Audiobooks narrated by Victoria Woodson

The Jewish-Roman Wars: The History and Legacy of the Conflicts Between the Romans and Jews

Judea is one of the most important regions in the modern world. It is the center of two of the world’s great religions and extremely important to a 3rd. Politically, the whole area is the focus of conflict between Jews and Arabs, as well as different Muslim sects. Its history is littered with wars, insurrections, and religious revolutions. To say that it has had a turbulent past is to understate the case in the extreme. The history of Judea is, of course, inextricably linked to the history of the Jewish people, their dispersal throughout the Mediterranean world, and their reestablishment of the modern state of Israel in the wake of the horrors of the Holocaust. And among all the tumultuous events associated with Jewish history, few can rival the period of Roman rule during the 1st century A.D., when Roman attempts to suppress Jewish nationalism met with violent resistance. Ultimately, the Romans forcibly removed much of the Jewish population from the region, setting the scene for later events that have impacted so directly on world history. Events in the region during the 1st century A.D. also brought about the birth of Christianity, a religious movement that has been at the forefront of European history ever since. The small area around Jerusalem was originally known to the ancient Greeks as Ioudaioi, hence the name Judea. An Iron Age kingdom is said, in the Bible, to have existed as a successor to the United Kingdom of Israel, which, it is claimed, existed from approximately 1010-930 B.C.. Two kingdoms, Judah in the south and Israel in the north, co-existed uneasily, with frequent outbreaks of war between them in the following years. Judah was invaded by the Egyptian Pharaoh, Shishak, in the 5th year of Rehoboam’s reign, and Jerusalem was sacked. Rehoboam gave the Egyptians all of the nation’s treasure and became an Egyptian vassal.

Charles River Editors (Author), Victoria Woodson (Narrator)

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Mythology across the Ancient World: The History of Mythological Stories and Rituals in Antiquity

Although the Egyptians may not have passed their civilization directly on to later peoples, the key elements that comprised Egyptian civilization, including their religion, early ideas of state, and art and architecture, can be found among other civilizations. For instance, civilizations far separated in time and space, such as China and Mesoamerica, possessed key elements that were similar to those found in ancient Egypt. Indeed, since Egyptian civilization represented some fundamental human concepts, a study of their culture can be useful when trying to understand many other pre-modern cultures. Today the Mesopotamians and their religion are sources of curiosity, but thousands of years ago, the religion was an integral part of their lives. From their birth to their death, deities surrounded them, and whether their social interactions were on the level of a smaller city or that of a larger nation-state, deities played key roles in the social fabric of their society. Whereas the Israelites were one people who worshipped a single god, Babylon had a succession of different dynasties derived from many ethnic groups, and since Babylonian religion originated from a plethora of sources, there were very few elements that maintained primacy throughout the city’s history. For example, the Sumerian influence resulted in citizens worshipping many deities in the city, but those numbers were reduced after the Amorites came to power. One of the reasons Zeus remains one of the most recognizable gods in history is because of the spread of his influence. Due to the conquests of Alexander the Great, Zeus was brought along with other elements of Hellenization to Egypt and the Near East, and a few centuries later, Rome all but adopted him as their own chief god, Jupiter. From there, he was exported around the Roman Empire and fused with numerous other local gods in the process.

Charles River Editors (Author), Victoria Woodson (Narrator)

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The Languages of the Ancient Near East: The History of the Languages and Scripts Developed across th

Perhaps not surprisingly given how advanced they were in comparison to contemporaries, the Egyptians invented one of the first writing systems ever, and for centuries, people thought these ancient texts held some sort of secret, be it aliens, advanced technology lost to the world, or mystical cures for all of the world’s ills. Even the ancient Egyptians saw their writing systems as full of mystery and hidden knowledge - according to Egyptian mythology, writing was invented by the ibis-headed god Thoth, the most intellectual of the gods. Along with Egypt, the cultural and geographic region known as Mesopotamia was home to some of the world’s earliest civilizations and also the first known form of writing, cuneiform. Many different ethnic groups vied for power in ancient Mesopotamia over the course of antiquity, spanning about 3,000 years, and many of them spoke different languages. Despite these differences, the people in Mesopotamia shared many cultural attributes, including similar religious practices, a common art and architecture style, and a shared use of the cuneiform script. The languages spoken by the peoples of Mesopotamia were as diverse as the many ethnic groups, but as those groups asserted their military, economic, and cultural power over the other groups, two languages became dominant in the region: Sumerian and Akkadian. The greatest irony of the lack of primary source information about the Phoenicians is that their language and writing happened to be the most influential in antiquity, a byproduct of their voyages and colonization, which spread their language across the Mediterranean. It was the forerunner to the Greek alphabet, from which the Latin alphabet was directly derived, and thus most of the written languages of the modern West.

