Was he so great? Well his mom certainly thought so, and so did he! And really, when it comes right down to it, he did more by 20 than pretty much everybody since then.  Lousy overachievers... Featuring a guest introduction by the podcaster who has an ENTIRE series on Alex...Jamie Redfern! Be sure to listen to his extremely well made The History of: Alexander  

You can't talk about Alexander without talking about his dad, Philip II! Without him Macedon wouldn't have all the institutions and military doohickeys that let Alex pretty much go straight to work on the Persians. 

It took a lot of self control to not include war, fighting, or any form of soldiers with pointy objects trying to poke other soldiers with pointy objects in this episode! Don't you start falling asleep on me, I ASSURE you it's interesting! And for you history sticklers out there, I'm gonna be up front with you. I'm leaving out the Corinthian War and the March of the 10,000. Why? Because how much carnage do you want in these podcasts!?

Will the brutal militarism of Sparta triumph against the brutal democracy of Athens? And Socrates - what's up with him? Doesn't he know that every rose has its thorn just like every night has its dawn? With a guest introduction from Benjamin Ashwell of the Talking History: Italian Unification podcast!  

In which a bunch of Ancient Greeks remember that they never really liked each other in the first place and off to war they go!

It's a good time to be an Athenian when Pericles is in the house! Smooching girlfriends, building temples, and teasing the Corinthians. All in a days work!

Well that took long enough. The story continues after the Persian Wars! Greece is still standing! Athens wants to get back in the game! And heroes are once again dealt with the only way the city knows how.

Part two of our look at the war for THE FATE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION. Whoops! My hyperbole button got stuck for a second. Lots of military stuff in this here episode, so if you dig that, this is the one for you!

The granddaddy of all ancient battles! Will the forces of long beards, extreme workout regimens and kicking people down wells win out against the folks who created the first human rights charter? Part one of our look at this fascinating time!

The second part! In which we finally catch up to the Persian timelines. But don't cross the streams! Wouldn't want any Mesopotamian destruction gods mucking about New York, right?

Did ya miss me? I'm back from a month long hiatus to bring you Athens! Part one! The city so nice it gets episodes...uh...twice. Well anyway in this one we cover it's earliest mythological days to it's first tyranny. BOOM.

THIS IS...an episode about Sparta! (and there are no 300 references in here too. Well, one, but it's about facial hair!) People just looove Sparta. Tough guys and gals who don't let anyone stand in their way! Grr! Kick a diplomat down a well! Oh but let's just go ahead and ignore the whole brutally enslave your Greek brothers and sisters thing. Wouldn't want that to spoil our rosy image of them, eh?

For an era of history that has almost nothing recorded from it, I think I did a respectable job with the content! (i.e. I did my best!)

I tried to keep this one as grounded in historical reality as I could, and look what happened! It's a short episode! But that's ok, we still get to find out about the Mycenaeans and that little tiff they had with Troy. 

Welcome to our first episode with the Greeks! Although as you'll find out, there aren't many Greeks in this episode! We'll do as much as we can with the historical record on Crete, and then use mythological tradition to fill in the blanks. Opa!

Darius gets a bum rap because he's the first Persian king to invade Greece, but they started it! Honestly! Well...mostly. Whatever. Also after this episode we'll be temporarily saying goodbye to the Persians before we head off to Greece, but don't worry! We'll be coming back!

Oh, Herodotus. I love you man, but you're like the tabloid reporter of the ancient world. Didn't you ever check your sources? What, did you just go with the first guy you heard a story from? Ah well, it still makes for a good story! We'll take a look at Zarathustra and Cambyses in this here episode, and yes before you comment, I am fighting a head cold. Many mugs of tea and Ricola cough drops were sacrificed to make this.

So many people throughout history get to have "The Great" as a moniker, but do they deserve it? Heck no! But Cyrus, here is the exception! From the curious mythology of his birth, to the massive empire he carved out in thirty years, to essentially penning the first human rights charter, who in the ancient world can compare to the luminosity of Cyrus the Achaemenid? Pfft! Go ahead! I challenge you to do so!

This is it! Our last episode with the ancient Hebrews! Will Egypt protect the Hebrews? Will Judah deftly wade through the treacherous diplomatic minefield? Look, I don't want to spoil anything here but, oh wait, the title is a spoiler. Whoops! Well, let's just hope nothing bad ever happens to Jerusalem again.  

For one tiny strip of land, the power players of the ancient Near East seem REALLY hellbent on controlling it! Judah's stuck right smack dab in the middle of it all, and if they are to survive at all, it might even come down to alliances with former hated foes...

We close the book on the Northern Kingdom of Israel in this episode...which leaves their southern cousins in an awkward position! 

In which I condense about 2000 years of Assyrian history into about 15 minutes. Expect lots of kings trying to one-up another for the title of "Most Creatively Brutal". Featuring music by the awesome Owen Plant! www.owenplant.net

It's the beginning of the end for the Ancient Hebrews folks! Once the split between the two kingdoms happened it all went downhill from there. Also in this episode we spend a little time talking about a woman who can't get a break nearly 2000 years later.

Did you know that Solomon, known as Suleiman in the Quran, had a giant flying carpet, could communicate with animals, and controlled genies, a.k.a djinn? Just go with it...  

In many ways King David is a lot like Dennis the Menace. They both use a slingshot to take down their enemies, don't get along with neighbors, and are always causing trouble! Haha, yep, well that was a terrible analogy. Still, we're inching closer and closer to historical accuracy now!