Ancient History Fangirl

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! ⁠ Lucian’s A True History has been called the world’s first work of science fiction—but above all, Lucian of Samosata was a satirist. And he had a bone to pick with the famous historians of his time—guys like Herodotus and Ctesias of Knidos. They were Lying Liars who Lied, you see, and Lucian was mad about it. So he set out to write his OWN monument to lies—lest he be the only writer out there “exempted from the liberty of lying.” The only true thing is what he tells us in his intro: “for this one thing I confidently pronounce for a truth: that I lie.” This fabulous story has everything: sexy tree women, an intergalactic war, an interlude inside a whale—and we can’t get enough of it. Join us and Liv Albert from Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby! on this amazing adventure of which every word is a lie, and yet surprisingly relevant to our time. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! AD Rhine is the pen name of the authors Ashlee Cowles and Danielle Stinsen, who have been friends and creative partners for over 25 years. Their novels Horses of Fire and Daughters of Bronze follow the Trojan War saga. They are our kind of nerds—so naturally we had to interview them. The story of Troy and its fall still resonates with us thousands of years later. Cowles and Stinsen have tackled this story from the point of view of the women who lived through it on both sides, in their novels Horses of Fire and Daughters of Bronze. Join us as we discuss the martial women of the Bronze Age, what it’s like to co-author a book, and why we keep returning to these ancient tales. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! It is the End of Season 13--and what a wild ride it's been. We've had so much fun triangulating the Goths for you--and we hope you now are as obsessed with them as we are. Join us as we debrief the previous season, talk about how our year has gone (it's been a big year for BOOKS, for both of us!) and discuss what's coming up next! Find Jenny's book, Enemy of My Dreams, Here! (And preorder the sequel, Game of Thieves!) Get Genn's most recent book, the Official Lore Olympus Cookbook, here! Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! ⁠ In our last episode we talked about the opulence of Goth–Gothic architecture, fashion, and art of all kinds–and the connection between this and the opulence of the Visigoths and their vast state treasure plundered from Roman cities and towns. But there’s more to Goth than plunder. There’s a romance to Goth. A dark romance steeped in obsession. Many of the original Gothic romances involve tragic deaths. And what else do we know of that combines sex and death? That’s right: vampires. And it’s in ancient vampire mythology where we’ll attempt to uncover a nefarious connection to the Ostrogoths.  Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! We have come to the end (or almost the end) of our long, sweeping epic history of the Goths. But we have one corner of Gothic history as yet uncovered: what is the connection between Gothic literature, music, art and fashion, and Goths (the Germanic / Hunnic / etc. people who sacked Rome and occupied Italy)? Join us as we make some questionable leaps in logic and take some big swings in trying to connect Goth with Goth. In the first part of the episode, we discuss the dark opulence of Goth—and its connection to a legendary, possibly cursed Visigothic treasure gained via plunder. Sponsors and Advertising This episode is sponsored by Taskrabbit. Get 15% off your first task at Taskrabbit.com or the Taskrabbit app using promo code HISTORY. This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⁠⁠⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Long after the smoke from the battlefields died down, long after the ravens had eaten their fill, the Migration Era lived on in Germanic heroic legend, well into the Middle Ages. For centuries after the battles and events of that era, people throughout Europe were crafting legends and sagas that repurposed and mythologized those events, sometimes recasting major figures from that time into villains and heroes of a later saga. Goths and Huns figured prominently.  And that is our subject today: who got mythologized, and how. Sponsors and Advertising This episode is sponsored by Taskrabbit. Get 15% off your first task at Taskrabbit.com or the Taskrabbit app using promo code HISTORY. This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⁠⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! We've told you the story of the Ostrogoths, the Amal ruling family, who built an imperial dynasty only to see that rulership dissolve within two generations. But what happened to their cousins, the Visigoths? The Tervingii tribe and the Balthi royal family? Alaric’s Goths?  