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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Once pervasively described as a period of fall and decline, today Late Antiquity is often understood as a period of cultural flowering and economic revolution.
Episode 86 Quiz:
https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-86-quiz
Episode 86 Transcription:
https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-086-an-introduction-to-late-antiquity
Bonus Content:
https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content
Patreon:
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A primer on Biblical canon formation, retrospective on what we’ve covered so far, and introduction to the upcoming season.
Episode 85 Transcription:
https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-085-river
Bonus Content:
https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content
Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory
After 300 CE, Manichaeism spread quickly from its origins in modern day Iraq and Iran. Recent archaeological discoveries have finally allowed us to learn about it firsthand.
Episode 84 Quiz: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-84-quiz
Episode 84 Transcription: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-084-manichaeism
Bonus Content: https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory
The Nag Hammadi Library, Codex Tchacos, and Berlin Codex, as they came to light in the twentieth century, radically changed our understanding of early Christianity.
HarperOne Nag Hammadi Scriptures https://harperone.com/9780061626005/the-nag-hammadi-scriptures/
Episode 83 Quiz https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-83-quiz
Episode 83 Transcription:
https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-083-gnosticism
Bonus Content:
https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content
Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory
Learn the basic tenets and early history of Zoroastrianism, one of the most important and widespread religions in the ancient world, and possibly earth’s oldest living monotheism.
Episode 82 Quiz:
https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-82-quiz
Episode 82 Transcription:
https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-082-zoroastrianism
Bonus Content:
https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content
One of the most spectacular pieces of writing in the world’s religious texts, Revelation influenced generations of writers and theologians.
Episode 81 Quiz:
https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-81-quiz
Episode 81 Transcription:
https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/episode-081-revelation
Bonus Content:
https://literatureandhistory.com/index.php/bonus-content
Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/literatureandhistory
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