PODCAST · history
The Layman's Historian
by William Hubbard
The Layman's Historian is a podcast about interesting periods of history that a layman would appreciate. My first series covers the history of Carthage including the three Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome.
Episodes
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Episode 52 - The Fall of Carthage
The Romans might have expected to destroy Carthage easily, but they soon met surprisingly determined opposition from the Punic defenders. What was supposed to be a quick campaign dragged on into a lengthy and bloody siege with skillful Carthaginian counterattacks and sallies. Only when Scipio...
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Episode 51 - Carthago Delenda Est
The thirty years following the deaths of Scipio and Hannibal saw Carthage revive economically. Relations with Rome and Numidia, however, remained strained to the utmost, especially due to the Numidian King Masinissa's continued encroachment on Carthaginian territory with tacit Roman approval.…
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Episode 50 - End of an Era
The disaster of Zama left Carthage in political turmoil. In the years which followed, Hannibal was able to achieve a series of ambitious reforms which led to a remarkably fast economic recovery for Carthage. His autocratic nature soon excited jealousy from his fellow aristocrats though, and with...
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Episode 49 -Zama: Battle of Giants
With Hannibal’s recall to Africa, we finally reach the final showdown of the Second Punic War. Scipio and his disgraced survivors of Cannae faced Hannibal’s veterans of Italy on the plains of Zama. The victor would decide the war – and the course of history. Link to the Episode 49 page on the...
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Episode 48 - End of the Road
Following the disaster at the Metaurus, Hannibal retreated to southern Italy. Unable to defeat him openly yet fearful to leave him unopposed, the Roman Senate engaged in a fierce debate with the brilliant Publius Cornelius Scipio who had recently returned from Spain. In a tense showdown, Scipio...
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Episode 47- Last Gasp at the Metaurus
In the bitter and bewildering struggle during the years after Cannae, Rome at last gained the upper hand. However, Hannibal would be afforded one last chance to turn the tide of the war. This was the arrival of his brother, Hasdrubal, with a great army of mercenaries in northern Italy in 207 BC.…
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Episode 46 - No Easy Way Out
While the conflicts in Spain and Sicily raged, Hannibal still clung tenaciously to the gains he had made in Italy. In the years following Cannae, he would experience a dizzying array of successes and setbacks against the Romans ranging from failed alliances with Macedon to the capture and…
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Episode 45 - The Mediterranean on Fire: Sicily
Unlike Spain, Sicily had been relatively quiet during the opening years of the Second Punic War. That all changed in 216 BC with the death of Hiero II, King of Syracuse. Staunchly pro-Roman, Hiero had feared that his grandson and natural heir, Hieronymus, would lead Syracuse to disaster. His...
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Episode 44 - The Mediterranean on Fire: Spain
With Hannibal immersed in the mire of Italian geopolitics, the Second Punic War shifts to theaters overseas. Keenly aware of the strategic importance of maintaining pressure on Carthage’s outposts in Spain, the Scipio brothers – Gnaeus and Publius Cornelius – grappled with Hannibal’s younger...
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Episode 43 - Capua: Hannibal's Albatross
Following Cannae, Hannibal descended into the rich agricultural lands of Campania in Magna Graecia. Chafing under Roman rule and eager to reclaim her place as hegemon of southern Italy, the ancient Etruscan city of Capua quickly came to an agreement with Hannibal. In exchange for defecting to the...
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Episode 42 - The Day After Cannae
In the stillness following the destruction of their greatest army at the Battle of Cannae, the Romans faced an awful choice. The triumphant Hannibal stood poised to march on Rome herself and besiege the capital, and there was little the surviving remnants of legionaries could do to stop him. The...
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Episode 41 - Cannae: Rome's Darkest Day
Fabius the Delayer may have saved Minucius from disaster at Geronium, but he would not always be there to protect his impetuous colleagues from rushing into trouble. Following Fabius's relinquishment of the dictatorship, one of the newly-elected consuls, Gaius Terentius Varro, accused Fabius and...
