2025-08-27
24 分钟Welcome to Intelligence Squared, where great minds meet.
I'm producer Mia Sorrenti.
Today's episode is part two of our discussion with renowned classicist Dame Mary Beard and chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins.
Charlotte and Mary joined us in the studio to discuss how the classical world shapes our politics,
culture, language and lives today.
Let's rejoin the conversation now with our host, Honor Cargill-Martin.
Because obviously so much of ancient history is trying to work out what we can learn from stories that we don't necessarily really believe.
How do our suspicions about the veracity of a story like Nero fiddling as Rome burns,
how does that affect how we might use them to understand our world today?
Well, that is Mary Central.
Well, it is, isn't it, Mary?
Because you proceed with skepticism.
I mean, I find it a tricky forest.
You know, Suetonius, who is our source for so much of this kind of gossipy, salacious,
but not all of it's gossipy and salacious material, and was also,
you know, he was also the archivist in the Imperial Palace.
So he had access to real stuff, real documents, like really poised.
in pole position as a historian, but at the same time, an absolutely massive axe to grind.
I mean, there's a lesson about reading critically,
but the trouble is it leaves you in a state of sort of unknowing about a lot of things.