Classical Wisdom Speaks

Was Athens' Golden Age Really Golden? | Pericles, Democracy & Empire

Was ancient Athens truly the birthplace of democracy and civilization or was its famous Golden Age built on conquest, inequality, and imperial power?

When we think of Pericles and the Golden Age of Athens, we imagine the Parthenon, Socrates, Greek tragedy, extraordinary art, and the birth of Western democracy.

But behind this remarkable cultural flourishing lies a far more complicated story.

How democratic was Athens really? Who paid for its greatness? And was Pericles a visionary statesman—or a brilliant demagogue?

In this special Classical Wisdom event, host Anya Leonard welcomes two distinguished scholars of ancient Greece:

Paul Cartledge, historian of ancient Greek democracy and author of Pericles: Statesman, Demagogue, Eccentric, and Armand D'Angour, Oxford classicist and author of Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher.

Together, they challenge the traditional image of fifth-century BCE Athens and explore the extraordinary achievements—and troubling contradictions—of its most celebrated political leader.

Pericles was born into an aristocratic family, yet became a champion of Athenian democracy. He helped expand political participation while simultaneously defending an empire that demanded tribute and obedience from its allies.

Under his leadership, Athens built the Parthenon, became a center of art and intellectual life, and developed a political culture built around public debate and persuasion.

But its prosperity came at a cost.

The Athenian Empire exerted power over other Greek city-states, while women, enslaved people, and noncitizens remained excluded from democratic decision-making.

The discussion also examines the remarkable Aspasia of Miletus, Pericles' influential partner, whose intellectual and social position challenges our assumptions about women in classical Athens.

And then there is the question of war.

Did Pericles' policies make the Peloponnesian War inevitable? Was he right to confront Sparta, or did his commitment to Athenian supremacy help bring about the destruction of the world he had helped create?

Drawing on Thucydides, Plutarch, ancient political institutions, and modern historical scholarship, Paul and Armand explore how charisma, rhetoric, ambition, and imperial power shaped Athenian democracy.

The result is a fascinating reconsideration of one of history's most influential—and most contradictory—civilizations.

Was the Golden Age of Athens a triumph of democracy, or a warning about what happens when democracy becomes an empire?

Timestamps:
00:00 Pericles and the myth of the Golden Age
02:11 Meet Paul Cartledge and Armand D'Angour
04:14 Who was Pericles?
10:49 What made Athens' Golden Age?
15:04 Statesman or demagogue?
21:02 Why was Pericles controversial?
25:26 Ostracism and democratic accountability
28:01 Can democracy coexist with empire?
35:43 Pericles and imperial power
48:01 Aspasia: the woman behind Pericles
01:05:03 Athenian identity and citizenship
01:11:00 What caused the Peloponnesian War?
01:21:02 Audience Q&A
01:23:00 The plague and Pericles' downfall
01:35:00 Democracy, duty, and civic life
01:49:00 Final reflections

What Do You Think?
Can a society truly call itself democratic while ruling over others?

And do you think Pericles deserves his reputation as one of history's greatest statesmen?

Share your thoughts in the comments!

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Guests:

Paul Cartledge is a leading historian of ancient Greece and a senior research fellow at Clare College, Cambridge. His work explores Sparta, Athenian democracy, Greek politics, and classical civilization. He is the author of Pericles: Statesman, Demagogue, Eccentric.

Armand D'Angour is Professor of Classics at the University of Oxford and Fellow and Tutor at Jesus College. His research explores ancient Greek culture, philosophy, music, and intellectual history. He is the author of Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher.

What Do We REALLY Know About Pythagoras? 

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Was Pythagoras really a mathematical genius—or one of the ancient world's most mysterious spiritual leaders?

Most of us know Pythagoras for his famous theorem. But behind the mathematics lies a far stranger story involving reincarnation, secret societies, sacred numbers, cosmic music, and extraordinary claims of supernatural powers.

So who was the real Pythagoras?

In this episode of Classical Wisdom Speaks, host Anya Leonard welcomes Christoph Riedweg, professor of classical philology and Greek studies at the University of Zurich and author of Pythagoras: His Life, Teaching, and Influence.

Together, they investigate the historical Pythagoras and the legends that have surrounded him for more than 2,500 years.

Was he a philosopher, scientist, religious reformer, political adviser—or all of these at once?

Christoph explains why separating historical fact from legend is extraordinarily difficult. Even ancient writers disagreed about Pythagoras, portraying him either as a remarkable sage or as a charismatic charlatan.

And while Pythagoras is celebrated for his mathematical discoveries, some of the ideas attributed to him were already known in ancient Babylonia.

But mathematics was only one part of his worldview.

Pythagoras reportedly believed in metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls between human beings and animals. One early account even describes him recognizing the soul of a deceased friend in a puppy.