Charles River Editors (Author), Victoria Woodson (Narrator)

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The Elizabethan Eras: The Lives and Legacies of England’s Two Most Famous Queens

Until the implementation of new legislation on March 26, 2015, men were given preference to women in the British royal line. This system of male primogeniture meant that women seldom inherited the throne, and even when they did, they were often dominated by male councillors. Those women who married British kings gained the title of Queen, but they were queen consorts, holding the title with no power. This meant only a select few women ruled in their own right. When Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1952, many commentators heralded the beginning of her reign as the second Elizabethan age. The first one, of course, concerned the reign of Henry VIII’s second surviving daughter and middle surviving child, Queen Elizabeth I, one of England’s most famous and influential rulers. It was an age when the arts, commerce and trade flourished. It was the epoch of gallantry and great, enduring literature. It was also an age of wars and military conflicts in which men were the primary drivers and women often were pawns. Elizabeth I changed the rules of the game and indeed she herself was changed by the game. She was a female monarch of England, a kingdom that had unceremoniously broken with the Catholic Church, and the Vatican and the rest of Christendom was baying for her blood. She had had commercial and militaristic enemies galore. In the end, she helped change the entire structure of female leadership. Queen Elizabeth II has become so much a part of British society and culture that her presence is taken almost for granted, setting the standard people now expect of a British monarch. The longest lived and second longest reigning monarch in British history, Elizabeth II has overseen her country during a time of incredible turmoil and ever-accelerating change, providing a stable figure at the heart of a nation going through seemingly endless upheavals.

Charles River Editors (Author), Victoria Woodson (Narrator)

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Archaic Humans: The History of the Different Prehistoric Species in the Genus Homo

The evolutionary path from the original primates to modern man is a long one and has taken many twists and turns, but naturally, as the fossil record grows, scientists gain a more complete understanding of our own mental and physical history in terms of genetics and anatomy. However, the correct order and relationships of the various specimen types are difficult to pin down. Many representative samples have been found in such minute amounts as to not preclude anomalies. They have been discovered in various stages of wear. Modern features did not occur simultaneously or uniformly, taking millions of years to become manifest in later types. Up to the present day’s Homo sapiens, examples of the main types have been hybrids of older and more modern features. One of the earliest species of the genus Homo to be discovered is Homo habilis, which basically means “handy man.” The name comes from the belief at the time of its discovery that this species was the first to start using stone tools. The first fossils to be uncovered in Olduvai Gorge were from the same stratigraphic layer as simple stone tools. Fossils of the crania and postcranial skeleton for this species have been found in both eastern and southern Africa and date to around 2.5–1.6 million years ago. Features of Homo erectus suggest an evolution toward modern humans, and the features which separate Homo erectus from the other Homo species are found in the skull. The size of the brain was approximately 900 cc, making it larger than the brain size of Homo habilis. Homo erectus would not have the largest brain capacity of the Homo genus during its existence, with the emergence of Homo heidelbergensis approximately 800,000 years ago. The larger brain size may not matter much when the size of the brain is considered with the size of the body, which also increased.

Charles River Editors (Author), Victoria Woodson (Narrator)

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Homo habilis and Homo erectus: The History and Legacy of Modern Humans’ Direct Ancestors

The evolutionary path from the original primates to modern man is a long one and has taken many twists and turns, but naturally, as the fossil record grows, scientists gain a more complete understanding of our own mental and physical history in terms of genetics and anatomy. However, the correct order and relationships of the various specimen types are difficult to pin down. Many representative samples have been found in such minute amounts as to not preclude anomalies. They have been discovered in various stages of wear. Modern features did not occur simultaneously or uniformly, taking millions of years to become manifest in later types. Up to the present day’s Homo sapiens, examples of the main types have been hybrids of older and more modern features. One of the earliest species of the genus Homo to be discovered is Homo habilis, which basically means “handy man.” The name comes from the belief at the time of its discovery that this species was the first to start using stone tools. The first fossils to be uncovered in Olduvai Gorge were from the same stratigraphic layer as simple stone tools. Fossils of the crania and postcranial skeleton for this species have been found in both eastern and southern Africa and date to around 2.5–1.6 million years ago. Given the gradual changes that take place in evolution, Homo habilis shares a number of characteristics that are similar to the genus Australopithecus, such as in the postcranial elements. That said, the size and shape of the Homo habilis skull are markedly different. The size of the brain is much larger relative to the size of the body, being around 680 cc. In order to house a larger brain, the skull features a more vertical frontal bone, creating a more vertical forehead. The brow ridges that sit on the lower portion of the frontal bone are also reduced in size.

