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21: The Faith of the Magi
Episode 22
After all that business with Gaumata that Magos, I figured we had time to keep talking about magi. This episode explores the religious developments a…
6 years, 11 months ago
20: The Forgotten King
Episode 20
522 BCE was a crazy year for the Persian Empire. That was the year that Bardiya - or maybe Gaumata - seized power. He overturned his brother and rule…
6 years, 11 months ago
19: Three Kings and The Magi
Episode 19
In 522 BCE, the Persian Empire sat on the edge of Chaos. Between March and September of that year, 3 men sat on the Persian throne, and according to …
7 years ago
18: The Tyrant and The Kings
Episode 18
The story of Polykrates, the Tyrant of Samos, intersects repeatedly with the history of the Persian empire during his life. From his rise to power in…
7 years ago
Announcement 01: Croeseids
Hello everyone! I've got some announcements, updates, and news about the show for you, and as a little bonus for listening to my fundraising spiel, t…
7 years ago
17: The Mad King
The story of Cambyses isn't just the conquest of Egypt, but also the dark side of it. According to Herodotus Cambyses was a mad king, driven to paran…
7 years, 1 month ago
16: Pharaoh Cambyses
In 525 BCE, the Persian army crossed into Egypt, in what seems to have been the culmination of years of antagonism between the the new empire and the…
7 years, 1 month ago
15: The Army That Conquered The World
In preparation for Cambyses' invasion of Egypt, we're covering the early Persian armies. These are the armies that helped Cyrus the Great conquer the…
7 years, 2 months ago
14: Princes, Princesses, Kings, and Queens
The narrative lurches forward again with a discussion of the new cast, so to speak. Meet Cambyses, Atossa, Bardiya, Artystone, and Roxane, the childr…
7 years, 2 months ago
13: Kingship 101
Episode 43
What did it mean to be an early king of Persia? They were divine, but not quite. Warriors and economists. The king of Persia, but also Babylon, Egyp…
7 years, 2 months ago