Afleveringen
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In 260 CE the fortunes of the Roman Empire are at the worst they could ever be. In a matter of months the Empire has shrunk to a third the size, the senior Emperor Valerian is a prisoner of the Persians, and most of the treasury has been lost during Valerian’s defeat and the subsequent declaration of one of Valerian’s generals (Macrianus) of his own candidacy as new Emperor.
Macrianus raises the Roman eastern provinces into revolt, securing the regions of modern day Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel, only to be usurped by Odenathus, and local non-citizen Palmyran.
In the west the governor of Gaul (Postumus) fearing that Emperor Gallienus will pull legions away from Gaul to retake the eastern provinces and attack the Persians to free Valerian instead opts to declare himself as Emperor and vows to defend Rhine frontiers against the near constant raiding of the Franks, Alemanni and various Germanic tribes. Britannia and Spain declare for Postumus setting up a rival Roman Empire in the west centered in Gaul.
Gallienus, the now senior Emperor is forced to radically transform what was left of the Roman Empire in order to ensure his survival. The loyalty of what legions he had left to him was paramount, and his reforms transformed what was left of Rome into an empire that was entirely subordinated to the legions.
Left with a motley crew of legionaries who had been fighting with Gallienus for a decade, he’s also forced to radically reimagine what it means to be a legionary, how the army should fight. Under Gallienus the core of Rome is transformed back into the apex predator it had been under the likes Pompey and Vespasian.
Setting the state of a nobody Roman plebian named Aurelian to eventually take the reigns and perform what must have at the time seemed the unthinkable, and that was to crush Postumus, retaking Gaul, Britannia, and Spain and then to retake the vasty wealth of the eastern provinces by now under the control of one of history’s most badass women, Zenobia.
Sources Used in this episode
Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine - Patricia Southern
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In 200 CE the Roman Empire is at the tale end of a period of relative internal peace and stability across the empire known as the Pax Romana. No one could imagine that within 30 years the empire would begin to crumble with almost nightmarish speed.
The first non-Roman emperor, Maximinus finds his moment at the very pinnacle of Roman power by virtue of the Edict of Caracalla which only a few decades earlier made all free people in the empire Roman citizens. Maximinus Thrax, a Thracian with a name that would make any comic villain jealous, is thrust into ultimate power and yet powerless to stop the revolts springing up around him.
This is just the start of a period of convulsion and transformation of the Roman Empire as Franks, Goths, and other Germanic tribes threaten the western provinces, while a transformed Persian Sassanian Empire under Shapir I seek to retake ancient lands in the East. As successive emperors try and fail to tackle the problem of how to be in multiple places at one time provincial governors take the defense of their homelands into their own hands breaking free from Roman control in an attempt to preserve precious soldiers needed to defend their lands.
The Roman senate is left completely powerless and feeling like the wallflower at the prom as legions thousands of km from Rome take it upon themselves to elect competing emperors.
Events reach a low point in 260 as the empire finds its own emperor a prisoner of foreign powers, multiple provinces have declared independence, piracy runs rampant in the black seas, the Germanic tribes always a perpetual psychological fear of the Romans are raiding freely, and Persia is retaking ancient lands that have been Roman possessions for 200 years.
Such a succession of events leads to an average turnover rate of one emperor every 2.8 years. It is a period of time referred to as The Crisis of the Third Century. It is into the apex of this crisis that Saint George (if he existed at all) would have been born. Growing up in, and then becoming apart of the Roman machine that stitches back together the shattered empire. But before we tell that story, we look at Crisis of the Third Century.
Sources Used in this episode
Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine - Patricia Southern
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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In 110 CE Pliny the Younger is appointed governor of the Roman province of Pontus-Bithynia. Within just a few months of starting the job he uncovers a community of Christians, some of which are executed. This just scratches the surface of a much more pervasive spread of the strange religion as more and more Christians are uncovered, either through anonymous accusations or as a result of torture. Pliny discovers the Christian community is widespread throughout the entire province and writes to the Emperor Trajan seeking advice.
Pliny’s letter to Trajan is the very earliest non-biblical account of Christians and provides a fascinating look at the spread of early Christianity, what their religious practices were, what Roman law was concerning Christians, and why they were seen as such a threat (or not).
Just 90 years later, in the now Roman city of Carthage in 203 CE, two young Christian women (Perpetua and Felicity) are arrested and brought before the governor Hilarion for trial. Perpetua’s family are wealthy enough to be able to bribe the guards of the prison to allow visits, provide materials for writing, and opportunities to beg Perpetua to recant and return to her family. What follows next is a handwritten diary of the last days of two of Christianity’s earliest saints. Outlining Roman procedures of trial, prison life, and execution. The heart felt thoughts and anxieties are recorded as two young mothers face their last days before embarking on what they see as a Passion and a guaranteed short-cut straight to the gates of Heaven.
