Prof Dame Mary Beard - Introduction: Murderous games

Professor Dame Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, delivers the Gifford Lecture "Introduction: Murderous games". It is the first lecture in the series "The Ancient World and us: from fear and loathing to enlightenment and ethics".
This lecture introduces some of those moral and ethical dilemmas in studying the classical world, asking how we understand remote ancient cultures that have come to stand both for the pinnacle of "civilisation" and for the nadir of corruption and cruelty. Choosing the gladiatorial games as one case study, it takes aim at the sense of moral superiority that we so often display in the face of some of antiquity's worst "crimes".
This lecture series explores why the classical world still matters and what ethical dilemmas the study of classics raises (and has always raised). Taking six particular themes, it hopes to show how antiquity can continue to challenge the moral certainties of modernity.

[@elysium619]

Mary Beard is absolutely marvelous! A true treasure of the UK and the world as well.

[@YoreHistory]

If there is one person I would MOST LOVE to sit with to discuss history it would be Mary Beard. She is so talented with not just her knowledge but relaying that passion and learning through discussion to us.

[@catherinerickard699]

I could watch this lady all day long. I love her work on the people of Rome, the dirt and grime ... real everyday romans . She brings it all back to life. I got to Pompeii in 2016 and my man got down on one knee and proposed to me in the middle of the forum.... we honeymooned in Rome. Both places I had been desperate to visit since young... dame Mary played huge part in my fascination and passion for this civilisation ... purely Cos she made it relatable... wonderful , intelligent woman... an inspiration

[@mama66333]

Isn’t she amazing?!?! Dame Mary Beard is such a gift to all of us ❤️💕

[@ciarahoran5757]

I have found her so inspirational, i will more inspirational scholars and speakers like Mary Beard to continue to inspire

[@jesleysnipes3758]

I love her depth! She is so profoundly wonderful! ❤️

[@joannamomi3619]

I love her so much! I find it difficult to listen to anyone talking about anything. But I could listen to Mary read out shopping lists. Adore her 🧡

[@radicalmama135]

I just love listening to her. So much to learn form her.

[@Ken_Scaletta]

i like the story about the Senators biting laurel leaves to keep themselves from laughing at Commodus. It's a good thing he didn't mention his friend, Biggus Dickus.

[@KenDanieli]

You can skip to 11:00 before it even really touches on the topic

[@where7847]

Ken Danieli hero

[@reckert1126]

Yes - although the story just after 9:00 is pretty funny if you’re interested in a historical bit about a row over the timing of the Gifford lectures...

[@philhuber7493]

Thank you

[@ElinT13]

I just love Mary Beard! Another of her very bright and humorous lectures and yet with depth.

[@corneliabayley723]

Mary Beard is fascinating to listen to.

[@thomassmith1313]

Thank you Mary 👍

[@matthewpaterson7701]

As a Roman gladiator I approve of this lecture.

[@nosillalaluna7078]

That is FUNNY

[@anuradhainamdar8967]

Such clarity, she surely put forward her point with great acumen.Thanks for the video.

[@sonnurbabayigitkara8863]

Thank you Mrs.Beard for an amazing seminar. Greetings from Istanbul. 🙏🏽❤️☺️✨👏🏽

[@peterhind]

Great lecture. Would be nice if the playlist had the lectures in the right order

[@erwinbreyson]

Professor Dame Mary Beard Is A National Treasure. ✝️SPQR✝️

[@sharonjanethague7181]

Excellent lecture. Very interesting - even the Q&A!

[@CesarSandoval024]

For a commom person who doesmt know much, the history lesson is eye opening to me... But I understood the abortion section. Pros and Cons...

[@glsapp23]

Omg yeah she's great. Get on with it.

[@CesarSandoval024]

Wouldnt war before the roman empire games be an example of gladiator battles if its taken as an example?..

[@andrewemery4272]

It would be nice if Stuart Brown could pronounce 'Edinburgh'.

[@divaden47]

Exactly what I thought as soon as I heard the weird pronunciation!!

[@eddiejones4001]

6:00 till she comes on!

[@richardcummings1474]

Make that 6:12

[@leepeel7129]

Mary Beard for President!

[@rogeriopenna9014]

Mary Beard for Consul!

[@rogeriopenna9014]

Awesome talk. I think she might have insisted more on the fact that public executions were popular "entertainment" until the 19th century... or even 20th in some places. So when using the arenas to kill criminals, is it so different from public executions that kept happening all over Europe (and all over the world) for so long after Rome fell? As for the question about it being a practical way of dealing with prisoners, I think Prof Beard missed the meaning of the question... that is... "killing two birds with one stone".