Turns out they lasted much longer. But they weren’t necessarily the ones who had it most together. Join us for a vast, sweeping tale of constant regicide and usurpation, vast internal religious and cultural divisons, and war on all sides—through which the Visigoths hung on longer than anyone thought they would. Sponsors and Advertising This episode is sponsored by Taskrabbit. Get 15% off your first task at Taskrabbit.com or the Taskrabbit app using promo code HISTORY. This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! For a while now, Genn has been hinting at a "Secret Project" in the works--and now it's out in the wild: the Official Lore Olympus Cookbook. Genn was heavily involved in this project, weaving together the history and mythology of Greek cuisine with the world of Rachel Smythe's Lore Olympus to create a cookbook that's not only delightful to cook with, but fun and educational to read. Join us as Jenny interviews Genn about the process of co-creating this beautiful cookbook in the world of Lore Olympus. Sponsors and Advertising This episode is sponsored by Taskrabbit. Get 15% off your first task at Taskrabbit.com or the Taskrabbit app using promo code HISTORY. This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⁠⁠⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! When Alaric of the Visigoths sacked Rome, it shocked the world—not least because Rome hadn’t been sacked in a thousand years. But also, while Rome was a Christian city by now—it had been for decades—the Visigoths were Christian too.  And they weren’t recent converts, either. They had all been Christian for over 160 years. Theirs was the earliest conversion of a Germanic people in recorded history. And their Christianity was different than the state religion of Rome. How did that happen, and why? Join us as we try to answer those questions. Sponsors and Advertising This episode is sponsored by Taskrabbit. Get 15% off your first task at Taskrabbit.com or the Taskrabbit app using promo code HISTORY. This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last episode about Amalasuintha and the end of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, we said we were next going to turn to the Visigothic Kingdom. But the story of the Visigothic Kingdom can’t be told without knowing a little more about the history of Gothic religion.  Both Visigoths and Ostrogoths were Christian by the time they appear in ancient sources. They were the earliest Germanic group to convert to Christianity. But what was their religion like before that? We know almost nothing about it. But not nothing entirely. Join us as we draw back the curtain on a mysterious world lost to time—the world of Gothic paganism. Sponsors and Advertising This episode is sponsored by Taskrabbit. Get 15% off your first task at Taskrabbit.com or the Taskrabbit app using promo code HISTORY. This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! ⁠ This is an episode about a plague that killed up to 100 million people by the time it was done—as many as 60% of its victims. It’s the first documented occurrence of a pandemic that we have, and it’s the first documented outbreak of the deadlyYersinia pestis. No, we're not talking about the Black Death of Medieval Europe. We're talking about the Plague of Justinian. The Plague of Justinian was just one part of the fallout of the global volcanic eruption of 536 AD. Three eyewitness accounts have survived--and, in the grand tradition of this podcast, we decided to read them to you whilst Yule-level drunk. Buckle up. It is a wild, plague-tastic ride. Sponsors and Advertising This episode is sponsored by Taskrabbit. Get 15% off your first task at Taskrabbit.com or the Taskrabbit app using promo code HISTORY. This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last episode, we told you all about the rise of Theodoric the Great and the founding of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy. Now, we’re going to tell you all about the women in his family—and the effect they had on his kingdom. Theodoric had a wife, a sister, and three daughters—all of whom played an important role in his empire-building. His wife was the daughter of another powerful Germanic tribe—the Franks—and he married off his sister and two eldest daughters to form strategic alliances. But three times he married off his kin, and three times it blew up in his face. Amalasuintha was Theodoric’s youngest daughter—and when he died, she was the last woman standing. For a few years, the Ostrogothic Kingdom had a Queen—but these were turbulent times. Join us as we explore the rule of Amalasuintha and the lives of Theodoric’s other tough-as-nails female kin. Sponsors and Advertising This episode is sponsored by Taskrabbit. Get 15% off your first task at Taskrabbit.com or the Taskrabbit app using promo code HISTORY. This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! ⁠ What was the worst year to be alive? Some researchers have a very specific answer to this question: 536 AD.  This is a year when the global temperature dropped, and it was winter all year round—for multiple years. The sun disappeared for 18 months as the world was covered in a veil of sulfuric dust. Crops failed. People starved, and fell to eating each other and warring over scarce resources. From China to Mexico, thriving civilizations collapsed. And the culprit? A volcano. Or maybe multiple volcanoes. But which ones are still a mystery. This is a historical mass murder, and it’s still unsolved.   