Category: Interviews

I’ve been a fan of Dr. Curtis Dozier for a while. I stumbled on his podcast, The Mirror of Antiquity, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I then came across his website, Pharos, where he chronicles (mostly horrible and some who are only somewhat horrible but still horrible) people invoking the Classics to justify their horrible beliefs. When I reached out to Dr. Dozier to see if he would come on the podcast, not only did he say yes, but he told me about his current book which is now available for purchase – The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate. Naturally, this book which is now available for purchase, is the topic of the episode.

In Dr. Dozier’s book, which I read and highly recommend, he outlines the goals of white nationalists and where in the Classics white nationalists look to find support for their horrible beliefs. It turns out that they aren’t necessarily misrepresenting history to support their hate-filled, racist and reprehensible beliefs. Rather, such hatred, bigotry and racist beliefs are common and permeate our entire historical and philosophical narrative. And that is the key part of Dr. Dozier’s book – he isn’t just exposing the logical fallacies of white nationalists, he’s exposing the problems inherent with our historical narratives upon which white nationalists rely.

And it’s understanding that issue which makes the discussion we need to have about history so important. Put simply, if we’re going to have a discussion about white nationalists co-opting the Classics, we need to have a discussion about what the Classics are, what they aren’t and our obligations as students and teachers to telling an accurate and complete narrative about the past and how that reflects on the present. We have to stop idolizing the subject matter and be honest about it. Look, folks, if there’s one theme of this podcast, it’s that history is messy. And this episode returns to that theme again and again and again. There’s nothing perfect about the past. The folks who preceded us weren’t saints. They were people, and people are imperfect. So, let’s stop putting the past on a pedestal and get to work making our present and our future a better place.

While I often kick around politics and current events, this is one of the few episodes that covers both in detail. I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed participating in the discussion.

Your reading assignment is Empire of Ruin.

The theme music is from Brent Arehart. Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode. Let me know what you think about what we think in the comments, on Bluesky, on Mastodon, on Reddit, or on Instagram.

And never forget that The Classical Antiquity Sidequest is a podcast without end.

In response to a suggestion from Dr. Rhiannon Garth Jones, I reached out to Dr. Shaily Patel at Virginia Tech (GO HOKIES!) to see if she would come on the podcast. Turns out she was willing to do so and this led to a discussion about the complex relationship between early Christianity and magic. This includes how early Christians employed heresy to attack and marginalize non-Christian practitioners of magic (looking at you, Augustine). Dr. Patel has covered this topic thoroughly and written a book about it that is very, very good. Please check out the book. You will enjoy it.

In addition to covering the complex role that early Christianity and Christians had with magic, we discuss the state of higher education, how we should discuss history and the complexities involved in putting together historical narratives, the D.C. Comics character John Constantine, the brilliant TV show Grimm and The Dresden Files. Don’t judge us.

Your reading assignments include the Scholomance series and Things Unseen.

The theme music is from Brent Arehart. Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode. Let me know what you think about what we think in the comments, on Bluesky, on Mastodon, on Reddit, or on Instagram.

And never forget that The Classical Antiquity Sidequest is a podcast without end.

As we all know, people spend a lot of time thinking about Rome. If you’ve ever wondered why that is, Dr. Rhiannon Garth Jones just published All Roads Lead to Rome, a book that attempts to answer and explain just why it is that so many of us think about Rome and why we’ve done it for so long. In addition to that, we cover a lot of topics including writing styles, an ongoing issue with historical cognitive dissonance when it comes to our understanding of Rome and some troubling and problematic invocations of Rome. We also cover a very interesting want to know more section of her book and how it incorporates new and emerging forms of scholarship.

Your reading assignments include Strike by Dr. Sarah E. Bond (who I would love to have on the pod one day) and Dr. Kaldellis’ The New Roman Empire.

And while you’re reading stuff, why don’t you pick up a copy of Dr. Garth Jones’ book? It’s pretty darned good.

The theme music is from Brent Arehart. Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode. Let me know what you think about what we think in the comments.

And never forget that The Classical Antiquity Sidequest is a podcast without end.