[@grandidea2085]

What about the beheadings in the Middle East?

[@grandidea2085]

Or even CSI, Law and ORder SVU, etc etc...

[@mr51406]

Or to be more precise American and Canadian football and hockey... 🏈 😵

[@seanobrogain2141]

Mary Beard has opened up Rome, to a whole new generation of people and thats something. Aside from that why do people pronounce "Edinburgh" Edin-borough, am i missing something (apols)?

[@mattja312]

Mary Beard speaks @ 6:30

[@genieschaeffer951]

Since the Romans admired and copied the Greeks, is it possible there were any sport contests/performances a la the Olympic games in the Coliseum? Also is the circus tradition descended from the Romans?

[@ebe7840]

♥️

[@elizabethmcglothlin5406]

Football--both sorts--boxing, and auto racing are all dangerous to the 'combatants and sometimes to spectators, as well.

[@captiveexile2670]

Do a Roman cartwheel, Mary! (I won't look. Promise.)

[@dbrady5]

They never take you on the tour of the toilets. Mind you the line at modern toilets at large events is horrible imagining back in the day.

[@kathyheyne6030]

54:54 “Many others are concerned with the effect of the shows on the audience” 😂 the ancient Romans are just like us and were just like them. Seneca nailed it: it’s about humanness. We still enjoy violence as entertainment and we still don’t associate it with reality.

[@rraguso]

This intro is self-indulgent, wrong start.

[@theque6566]

Bla bla bla...lecture begins at 9 minute spot

[@trishtraynor]

Burruh. Edinburrow?! It's Edinburruh. Knob

[@kentonge1812]

6minutes of introduction waffle b.s.

[@notanemoprog]

This is what this vile person wrote in response to 9/11: "In a telephone poll last week, readers of the Cambridge Evening News voted decisively against any military action aimed at those responsible for the attacks on the USA. A readership better known for its implacable hatred of joyriders on the A14 (‘flogging would be too good for them’) was having no truck with the cowboy President’s plans for battle; still less with Prime Minister Blair’s idea of dispatching our few remaining gunboats and jump-jets to cheer him on. This was just one of the domestic surprises that came in the wake of 11 September. Another was Peter Mandelson’s strangely off-key suggestion that the secret services should be recruiting in Bradford rather than St James’s (apparently on the grounds that immigrants would find it easier than Old Etonians to disguise themselves as Islamic extremists). But almost the oddest response has been our terrified certainty that there remains a plentiful supply of suicide pilots and bombers. Anyone who has scratched the surface of early Christianity will realise that full-blown martyrs are a rare commodity, much more numerous in the imagination than on the ground. The horror of the tragedy was enormously intensified by the ringside seats we were offered through telephone answering machines and text-messages. But when the shock had faded, more hard-headed reaction set in. This wasn’t just the feeling that, however tactfully you dress it up, the United States had it coming. That is, of course, what many people openly or privately think. World bullies, even if their heart is in the right place, will in the end pay the price. But there is also the feeling that all the ‘civilised world’ (a phrase which Western leaders seem able to use without a trace of irony) is paying the price for its glib definitions of ‘terrorism’ and its refusal to listen to what the ‘terrorists’ have to say. There are very few people on the planet who devise carnage for the sheer hell of it. They do what they do for a cause; because they are at war. We might not like their cause; but using the word ‘terrorism’ as an alibi for thinking what drives it will get us nowhere in stopping the violence. Similarly, ‘fanaticism’, a term regularly applied to extraordinary acts of bravery when we abhor their ends and means. The silliest description of the onslaught on the World Trade Center was the often repeated slogan that it was a ‘cowardly’ attack. Mary Beard Cambridge"

[@CreativeRecipeswithKaren]

I don't believe it's pronounced Edinborough. He is American so what can you expect!! They don't care about other peoples pronounciations.

[@tracymeyers616]

Politifeast what a prejudiced thing to say. Just like all peoples, Americans too have accents and “dialects” within the US. Because of this, just like, I imagine in the UK, as with all over the world, it sometimes “sounds” as though a word is being pronounced wrong and it can be “hurtful” to one’s ears. But, to presume that “Americans,” as a whole “don’t care about other peoples pronoun citations,” is grossly unfair.

[@violahamilton782]

Hilarious, since the English always murder everyone else's pronunciation.

[@ilikematches2]

This is over generalizing baffoonery at best, try again please

[@jackbailey7037]

Mary needs a beard.

[@ajaykustomer6639]

Mary or Mark?

[@yanliew4027]

marry a bearded?

[@MrAM4D3U5]

Way for Mary to inject her personal progressive political views into the narrative virtually non stop throughout this lecture…