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Episode 40 - The Delayer: Part II
Following Hannibal's daring escape from Campania, Fabius's reputation in Rome lay in shambles. Subsequent victories by the Scipios in Spain and the fierce rhetoric of Fabius's lieutenant Minucius at last succeeded in having Minucius appointed as co-equal commander of the Roman army. Undeterred by...
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Episode 39 - The Delayer: Part I
Following the disaster at Lake Trasimene, the Roman Senate took the drastic step of appointing a dictator - a single man with full military powers - to meet the crisis. The man chosen - Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus - differed greatly from the typical Roman aristocrat of his day. Cool-headed...
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Episode 38 - The Dark Waters of Trasimene
Following the Battle of the River Trebia, Hannibal descended upon the rich province of Etruria in his advance into Italy. The new Roman consul, Gaius Flaminius, set out to confront the invaders with a mixture of fresh recruits as well as the survivors from Trebia. Arrogant, brash, and reckless,...
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Episode 37 - First Blood
Having narrowly skirted disaster in the Alps, Hannibal and his army regrouped in the Po Valley of northern Italy while the Roman Consuls, Scipio and Sempronious, scrambled to intercept him. After thrashing the Romans under Scipio at the River Ticinus, Hannibal pursued Scipio’s retreating legions…
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Episode 36 - Making a Way
In early October 218 BC, Hannibal performed his most famous - and controversial - feat: the crossing of the Alps. Fighting hostile tribes, freezing cold, blinding snow, treacherous paths, and even the solid rock which barred his way, Hannibal forged a path across Europe’s tallest mountain range,...
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Episode 35 - Into Gaul
After he learned news of Rome's dramatic declaration of war, Hannibal departed New Carthage in May 218 BC to bring the war to Rome's heartland. Following a harrowing march through the Pyrenees, hostile Gallic tribes, and a major contested crossing of the Rhone River, Hannibal reached the fabled...
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Episode 34 - The Die is Cast
Hasdrubal's sudden assassination catapulted Hamilcar's eldest son, the twenty-five-year-old Hannibal Barca, to power as Carthage's supreme general in Spain. Raised to be a soldier by his father and trained in both the theoretical and practical arts of warfare, Hannibal quickly subdued most…
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Episode 33 - The Lion's Brood
Returning to the narrative, Hamilcar Barca, continuing his campaigns into the Spanish interior, died suddenly battling against hostile tribes in 228 BC. With Hamilcar's eldest son, the famous Hannibal, still in his teens, Hamilcar's son-in-law, Hasdrubal the Fair, succeeded the great Barcid…
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Episode 32 - All the Nations of the Earth: The Carthaginian Army under Hannibal
Ever since the disastrous Battle of the Crimissus in 339 BC, Carthage proved reluctant to send her own citizens to war, preferring instead to pay others to do her fighting for her. Thus, her recruiters scoured the earth in search of the best mercenaries money could buy to supplement her native...
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Episode 31 - Men of Iron: The Polybian Roman Legion
In this second of three special episodes, we take an in-depth look at the Roman army which fought the majority of the Punic Wars - its equipment, formations, and most importantly, the fighting ethos which animated the men within it. What was the key to the Roman's success? Superior discipline? A...
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Episode 30 - How We Know What We Know (About the Punic Wars)
After a lengthy and unexpected absence, we are back with a new episode. In this episode, we take a break from the narrative and discuss the sources for the Punic Wars. Boring, you say? Not so. The writers on the Punic Wars form a rather eclectic assortment of characters, and the reasons that...
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Episode 29 - The Barcid Revolution
In the wake of the Truceless War, the Carthaginians struggled to pick up the pieces of their broken country. Financially exhausted from the toll of the First Punic War, the huge war indemnity still owing to Rome, and the devastation of Carthage’s heartland by the rebel mercenaries during the...
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Episode 28 - The Truceless War: Part II
The murder of Gisco precipitated an escalation of the Truceless War. Both sides invented new ways to torture and slaughter their prisoners, with the mercenaries continuing to brutalize Carthaginian captives while Hamilcar threw his any rebels who fell into his hands to his elephants to be…
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Episode 27 - The Truceless War: Part I
In the wake of the First Punic War, Carthage soon found the loss of her Sicilian holdings and Rome's harsh indemnity to be the least of her problems. Nearly bankrupt after twenty-four years of continuous warfare, she could not afford to pay her mercenary army which was returning from Sicily. The...