Charles River Editors (Author), Victoria Woodson (Narrator)

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Persia and Islam: The History of the Islamic Empires that have Ruled Persia Since the Middle Ages

As the Persian Empire’s power makes clear, Persia has been a crucial area throughout history, and thus it has been fought over incessantly, watching empires rise and fall. For most of the past 1,400 years, Islamic powers have struggled for supremacy in the region. The split between the two forms of Islam was already in the process of forming upon the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad had constructed around himself not only a potent new religious movement but also a powerful young state called the Ummah (the 'Community' for lack of a better translation). Belonging to the Islamic faith also meant belonging to the Ummah, which was governed by its own laws and had many of its own institutions. Amid the upheaval in the Islamic world following Muhammad’s death, the Umayyad Caliphate lasted for less than a century, but in that time it managed to become one of the most influential of the major caliphates established following him. Its official existence was from 661-750, and the rulers were the male members of the Umayyad dynasty, roughly translated from Arabic as the “Sons of Umayyah.” Its primary base of power was in Syria following the creation of a dynastic, hereditary rule headed by one of Syria’s long-lasting governors, Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan. The Ottoman Empire and Safavids would also vie for power in Persia after the caliphates, and the Ottomans in particular spent several centuries expanding their empire’s size, power, and influence, bumping up against Eastern Europe and becoming one of the world’s most important geopolitical players. It was a rise that would not truly start to wane until the 19th century. Preserving its mixed heritage, coming from both its geographic position rising above the ashes of the Byzantine Empire and the tradition inherited from the Muslim Conquests, the Ottoman Empire lasted more than six centuries.

Charles River Editors (Author), Victoria Woodson (Narrator)

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Byzantium and Constantinople: The History of the Ancient Greek City that Became the Byzantine Empire

Due to the importance of the Roman Empire and the offshoot Byzantine Empire, it’s often forgotten that Constantinople wasn’t chosen at random; in fact, the city already existed, and it lent its name to the empire that was subsequently centered there. Byzantium, known originally as Byzantion, was an ancient Greek city centuries before it became known as Constantinople, and the etymology of Byzantion/Byzantium is still unknown. It has been suggested that Byzantion is of Thracian origin and may be derived from the Thracian personal name Byzas, which means “he-goat.” Ancient Greek legend refers to King Byzas as the leader of the Megaran colonists and the founder of the city, but the earliest name for a city on the site is “Lygos,” which likely corresponds to an earlier Thracian settlement described by Pliny the Elder in his seminal work, Natural History: “On leaving the Dardanelles we come to the Bay of Casthenes, ...and the promontory of the Golden Horn, on which is the town of Byzantium, a free state, formerly called Lygos; it is 711 miles from Durazzo.” Pliny went on to explain that Lygos was a Thracian settlement founded between the 13th and 11th centuries BCE. The site, however, was probably abandoned well before Megara founded Byzantion around 657 BCE across from Chalcedon on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus. The city was briefly renamed Augusta Antonina in the early 3rd century CE by the Emperor Septimius Severus, who razed the city to the ground in 196 CE for supporting a rival contender in the civil war and had it rebuilt in honor of his son and successor, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, known as Caracalla. This new name appears to have been quickly forgotten and abandoned, with the city reverting to Byzantium after the assassination of Caracalla in 217 CE, and that’s how it would be known when Constantine fatefully moved the seat of power there over a century later.

Charles River Editors (Author), Victoria Woodson (Narrator)

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The Greatest Civilizations of Ancient Mesopotamia

Long before Alexandria was a city and even before Memphis and Babylon had attained greatness, the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur stood foremost among ancient Near Eastern cities. Today, the greatness and cultural influence of Ur has been largely forgotten by most people, partially because its monuments have not stood the test of time the way other ancient culture’s monuments have. For instance, the monuments of Egypt were made of stone while those of Ur and most other Mesopotamian cities were made of mud brick and as will be discussed in this report, mud-brick may be an easier material to work with than stone but it also decays much quicker. The same is true to a certain extent for the written documents that were produced at Ur. No site better represents the importance of the Sumerians than the city of Uruk. Between the fourth and the third millennium BCE, Uruk was one of several city-states in the land of Sumer. As Hittite power grew during the Old Kingdom, the royal city of Hattusa became more important and even wealthier. From his citadel overlooking Hattusa, Hattusili I launched the first major Hittite attacks into the Near East, first conquering the cities between Hattusa and the Mediterranean. Although the Biblical accounts of the Assyrians are among the most interesting and are often corroborated with other historical sources, the Assyrians were much more than just the enemies of the Israelites and brutal thugs. Among all the cities that thrived in the ancient Near East, few can match the opulence and ostentatiousness of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire for much of the seventh century BCE. During that time it became known for its mighty citadels, grand palaces, beautiful gardens, and even its zoos. In fact, the beauty of Nineveh, especially its gardens, impressed later writers so much that they assigned its gardens as one of the original Seven Wonders of the World.

