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Instant Classics

Instant Classics

By: Vespucci
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Join world-renowned classicist Mary Beard and Guardian chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins for Instant Classics — the weekly podcast that proves ancient history is still relevant. Ancient stories, modern twists… and no degree in Classics required. Become a Member of the Instant Classics Book Club here: https://instantclassics.supportingcast.fm/ World
Episodes
  • USA 250: America’s Roman Revolution

    USA 250: America’s Roman Revolution
    Jun 11 2026
    In case you haven’t noticed… the USA is celebrating a special anniversary. Mary and Charlotte talk to one of America’s leading scholars of ancient Rome and its modern reception, Joy Connolly, about why so much of the struggle for independence deployed the words, images and sometimes actual clothing of the Ancient Romans. They discuss George Washington’s production of the tragedy of Cato in the revolutionary army and Joseph Warren’s donning of a toga to incite the rebels. They ask why the Declaration of Independence and Constitution drew so heavily on Roman writers like Cicero and Virgil, why Cincinnati was named after the authoritarian Cincinnatus, and to what extent the Republicans and Democrats resemble the classical ideologies they named themselves after. Most of all, the big question: did the Founders know that Virgil’s words e pluribus unum (out of many, one), which became a rallying cry for the merging of the colonies into one, actually came from a recipe for cheese spread? Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: Joy has written about the use of classics in the revolutionary period and later in: “Classical Education and the Early American Democratic Style” in S. Stephens and P. Vasunia (eds), Classics and National Cultures (Oxford UP, 2010) and “Past Sovereignty: Roman Freedom for Modern Revolutionaries” in Basil Duffalo (ed), Roman Error (Oxford UP, 2017). You can read more about her work at ACLS. There are many useful introductions to different aspects of the Romanness of the American Revolution. We have enjoyed: C. J. Richard, The Founders and the Classics (Harvard UP, pb, 1995) M. Malamud, Ancient Rome and Modern America (Wiley Blackwell, pb, 2008) M. N. S. Sellars, “The Roman Republic and the French and American Revolutions", in H. Flower (ed), The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic (Cambridge UP, pb, 2004) More focussed on cultural influence than any directly political impact is W. L. Vance, America’s Rome (Yale UP, 1990) An article on Joseph Warren’s toga. A 1903 letter to the New York Times discussing the tracing of “e pluribus unum” to “Moretum”, the poem once attributed to Virgil that offers a recipe for herby, garlicky cheese spread. @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    52 mins
  • What did the Romans dream about?

    What did the Romans dream about?
    Jun 4 2026
    Nearly 2000 years before Sigmund Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams, a sage in Ephesus (now in Turkey) wrote a book whose title translates as… The Interpretation of Dreams. Armed with Artemidorus’ book, Mary and Charlotte dive into the surreal and revealing dreamscape of the Ancients. If you’ve ever had a dream about flying or losing teeth or sex with a stranger, well… Artemidorus has a view about what this really means. Today, we might find his interpretations a little too neat and prescriptive, but they provide a fascinating insight into life on the edge of the Roman empire, including what people chatted (or sang) about at the public baths, the prevalence of mice in the home, and the hopes, aspirations and fears of household slaves. As with our episodes on Roman joke and cook books, we discover that the Ancients were simultaneously more like us and more dissimilar than we might expect. Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: The best translation of Artemidorus is by Martin Hammond in the Oxford World’s Classics series (OUP,pb, 2020) with an introduction by Peter Thonemann. Thonemann discusses the text and its context in his An Ancient Dream Manual: Artemidorus’ The Interpretation of Dreams (OUP, 2020) A classic article is by Simon Price, “The future of dreams: from Freud to Artemidorus”, originally published in Past and Present for 1986, reprinted in R Osborne (ed), Studies in Greek and Roman Society (Cambridge UP, pb, 2012) @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    55 mins
  • Cleopatra 5: Cleopatra on Screen

    Cleopatra 5: Cleopatra on Screen
    May 28 2026
    Mary and Charlotte talk to Professor Maria Wyke, classicist and film historian, about Cleopatra’s rebirth on the screen. By far the most famous Cleopatra film is the 1963 epic starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton - at the time the most expensive film ever made and with a steamy on-set love affair between the two stars to match that of the characters they were playing. Almost as brilliant, in its way, is the parody made the following year - Carry on Cleo - giving Kenneth Williams, as Julius Caesar, one of the greatest lines of all time: “Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me.” This pair of films hog the limelight, but Maria shows how cinema’s fascination with Cleo goes right back to the early years of silent film through to the 21st Century. Why? On one hand, the Cleopatra story is an opportunity for spectacle and sex appeal - in other words, good business. On the other, the story is reinvented by each generation, playing on the anxieties and desires of the age. Looking at Cleopatra films tells us a lot about changing attitudes to sex, race and politics over the last 100+ years. Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: Maria has written about Cleopatra on film in her books Projecting the Past (Routledge, pb, 1997) and The Roman Mistress (OUP, 2002). Films also figure in Lucy Hughes Hallett’s, Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams and Distortions (Fourth Estate, pb, 2026) A discussion of the Taylor-Burton film on its 60th anniversary: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jun/12/cleopatra-60th-anniversary-elizabeth-taylor-richard-burton And for the fashion aspect: https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/1963-mankiewicz-cleopatra/ @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com Instant Classics handmade by Vespucci Producer: Jonty Claypole Video Editor: Jak Ford Theme music: Casey Gibson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 1 min
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