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Episode 26 - Hamilcar Barca and the End of Carthaginian Sicily
With both Rome and Carthage exhausted by the constant strain of war, the Carthaginians dispatched the young Hamilcar Barca to take over a much-depleted command in Sicily. While Hanno the Great insisted on demobilizing the Carthaginian war fleet to save money and opened up new fronts against the...
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Episode 25 - Gridlock
Following the Battle of Tunis, the Carthaginians felt supremely confident in their newly revamped land forces and rebuilt navy. That confidence did not last, however. The Roman relief fleet sent to retrieve the survivors of Regulus' failed expedition trounced Carthage's war fleet once again…
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Episode 24 - Spartans and Elephants
With Carthage on the ropes after the Battle of Cape Ecnomus, the Romans landed on the Cape Bon Peninsula, a mere forty miles from Carthage, and began ravaging the rich countryside. Confident of victory, Regulus, the Roman consul in command, offered such harsh terms to the Carthaginians that they...
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Episode 23 - Clash of the Titans
Bolstered by their early successes with their new battle fleet, the Romans determined to gamble everything for a decisive "killing blow" in order to bring Carthage to her knees. Equipping a massive armada, the Romans sailed to invade North Africa itself in an attempt to defeat Carthage on her…
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Episode 22 - Rome takes to the Sea
With the fall of Acragas, the Romans realized that they now had an opportunity to wrest control of the whole of Sicily away from Carthage. In order to do so, however, they would have to challenge Carthage on her own element – the sea. Using a captured Carthaginian quinquereme as their template…
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Episode 21 - At Acragas
Having drifted into the First Punic War, Rome and Carthage both marshaled their forces and shipped them to Sicily. The Carthaginians sought to establish the city of Acragas as their base of operations due to its strategic location in southern Sicily and proximity to Roman-controlled territory....
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Episode 20 - So It Begins
The day has arrived. After Pyrrhus's retreat from Italy in 275 BC, Carthage and Rome found themselves to be new neighbors with only a two mile stretch of water in the Strait of Messina separating them from each other. Although it is debatable whether the First Punic War was inevitable, its causes...
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Episode 19 - Pyrrhus of Epirus: Part II
In Part II of our overview of the career of Pyrrhus of Epirus, we pick up with Pyrrhus's campaigns in southern Italy. After whipping his Tarentine allies into shape, Pyrrhus defeated the Romans in two brutal battles, although both battles cost him so many of his own men that the term "Pyrrhic...
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Episode 18 - Pyrrhus of Epirus: Part I
Resuming our narrative of the history of Carthage, we turn to one of the successor realms in the West. Pyrrhus, a second cousin of Alexander the Great, rose to become King of Epirus after a tumultuous and eventful childhood. After distinguishing himself by his skill as a military commander and…
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Episode 17 - The Senate and the People of Rome
Completing our tour of the Mediterranean circa 300 BC, we finish with the history of the upstart city-state of Rome. Born into the harsh and competitive world of ancient Italy, Rome from the start was an aggressive, warlike, and proud civilization intent on not only surviving but thriving in the...
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Episode 16 - The Diadochi: Heirs of Alexander
Continuing our tour of the Mediterranean circa 300 BC, we now turn to the squabbling Hellenic successor kingdoms in the East. Alexander the Great and his Macedonians succeeded in building a world empire that stretched from Greece to India in twelve short years, but Alexander's sudden death threw...
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Episode 15 - The Keltoi: The Terror of Civilization
Having explored the peoples of North Africa and Spain, we move north to examine one of the most feared peoples of Antiquity: the Keltoi. Centered on Gaul, modern-day France, the Keltoi or Celts were renowned for their ferocity in battle as well as their great physical stature and strength, the...