80 Year’s following Perpetua’s martyrdom Roman attitudes towards Christianity seem to have softened somewhat. Mauritius (Saint Maurice) is a Roman citizen, an open Christian who leads the Theban Legion, an entirely Christian Roman legion, under the banner of Emperor Maximian. The legion is sent into modern day Switzerland and ordered to slaughter a Christian settlement. What follows next is a tale of an immovable object meeting an unstoppable force as devout Christians face the choice of death for defying a direct order from a Roman emperor, or eternal damnation for murdering other Christians.
Saint George (if he existed at all) was born sometime around the time of Maximian and Saint Maurice. An era commonly known as the Crisis of the Third Century. Beginning our journey into the real-world and history of the time of Saint George we start by examining the earliest non-biblical accounts of Christians, exploring Roman attitudes and law towards Christians, and Christian attitudes towards Roman authority.
Sources Used in this series
Millennium - Tom Holland
Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine - Patricia Southern
The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity - Perpetua
Dominion - Tom Holland
Complete Letters - Oxford World Classics Pliny the Younger
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In 66 CE a nobody, and minor priest by the name of Eleazar stood up to the oppression of Rome and declared “No more” in the bloodiest way imaginable. Sending a message to Rome that would have devastating effects on the nation of people who lived in Judea.
Yoseph ben Matityahu (better known to us as Flavius Josephus) is likewise a minor priest, but of noble birth. Sent to defend the northern borders of Judea against Roman reprisals. He thinks he’s going there to set up defenses but finds himself caught up in a civil war amongst his own people while facing off against the might of Roman legions and future emperor Vespasian.
Caught up in the siege of Jotapata (Yodfat), Joseph and Vespasian face off in a 2-month long siege culminating in one of the most controversial moments in Jewish history.
Yoseph, now a slave to Vespasian is forced to witness the destruction of the Jewish countryside as Roman forces obliterate rebel and civilian forces with equal vigor and dispassion, and yet the land of Judea is not so filled with the resistance Roman forces expected. Coming across the river Jordon already so full of bodies the current of Jordan carries them down to the Dead Sea. A Telling tale of a darker, internal conflict amongst the rebel leaders simultaneously fighting a civil war and war against Rome.
Those who fight a war on two fronts often find themselves unable to win either. As Rome closes in on Jerusalem a stranglehold on the city yields starvation, atrocities, and more internal fighting amongst the rebels. The inevitable grind of the Roman legions can only end in one result so significant it marks the end of an entire period of history known as the Second Temple Period.
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“What Caesar wants, Caesar gets”. Famous words that would change history forever in 66 CE.
Since the start of Roman intervention (and then later rule) in Judea there’s been a sense of unfinished business so to speak. The culture shocks that have been happening over the last 200 years still have not fully resolved themselves. Those events that had taken the form of violence against some communities, rejection of the authority of the Sanhedrin, rejection of foreign goods, culture and ways of doing things, and a general inward turning culture has been forced open by the presence of Rome.
The great Republic and now Empire still defining itself, the role of Caesar and what it means to be ruled by Rome is itself in the midst of culture shocks. Recovering from the civil wars of first Caesar and Pompey, and later Octavian and Antony and Cleopatra; Rome is trying to figure out how the Senate and a succession of Caesars can share power (or at least pretend to).
Herod the Great who first backed Antony in the failed civil war hopes that a huge bribe and successive acts of contrition to Octavian (the new Caesar and now, Augustus) will save both his skin and his kingdom from the ravaging of the legions that had scoured Gaul and shattered the Carthaginians and Egyptians. His plan pays off; but Herod continues a policy of peacefully embracing Rome to keep the legions at bay. Building temples, baths, raising statues, embracing Roman art, even naming cities after Caesar. These are all attempts to show Rome Judea can be a peaceful part of the still forming Empire. No legions are needed here.
Herod’s embracing of Roman culture, and later the light presence of direct Roman authority wasn’t helping ease those unresolved issues. Judea itself was still recovering from generations of civil wars. Unresolved social issues, the generational trauma of having your city destroyed, or forced conversion to the Jewish religion are still in recent living memory. On top of all this, living the pure life, or the way God intended still hasn’t finished defining itself to the satisfaction of several thousands of the population.
