the mineral salts derived from vo...

#74–The Pitti Party from 2019-12-14T00:41:19

The Pitti faction get Soderini elected gonfaloniere and install an anti-Medici signoria but they can't get the guilds, who remember the troubles of the pre-Cosimo years, to agree to banishing th...

#73–Piero de Medici from 2019-12-06T22:39:44

In 1464, with the death of Cosimo, his only surviving son, Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici – or Piero the Gouty, ‘il Gottoso’, as he came to be called – took over. He was 48 years old. He would survi...

#72–Duke Filippo Maria Visconti from 2019-11-15T05:11:58

Cosimo de Medici used his network of bank branches across Europe to do more than just make money. They were also used as an intelligence network. Medici cash was spread far and wide to keep him ...

#71–The Greek Invasion from 2019-11-09T07:40:23

It’s been a while since we have caught up with Cosimo de Medici. Four years after his return to Florence in 1434, he secured a huge opportunity for Florence, that would have far reaching effects...

#70–Gutenberg Part 6 from 2019-10-25T02:41:08

In 1453, when the Turks took Constantinople, Pope Nicky 5 wanted a crusade and authorized the sale of letters of indulgence—religious documents that released the buyers from penalties for their ...

#69–Gutenberg Part 5 from 2019-10-18T04:15:56

Commercial opportunities for a printing press went beyond books. One of those was the Fall of Constantinople. In 1453, the Ottoman Empire lead by 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II defeated the army o...

#68–Gutenberg Part 4 from 2019-10-11T03:52:47

Hand carving a piece of metal type for a printing press would take a skilled craftsman an entire day. Just setting one page of the Bible would take 2600 pieces of type. So Gutenberg needed to co...

#67–Gutenberg Part 3 from 2019-09-27T10:10:13

One of Gutenberg’s partners died, and the guy’s brothers wanted in on the secret project. Gutenberg refused, so they took him to court. Then in 1444, Gutenberg left Strasbourg and went… where? W...

#66–Gutenberg Part 2 from 2019-09-19T21:35:30

In 1428, Gutenberg moved to Strasbourg where he would live for the next 20 years. It was there that he had his first big business venture—making holy healing ray containment devices. He brought ...

#65–Gutenberg Part 1 from 2019-09-13T22:22

Today we begin a series about the man without whom our podcasts would not exist because there would be no books. And you know we get all of our knowledge from books. The man who invented movable...

#64–Masaccio from 2019-08-30T03:33:49

Born 1401 as Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, “Masaccio” (his nickname) was regarded as the first great Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasa...

#63–Fra Angelico&Pope Nicholas V from 2019-08-22T04:40:29

Born Guido di Pietro but known to us as Fra Angelico which means the “Angelic friar”. Despite his early talent for painting, at age 12 he entered the Dominican order and spent the rest of his li...

#62 The First Renaissance Man from 2019-08-16T23:15:27

The first written work of art theory, produced during the Renaissance was “De Pictura”, or “On Painting”, written in 1435 by Leon Battista Alberti but not published until 1450, in which he expla...

#61 That New Car Smell from 2019-07-31T13:08:18

After returning to Rome to work for the Vatican, Poggio Bracciolini starting making some serious money of his own. Enough to get married and buy a big house. He served as chancellor of Florence ...

#60 The Lie Factory from 2019-07-24T04:20:46

In 1419, a couple of years after he lost his papal secretary job and discovered Lucretius, Poggio did what everyone does when they are shit out luck and scraping the bottom of the barrel. He mov...

#59 Niccolo de Niccoli from 2019-07-21T05:09:17

Nicky the Nickster was one of the most influential people in Florence in the early 1400s. He was the unofficial minister of culture and probably the guy who influenced Cosimo de Medici to suppor...

#58 How The Christians Wiped Out Epicureanism from 2019-07-04T13:04:11

When Christians banned other religions and philosophies in the late 4th century, Plato and Aristotle, pagans who believed in the immortality of the soul, could ultimately be accommodated by Chri...

#57 Lucretius“On The Nature Of Things” from 2019-06-28T04:42:58

Let’s get deep into some Lucretius, the Roman Epicurean philosopher poet. Today I want to read from “On the Nature of Things”. * As our Alexander listeners will know, Epicurus was an ancient Gre...

#56 Poggio Bracciolini Part 4 from 2019-06-24T05:54:28

In 1417, Poggio made the greatest discovery of his career – Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura, aka “On The Nature Of Things”, the last surviving copy of his five-book epic attempt to explain Epicurean ...

