Now that the Iliad and the Posthomerica are both behind us, it is time for a recap of the craziness that has been the Trojan War! Join us for two mini quizzes, another opportunity to dunk on Achilles and a reminder that all that terrible nonsense the House of Tantalus got up to existed.

Autocrat sat down with Dean Kinzer, the President of Kinzer Coins, to discuss what coins from the Roman and ancient worlds can tell us about what it was like to live in those worlds. Join us for tales of devaluation in the third century, the lack of silver mines in the Byzantine period, and just whether Antoninus Pius was into bobbleheads.

Dominic Perry from the History of Egypt podcast joins us on the show to discuss the mythology of Egypt, its early history, and the state of Egyptian history at around about the time the fall of Troy is set in the 1180s BCE. Expect tales of conspiracies against Ramesses III, Sea Peoples, strife, and a look ahead at later Egyptian history and the last hieroglyphic inscriptions...

Thanks so much to Dominic for appearing on the show! Find his podcast here:

• YouTube: @AncientEgyptHist
• Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com
• Instagram: @egyptpodcast
• TikTok: @ancientegypthis

Sources and further reading for this episode:

• Blakemore, E., National Geographic (2024), Who killed Ramesses III? How science solved an Ancient Egyptian murder mystery (online) (Accessed 13/07/2025).
• Hawass, Z., Gad, Y. Z., Ismail, S., Khairat, R., Fathalla, D., Hasan, N., Ahmed, A., Elleithy, H., Ball, M., Gaballah, F., Wasef, S., Fateen, M., Amer, H., Gostner, P., Selim, A., Zink, A. and Pusch, C. M. (2010), Ancestry and Pathology in King Tutankhamun's Family. JAMA 303(7): 638-647.
• Hawass, Z., Ismail, S., Selim, A., Saleem, S. N., Fathalla, D., Wasef, S., Gad, A. Z., Saad, R., Fares, S., Amer, H., Gostner, P., Gad, Y. Z., Pusch, C. M. and Zink, A. R. (2012), Revisiting the harem conspiracy and death of Ramesses III: anthropological, forensic, radiological, and genetic study. BMJ 345: e8268.
• Salah El Dien, M. M., Assem, R. and Joseph, A. (2023), The Harem Conspiracies of Ancient Egypt.
• Wong, J. Y. (2025), The afterlife of Hatshepsut’s statuary. Antiquity 99(405), 746-761.

It's all a done deal once that horse gets through the gates. Let's watch Troy crumble- and a heinous crime get committed which ultimately sees the Greek fleet scattered and broken as they set off for home. Oh, and some minor Trojan prince gets away from the burning city, but I'm sure that won't be relevant.

Sources for this episode:

TBA

Sound effects sampled and used under Pixabay licence:

https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/fire-sound-334130/

https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/crowdpanic-6442/

https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/sword-against-sword-6341/

It's finally time! As the Trojans are chased into the city, some bright spark (obviously it's Odysseus) suggests that we build a farmyard animal out of wood and push it in front of the Trojan gates! Let's shove some warriors in it and pretend to leave, then the Trojans will surely drag it into the city. But don't worry, there's no way they're foolish enough to actually go for it... Surely?

Sources for this episode:

• Brown, S. P., West, S. A., Diggle, S. P. and Griffin, A. S. (2009), Social evolution in micro-organisms and a Trojan horse approach to medical intervention strategies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 364: 3157-3168.
• Desmedt, Y. (2025), Trojan Horses, Computer Viruses, and Worms. Chapter in: Encyclopedia of Cryptography, Security and Privacy (p. 2649-2651).
• Quintus Smyrnaeus (1934), The Fall of Troy. Translated by A. S. Way. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd.

• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Testudo formation (online) (Accessed 24/06/2025).

Credit for the lightning noise: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/heavy-thunder-sound-effect-no-copyright-338980/ (free for use under the Pixabay Content Licence, https://pixabay.com/service/license-summary/).

Our alternative title today is Goodbye Paris. Either way, you can probably guess how this is going to go. But before we say farewell to everyone's favourite princess-kidnapper, let's see how his ex-wife feels about saving him! I'm sure there will be no hard feelings there... Right? Please? Oenone?

Sources for this episode:

• The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2015), Philoctetes (online) (Accessed 24/06/2025).
• Quintus Smyrnaeus (1934), The Fall of Troy. Translated by A. S. Way. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd.
• Author unknown, Google Maps (online) (Accessed 06/07/2025).
• Author unknown, Philoctetes (date unknown), Story of Philoctetes (online) (Accessed 24/06/2025).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Antenor (online) (Accessed 24/06/2025).

Fire sound effect (clipped and some fading added second time):

• https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/fire-sound-334130/. Free for use under Pixabay Content Licence (https://pixabay.com/service/license-summary/) (Accessed 07/07/2025).

Eurypylus has been killing like there's no tomorrow- and it's up to a boy from Scyros to sort it out. Let's introduce Neoptolemus son of Achilles onto the world stage and watch him wreak havoc while the gods dance in between the lines.

Sources for this episode:

• Quintus Smyrnaeus (1934), The Fall of Troy. Translated by A. S. Way. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd.
• Smith; W. (ed.) (1867), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. In Three Volumes (Vol. 1-3.). Boston: Little, Brown, And Company.
• Author unknown, Google Maps (online) (Accessed 23/06/2025).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Peleus (online) (Accessed 23/06/2025).

Priam reaches out for help to yet another ally- this time the grandson of Heracles. Meanwhile, over in the Greek camp- or Greel if you believe Vince's mangled pronounciation- Ajax and Odysseus get into an argument over who gets Achilles' armour. I'm sure that will go swimmingly...

Sources for this episode:

• Marks, A. and Tingay, G. (date unknown), Romans. London: Usborne Publishing.

• Quintus Smyrnaeus (1934), The Fall of Troy. Translated by A. S. Way. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd.
• Smith; W. (ed.) (1867), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. In Three Volumes (Vol. 1-3.). Boston: Little, Brown, And Company.

• Author unknown, Johns Hopkins Medicine (date unknown), Cholecystitis (online) (Accessed 21/05/2025).
• Author unknown, NIH News in Health (date unknown), Can You Recognize a Heart Attack or Stroke? (online) (Accessed 21/05/2025).
• Author unknown, Theoi (date unknown), Quintus Symrnaeus 6 (online) (Accessed 21/05/2025).

• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Ajax the Great (online) Accessed 21/05/2025).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Astyoche (online) Accessed 21/05/2025).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Oileus (online) Accessed 21/05/2025).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Phobos (online) Accessed 21/05/2025).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Teucer (online) Accessed 21/05/2025).