Dan Carlin's series: Hardcore History King of Kings 56-58 (ancient, war, Rome)

[SWFL_Native]

I found this series to be incredibly interesting as a holistic/comprehensive historical discussion on period leading up to pre-Judaism/Christianity/Islam influence on the world.

56 does a great job of setting the scene of societal/cultural shift and the associated consolidation of power between the kingdoms of the middle east. The downfall of the Assyrians to the gaps created between vacuum of power to be disbursed to the Babylonians/Medes/Lydian. Then the emergence of the dominant Persian empires with the stories of Cyrus & Darius the greats.

I wish we had more independent written documentation written about the Assyrians & Persians that wasn't from the perspective of the greeks. Specifically about their cultures and how the rose & fell so quickly and dramatically.

57 focuses on the greek city states and their initial conflicts (Ionian revolt) with the Persians and goes into great details about the Marathon battle.

58 does a comprehensive job on covering the meat and potatoes of the Greco-Persian Wars.


56

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7CmBN741Vw

Often relegated to the role of slavish cannon fodder for Sparta's spears, the Achaemenid Persian empire had a glorious heritage. Under a single king they created the greatest empire the world had ever seen.

57

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8E62ctssoI

From Biblical-era coup conspiracies to the horrific aftermath of ancient combat this second installment of the series on the Kings of Achaemenid Persia goes where only Dan can take it. For better or worse…

58

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRXMKG0x8r8

If this were a movie, the events and cameos would be too numerous and star-studded to mention. It includes Xerxes, Spartans, Immortals, Alexander the Great, scythed chariots, and several of the greatest battles in history.

[fishbrains]

I love everything Dan Carlin does. Fascinating podcasts, the only problem is that he releases them so infrequently.

I agree with you on King of Kings, and his series on WW1 and the Mongols were both great.

[SWFL_Native]

Originally Posted by fishbrains

I love everything Dan Carlin does. Fascinating podcasts, the only problem is that he releases them so infrequently.

I agree with you on King of Kings, and his series on WW1 and the Mongols were both great.

Thanks, 'll check out both.. I think the Mongols series and his multiple Rome series are no behind the paywall but WW1 is still public.

He does a great job (IMO) of providing the historical texts in a narrative form that is both interesting and informative. He tries to not get into the "pissing" match of what is credible or "correct" but attempts to see both sides of the story. For me I'm most interested in the Persian/Assyrian history than the greeks and unfortunately the best historical text from that period of history is indeed herodotus. Dan does a good job at framing what Herodotus is trying to do in terms of create a series of works that can be recited orally to the greek audiences of the day. So there needs to be an a limited adherence to accuracy but done with enough "color" to keep people interest. Dan then can interpolate instead of focusing on specific ares of fact he can identify what the people of that day in greece deduced at fact through what entertained them.

It seems that we have lost more written history at the hands of those looking to suppress it than those that exist. The fact that 20 independent pier sources existed of Alexander's conquests but we must rely on Arrian of Nicomedia & Plutarch as our sources is a travesty.

[jcp123]

His WWI series really chilled me. It was on my mind for at least a week. I never realized how epically bad that war was, nor how it set the entire world up for what it is today.

King of Kings was good but not as impactful, IMHO. The ancient cultures are indeed probably the most fascinating part of it, but it is also a bit harder to relate to. That said, although I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about history, I did not know the Persians had such reach and power at their height.