#palestine #thelevant #palestinian #antiquity #history

Back in February, Dr. Chance Bonar was kind enough to stop by the podcast to talk about a completely non-controversial topic that doesn't generate strong opinions from anyone - Palestine and the Levant. We recorded this before Iran and Israel launched an unnecessary war in the United States, so we don't get into any issues surrounding that. We do, however, cover the history of the term "Palestine", the Levant functioning as a crossroads throughout history, political agendas which complicate the historian's job of telling people what happened and a whole lot more.

For those of you who don't know a lot about the history of that region, this is a good place to start. If you want to learn more about the history of the region, Dr. Bonar's suggested reading includes Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History, Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From?, and Judea Under Greek and Roman Rule. You can also check out Everyday Orientalism.

Your reading assignment is Freedom is a Constant Struggle.

The theme music is from Brent Arehart. Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode. Let me know what you think about what we think in the comments, on Bluesky, on Mastodon, on Reddit, or on Instagram.

And never forget that The Classical Antiquity Sidequest is a podcast without end.

#pompeii #movie #moviereviews #movies #romanhistory #rome #ancientrome #antiquity #classicalantiquity #kitharington

In this episode, me and Victor test my wife's theory that a volcano exploding makes a movie better by reviewing 2014's Pompeii. TLDL - this movie was pretty awful. However, the volcano exploding did improve what was otherwise a flaming pile of garbage. In our review, we bring back McNulty Subplot, spend a lot of time discussing how could this movie be made better, nickname Kit Harrington's character "Roman Snow" and complain about this movie wasting an excellent cast.

If you have seen the movie and have any thoughts on how it could've been better, please reach out and let us know. I'll read your ideas on the next movie review episode. If we get enough submissions, I'll do a special episode.

The theme music is from Brent Arehart. Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode. Let me know what you think about what we think in the comments, on Bluesky, on Mastodon, on Reddit, or on Instagram.

And never forget that The Classical Antiquity Sidequest is a podcast without end.

#classics #whitenationalists #whitenationalism #rome #greece #ancientrome #ancientgreece #history #theclassics

I've been a fan of Dr. Curtis Dozier for a while. I stumbled on his podcast, The Mirror of Antiquity, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I then came across his website, Pharos, where he chronicles (mostly horrible and some who are only somewhat horrible but still horrible) people invoking the Classics to justify their horrible beliefs. When I reached out to Dr. Dozier to see if he would come on the podcast, not only did he say yes, but he told me about his current book which is now available for purchase - The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate. Naturally, this book which is now available for purchase, is the topic of the episode.

In Dr. Dozier's book, which I read and highly recommend, he outlines the goals of white nationalists and where in the Classics white nationalists look to find support for their horrible beliefs. It turns out that they aren't necessarily misrepresenting history to support their hate-filled, racist and reprehensible beliefs. Rather, such hatred, bigotry and racist beliefs are common and permeate our entire historical and philosophical narrative. And that is the key part of Dr. Dozier's book - he isn't just exposing the logical fallacies of white nationalists, he's exposing the problems inherent with our historical narratives upon which white nationalists rely.

And it's understanding that issue which makes the discussion we need to have about history so important. Put simply, if we're going to have a discussion about white nationalists co-opting the Classics, we need to have a discussion about what the Classics are, what they aren't and our obligations as students and teachers to telling an accurate and complete narrative about the past and how that reflects on the present. We have to stop idolizing the subject matter and be honest about it. Look, folks, if there's one theme of this podcast, it's that history is messy. And this episode returns to that theme again and again and again. There's nothing perfect about the past. The folks who preceded us weren't saints. They were people, and people are imperfect. So, let's stop putting the past on a pedestal and get to work making our present and our future a better place.

While I often kick around politics and current events, this is one of the few episodes that covers both in detail. I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed participating in the discussion.

Your reading assignment is Empire of Ruin.

The theme music is from Brent Arehart. Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode. Let me know what you think about what we think in the comments, on Bluesky, on Mastodon, on Reddit, or on Instagram.

And never forget that The Classical Antiquity Sidequest is a podcast without end.