Sponsors and Advertising This episode is sponsored by Taskrabbit. Get 15% off your first task at Taskrabbit.com or the Taskrabbit app using promo code HISTORY. This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! After 75 years under Hunnic dominion, the Ostrogoths seized their freedom and set about taking over control of the Western Roman Empire. The man who led them was named Theodoric the Great. He was a member of an ancient Gothic family called the Amali, which went all the way back to the Crisis of the Third Century. Supposedly. Theodoric was the founder of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, which upended a thousand years of Roman rule in Italy. While Alaric sacked Rome, he couldn’t hold it. He didn’t try to hold it. Theodoric did hold it, and rule it. This is his story. Sponsors and Advertising This episode is sponsored by Taskrabbit. Get 15% off your first task at Taskrabbit.com or the Taskrabbit app using promo code HISTORY. This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last episode, we talked about how the Visigoths came to be: forged in the fire of the Gothic War of 376-382 and the immigration crisis that went along with it. Now, we’ll take a look at what happened to their kin who stayed on the northern side of the Danube—the Greuthungi who were not allowed to cross. What happened to them was 75 years under Hunnic dominion.   This time changed them. Some were brutally exploited. Still others were enriched beyond their wildest imaginings, riding at the head of a Wild Hunt that devoured all in its path—utnil, when next they met their kin who crossed the Danube, it was on opposite sides of a battlefield.   Join us as we map the rise of the Ostrogoths. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last few episodes, we’ve told you what we know about pre-Roman Gothic archaeology, culture, and history. We’ve told you about conditions both inside and outside the Roman Empire that kicked off the Migration Era.   And now we’re going to tell you the story of one of those Gothic Wars in detail: the war of 376-382 AD. A war that may have occurred during Alaric’s childhood—and that may have been a radicalizing event for him and for thousands of people who followed him.   It’s the war—and the accompanying immigration crisis—that sets off a chain of events in which a people called the Visigoths rise—and the most famous of them, a man called Alaric, leads them all the way to the gates of Rome. This is where it all begins. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last episode, we took a look at the outside forces driving the engine of the Migration Era: Hunnic migrations and invasions, constant displacement and conflict at the Roman borders. But Goths lived inside Rome too—in the heart of the Italian peninsula, and also in the outer provinces, in territories that were conquered by force. This story isn’t just about Goths that lived outside Rome. It’s also about the Goths that lived inside the Empire—as everything from slaves to soldiers to free citizens. How they were treated within that empire fueled and fed the wheel of the Migration era. Hatred of immigrants played a major role in Migration-Era conflicts--in ways scarily similar to events today.   Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! It was the beginning of the Migration Era where the Goths’ history with the Roman Empire begins. The Migration era was a cycle of wars and conflicts lasting hundreds of years. Alaric’s sack of Rome was only a small part of it.    What started it? Nobody knows. But it would have been an extremely chaotic time to be alive, when ordinary people had to leave all that they’d built and flee in the face of invaders—who were also refugees fleeing violence that had wiped out their own homes. There would have been no safety anywhere.   The Migration Era was a vortex of death, where displaced victims, starving refugees, desperate people often wound up enacting the next round of violence on the populations they crashed into. And in this episode, we try to plumb the depths of that vortex. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last episode, we delved into the archaeology of the pre-Roman Goths. But what about Gothic culture? What do we know about pre-Roman Gothic culture, before the Goths were Romanized?   To get a real sense of what is authentically Gothic is really difficult. We don’t have much information about the Goths’ daily lives or culture. We know almost nothing about their pre-Christian religious practices and beliefs. What we do have is a lot of military history from a Roman lens, and accounts from chroniclers like Tacitus—which have a lot of issues.   In this episode, we try to peel back the layers and discover what we can about pre-Roman Gothic culture. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! The Roman Empire stood for a thousand years. Many causes have been given for its downfall—but if just one group of people could be said to be culpable, it would be the Goths.   They stormed its borders en masse, scored outsized victories that no one had won before, killed two emperors and raised up their own, sacked the city of Rome after a thousand inviolable years; and built their own kingdoms within the Empire’s decaying corpse. Their name has inspired the names of architecture, literature and fashion into the modern day. Whenever you set the date of the fall of Rome, there’s no question the Goths were instrumental in felling it. So who were these people? Who were the Goths?   In this episode, we’re going to find out. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices