Our old friend Conor O’Neill stopped by to preview both Duke and Wake Forest. We cover strength of schedule issues, a new coach in Winston-Salem, and turnover in Durham. The Blue Devils get high marks from Conor, so we’re telling you there’s a chance. Also, don’t schedule weddings in the Fall people. Just don’t.
And we discuss the most painful Duke losses in the last twenty-five years. Which are your most painful Blue Devil losses?
Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode.
After our episode with Dr. Nat Katz on Roman regime change, I wanted to learn more about the Roman state’s governmental structures. That led me to an excellent article by Dr. Benjamin Straumann about whether Rome had a constitution. After reading it, I reached out to Dr. Straumann to see if he would be willing to discuss the idea of Rome’s constitution and, fortunately, he agreed to. The result is an episode covering whether Rome had a constitution, the ways in which Rome’s leaders expressed constitutional norms and how the framework of Rome’s constitution came into existence.
We also discuss the concept of a “constitutional crisis”, which is a term that is used a lot but is probably not well-defined and is imprecisely utilized. Turns out Dr. Straumann wrote a book on the subject which I would recommend to you.
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.
In an effort to help bridge the gap between “Byzantine” and Roman history, I reached out to Madeleine Duperouzel to see if she’d be interested in talking about Empress Theodora. Madeleine was more than happy to, so the result is an outstanding episode regarding a legendary figure in Roman history. After briefly covering finicky weather patterns, we discuss Theodora’s life, her historical significance and how she has been treated by her contemporaries and by later historians. This naturally involves a discussion about the historical inkblot that is The Secret History (I explain the inkblot reference in the episode, but if you search for “Bork 9th Amendment inkblot”, you’ll find what I’m talking about). We also cover the general hostility that a specific group of men felt towards Theodora and the unique control over her life that she possessed.
To get more updates on history from Madeleine, please check subscribe to her Substack, The Empress of Byzantium. It’s really 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.
First, apologies for my audio at times in the podcast. I’m not sure what happened. Second, apologies for the two movies we’re about to review. While the Centurion squandered a chance to be good, The Last Legion is just awful. As we discuss these movies, we reference the brilliant Black Zeus X and then try to figure out what it is that Hollywood gets wrong when it makes movies “based on” Antiquity. We also discuss how great actors are constantly wasted in these movies and resurrect the term “McNulty Subplot“.
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.
As I mentioned on an earlier episode, I’ve been wanting to put together a series of episodes about what we collectively consider to be significant works from Antiquity. One such work is Seneca’s Letters. Fortunately, I was able to find Dr. Liz Gloyn who is an expert on Seneca. She stopped by to talk about Seneca’s letters, his Stoic origin story and how he ended up in the proximity of the imperial court. Dr. Gloyn also covers some of Seneca’s other writings which we should all take a look at and we discuss her upcoming project. (Don’t forget to check out her book which I linked to above!)
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.
As a companion to our recent episode with Dr. Le Blanc, I thought it would be interesting to do an episode about collecting ancient coins. I reached out to Kinzer Coins and the result is this episode with Dean and Josh. After discussing their origin stories, Dean and Josh tell us what collectors should know when they start collecting, where to buy coins, how to store coins and grail pieces. I hope you all learn something from this and are more informed if you decide to start a coin collection.
Please check out their podcast to learn more information about their work and this interesting, and potentially not too expensive, hobby. You can also check out their respective sites to see if they have any coins you may want to buy.
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.
As you all know, me and some friends create cover songs in which we combine old-time tunes with They Might Be Giants lyrics. We recently did a cover of the TMBG song “Finished With Lies” for my friend Greg’s podcast, This Might Be A Podcast. I was the guest for the episode and our group’s song is played during the covers section. You can listen to the entire episode or just skip to the song which is below.
*As a heads up, me and Greg had a pretty adult conversation about mental health, suicide and the other sorts of things that we deal with as we age. Just wanted to alert you to this in advance.
Those of us who are casual fans of Antiquity spend a lot of time talking about our favorite emperors and kings, in addition to discussing specific battles of significance along with myths and legends. One thing we probably don’t spend enough time talking about is ancient currency and the various purposes coins were used for during Antiquity. To remedy that, Dr. Robyn Le Blanc hopped on the pod to discuss numismatics (the study of coins and other units of currency). Turns out that coins were used for a lot more than just purchasing things and paying the soldiers.
During this episode, we cover the renaming of Dr. Le Blanc’s academic department, sources other than coins themselves which shed light on these ancient artifacts, whether ancient coins belong in a museum (don’t take a drink every time I reference Indiana Jones), how coins were made and distributed and how important it was to sack cities so you could make the money necessary to pay your soldiers. And we also learn about an early Robin Hood figure who lived during the reign of Septimius Severus. How cool is that?
We also discuss one famous coin that sold for more than FOUR MILLION DOLLARS. This is serious stuff, folks!
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.
In follow up to a suggestion by Dr. Kaldellis as to future podcast episodes, I reached to Dr. Nat Katz at Arizona to discuss how the Roman state handled transitions of power. During our discussion, we delve into general types of imperial transitions and the risks associated with such events. This includes detailing risks to those who chose the ultimate losing side in a power struggle, risks to those outside the walls of power and whether the Roman bureaucracy continued to function when a power vacuum opened up. It turns out the state generally functioned smoothly even during power disputes. We also cover how emperors portrayed themselves as deserving of power given the lack of formal rules regarding who could be emperor.
Dr. Katz also provides us with examples of what we could consider “good”, or generally smooth, transitions as well as ones that just didn’t go that well. We also make some solid references to Dennis Reynolds from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia which I know you all will appreciate.
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.
The latest Sidequest takes us to the First Century CE to study the interesting historical figure that is Apollonius of Tyana. Apollonius is typically associated with Jesus and serves as a sort of “Pagan Jesus”, whatever that term may mean. It turns out there’s more to Apollonius than just that. Studying Apollonius provides with greater insight to the time in which Jesus lived and the historical narrative surrounding holy men and cult figures from that time period.
Our guide for this Sidequest is Dr. Roshan Abraham, a professor at American University. Dr. Abraham wrote an outstanding article about Apollonius which I recommend that you all read. In addition to discussing Apollonius and the historical discussion surrounding him, we also discuss how the Classics have been misused and appropriated throughout history including by white supremacists. Towards the end of the episode, we get into the intersection between mythology and D.C. Comics which Dr. Abraham knows a thing or two about.
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 or on Twitter.
And never forget that The Classical Antiquity Sidequest is a podcast without end.
Bull City Coordinators - A Duke Football and Roman History Blog 