This program explores the history of the ancient city of Babylon and the land once known as Babylonia.  We'll uncover the story of this great city over the course of fifteen centuries and learn about its impact and why it was so beloved as well as hated by so many in the ancient world.   We'll also meet an interesting and rather eclectic cast of kings including Hammurabi, Zimri-Lim, Rim-Sin, Samsu-iluna, Marduk-apla-iddina II, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Ashurbanipal, Nabopolassar, Nebuchadnezzar I & II, Nabonidus, Cyrus the Great and many more.  Contents: 00:00 Introduction 0 ..read more

In this podcast, we take a look at the fabled king, Croesus of Lydia, at least from the point of view of Greek writers such as Herodotus and Xenophon.  Croesus was a king who during his day (r. 560-546 BC) was deemed to have been the wealthiest sovereign in the world. However, he lost it all to the Persian king Cyrus the Great while finally learning the lesson that the great Athenian sage, Solon, was trying to convey to him.  It's an interesting tale and fun to examine.   Follow History with Cy: YouTube Channel Instagram Facebook Twitter Website  Support the show (h ..read more

In this third installment of the Peloponnesian War podcast, we take a look at life after Pericles and the years 428 and 427 BC.  Leaders of Mytilene's oligarchy have decided that now is the time to leave the Athenian-led alliance.  The conflict in Plataea also finally comes to an end while another bloody civil conflict between factions in Corcyra gets out of hand and shocks the Greek world.  At the end of it, the Athenians head west to see if they can exert their influence in southern Italy and Sicily.  The war is really heading up and who knows where the fires will spread ..read more

War begins!  In this episode, we take a look at the start of the great war and the Athenian statesman Pericles' strategy to keep Athens and it's empire safe from the attacks of the Spartan general Archidamos and the Peloponnesian forces.  Find out in this episode of the Peloponnesian War Podcast.  Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/historywithcy ..read more

This is the first episode of the podcast series on the Peloponnesian War.  How did it start?  What does Thucydides, the war's great historian, tell us about the reasons and motivations of Athens, Sparta, Corinth and the different parties involved? Could the conflict have been prevented?  We'll take a look at these questions and more as we go through the story of the greatest internal conflict of ancient Greek history, the Peloponnesian War!    Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/historywithcy ..read more

I thought that this might be a fun topic for those of you who are into examining ancient primary sources.  For those of you who may not know, the Amarna Letters are a collection of 14th century BCE correspondence between three pharaohs of Egypt and other great kings or their vassals and mayors in the Levant.  They're interesting and actually fun to read for what they reveal about international relations in the Near East during the period.  The program is divided up into the following sections: 0:00 - Introduction to the Amarna Letters 3:55 - Bargaining for royal brides 11:30 - A ..read more

In this podcast episode of The Epic of Ancient Assyria, we'll take a look at the beginnings of the Assyrian people, their early kings and life in the city of Ashur and the Anatolian colonies.   Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/historywithcy ..read more

Scribes played an extremely important role in the history of the ancient world, especially in Mesopotamia. As purveyors of the written word, they were responsible for all sorts of tasks - recording knowledge, drafting and writing edicts for their rulers, copying works of ancient literature, keep tab of grain inventories, writing up contracts between different parties, solving everyday mathematical problems, translating documents and much more.  In this episode, you'll get a glimpse of the world of scribes in Mesopotamia - and hear what may be the equivalent of the oldest diss track in anc ..read more

Herodotus, arguably the ancient world's greatest historian...or storyteller.  Perhaps a bit of both.  In this episode, we take a look at his life, where he traveled and see what may have been the source for one of his more fantastical stories, namely the gold-digging ants of India. Follow History with Cy: YouTube Channel Instagram Facebook Twitter Website  Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/historywithcy ..read more

In the second of this two part series on the Achaemenid Persian Empire, we continue with Darius the Great's son, Xerxes and some of the main events of the Greco-Persian wars, and then follow the lives of his successors up to Darius III and the fall of the Achaemenid Empire with its conquest by Alexander of Macedonia, a.k.a. Alexander the Great.      Contents: 00:00 Intro and Recap 01:33 Xerxes (486-465 BC) 03:43 Xerxes Invades Greece 08:47 Battle of Thermopylae 11:18 Battle of Salamis 12:40 Battle of Plataea 14:40 Xerxes after Greece 18:26 Artaxerxes I (465-424 BC) 25:57 Dariu ..read more