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Good morning on this swelteringly hot summers day in London.

Just a quick message from me before we get going.

The ancients, first time ever, we're going on tour. We're going international. Australia and New Zealand, a series of live shows in

Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth and Auckland in early August. Really exciting. Hope to see you

there. We're going to be covering topics where

myth meets ancient history, the labours of Hercules or the story of Romulus and Remus. That's to come.

So if you are listening to the show in Australia and New Zealand, we'd love to see you at one of

these shows. Really do hope to see you there. We'll put more information and link to

tickets in the description. Now, on with the episode. He was the underdog who humiliated Rome.

It was the rebellion that refused to die.

In 73 BC, in a world where human beings were bought, branded and worked to death for profit,

one man slipped the chains and set the Roman Republic on fire.

Spartacus began as a Thracian outsider, living on the Roman frontier. The story goes that

he had served as a soldier in the Roman army before he was enslaved and sold to a gladiator school.

He was expected to risk his life for entertainment,

...