Grimdark History

Having just broken 10,000 downloads after only a year in running I thought it appropriate to mark the moment with a thank you episode. Since this milestone happened to coincide with almost exactly 1 year to the day of launching the podcast I thought I would commemorate the moment with a year in review of what was looked at, why we looked at it. Next up looking at the last two topics for Season 1 and what's coming up for Season 2 of the Grimdark History.Thank you so much for everyone who's been enjoying the show and giving it a listen.

After the death of Darius III and Bessus, Alexander is without a doubt king of the former Persian Empire. He’s left staring at huge chunks of former Persian provinces now declared independence standing between him and mysterious India, birthplace of his distant half brother Dionysus and rumoured tomb of Hercules laying somewhere in foreboding mountains. As Alexander begins the conquest of what is now modern-day Uzbekistan and Afghanistan but then Bactria and Sogdiana tensions that have been simmering since the start of the invasion begin to boil over to murderous levels of betrayal. Callisthenes, Cleitus the Black, Parmenion and Philotas all become victim to the cultural tensions tearing at the seems of Alexander’s unified forces. His Macedonian and Greek generals and court fear Alexander is rejecting what makes him Greek and a superior being, he’s making demands on them that he be worshipped like a god by them and his subjects. The king and general who so thoroughly embodied all that was greatest in Greek men is becoming Persian before their very eyes, and the results of bloody and create unreconcilable divisions. In India the very gods themselves attempt to thwart Alexander’s progress by sending lightning bolts, floods, sickness, and monsoon rains to kill, weaken, and suck away the morale of Alexander’s already morale reduced forces and Alexander is forced to turn around and return to Babylon having only made it to the Hyphasis river in order to avoid a revolt by his army. As Alexander returns to Babylon, not realizing death is only weeks away he allows those Greeks who want to retire or return to Greece to do so. Draining his treasury to pay off the debts of his forces, purchase more mercenaries, and buy loyalty he begins training and raising a brand new army as he plans to invade Arabia, only to be thwarted by his mysterious and sudden death. Most people know about Dionysius the god of wine, and perhaps many will know of Dionysius the god of suffering and rebirth, but most do not know of Dionysius the human demi-god. We wrap out our episode exploring Dionysius the man who was Alexander’s distant half brother and what he had to do to achieve apotheosis to godhood and whether or not that may have had an influence on Alexander’s entire campaign. Lastly, we wrap up our 5-part epic on Alexander the Great by exploring whether or not Alexander ever “wept when there were no more worlds to conquer.” Did Alexander Weep when there were no more worlds left to conquer? Thanks to William Elder for his research.https://www.youtube.com/@williamelder6788https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlkWA-8r9Ro&t=319s-         No More World to Conquer – Real Quotes From Made-up Sources

After the Battle of Issus Alexander conquered the bread basket of the Persian Empire (Egypt). Founding the city of Alexandria, and one of the Wonders of the Ancient World (the lighthouse of Alexandria, or the Pharos as it was known). While in Egypt Alexander got his first taste of what it was like to be worshiped and acknowledged as a god.After receiving some miraculously huge and clear salt crystals Alexander visits the Oracle of Zeus-Ammon in the Siwa Oasis receiving either acknowledgement of his divinity or possibly humoring an Egyptian not quite fluent in Greek language.Two years after Issus Alexander leaves Egypt to continue his conquest of Persia besting Darius III again in battle, this time at Gaugamela before enjoying a moment in one of the greatest cities of antiquity (Babylon) and exploring a strange and mysterious liquid to Greeks that can catch fire which the Babylonians have knowledge of.Finally Alexander continues his hot pursuit of Darius III eager to put the nail in the coffin on the Persian Empire and pauses long enough at one of the great Persian palaces at Persepolis to inexpliciably burn it to the ground before chasing down Darius and crushing the last of the Persian Empire resistance in the form of Besus. We pause for a moment to explore the complex memories of Alexander's legacy to Persians as both destroyer and enlightened king through the Persian epic poem the Shahnameh.We're ripe for one final episode exploring Alexander's conquests in Asia and finally his death and legacy

