At the Battle of Actium, the fabled lovers Antony and Cleopatra made a doomed last stand against Julius Caesar’s heir, Octavian. In this episode of Young Heretics, Spencer Klavan and Cornell historian Barry Strauss talk through the battle that ended the Roman republic, and the sex, treachery, and feuding that transformed the world.

It all starts with Homer: the man, the myth, the musician. Spencer Klavan walks through the glorious tale of valor, tragedy, and heroism known as the Iliad, reading aloud from the rhythms of the original Greek and recounting this ancient tale of the war for the most beautiful woman in the world.