Have Toga, Will Travel: Exploring Greece and Rome, Ancient and Modern
A podcast exploring the Mediterranean world, ancient and modern, through the eyes of two former Classics professors. Join Emily and Cam as they chat about all things Ancient Greek and Roman and share their own adventures exploring the Mediterranean world through history, travel, literature, and film. Emily Jusino is a specialist in ancient Greek tragedy who also thinks deeply about how modern culture interacts with the literature and mythology of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. Cam Hawkins has spent years reading, teaching, and writing about ancient history—ancient Greek history, ancient Roman history, and the history of a smattering of other cultures. Both have travelled extensively in Italy and Greece and love talking about their travels. We release new episodes on or about the 1st and 15th of every month. https://havetogawilltravel.com
Episodes
Sometime during the second century CE, Rome’s Ninth Legion—long stationed in Britain—disappeared from the historical record. In this episode, Emily and Cam talk about what we know about the Ninth, and about how the story of the Ninth is told in two movies: Centurion (2010) and The Eagle (2011). Along the way, they touch on how topics like slavery and Roman imperialism are (or are not!) treated in these films.
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Did you know that the popes constructed a palace on top of a mausoleum built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian? Before he died, Hadrian commissioned a magnificent tomb for himself on the right bank of the Tiber River, just north of the ancient walls of Rome. Over the centuries, that tomb would become a fortress known as the Castel Sant’Angelo, then a papal residence, and finally a museum. In this episode, Emily and Cam cover the h...
Athens was the city the Roman Emperor Hadrian loved most in the world, and he left his mark there by commissioning a bunch of new monumental public buildings for the city and its people. In this episode, Emily and Cam talk about the long and sometimes tense history of Romans building things in Athens, Hadrian’s own architectural sensibility, and some of the key structures he left behind (including the Library of Hadrian and t...
The emperor Hadrian didn’t just build a wall across Britain! During a career that involved a “world tour” to pretty much every province of the Roman Empire, he rubbed elbows with provincial aristocrats; showered gifts on the cities of the empire; climbed a couple of mountains and hunted at least one big cat; hung out for years in Greece; murdered the odd senator; and loved, lost, and deified his cherished friend A...
In “Trojan Women”, the Athenian playwright Euripides highlights an aspect of the Trojan War neglected by Christopher Nolan in “The Odyssey”: the true horror of Troy’s capture and destruction. In this episode, Emily and Cam break down Euripides’ play. Produced at Athens mere months after the Athenians captured Melos (where the Athenians killed all of the men and enslaved the city’s women and...
When modern authors and filmmakers like Christopher Nolan adapt ancient myths and characters, they are following an old and well-worn precedent. In this episode, Emily and Cam explore how the Athenian playwright Sophocles adapted a well-known story about Odysseus and used it in his play, Philoctetes, to explore questions about deception, persuasion, and intractable situations.
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Emily and Cam take on Christopher Nolan’s film, “The Odyssey.” Everyone has an opinion on this movie, and Emily and Cam are no different. Sheep, and Cyclops, and Circe, oh my!
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Need a refresher on Homer’s Odyssey before you watch the upcoming movie by Christopher Nolan? Emily and Cam have got you covered! In this episode, they break down the poem’s plot and its major themes as they explore topics like Odysseus’ reliability as a narrator (spoiler alert: he has none whatsoever!) and Penelope’s own craftiness.
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Have you ever wondered what a bath-house architect from ancient Rome would think if he found himself swept through a time warp into a modern Japanese Spa? Wonder no more! Emily and Cam discuss Thermae Romae, a 2012 Japanese Film that seeks to explore precisely this question by dramatizing the adventures of one Lucius Modestus, an engineer who becomes Emperor Hadrian’s personal bath-house designer.
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We’re dropping a quick note in our feed to remind you that we’re on vacation and won’t be releasing a full episode on June 15, but also to tease a couple of upcoming episodes—including a couple on Homer’s Odyssey and Christopher Nolan’s film of the same name!
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Emily and Cam wrap up their series on hiking Hadrian’s Wall Path with a discussion of the final 31 miles of the Wall. Follow along as they explore medieval monuments made of wallstone, find themselves treed by some cows, and are regaled with tales of cannibals (human and otherwise!).
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Fabulous vistas and amazing artifacts await eager hikers along the central section of Hadrian’s Wall Path. Listen as Emily and Cam chat about them all in this installment of their series on the Wall. Get ready for Roman Army re-enactors, the world’s oldest surviving document written by a woman, and the tree that stole the show from Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman—but watch out for the cheesecake!
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Curious to know what it’s like to walk the length of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England and experience the monument the way the ancient Romans did (on foot!)? Join Emily and Cam as they describe what there is to see and do along the first 38 miles of Hadrian’s Wall Path National Trail. You’ll hear about Roman soldiers from Mesopotamia, a Smell-o-Rama (yes, really!), the modern worship of the ancient god Mith...
Join Emily and Cam as they discuss the Romans in Britain from the time of Caesar to the emperor Hadrian, and then talk about Hadrian’s monumental wall—what it was, how it was built, what it was for, and why some bits of it still survive today.
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Emily and Cam chat about whether Monty Python's Life of Brian is truly the greatest movie about ancient Rome (as Cam claimed in the last episode). They also explore what "truths" the movie might expose about life under Roman occupation, and contemplate the Pythons’ love for Aristophanes.
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In the final installment of a four-part series on the Greeks and the Persians, Emily and Cam discuss both the Battle of Salamis and the Battle of Plataea, and finish off with some remarks about the Serpent Column—a living monument to the accomplishment of the Greeks.
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Emily and Cam dive into Xerxes’ decision to invade Greece, and tell the story of his expedition as far as the Battle of Thermopylae. (Featuring a very brief digression on "300".)
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- The first episode in this series (The Per...
Emily and Cam continue their discussion of the conflict between the Persians and the ancient Greek world. In this episode, they chat about Cyrus’ son Cambyses, about the rise to power of Darius, and about Darius’ relationships with Greeks on the western frontier of his empire.
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Emily and Cam talk about the ancient Persians and the growth of their empire in the first episode of a series on the conflict between the Persians and the ancient Greek world.
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Cover photo adapted from an image by Jakub Hałun<...
Emily and Cam break down “The Persians”—the oldest surviving Greek tragedy, which offers a surprisingly sympathetic take on the enemies of Athens.
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