His followers formed a distinctive community in Croton, southern Italy, combining philosophy, religious practices, initiation rituals, and political influence.

At the heart of their thinking was a radical idea: number is the fundamental principle of reality.

The mathematical ratios that produce musical harmony might also explain the structure of the cosmos, the human soul, and even moral qualities such as justice.

Anya and Christoph also explore Pythagoras' connections to Orpheus, Orphic mystery traditions, ancient Egypt, Plato, and the Greek understanding of the afterlife.

Was Pythagoras ahead of his time—or have centuries of legend transformed him into someone he never was?

Discover the remarkable figure behind the theorem and why his ideas continue to fascinate us today.

Key Topics:

Who was the historical Pythagoras?

Pythagoras: mathematician, philosopher, or mystic?

The origins of the Pythagorean theorem

Ancient Babylonian mathematics

Reincarnation and transmigration of souls

Pythagoras and the Pythagorean brotherhood

Ancient Greek philosophy and the natural philosophers

Heraclitus' criticism of Pythagoras

Why the Pythagoreans believed everything was number

The music of the spheres and cosmic harmony

Orpheus, Orphism, and mystery religions

Ancient Egyptian influences on Greek philosophy

Plato and the legacy of Pythagoreanism

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 Introducing Christoph Riedweg
00:45 Who was the real Pythagoras?
01:11 Separating history from legend
01:49 The famous theorem and Babylonian mathematics
03:01 Music and the harmony of the spheres
04:57 How historians investigate Pythagoras
05:33 The first Greek philosophers
07:52 Pythagoras: scientist or spiritual leader?
09:40 Ancient criticism of Pythagoras
10:00 Reincarnation and the soul of a puppy
12:01 Charisma, miracles, and religious authority
13:20 The Pythagorean community in Croton
15:37 Heraclitus versus Pythagoras
18:57 Was there a coherent Pythagorean philosophy?
19:17 Why everything is number
22:51 The music of the spheres
25:36 Pythagoras and Orpheus
27:47 The Derveni Papyrus and Orphic traditions
29:12 Gold tablets and the afterlife
32:48 Memory, reincarnation, and the Underworld
40:05 Pythagoras' extraordinary legacy
44:01 Ethics and the Golden Verses
49:15 Why classical education still matters

What Do You Think?

Was Pythagoras primarily a scientist, a philosopher, or a religious leader?

And does his mysterious reputation make him more fascinating—or more difficult to understand?

Share your thoughts in the comments!

👉 Subscribe to Classical Wisdom Speaks for conversations about ancient Greek philosophy, history, mythology, and the ideas that shaped our world.

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👉  Buy Christoph Riedweg's book Pythagoras: His Life, Teaching, and Influence. https://www.amazon.com.br/Pythagoras-Christoph-Riedweg/dp/0801442400

About Christoph Riedweg

Christoph Riedweg is a scholar of classical philology and Greek studies at the University of Zurich. His research explores ancient Greek philosophy, religion, and literature.

The Classical History of the Undead  | Watch the FULL, EXTENDED EPISODE on Substack!

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What's the Difference Between a Saint and a Vampire?

And what if the real history of vampires is far stranger than anything in Dracula?

Long before Bram Stoker created his famous fictional vampire, people across the world feared that the dead could return to harm the living.

But these weren't necessarily blood-drinking aristocrats with sharp teeth. They were something more unsettling: ordinary corpses believed to retain a mysterious life force—even after burial.

In this episode of Classical Wisdom Speaks, host Anya Leonard welcomes John Blair, Emeritus Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology at the University of Oxford, to discuss his book Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World.

Together, they uncover the extraordinary history of the dangerous dead, exploring ancient beliefs, medieval folklore, archaeological discoveries, and the social fears that gave rise to vampire epidemics.

Why did some communities dig up corpses, drive nails through their bodies, or bury suspected vampires face down?

Why could an unusually well-preserved body be interpreted as evidence of either a saint or a vampire?

And why did fears of the undead often intensify during periods of plague, religious upheaval, and political instability?

From ancient Mesopotamia and the Greco-Roman world to medieval England, Serbia, and nineteenth-century America, John explains how beliefs about the restless dead emerged in different societies—and what they reveal about the people who held them.

The conversation also explores the surprising relationship between Christianity, resurrection, and vampire folklore, including medieval accounts of walking corpses and archaeological evidence from the late Roman world.

But perhaps the most intriguing question is psychological.

John argues that vampire epidemics could offer frightened communities a way to explain catastrophe, identify scapegoats, and regain a sense of control.

Were vampires really monsters—or did they reflect humanity's deepest fears about death, disease, and uncertainty?

