Category: Yesterday

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Being Roman with Mary Beard - 8. Death on the Nile

Julia Balbilla is an accomplished poet and close friend of the wife of one of Rome’s mightiest emperors. Hadrian loves to travel and takes Julia and an entourage of thousands on the ultimate elite tourist trip- a leisurely Nile cruise to the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Colossus of Memnon, a statue that will sing for anyone blessed by the gods. Julia inscribes her poems on the giant foot of the statue, praising the power of Hadrian and the beauty of his wife, Sabina.

It’s a charming scene, darkened only by the fact that Hadrian’s male lover, Antinous has only just drowned in the Nile. Was he murdered by jealous rivals, killed in a lover’s tiff or did he drunkenly slip from the deck? Hadrian is publicly bereft, founding a new city in the name of Antinous, but seems happy to continue his luxury cruise. Mary Beard hops aboard Ancient Rome's most intriguing cruise with historian T. Corey Brennan and archaeologist Elizabeth Fentress.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

Expert Contributors: Corey Brennan, Rutgers University and Lisa Fentress

Cast: Julia Balbilla played by Juliana Lisk

Special thanks to Andrea Bruciati, Villa Adriana

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Byzantium And The Crusades - GET A FREE BOOK ON BYZANTIUM & THE CRUSADES

Just a quick update to let you know if you like this podcast you can get the book on which it’s based for free on my website nickholmesauthor.com. It’s called The Byzantine World War, and it's about the origins of the First Crusade and suggests that it really began as the result of the defeat of the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. This caused a revolution in the Middle-East when the Turks overran the hitherto Greek-speaking region of Anatolia – which is now modern Turkey.

What makes the story particularly exciting is that I suggest the Byzantines were actually winning the Battle of Manzikert until the emperor was betrayed by his own jealous nobles. So, history might easily have taken a totally different route. Indeed, there might not have been any Crusades at all.

The book has been a bestseller on Amazon where it has over 400 reviews, so why not click on the link in the show notes which will take you to the offer on my website. You can also stay in touch with my latest historical research and books which are focused on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. 

Get your free book Here! Hope you enjoy it and look forward to staying in touch on Byzantine, Roman and Crusader history! 

Please take a look at my website nickholmesauthor.com where you can download a free copy of The Byzantine World War, my book that describes the origins of the First Crusade.

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Curious City - What Happened To The Crows?

A listener thought she’d noticed a change in Chicago’s crow population. And she was right. More than twenty years ago, the crow population of Illinois was at an all-time high. But just a few years later, half of the birds were dead. The crows were hit by a deadly virus. And it’s one that humans are susceptible to as well. So where was this virus coming from? Reporter Claire Caulfield finds the answer.