Two Friends Talk History

• Special Episode: The Ancient Peace Studies Network with Alice König

  In part 2 of our collaboration, Zofia guest-hosts the Visualising War and Peace Podcast to interview project founder, Dr. Alice König. In this conversation, Alice she unveils the groundbreaking Ancient Peace Studies Network—the first of its kind dedicated to examining how peace was understood, experienced, and represented across different ancient cultures.Discover why peace narratives have received far less scholarly attention than war stories, and how Dr. König's team is working to change that by investigating whose voices and experiences are reflected in ancient accounts of peace and reconciliation.What can ancient approaches to conflict resolution teach us about modern peacebuilding? In this thought-provoking special episode, we explore how elite-centered peace narratives shaped societal attitudes in antiquity and continue to influence our understanding of peace today. Dr. König reveals how her interdisciplinary network is "reading against the grain" of ancient sources to uncover ordinary people's lived experiences of peace—voices that have been historically marginalized but might offer valuable insights for contemporary peace literacy.Don't miss our conversation about bridging academic research with creative outreach, as Dr. König shares details about the network's collaboration with a professional theater company, NMT Automatics, and the upcoming multi-authored publication, "New Visions of Ancient Peace." This episode offers a perfect blend of historical scholarship and practical application, demonstrating how ancient wisdom might help us visualize and build more effective paths to peace in our modern world. We hope you enjoy this collab episode!If you would like to get in touch with Alice regarding her work, please visit the University of St Andrews' Visualising War website and the Visualising Peace Project.The music for the episode was composed by Jonathan Young, and Zofia Guertin mixed the episode. To get in touch and find out more about Two Friends Talk History:Find us on Instagram & TwitterSupport us through PatreonBuy our merch on RedbubbleExplore more resources and topics about the ancient world on ArchaeoArtistIllustration by Zofia GuertinIf you'd like to get in touch, email at [email protected]. 

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• Special Episode: Ancient war stories and their real-world ramifications with Dr Alice König

  To launch series 4 of Two Friends Talk History, I was very fortunate to interview Dr Alice König, host of the Visualising War and Peace Podcast, for this special crossover episode.  Alice has recently co-edited a new book with Nicolas Wiater, on ancient conflict narratives, called Visualising War across the Ancient Mediterranean: Interplay between Conflict Narratives in Different Genres and Media (Routledge 2025). In this podcast episode, Alice introduces the book and discusses some of the themes at the heart of it.This episode explores the conception of visualisation: the ways in which narratives of war not only reflect or depict conflict but also envision it, in ways that shape how conflict gets pursued or prevented in the real world. She also discusses the role that interplay between narratives and discourses can play in cementing and amplifying influential war imaginaries. And she considers the impacts which all of this war-storytelling has on ordinary lives in the everyday.  We hope you enjoy this collab episode!If you would like to get in touch with Alice regarding her work, please visit the University of St Andrews' Visualising War website and the Visualising Peace Project.The music for the episode was composed by Jonathan Young, and Zofia Guertin mixed the episode. To get in touch and find out more about Two Friends Talk History:Find us on Instagram & TwitterSupport us through PatreonBuy our merch on RedbubbleExplore more resources and topics about the ancient world on ArchaeoArtistMusic by the wonderfully talented Chris SharplesIllustration by Zofia GuertinIf you'd like to get in touch, email at [email protected].  

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• Poverty in Late Antiquity with Carlos Machado

