Hello and welcome to the Restless History, Dominic. Have you heard the latest exciting news about our live tour?

I have, Dominic. It's actually shocking news. It's shocking but also heartening. But just to remind you the listener, the rest is history is going on a nationwide tour at the end of April 2023.

I say tour but it's for three nights only. We'll be in London on the 25th of April and the historic Drury Lane Theatre. Then we'll be able to Edinburgh the following evening on the 26th of April to play at Usher Hall.

And we will finish on the 30th of April at the Larry in Sulford Greater Manchester. But Tom, the listeners are gacking to know about this shocking news that you have for them about the tour.

Ladies and gentlemen, I can announce that our London live show has now sold out. I repeat, all 2000 seats, yes 2000 seats at Drury Lane Theatre are now sold out.

So not even frozen the musical. The show that we are of course replacing at Drury Lane, not even frozen sold out that quickly.

I can imagine Elsa listening to this right now, fuming at the very thought of the rest is history stealing her snowy thunder. But Elsa, all I will say to you is let it go.

People can go to both shows. But just to emphasize, that's our first live date already sold out. And tickets are selling incredibly quickly for Sulford and Edinburgh too.

So if you do want to come, please buy your ticket right now to avoid disappointment. Now, if you've never been to one of our live shows, what a treat awaits you. We have an incredibly inventive approach.

Tom will take the first half and he will be running through his repertoire of Marilyn Monroe songs and I do be the do thanks for that. And I will be picking up after the interval with the PowerPoint presentation on the economic policies of Stanley Baldwin.

It's an absolute riots fun for all the family. So these are our first ever shows outside London as a podcast. So we'll be putting on a tour de force. I think Dominic is the only word for it in both greater Manchester and the Scottish Capitol.

There'll be impressions, perhaps some Uruguayan pipe music and plenty of absolute lads from history here is how you can get tickets. Just go to rest is history pod dot com. It is very, very, very straightforward. That is www.restishistory pod dot com by your tickets now to Sulford and Edinburgh before it's too late.

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In the summer of 19 BC the poet Publius for Julius Marrow better known as Virgil was traveling in Greece when he caught a fever he took ship back to Italy but died when he reached the port of Brindisi. He was just 50 years old.

But that was not the end Publius for Julius Marrow more than a thousand years later on the night before good Friday 1300 another Italian poet and himself lost in a dark wood and who should appear to guide him through the underworld but the ghosts of Virgil.

So begins Dante allegories the divine comedy one of the absolute foundational texts of European and world literature Tom Holland has a really good example isn't it the imprint that the classical world Greece and Rome has left on our imagination do you think we're all we'll kind of the children of Greece and Rome really.

Well you know I have views on that of course we look back to Greece and Rome as a kind of a seed bed or of ourselves there are other influences on us as well that perhaps we might come onto the ones we talk about aren't they the ones we talk about most the history of how.

People have understood Greece and Rome since the kind of the end of the classical age is itself a massive theme of history so I mean you cited Dante I mean it's a kind of classic example Dante is the great classic Italian literature and Virgil has this absolutely starring role in it and I remember something that probably the most famous classic in the world Mary Beard said once.

And then the ages ago I think it was it was long before she kind of become a global superstar and she gave a lecture and she talked about Virgil and she said that it was her opinion pretty much since the moment Virgil had laid down his pen to die.

There wasn't a day when someone hadn't read the a near it is and so if we're going to talk about this this kind of this legacy the way that the legacy of Greece and Rome has kind of evolved and spread over the course of the centuries and the millennia.

And it's better to have on the show than the imporatrix the basil a herself Mary Mary thank you so much for agreeing to come on and talk to us about this subject which is a subject that is actually very much on you has been on your mind recently hasn't it because you've just published a fantastic new book the 12 seasons which is about it's not actually about the 12 seasons themselves but about how they've been understood.

And the book is is saying look you know every time we go to a stately home you know what do we see we see a lineup of 12 seasons probably rather vulgar poor free or something with a bit of gilding.

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