After the assassination of Philip, Alexander faced a demanding and tense succession crisis. Forced to kill of a rival heir, opposing generals, and then put down rebellions against Macedonian rule in Thrace and mainland Greece, Alexander spent the first two years of his reign consolidating his power and control over the kingdom and alliances his father had built.The sack and destruction of Thebes was a message the reverberated around the Greek world and would leave no doubt in the minds of all Greeks that Alexander was the son of Philip and just as ruthless.After the power struggles were resolved Alexander was finally able to follow the path laid out by his father and begin the invasion of the Persian Achaemenid Empire proper, only two years behind schedule. And yet the story of Alexander is not one that I'm telling through tales of battles and daring do. There are plenty of other podcasts out there that cover Issus, Granicus and others just fine. This podcast covers the people and interactions. The relationship between Greeks and Persians was complex, nuanced, and not nearly the Greek Good, Persian Bad that's reflected in popular fiction. Persia left Greek colonies to govern themselves and many of the conflicts that happened during the Greco-Persian wars were often the result of local governors and warlords allying with each other to attack other Greek or Persian areas of control, put down rebellions, or invade new lands.Alexander's first major battle in Persia might have gone very differently if not for Persia recovering from recent palace coups and the need to show strength and stability in the empire. Had the kingship been more stable might the advice of a certain Greek general been followed to deny Alexander's army food and supplies in a scorched Earth policy rather than try and face them down in a decisive battle?After Granicus Alexander begins attacking Persian port cities and comes across his first of many "impenetrable fortresses". And yet the critical need to remove the Phoenician naval from attacking Greek colonies back home left Alexander no choice but to invent some creative solutions to attacking an island fortress without a navy of his own.Lastly in this episode we explore the surrender of Jerusalem as written by the historian Flavius Josephus who relates the Jewish account of the surrender of Jerusalem to Alexander and we get our first glimpses into Alexander's obsession and reverence for all things divine (Greek related or not).With the first phase of Alexander's conquest completed we pause until next month where we begin a deeper exploration of religion, divinity, and Alexander by exploring his time in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and his consolidation of control over the Persian Empire.

The Hecatomb is a large scale sacrifice of cattle, bulls, or oxen to the gods of Greece. Nominally this means 100 animals to be sacrificed but it could easily have just meant a large scale sacrifice of perhaps several dozen. It would have been performed only at extreme or momentous occasions. The religious experience was an extremely important part of life of the everyday Greek world. Divine forces and beings existed everywhere. They were in the rivers, lakes, and seas. In the woods, in the sky and earth. They determined if your army broke in battle, if the weather was fair, if the gods were on your side, and who was going to live or die.Appeasing and giving thanks to the gods was an extremely important part of Alexander's life. His personal connection to divine forces and gods made him an extremely devout follower. Add on top of that how critical it was to make sure the gods were not only happy but on your side as an army with only 30 days' worth of provisions and with no money to pay its soldiers would have been of utmost importance to make sure the army didn't just mutiny and abandon Alexander before the first battle was even fought.Making sure the gods were on your side would have been of paramount importance, even and above that of the happiness of the soldiers. An army that believed the were invincible because the gods were on their side was assured victory, glory, and wealth. Come we me as we explore the religious experience of an everyday Greek citizen and member of Alexander the Great's own army during such a sacrifice.