Charles River Editors (Author), Victoria Woodson (Narrator)

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The Exiles of the Jews in Antiquity: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Conflicts that Created th

The story of the Ancient Israelites in Egypt is one of the most famous stories in the world, and one of the most contentious from a historical standpoint. Today, most people know about the relationship between the ancient Israelites and the Egyptians from the Old Testament book of Exodus, and the numerous feature films that often depict the dealings between the two peoples in contentious ways. The deadly plagues, the crossing of the Red Sea, the arduous 40 years the Israelites spent in the desert, and the Ten Commandments all make the Exodus unforgettable, but they’ve also left generations of scholars wondering just how accurate the Scripture is. The return of the Israelites to Israel is, of course, inextricably linked to the history of the Jewish people, their dispersal throughout the Mediterranean world, and their reestablishment of the modern state of Israel in the wake of the horrors of the Holocaust. The small area around Jerusalem was originally known to the ancient Greeks as Ioudaioi, hence the name Judea. An Iron Age kingdom is said, in the Bible, to have existed as a successor to the United Kingdom of Israel, which, it is claimed, existed from approximately 1010-930 BCE. The split in the kingdom, according to the Bible, was the result of the refusal of the northern tribes to accept the son of Solomon, Rehoboam, as their king. The Bible claims that, initially, only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the House of David, but Benjamin also joined with the loyalists after a few years. Two kingdoms, Judah in the south and Israel in the north, co-existed uneasily, with frequent outbreaks of war between them in the following years. Judah was invaded by the Egyptian Pharaoh, Shishak, in the 5th year of Rehoboam’s reign, and Jerusalem was sacked. Rehoboam gave the Egyptians all of the nation’s treasure and became an Egyptian vassal.

Charles River Editors (Author), Victoria Woodson (Narrator)

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Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots: The Controversial History of Cousins Turned Rivals

England's Queen Elizabeth had to fight for her life and position time and again in an era that was already unsafe for female leaders and she probably had remembered the searing feeling of realizing that her mother, Anne Boleyn had been executed by her father on a trumped-up charge. Danger was pervasive, and strategy was needed not just to thrive but to survive. Perhaps nothing underscored that fact quite like Elizabeth’s relationship with her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary’s fame as a monarch lies less in her personality or achievements than in her position within the dynastic maneuvers and political and religious upheavals taking place in Europe in the 16th century. Most monarchs spent their early years learning in preparation to rule and then spend the latter part of their lives wielding power and status, but Mary was thrust upon the throne when she was only a week old, and she ceased to be queen nearly 20 years before her death. Mary's tragedy was intertwined with her country's transformation. As a second cousin once removed of England’s Queen Elizabeth I, that potentially made Mary a rival for the throne. Mary was the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's sister, and her Catholicism made Mary the true and rightful Queen of England in the eyes of many Catholics and the Vatican. These facts, coupled with the realization that several English Catholics (especially rebels active in the Rising of the North movement) supported Mary, ardently made Elizabeth uneasy. Mary also did not help herself when she married James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was widely accused of raping her. The Scottish people rebelled, after which Mary abdicated and fled southwards towards England. Elizabeth I was unsure at first what to do with Mary, so she kept Mary imprisoned in several castles and manor houses inside England, making escape difficult and thus unlikely.

Charles River Editors (Author), Victoria Woodson (Narrator)

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The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah: The History and Legacy of the Sovereign Israelite Kingdoms in Anti

Before any type of unified political entity named Israel existed, the Jewish groups whose descendants would later form Israel identified themselves by their particular tribe. If asked their nationality or country of origin, they would likely identify themselves as Danites (from the tribe of Dan; Ex. 31:6) or Ephraimites (from the tribe of Ephraim; Judg. 12:5), etc. The main way to differentiate these tribes from other tribes in Canaan was their common worship of the deity YHWH, but in terms of language or other cultural characteristics, it would have been difficult to tell a Canaanite from an Israelite. Eventually, these separate tribes united together as a type of confederation, allies who made a treaty (covenant) to provide military aid for one another when threatened by an enemy state. But it was only under the charismatic leadership of David that the 12 tribes united into a single political entity. Scholars refer to the period encompassing the reign of David and his son Solomon as the United Monarchy. This period, spanning only two generations, was the only time when all of the tribes were politically united, and after a contentious schism that resulted because the northern tribes felt exploited by the Judean kings, the northern tribes seceded from the “United Kingdom” and reverted back to the ancient northern versus southern division of the tribes. The main difference this time was that the southern kingdom now incorporated the tribe of Benjamin, located at the border between these two new nations, within its political borders. The tribe of Simeon (south of Judah) had already ceased to maintain a separate existence. The new northern kingdom adopted the name Israel, while the southern kingdom took their regional name of Judah.

Charles River Editors (Author), Victoria Woodson (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Victoria Woodson