Paul Cartledge
AG Leventis Senior Research Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge
21 episodes
Appears in multiple episodes with: Edith Hall, Angie Hobbs, Edith Hall, Nick Lowe, Angie Hobbs
Covers topics in categories such as:
Lysistrata
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristophanes' outrageous comedy from 411BC in which the women of Athens and Sparta bring their warring husbands to peace by staging a sex strike.
11 April 2024
Also featuring: Sarah Miles, James Robson
Demosthenes' Philippics
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ferocious speeches Demosthenes gave to stir up his fellow Athenians against their enemy Philip II of Macedon and so abandon appeasement.
17 November 2022
Also featuring: Kathryn Tempest, Jon Hesk
Herodotus
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek writer whose Histories aimed to 'preserve the great and marvellous deeds of Greeks and barbarians, especially why they fought each other'.
23 September 2021
Also featuring: Tom Harrison, Esther Eidinow
Pericles
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and influence of the most powerful statesman in the new democracy of Athens, flourishing between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars.
17 September 2020
Also featuring: Edith Hall, Peter Liddel
The Mytilenaean Debate
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Athenians' vote to kill all the men of Mytilene, then their change of mind next day and their race to stop the first vote being implemented.
20 June 2019
Also featuring: Angela Hobbs, Lisa Irene Hau
The Iliad
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the story of a crucial 40 days in the 10-year battle for Troy, framed by Achilles' anger first at his leader Agamenmon and then at his enemy Hector.
13 September 2018
Also featuring: Edith Hall, Barbara Graziosi
Thebes
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the myths of the ancient Greek city of Thebes, as told by Athenian dramatists, and the times when Thebes dominated Greek history.
23 November 2017
Also featuring: Edith Hall, Samuel Gartland
The Battle of Salamis
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Battle of Salamis, 480BC, often called one of the most significant battles in history, in which the Greek fleet defeated the Persians.
23 March 2017
Also featuring: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Lindsay Allen
The Muses
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Muses in Greek mythology, goddesses who presided over the civilised arts and the life of the mind including poetry, song, music and dance.
19 May 2016
Also featuring: Angie Hobbs, Penelope Murray
Alexander the Great
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and legacy of Alexander the Great, king of Macedon and conqueror of the Persian Empire.
1 October 2015
Also featuring: Diana Spencer, Rachel Mairs
Thucydides
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Greek historian Thucydides and his work entitled The History of the Peloponnesian War.
29 January 2015
Also featuring: Katherine Harloe, Neville Morley
Strabo's Geographica
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Strabo's Geographica, the only surviving work from the ancient world that describes the entire world known to the Greeks and Romans.
10 April 2014
Also featuring: Maria Pretzler, Benet Salway
The Amazons
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Amazons, formidable female warriors of classical myth.
11 April 2013
Also featuring: Chiara Franceschini, Caroline Vout
Xenophon
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the ancient Greek historian and soldier Xenophon.
26 May 2011
Also featuring: Edith Hall, Simon Goldhill
The Delphic Oracle
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Delphic Oracle, the most important and best documented source of prophecies in the ancient world.
30 September 2010
Also featuring: Edith Hall, Nick Lowe
Sparta
Melvyn Bragg and guests Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall and Angie Hobbs discuss Sparta, the militaristic Ancient Greek city-state, and the political ideas it spawned.
19 November 2009
Also featuring: Edith Hall, Angie Hobbs
History of History
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how the writing of history has changed over time, from ancient epics to medieval hagiographies and modern deconstructions.
22 January 2009
Also featuring: John Burrow, Miri Rubin
Aristotle's Politics
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most important works of political philosophy ever written - Aristotle’s ‘Politics.
6 November 2008
Also featuring: Angie Hobbs, Annabel Brett
Comedy in Ancient Greek Theatre
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss theatre comedy in Ancient Greece including Aristophanes and Menander and their lasting legacy.
13 July 2006
Also featuring: Edith Hall, Nick Lowe
The Oath
Melvyn Bragg discusses the importance of the oath in the Classical World, from Homer’s Illiad to the role oath-making played in the expanding Roman Empire.
5 January 2006
Also featuring: Alan Sommerstein, Mary Beard
Heroism
Melvyn Bragg discusses what defines a hero, and their place in classical society. Nietzsche, the Romantics, Renaissance idealism and classical tragedy are brought to bear on the age old heroic ideal.
6 May 2004
Also featuring: Angie Hobbs, A. C. Grayling