Classical Wisdom Speaks

Was King Arthur real?
What can his story tells us about British history and identity? And what exactly happened to Britain after the Romans left? 
Today Anya is joined by Murray Dahm, an independent academic researcher and freelance historian based in Sydney, Australia. 
Discover how the era of post-Roman Britain is both a beginning and an ending, the thin line between history and myth, and how the dark age was MUCH shorter than commonly thought. 
Murray Dahm is the author of several books, including Finis Britanniae: A Military History of Late Roman Britain and the Saxon Conquest. You can buy it HERE: https://www.amazon.com/Finis-Britanniae-Military-History-Conquest/dp/1398118273 
Hosted by Anya Leonard of Classical Wisdom. To learn more about Classical Wisdom, and sign up for our free newsletter, please go to https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/ 
An extended version of this podcast is available to Members of Classical Wisdom. This can be found here: https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/p/roman-britain-origin-or-decline

How is Odysseus like the heroes of Indian literature?

And how did two cultures, separated by vast time and distances, come to have such remarkably similar stories?

Today Anya is joined by Roberto Morales to discuss the parallels between ancient Greek, Roman, and Indian literature. They discuss what caused these parallels, and what we can learn from them today...

Roberto Morales is Associate Professor of Sanskrit and Head of the Department of Classical Philology at the University of Costa Rica, and author of The Embassy, the Ambush, and the Ogre, which they discuss. You can buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/Embassy-Ambush-Ogre-Greco-Roman-Influence/dp/1805113615

Hosted by Anya Leonard of Classical Wisdom. To learn more about Classical Wisdom, and sign up for our free newsletter, please go to https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/

What can Seneca, the Roman statesman and Stoic, teach us about life today? 
And how can we teach ourselves to do the right thing? 
Today Anya is joined by Robert Kaster, Emeritus Professor of Classics at Princeton to discuss the complex and rewarding legacy of Seneca’s Stoicism.
He is the author of many books including his most recent, How to Do the Right Thing: An Ancient Guide to Treating People Fairly, which is drawn from the writings of Seneca. 
You can buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/How-Do-Right-Thing-Treating/dp/0691238642 
Hosted by Anya Leonard of Classical Wisdom. To learn more about Classical Wisdom, and sign up for our free newsletter, please go to https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/

How did ancient Greek culture accomplish so much? 
Especially across so many different fields, and in such a comparatively short period of time?
It turns out, having a good debate every now and then is VERY important.
Today Anya is joined by Reviel Netz, the Patrick Suppes Professor of Greek Mathematics and Astronomy in the Department of Classics at Stanford University.
He is the author of many celebrated books, including the bestselling The Archimedes Codex: Revealing the Secret of the World's Greatest Palimpsest, The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics, as well as his most recent,Why the Ancient Greeks Matter: The Problematic Miracle that was Greece. 
You can buy it here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/why-the-ancient-greeks-matter/6C08DD345E62246E02BC0AAD89C3D37C
Hosted by Anya Leonard of Classical Wisdom. To learn more about Classical Wisdom, and sign up for our free newsletter, please go to https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/

The West’s greatest peril is forgetfulness, its loss of cultural memory. Without knowing where we came from, how can we know what to defend, or even what to value?

In an age when history itself is contested...when the past is either dismissed or distorted...The Golden Thread reminds us why the study of civilization matters. Drawing on nearly three millennia of art, philosophy, politics, and faith, Hankins weaves the story of how our ideas of law, liberty, and virtue emerged...and why they still matter in the modern world.

In this conversation, James Hankins of Harvard and Michael Fontaine of Cornell delve into the urgent question of understanding our history and inheritance, to determine what traditions of the West should be kept... or discarded.
We ask: Was Alexander Great because he attempted to bridge the West and the East? Should armies have foreign soldiers? What happens when there is a breakdown in trust in the judicial system? How has the Islamic world shaped the western tradition?
And is religion and spirituality necessary to revive Classics? 
You can find James Hankins' book, The Golden Thread, Here.

Michael Fontaine's latest book, How to Have Willpower, can be found here.

This discussion was hosted by Anya Leonard of Classical Wisdom. To learn more about Classical Wisdom and sign up for our free newsletter, please go to: https://classicalwisdom.substack.com/