Ancient

Julius Caesar was killed on 15 March 44 BC. We’ve heard about the ‘Ides of March’ – but what happened next?

Nobody owns the past, but many have sought to use it to their own ends. The use, and abuse, of ancient history has been ever-present.

An unprecedented force of 86,000 men fought against Hannibal’s Carthaginian army on 2 August 216 BC.

Entering the ivory tower to investigate the ‘class’ in ‘Classics’.

The Phoenicians were the great maritime traders of the ancient Mediterranean.

Cuneiform tablets preserved in the fire that devastated the Mesopotamian city of Ebla offer an extraordinary insight into life 4,000 years ago. 

Iran, despite its conquest by the armies of Islam, retained its own Persian language and much of its culture. Khodadad Rezakhani examines the process by which a Zoroastrian empire became part of the Islamic world.  

Many of the world’s languages derive from a single source. Harry Ritchie tells the story of Proto-Indo-European.

Before its untimely end this once great city was the centre of a vast and powerful civilisation.