#55 Poggio Bracciolini Part 3 from 2019-06-07T04:08:22

So back to January 1417. Poggio made a number of book hunting trips that winter. So he must have had a lot of funding from back home. Here’s a short clip from today’s episode:   Bruni wrote to h...

#54 Poggio Bracciolini Part 2 from 2019-05-31T05:28:38

Poggio had to use all of his talents to talk his way into monastery libraries. In some he had to be super serious. In others, he would tell wild stories about stupid peasants, or sexy housewives...

#53 Poggio Bracciolini from 2019-05-25T07:17:59

In the year 1417, 17 years before Cosimo De Medici took control of Florence, a man called Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini went hunting in the middle of Germany. Hunting for manuscripts. Thanks...

#52 The Rise Of The Medici (part 14) from 2019-05-10T06:34:44

The return of Cosimo de Medici! On 5 October, 1434, Cosimo arrived at his villa outside Florence and stopped for some food. The Signoria sent him a message begging him NOT to arrive that day, be...

#51 The Rise Of The Medici (part 13) from 2019-05-02T02:43:24

By April 1434, six months after Cosimo de Medici’s banishment, the people were turning against Rinaldo degli Albizzi.  Even the banking families weren’t supporting him, not sure he could be arou...

#50 The Rise Of The Medici (part 12) from 2019-04-26T23:13:26

So Cosimo de Medici is sent into exile by his enemies. As is the rest of the family. But at least he’s alive. And the business survived. So he’s still FILTHY rich.  It could have been a lot wors...

#49 The Rise Of The Medici (part 11) from 2019-04-11T00:09:37

Albizzi tries to get the Signoria to pass the death sentence on Cosimo. Meanwhile, Cosimo waits nervously for his brother Lorenzo, Niccolo da Tolentino and his mercenaries to rescue him from his...

#48 The Rise Of The Medici (part 10) from 2019-04-03T22:49:11

Florence’s war with Lucca was like the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. It set off a string of conflicts across northern Italy. When Cosimo gets back to the city, he finds it in chaos and broke...

#47 The Rise Of The Medici (part 9) from 2019-03-29T22:20:08

When the Florentines attack the town of Lucca in 1430, Milan sends mercenary Francesco Sforza to their defense. The Florentines, outmatched militarily, do what rich people always do when they ge...

#46 The Rise Of The Medici (part 8) from 2019-03-15T02:27:29

While in Rome, Cosimo gets himself a sexy slave girl – Maddalena. And when Papa Joe dies, Cosi took over as head of the family. He decided the Medici should have a genuine palazzo of their own a...

#45 The Rise Of The Medici (part 7) from 2019-03-07T02:43:58

Papa Joe Medici dies, leaving control of the Medici Bank and the family fortune – now the largest in Italy – to his son, Cosimo Di Giovanni de Medici.

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#44 The Rise Of The Medici (part 6) from 2019-03-01T22:23:47

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#43 The Rise Of The Medici (part 5) from 2019-02-14T11:13:10

So Ziggy declared John XXIII was deposed and thrown in jail. The other popes were encouraged – by showing them a stake with wood stacked around it no doubt – to drop their claims to the title. A...

#42 The Rise Of The Medici (part 4) from 2019-02-07T02:36:07

In 1414, the future Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund (aka Ziggy Stardust) suggested to Mr Baldy (aka Baldassare Cossa aka Pope John XXIII) that he should get all of the active Popes – John XXIII, Gr...

#41 David&Goliath from 2019-02-02T07:49:39

Our guest today is friend of the show, one of our favourite people – artist Alex Kynaston. She was with us in Durham NC while we shot the Jesus film and was also on our inaugural European tour. ...

#40 The Rise Of The Medici (part 3) from 2019-01-17T02:49:56

THE MEDICI FAMILY fortunes eventually passed into the hands of Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, head of the Cafaggiolo branch of the family, so called because it retained property in the Medici’s h...

#39 The Rise Of The Medici (part 2) from 2019-01-08T01:17:04

The rise of the Medici included a few false starts, due to a failed military campaign and a working class revolution. Meanwhile Florence prospered, in part because of the integrity of their coin...

#38 The Rise Of The Medici (part 1) from 2019-01-04T22:52:47

One of the one of the most powerful and influential families of the Renaissance – the Medici – took centuries to rise to power. But when they did, they changed the world.  

