Elamite Teaser
It completely slipped my mind that the next episode would be due out on Thanksgiving Day. I've got family sleeping in my office this week so that's not happening, but I didn't want to leave you comple...
25 Nov 202120min
61: Blood on the Eurymedon
Most of the decade following the first offensive Greek campaigns against Xerxes' forces are lost to us. There are hints at great battles and rapid Athenian expansion, but almost nothing is certain unt...
10 Nov 202144min
60: Given Against The Demons
The Vendidad is a strange and unique document. It's one part mythology, one part law code, and one part ritual manual. A collection of phrases and verses from a partly remembered oral tradition were c...
25 Okt 202140min
59: Holy War
Early in Xerxes' reign, an infamous and dramatic story of religious conflict was inscribed at Persepolis. When Xerxes became king he put down a rebellion, but in the process encountered a community de...
18 Sep 202142min
58: Persia's First Family
As the reign of another king draw's toward a close, it's time to look at the royal family. Xerxes' household was like a microcosm of early Achaemenid history. His mother, Atossa, drew a direct connect...
4 Sep 202139min
57: Xerxes at Home
It's time to return to the imperial heartland and tour the "city" that Xerxes' built. The foundations may have been laid by Darius, but Xerxes was the one who turned Persepolis from a construction pro...
14 Aug 202132min
56: Domestic Affairs
As the war with the Greeks drags on into obscurity, it is time to investigate what was happening inside the empire under Xerxes. In the far west, most territories slipped from Persian control complete...
25 Jul 202148min
55: Still Loud on the Western Front
After the Persian defeat at Mycale, the stories of the Greco-Persian war get less dramatic, but the war itself did not come to an end. Late 479 BCE saw the beginning of Greek offensives in Persian ter...
10 Jul 202136min