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Episode 14 - North Africa and Spain
Continuing our tour of the Mediterranean around 300 BC, we look at the peoples of North Africa, specifically the Libyan tribes including the fierce Garamantines, the stern Mauri, and the nimble Numidians. From there, we briefly touch on the Liby-Phoenician colonies in North Africa and Spain…
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Episode 13 - Carthage: Her City, Her People, and Her Soul
With the close of the Sicilian Wars, we have a perfect opportunity to pause in our narrative and take a look around at Carthage and the surrounding civilizations. In this episode, we will cover the city of Carthage in detail as she stood in the early 200s BC before covering what the everyday...
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Episode 12 - The Battle for Carthage
After the stunning Greek victory at White Tunis, Agathocles began leisurely pillaging the Carthaginian countryside, amassing riches and terrorizing the inhabitants. Back in Sicily, Hamilcar Gisco was not so lucky, ultimately losing his life in a disastrous night attack. Now, with her armies...
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Episode 11 - The Enemy in Africa
After driving the Greeks back to Syracuse in the Battle of the River Himera, Hamilcar Gisco and his Carthaginians settled in to besiege the city. However, Agathocles refused to remain cooped up within the walls. Conceiving of a bold gamble likely inspired by his hero Alexander, Agathocles...
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Episode 10 - Syracuse in Retreat
Following Agathocles's bloody and tyrannical rise to power, Carthage dispatched an army under Hamilcar Gisco to put down this new upstart regime. After committing more atrocities at Gela for good measure, Agathocles met the Carthaginians at the Battle of the River Himera. Although he almost took...
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Episode 9 - Agathocles and the Age of Alexander
After Timoleon's death, Sicily enjoyed an unprecedented twenty-year period of peace and prosperity. Things were not so quiet in the East, however. The Macedonians, under Philip II and his son Alexander, soon to be known as the Great, had forged in twelve short years an empire that covered the…
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Episode 8 - Timoleon and the End of the Second Sicilian War
With Dionysius out of the way, Carthage, despite internal struggles, began to extend her authority over most of Sicily through strategic alliances and concentrated military actions. Syracuse had almost immediately returned to her old ways after Dionysius's death, and her people were divided in...
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Episode 7 - Dionysius the Tyrant
Although Carthage had scored some resounding victories against Syracuse, in the fourth century BC, she came up against a significant challenge in the person of Dionysius, Tyrant of Syracuse. A former mercenary captain, an ambitious ruler but a mediocre poet, Dionysius would rule Syracuse for 38...
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Episode 6 - Carthage Strikes Back
During the seventy year peace with Syracuse, Carthage regrouped by instituting government reforms and overhauling its tremendous infrastructure. Meanwhile, Syracusan factions squabbled internally, fluctuating between democratic and autocratic governments. Despite this, Syracuse won a stunning...
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Episode 5 - Syracuse, Sicily, and the Hellenes
When Carthage expanded its reach into the western coast of Sicily, it became neighbors with the powerful Hellenic colonies of Greece on the eastern side of the island. The Greeks had their own impressive civilization, and Hellenic ingenuity and military innovation made the Greeks a formidable…
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Episode 4 - A Punic Sea
Following the growth of Carthage into a commercial, political, and technological power, the Carthaginians began to expand outwards from their city. Delving into North Africa and across the Mediterranean, Carthage formed an informal empire for itself using trade, diplomacy, and concentrated…
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Episode 3 - Qart-Hadasht - The New City
After Dido's founding, Qart-Hadasht, or Carthage, grew exponentially, quickly establishing itself as a commercial powerhouse in the Western Mediterranean. Not only did it become a major industrial center like its Tyrian forebear, Carthage also led the way in pioneering agricultural techniques....
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Layman's Historian is a podcast about interesting periods of history that a layman would appreciate. My first series covers the history of Carthage including the three Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome.
HOSTED BY
William Hubbard
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Layman's Historian have?
The Layman's Historian currently has 53 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Layman's Historian about?
The Layman's Historian is a podcast about interesting periods of history that a layman would appreciate. My first series covers the history of Carthage including the three Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome.
How often does The Layman's Historian release new episodes?
The Layman's Historian has 53 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to The Layman's Historian on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Layman's Historian?
The Layman's Historian is created and hosted by William Hubbard.
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