RIHC: The Eruption of Vesuvius, Lost Texts, and Ancient Cults

What are the ancient Herculaneum scrolls, recovered following the explosion of Vesuvius in 79 AD? How did these supposedly lost documents survive? What happened this year to resurrect them, when they had seemed incomprehensible for so long? Who were the Epicureans, philosophers of Ancient Greece? How would new discoveries alter the way that Classics is studied, and the ancient world understood? And, which lost texts would classicists most want to discover? In this week’s bonus episode, Tom is joined by classicist and head of Classics at Oxford University, Llewellyn Morgan, to discuss the eruption of Vesuvius, the remarkable Herculaneum scrolls, and the ancient secrets lost texts contain… ______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

The Rest Is History Club

Welcome to the subscriber-only Rest is History feed! You'll get all the regular episodes, the full archive and bonus subscriber-only episodes ad-free right here. The world’s most popular history podcast, with Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. They're distilling the entirety of human history, or, as much as they can fit into about fifty minutes.

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• Latest episode: 2025-04-22

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