The last epic from Greco-Roman antiquity that survives in full, Nonnus’ fifth-century Dionysiaca tells of the wine god Dionysus’ journey eastward, to India. Episode 96 Quiz: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-96-quiz Episode 96 Transcription: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-096-the-last-pagan-epic Bonus Content: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory ..read more

In 417 CE, the Roman poet Rutilius Namatianus journeyed from Rome back to his homeland of Gaul, not knowing whether there was a home to return to. Episode 95 Quiz: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-95-quiz Episode 95 Transcription: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-095-rutilius-namatianus Bonus Content: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory ..read more

One of the later Latin poets of the Empire, Ausonius’ expansive body of work gives us a window into the changing world of fourth-century Roman culture. Episode 94 Quiz: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-94-quiz Episode 94 Transcription: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-094-ausonius Bonus Content: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory ..read more

Sulpicius Severus’ (c. 363-425) life of St. Martin is one of the great hagiographies – a portrait of a timeless saint, but also of a human being and working bishop. Episode 93 Quiz: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-93-quiz Episode 93 Transcription: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-093-severus-life-of-saint-martin Bonus Content: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory ..read more

Athanasius (c. 297-373) wrote a wildly popular biography of the desert hermit St. Antony, touting the ideals of asceticism and triumph over demonic temptation. Episode 92 Quiz: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-92-quiz Episode 92 Transcription: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-092-athanasius-life-of-antony Bonus Content: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory ..read more

In Carthage, in 203 CE, a Roman noblewoman and her retinue were butchered in an amphitheater. Learn her story, and the earliest history of Christian martyrs. Episode 91 Quiz: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-91-quiz Episode 91 Transcription: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-091-the-passion-of-perpetua Bonus Content: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory ..read more

Learn the documentary history behind how the Catholic Church was founded and set up as an organization, together with some of the works of the earliest church fathers. Episode 90 Quiz: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-90-quiz Episode 90 Transcription: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-090-ante-nicene-catholicism Bonus Content: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory ..read more

Heliodorus of Emesa (3rd/4th century CE) wrote the longest novel to have survived from antiquity, an adventurous romance that reemerged into Europe in the 1500s. Episode 89 Quiz: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-89-quiz Episode 89 Transcription: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-089-the-aethiopica-of-heliodorus Bonus Content: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory Great Anthology of Ancient Greek Fiction: B.P. Reardon's Collected Ancient Greek Novels ..read more

In roughly the 160s CE, the Greek satirist Lucian of Samosata wrote A True History, one of history’s earliest surviving novels, with strong tinges of what we’d call science fiction. Episode 88 Quiz: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-88-quiz Episode 88 Transcription: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-088-ancient-greek-sci-fi Bonus Content: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory ..read more

The satirist Lucian (c. 125-180) was popular in his own time and during the Renaissance, among other things probably being the first author of science fiction. Episode 87 Quiz: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-87-quiz Episode 87 Transcription: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-087-lucian-of-samosata Bonus Content: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory ..read more