  In this episode, I interview  Dr Carlos Machado from the University of St Andrews about the social perceptions and realities of poverty in the Late Antique period. Dr Machado is a Roman historian whose work focuses on aspects of urban space in the Late Antique Roman world, from elite building, honorific monuments, and domestic spaces; he is now working on shedding a light on the strata of society that seldom received attention in the historical record or monumental commemorations - the poor - which is what we shall dig into today. We discuss preconceptions about who the 'poor' of antiquity were, and how the early Christian church tried to deal with the shifting fortunes of their communities when facing historical realities of cycles of poverty in the past. I have included some links below for anyone wishing to find out more about Dr Machado's  recent publications, and his upcoming project work. Urban space and aristocratic power in late antique Rome: AD 270-535Machado, C., 25 Oct 2019, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 317 p.The epigraphic cultures of Late AntiquityBolle, K. (ed.), Machado, C. (ed.) & Witschel, C. (ed.), 2017, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. 615 p. (Heidelberger althistorische Beiträge und epigraphische Studien; vol. 60)Dr Machado has recently won an AHRC-DFG partnership grant for a project entitled ‘Land and loyalty: the politics of land in the later Roman world (4th to 6th century)’. This forthcoming project will analyse the politics of imperial and royal land grants and how this practice changed the dynamics of Mediterranean societies between 300 and 600 CE. To follow Carlos on Twitter (X); @AmianoMarcelino, or you can check out his Academia.edupage or University of St Andrews contact page. To get in touch and find out more about Two Friends Talk History:Find us on Instagram & TwitterSupport us through PatreonBuy our merch on RedbubbleExplore more resources and topics about the ancient world on ArchaeoArtist

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• Athletics and Honour with Giorgos Mouratidis

  In this episode, I conduct an in-person interview with the Assistant Director of the British School at Athens, Dr Giorgos Mouraditis. Giorgos' research focuses on athletic self-representation in inscriptions from the Hellenistic and Imperial periods.  Listeners will be familiar with the British School of Athens from the last episode when I met with its Director, Professor Rebecca Sweetman, to discuss the exciting public engagement work that the institute is working on.  I returned to the BSA for a short visit in May of this year during the fieldwork I am conducting for my thesis chapter in Greece. I thought it might be fun to throw my mic in my rucksack and do some field interviews while I am on the road!Giorgos' upcoming project, ‘Athletics and Paideia’ investigates the role of monuments in preserving and the diffusion of knowledge about Hellenic culture and civic education. Giorgos has an upcoming publication that explores Money and Honour in athletics this autumn, and a chapter in a forthcoming volume on Paideia and Performance (2023).You can follow Dr Mouraditis on Twitter @Giorgos_m776 and Instagram @Giorgos.m776. If you would like to find out more about what is going on at the British School at Athens, you can check out their website, www.bsa.ac.uk, or linktree . To read his publications and stay connected through Academia.edu.  If you would like to get in touch, you can contact Dr Mouraditis by email, contact Giorgios at: [email protected] If you would like to apply to the BSA for ‘Communicating Archaeology: knowledge exchange, impact, and public engagement', apply here: https://www.bsa.ac.uk/courses/communicating-archaeology/ This course will be aimed at PG students or professionals looking to gain hands on experience communicating archaeology to public audiences. This is a brand new programme, with exciting seminars and speakers planned including the fabulous Classicist and award-winning author, Natalie Haynes, journalists, heritage practitioners, and me, podcast and graphic art nerd, Zofia!The deadline for application is October 30th  2023.To get in touch and find out more about Two Friends Talk History:Find us on Instagram & TwitterSupport us through Patreon Buy our merch on RedbubbleExplore more resources and topics about the ancient world on ArchaeoArtistMusic by the wonderfully talented Chris SharplesIllustration by Zofia GuertinIf you'd like to get in touch, email at [email protected]. 

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• Classical Reception P.1 with Briana King

  In this week's episode,  flips the script and am interviewed by returning guest, Dr Briana King. This episode will be part one of an ongoing look at how the ancient world is used in different media today!I discuss with Dr King the history of “Classics” and what we mean when we discuss classical reception. Our first conversation is meant to lay down the foundational context for understanding what it means when classical images and stories are incorporated into modern media through books, music, film, and more. I will explore the history of the transmission of the ‘Classical Past’ into the  Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, with a special focus on the art of Empire of Jacques-Louis David, and Neo-Classical Edinburgh and its architectural legacy of appropriating the past to project a colonial future of the British Empire.   To follow Dr King's academic work, check out her page on Academia.Edu.My chapter in the Palgrave Macmillan volume, Comics, and Archaeology: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-98919-4_5To get in touch and find out more about Two Friends Talk History:Find us on Instagram & TwitterSupport us through Patreon Buy our merch on RedbubbleExplore more resources and topics about the ancient world on ArchaeoArtistMusic by the wonderfully talented Chris SharplesIllustration by Zofia GuertinIf you'd like to get in touch, email at [email protected]. 

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