Discover the forgotten history behind one of the world's most enduring supernatural beliefs.

Key Topics:

The real history of vampires and the undead

Why Dracula differs from historical vampire beliefs

Ancient Mesopotamian and Greco-Roman traditions

Archaeological evidence of restrained corpses

Vampire epidemics in medieval Europe

Why plagues and social upheaval fueled vampire fears

Burial rituals, cremation, and the dangerous dead

Saints, vampires, and incorrupt bodies

Christianity, resurrection, and medieval folklore

Vampire beliefs in Serbia, Greece, and England

How literature transformed the modern vampire

Scapegoating, fear, and the psychology of superstition

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 What is a vampire?
01:01 Defining the dangerous dead
03:21 Why vampire beliefs matter
04:41 Understanding the past on its own terms
06:37 Spirits and animated corpses
07:55 What makes a corpse dangerous?
08:45 The cat that creates a vampire
10:20 Plague, trauma, and scapegoating
11:45 Vampires in ancient Greece and Rome
13:13 Archaeological evidence of restrained corpses
15:00 Cremation and burial
16:08 Why corpses appear undecayed
17:40 Saints versus vampires
19:34 Vampire epidemics and social fear
22:07 How societies deal with death
24:26 Christianity and the undead
27:47 From folklore to Dracula
30:07 How Dracula changed vampire beliefs
31:00 Why the undead fascinate us
32:47 Final thoughts

What Do You Think?

Why do you think so many different cultures developed beliefs about the dangerous dead?

And what is more frightening: the idea that corpses could return to life, or the lengths people were willing to go to stop them?

Share your thoughts in the comments!

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👉 Buy "Killing the Dead" by John Blair: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691224794/killing-the-dead

About John Blair

John Blair is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford. He is the author of Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World, which investigates the history of beliefs in dangerous corpses across different cultures and centuries.

What Can Ancient Epics Teach Us About Death? | Homer, Lost Classics & Greek Tragedy

What can the greatest stories of ancient Greece teach us about death, and how to live?

Thousands of years ago, Greek poets and playwrights were exploring questions we still struggle with today.

Is a short life of glory better than a long, ordinary one? What do we owe the dead? And how do we make sense of grief, loss, and mortality?

In this episode of Classical Wisdom Speaks, host Anya Leonard welcomes Classical Wisdom's resident classicist Ben Potter to explore how ancient Greek literature confronted death: from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, to the lost Aethiopis, and the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.

In the Iliad, death is everywhere. Warriors lie unburied on the battlefield, Achilles is consumed by rage, and the ghost of Patroclus begs for the funeral rites that will allow him to find peace.

Yet the epic's conclusion offers something unexpected: a powerful moment of shared humanity when Priam comes to Achilles to reclaim the body of his son Hector.

The lost Aethiopis, part of the Trojan Epic Cycle, continues the story with the arrival of Memnon and the Amazon queen Penthesilea, whose death at Achilles' hands raises questions about honor, love, and the treatment of fallen enemies.

Meanwhile, in the Odyssey, Odysseus encounters the spirits of the dead. The forgotten sailor Elpenor pleads for burial, while Achilles, who sacrificed a long life for everlasting fame, offers a strikingly different perspective on heroic glory.

Was his sacrifice worth it?

Beyond Homer, the great Greek tragedians returned to these myths to explore conflicts between family, divine law, justice, and death. Works such as Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus, and Hippolytus reveal how ancient audiences grappled with questions that remain relevant today.

Anya and Ben also examine the historical world behind the literature, including Bronze Age burial customs, Mycenaean tombs, ritual pollution, and the Greek Underworld.

Are these ancient epics simply tales of heroes and gods, or timeless reflections on what it means to be human?

Key Topics:

    What ancient Greek literature teaches us about death

    Homer's Iliad and Odyssey

    Achilles, Patroclus, Hector, and the meaning of honor

    The lost Aethiopis, Memnon, and Penthesilea

    The Trojan Epic Cycle and lost Greek classics

    Odysseus, Elpenor, and the Underworld

    Achilles' choice between glory and long life

    Death and burial in Greek tragedy

    Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus

    Antigone, Hippolytus, and Oedipus at Colonus

    Ancient Greek funeral rituals and Mycenaean tombs

    Hades, Tartarus, and the Elysian Fields

    Grief, mortality, and the duty to honor the dead

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 Introducing Ben Potter
00:46 Death in Homer and tragedy
01:19 Ancient Greek literary history
03:16 The Bronze Age world of Homer
04:12 Greek funeral rituals
06:31 Death and ritual pollution
09:49 Euripides' Hippolytus
11:11 Mycenaean tombs
13:29 Death in the Iliad
16:18 Patroclus' ghost and Achilles
17:45 Hector, Priam, and burial
19:05 The lost Aethiopis
20:42 Penthesilea and Achilles
22:42 Death in the Odyssey
23:46 Elpenor's plea for burial
26:19 Odysseus and the dead
28:19 Achilles and the price of glory
29:11 Hades and the afterlife
32:12 The Greek tragedians

What Do You Think? Which ancient Greek story offers the most powerful lesson about death?