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#37 The Avignon Popes–Part III from 2018-12-13T02:42:41

Against complaints about how much they were demanding, the popes said “hey looking this good isn’t easy!” Clement VI had been forced to lend Philip VI of France 592,000 gold florins – $135 milli...

#36 The Avignon Popes–Part II from 2018-12-07T21:58:50

After the death of Clement V, Dante wrote to the Italian cardinals and urged them to hold out for an Italian pope who would return the papacy to Rome. But only six of the 23 cardinals were Itali...

#35 The Avignon Popes–Part I from 2018-11-30T23:01:14

We want to go back and discuss the political situation in Italy in the 14th century. We mentioned in an earlier episode that in 1309, Pope Clement V moved the Papacy from Rome to Avignon. He was...

#34 Brunelleschi&The Dome V from 2018-11-22T23:51:11

BTW – in 1421, Bruno was awarded the world’s first ever patent for invention. The patent describes Bruno as “a man of the most perspicacious intellect, industry and invention,” And this document...

#33 Brunelleschi&The Dome IV from 2018-11-16T04:24:54

So what was the magic solution that Bruno brought to the Dome on August 7, 1420? How do you build a dome out of bricks, that curves upwards, with no support, that won’t fall down? Well he actual...

#32 Brunelleschi&The Dome III from 2018-11-09T06:58:59

It’s thought that Bruno returned to Florence probably in 1416 or 1417 Which means he was in Rome for 15 years. How did he earn a living? Vasari says he didn’t have to at first. Before he left Fl...

#31 Brunelleschi&The Dome II from 2018-11-02T05:34:25

When Bruno – or Pippo was he was known to his friends (short for Filippo) went to Rome, after the embarrassment of the Baptistery doors competition, it wasn’t the Rome of Augustus. At its height...

#30 Brunelleschi&The Dome I from 2018-10-17T22:52:22

After he finished the first set of doors, he was commissioned to make a huge bronze statue of John The Baptist by the same guild – by the cloth merchant’s guild, the Arte di Calimala. –  for the...

#29 Ghiberti&The Doors II from 2018-10-12T04:41:35

Anyway – governors of Florence may have had a more immediate reason for selecting this story. The climax of the story emphasizes divine intervention, and we must remember that the Florentines we...

#28 Ghiberti&The Doors I from 2018-10-05T22:56:16

If you’ve ever been to Florence, you’ve no doubt paid a visit to the Duomo, the Florence Cathedral, formally the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. Known as the Duomo. Well we’re NOT going to ...

#27–Boccaccio Part Three from 2018-09-22T22:45:26

So let’s talk about The Decameron. The book’s primary title exemplifies Boccaccio’s fondness for Greek philology: Decameron combines two Greek words, δέκα, déka (“ten”) and ἡμέρα, hēméra (“day”)...

#26–Boccaccio Part Two from 2018-09-14T08:14:55

Let’s talk about the Filocolo The title means “the one struck down by love”. It is considered to be the first novel of Italian literature written in prose. Florio, son of the King of Spain, and ...

#25–Boccaccio Part One from 2018-09-08T22:31:46

Let’s talk about the other, slightly more creepy and rapey father of the Renaissance. For books in the vernacular to appear in considerable quantities, there must be a demand for them. There mus...

#24–The Father Of The Renaissance (part three) from 2018-08-18T02:41:29

“Africa” became alternately Petrarch’s obsession and his revulsion, and he left it incomplete at his death. Despite Petrarch’s best efforts to conceal his occupation, word of the Africa spread q...

#23–The Father Of The Renaissance (part two) from 2018-08-10T01:47:32

Now that his parents are dead, Petrarch decides to dump law and become a scholar and a poet. But you couldn’t make a living as a poet in the early 14th century. So he took minor orders with the ...

#22–The Father Of The Renaissance (part one) from 2018-08-05T04:10:32

I want to pick up our story in the year 1302 To talk about a man called Pietro di Parenzo di Garzo. Well actually I want to talk about his SON. But we’ll get there. And to get there, we’re going...

#21–Enter The Lombards from 2018-08-04T02:19:11

Justin was born near modern Skopje, in the fake Macedonia. He started off life as a peasant and a swineherd. But he rose through the ranks of the army and ultimately became Emperor, in spite of ...

#20–The Ostrogothic Kingdom from 2018-06-28T00:47:58

In 423, Honorius, the son of Theodosius who ruled the Western part of the empire, died, of natural causes. He had ruled for 30 years. He was only 38 years old. Over the next 50 years, the Wester...