Kicking off our series on Alexander the Great we look at previous 150 years of Greece; the Greco-Persian Wars, the Peloponnesian Wars, the Corinthian Wars, Philip of Macedon's Conquest, the Empire of Athens, the conflict between Athens and Sparta and the life of Philip of Macedon.Philip was a fascinating political figure, as much Persian as Greek, as much conqueror as politician, an innovator far beyond his time. His reforms to the Macedonian army and way of making war along with political alliances and the crippled state of Greece set the stage for Philip to unify all of Greece and several surrounding nations all the way up the coast of Croatia and into modern day Bulgaria.His marriage to Olympias of Epirus (Alexander's mother) was swirled in conflict as a fiercely independent woman and devout follower of the Orphic mysteries. Olympias was a dominating political force in a world which normally held Greek women to largely background duties of producing children.Come with me as we explore this turbulent world, the roots of Alexander's own divinity and relationship with divine gods such as Zeus, Persephone, Hades, and most importantly Dionysus, and set the stage for what will become the force that destroys the Persian controlled Achaemenid Empire.Was this invasion an act of revenge on Persia for the Greco-Persian wars? Was it an act of Greek revolutionaries seeking to free the Greek colonies from Persian control? Was it a naked grab for land, plunder and slaves? Was it the act of a man desperate to connect with his own divinity and ascend to godhood like the demigods from their own ancient past?Follow me as we explore the complex and violent life of Alexander the Great and his interactions with Greeks, Persians, Mesopotamians, Scythians, Indians, Egyptians, and more.

Trailer episode to whet your whistle for our upcoming series on Alexander the Great, his mother, his father, the Greco-Persian Wars, the Corinthian Wars, the Peloponnesian Wars, and of course Alexander's conquest of Persia, Egypt and Northern India. We want to look deeper into his motivations past the technical details of his battles that have been covered thousands of times over in other podcasts. Our goal is to explore the religious and cultural motivations of Alexander, those around him, and examine how these things might yield the true motivations for Alexanders actions and set him on a path that would lead either to godhood or death in a series we're calling The Ascension of Alexander the Great.

This is a bonus episode that just talks about the approach and process I take to tackling a particular topic, specifically our upcoming podcast series on Alexander the Great. If you're a fan of the show you might have wondered about how I even go about building a podcast series on a particular person, time or place. This process is the topic of this meta episode discussing researching and building my series on Alexander the Great.Rest assured each topic is heavily researched well ahead of the scheduled release. Many articles are reviewed, books are read, and I take my content from the works of actual historians, archeologists, professors of history, etc... or from people who are themselves referencing the works of other established historians, professors, and archeologists.Building this podcast is about much more than just the dates and events of history. It's about the emotion and feeling of that time and place. We can all have something we can grasp a hold of and reference as we explore the times and events of history. Building that feeling is an important part of what makes this podcast experience unique.As we get ready to kick off our brand new series on the life of Alexander the Great I struggled personally with finding some emotion or experience from Alexander's life that I could personally understand. He led a very brief and violent life, and yet was driven by some force to keep conquering long past the original goals of the invasion. What pushes someone to lead a life of eternal war? What could push someone to the point of their entire army of devoted followers ready to mutiny against their king?How I pick this theme, and approach finding and building that emotion and experience is explored in this Meta Episode about the process of building my podcast series on Alexander the Great.Enjoy and see you in 2024.

This Part 3 of a three Part Series exploring the destruction of the Tower of Babylon in Mesopotamia (Modern Day Iraq). In this episode we explore the rise of the Assyrian Kingdom to power within Mesopotamia, the Bronze Age Collapse. Next we review what the tower of Babylon looked like based on existing accounts, and finally explore the text of the Warhammer 40K universe and see how close that text is to our own history and see if there's any clues in there to give us an exact time to tie the Emperor of Mankind to an actual historical figure. Finally we go through 1600 years of history where we note all the major times the city of Babylon was sacked and potentially involved the destruction or raiding of the Temple of Marduk inside Babylon.The Emperor of Warhammer 40K's lore could potentially have been one or more of many possible kings who sacked Babylon and its temple.Can a Piece of Glass give us the vital clue we need to answer the question of "Who was the Emperor when the Tower of Babylon was destroyed?"