Is it Achilles mourning Patroclus, Priam reclaiming Hector, Odysseus encountering the dead, or Antigone's struggle over burial?

And what can these ancient works still teach us about grief and mortality?

Share your thoughts in the comments!

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GUEST: 

Ben Potter is a classical scholar, longtime Classical Wisdom contributor, and creator of the Essential Greeks course. With expertise in Homer and ancient Greek theater, he explores how classical literature continues to illuminate the human experience.

How much of what we think we know about Cleopatra comes from history? 

And how much was created by Roman propaganda, Shakespeare, and centuries of storytelling?

In this fascinating episode of Classical Wisdom Speaks, host Anya Leonard speaks with international bestselling author Natasha Solomons about her novel I Am Cleopatra, the extraordinary life of Egypt's last pharaoh, and the challenge of separating the historical Cleopatra from the myths that surround her.

For more than 2,000 years, Cleopatra VII has captivated historians, writers, artists and audiences. Yet her story is so often told through the men in her life.

But who was Cleopatra beyond these famous relationships?

Natasha explains how rereading Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra inspired her to imagine a different version of the Egyptian queen: not simply a romantic heroine, but a formidable ruler, a shrewd political strategist and a woman navigating extraordinary dangers.

Together, Anya and Natasha explore the fascinating intersection of ancient Egyptian history, Roman politics, historical fiction and mythology.

They discuss how Cleopatra cultivated her image as the goddess Isis, used language and religion to appeal to her Egyptian subjects, and maneuvered between the competing worlds of Alexandria and Rome.

But they also examine a more intimate side of Cleopatra.

What was it like to be a woman wielding power in the ancient world? How did motherhood, personal vulnerability and the physical realities of women's lives influence the choices available to a queen?

From Shakespeare and Plutarch to the Library of Alexandria, Cleopatra's relationships with Caesar and Antony, and the enduring mystery of her death, this conversation reveals why Cleopatra continues to fascinate us.

Can we ever discover the real Cleopatra... Or does every generation create the Cleopatra it needs?

Key Topics:

Who was the real Cleopatra VII?

Cleopatra: history versus myth

Natasha Solomons and I Am Cleopatra

Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra

Why Cleopatra remains fascinating today

Roman propaganda and Augustus

Cleopatra's intelligence, charm and political power

Julius Caesar and Cleopatra's relationship

Mark Antony: romance or political alliance?

Cleopatra and the Egyptian goddess Isis

Ancient Egypt, Alexandria and the Ptolemaic dynasty

How Cleopatra used religion and public image

Women, power and vulnerability in antiquity

Cleopatra's children and motherhood

Plutarch and the ancient historical sources

The Library of Alexandria

Reimagining ancient history through fiction

Cleopatra's death and lasting legacy

⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 Who was the real Cleopatra?
00:21 Introducing Natasha Solomons
01:31 Shakespeare's Cleopatra
03:53 Researching ancient history
07:17 Cleopatra: history vs. myth
09:14 Cleopatra's legendary charm
10:57 Roman propaganda and Augustus
12:25 Cleopatra and the goddess Isis
14:21 Can we know the real Cleopatra?
17:10 Cleopatra and her children
19:13 Women and power in antiquity
23:35 Everyday life in ancient Egypt
25:23 Secrets of ancient Alexandria
27:30 Cleopatra between Egypt and Rome
30:01 Julius Caesar and Cleopatra
34:07 Mark Antony: love or politics?
39:01 Alexandria's lost history
43:00 Cleopatra's death and legacy

What makes Cleopatra's story so compelling is that she was not merely a character in someone else's history. She was a ruler who actively shaped her own image, even as her enemies and later storytellers reshaped it for their own purposes.

Was Cleopatra primarily a brilliant politician, a romantic heroine, or something far more complicated?

And do you think historical fiction can bring us closer to understanding the ancient world?

Share your thoughts in the comments!

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👉 Buy Natasha Solomons' book 'I Am Cleopatra': https://www.amazon.com/Am-Cleopatra-Novel-Natasha-Solomons/dp/0063449757

About Natasha Solomons

Natasha Solomons is an international bestselling novelist and the author of I Am Cleopatra, a historical novel that reimagines the life of Egypt's legendary queen.

In this conversation, she discusses her research, her approach to historical fiction, and her fascination with the women whose stories have so often been told through the perspectives of powerful men.