#19–Burn Them in the Fire from 2018-06-23T08:01:45

When the Greek author Herodotus, the ‘father of history’, sat down to write the first history he declared that his aim was to make ‘inquiries’ – historias, in Greek – into the relations between ...

#18–Pedicabo Et Irrumabo from 2018-06-08T04:59:18

When did the decline in an interest in the classics start to emerge in the West? It possibly started with Basil. Basil of Caesarea Basil was an influential bishop from Cappadocia, Asia Minor (mo...

#17–Hypatia of Alexandria from 2018-06-01T02:00:24

* Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: And ye shall ove...

#16–Jesus, Violence, Love from 2018-05-25T23:13:17

How St Augustine provided the ultimate Christian justification for acts of violence – Jesus did it first and it’s okay as long as you do it with love. * Still talking about Augustine and his “Ci...

#15–City Of God from 2018-05-11T02:14:04

Augustine said he heard a childlike voice he heard telling him to “take up and read” which he took as a divine command to open the Bible and read the first thing he saw. He opened the bible at a...

#14–Augustine of Hippo from 2018-05-04T04:00:52

* Let’s talk more about Augustine of Hippo, aka St Augustine. * He’s one of the most important figures in all of Christianity. * Through his sheer intellectual power, and enormous output of work...

#13–The Blame Game from 2018-04-27T22:12:02

After three days of pillage, Alaric left Rome. * Instead of heading for Ravenna, he headed for southern Italy. * He took with him lots of gold and hostages, including Honorius’ sister, the daugh...

#12–The Sack Of Rome from 2018-04-13T02:14:04

Stilicho and the chief ministers of his party were treacherously slain on Honorius’ orders. * Stilicho had been accused by one of his enemies at court, Olympius, of treason and wanting to put hi...

Episode 11–The Rise Of The Goths from 2018-04-06T21:13:27

⁃ Theodosius’ army rapidly dissolved after his death. ⁃ And as he apparently hadn’t given the Goths the rewards they expected for helping him defeat Eugenius at the Battle of the Frigidus, they ...

Episode 10–Crushing The Pagans from 2018-03-30T21:39:25

• Ambrose had Theodosius so whipped that he was able to publicly declare that the emperor had recognised the moral supremacy of the church over the actions of an emperor. • It’s from this point ...

Episode 9–The Whipped Dog from 2018-03-15T23:00:51

* Theodosius appointed his young children as his co-emperors, but he’s the sole emperor * He died a few months later, leaving the empire in the hands of his two young children. * Before we get o...

Episode 8–Theodosius from 2018-03-09T02:34:36

Vally went to Theodosius in Thessalonica, agreed to marry off his sister Galla to him to cement their alliance, and together they invaded from the east the following year and defeated Maximus in...

Episode 7–Ambrose of Milan from 2018-03-02T23:33:15

At the end of episode 6, the Augustii Valens and Gratian were dead. Valens burned alive in a cottage by the Goths. Gratian assassinated by a rebel general under Magnus Maximus. One story about t...

Episode 6–The Imperial Threesome from 2018-02-16T23:07:36

So let’s move on to Julian. Julian’s personal religion was both pagan and philosophical; he viewed the traditional myths as allegories, in which the ancient gods were aspects of a philosophical ...

Episode 5–A Quarrel Over Unimportant Points from 2018-02-09T04:12:51

This is the first episode of the premium series! October 28, 312. The Battle of Milvian Bridge. Conny wins and marches into Rome, with the head of Maxentius carried on a spike. Just like Jesus w...

Episode 4–I Have The Power! from 2018-02-02T23:48:47

This is the first episode of the premium series! October 28, 312. The Battle of Milvian Bridge. Conny wins and marches into Rome, with the head of Maxentius carried on a spike. Just like Jesus w...

Introducing the Premium Series from 2018-02-01T05:54:01

From episode 4 onwards, our episodes are for premium subscribers only. We’ll throw one up in the free feed from time to time, but if you want to hear all of them, you need to register AND make s...

Episode 3–Constantine’s Vision from 2018-01-01T08:20:34

Before the Battle of Milvian Bridge, Constantine had a vision. But of what? Our sources differ.

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Episode 2–The Persecution of Diocletian from 2017-12-26T23:13:50

Diocletian gets accused of"persecuting"the Christians. But they brought it upon themselves.

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Episode 1–Constantine The Great from 2017-12-24T01:00:50

Before you can understand the importance of the Renaissance, you first need to understand the Dark Ages. And that starts with Constantine the Great.

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