The generational trauma, the sense that no one is following the laws of God, the insanity of allowing a foreign power to rule a country that had so recently won its independence from another power rival to Rome; these are things driving a feeling that the end is neigh. That the world should come to an end. Messianic figures come out of the countryside. No less that two Jesus’ and one Egyptian all show up with thousands of disciples to claim the mantle of Christos and free the people. Rome crushes them all.
After that famous fire of Rome in 64 CE Nero takes a personal interest in the fabulously wealthy Judea. Personally appointing a friend of the family as the new governor, Gessius Florus has only one job, extract wealth in order to pay for the rebuilding of Rome. What Nero wants, Nero gets and no less than two years later the first Jewish Roman war begins in the form of a Jewish revolt led in part by a man named Yosef, but who history remembers better as Flavius Josephus.
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In Episode Two of our series, we dive deep into the story of the Maccabee family. Beginning with Mattathias and his sons daring murder of Seleucid government officials and following through the revolt first with Judas Maccabeus and his gorilla war, and later all out war for independence with Judas’ brother Simon.
A vicious cycle of power struggles take place that rock the Judean countryside as the Hasmonean family and heirs of Mattathias via internally and externally to expand control, seize power, and enforce beliefs upon the countryside.
The power struggles internally within the Maccabee family tell fascinating stories to rival Game of Thrones, with backstabbing, murders, betrayals, and civils wars as each generation of Maccabee seeks to leave their mark.
The Kingmaker, Alexandra Salome reveals her political chops being able to successfully manipulate and win over the court to her side and have her husband and brother-in-law killed, she later proclaims Alexander Jannaeus king and then promptly marries him, solidifying her rule and the rule of her heirs, before ruling the kingdom on her own after Alexander’s death.
Lastly, we end with the last heirs of the Hasmonean Dynasty, Hycanus II, Aristobulus II, and Antigonus II as the country is plunged into yet another power struggle for the throne of Jerusalem, before Pompey, and later Mark Antony flex Roman muscle and impose their will on Judean kingship, ending the dynasty of Mattathias and beginning the rule of Herod the Great.
It’s an epic episode of freedom, power struggles, civil war, and betrayals as we dig into the story and history of the dynasty that won and lost the independence of Jerusalem within 4 generations.
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Getting at the heart of the first Jewish Roman Revolt war in 66 CE has a long history attached to it. Working my way backwards through time using the works of Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus as my literary sources raised more questions than answers. I found myself tugging on the threads of history and going all the way back almost 200 years in time to Modin Mattathias and his 5 sons who triggered a popular revolt against their Seleucid overlords and changed the course of history forever.
Getting into the heart of this world, even understanding the time leading up to the event was itself a struggle. To help me untie the knot and understand the nuanced and complex world of Judea leading up to the time period known as the Maccabean Revolt, Dr. Boris Chrubasik, Associate Professor of Ancient History and Chair of the Dept. of Historical Studies at the University of Toronto joins me to help me understand this world rushing towards its independence.
The world of Judea leading up to the start of the revolt is a complex one where what it means to be Jewish is still being defined, and at times swallowed up by the influences of the Greek world on Judea, Jerusalem, and the surrounding lands. The nobility of Jerusalem, and in and amongst the countryside are divided on the influence of Greeks being a positive or negative on their people. Yet even as some of these groups try to figure out what it means to be Jewish in an increasingly Greek countryside, clashes of violence begin to flash across the land and threaten to plunge the Judean landscape into rebellion.
A movement and rejection of these things as a negative influence begins to form. Led ultimately by the sons of Mattathias, the Maccabee family walk a fine tight rope between politics, and outright war against the Seleucids, against Samaria, and against Edomia. Even as they outwardly navigate the world of larger, more powerful neighboring kingdoms like Egypt, the still forming nation of Judea begins to take shape as the internal culture clashes with the Judean countryside and internally with the Maccabean family tell a story of a not yet fully defined Jewish identity.
Join me as I discuss the land, the people, the culture, and political dynamics of the world Judea during the Maccabean Revolt with Prof. Chrubasik and come to see the re-forging of a Jewish identity as an independent Jerusalem takes shape as we uncover the all important context that will flow into the next episodes in this series.
Books written by guest Boris Chrubasik
Hellenism and the Local Communities of the Eastern Mediterranean: 400 BCE-250 CEISBN: 9780198805663Kings and Usurpers in the Seleukid EmpireISBN: 9780198786924Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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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.
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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/@williamelder6788
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlkWA-8r9Ro&t=319s
- No More World to Conquer – Real Quotes From Made-up Sources
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?"
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In Part 2 of our three part series exploring the history of the city of Babylon and the destruction of the Tower of Babylon we look at the history of Mesopotamia from Sargon the Great to the rise of Assyria. Building background to the eventual destruction of the tower we explore the types of people within and surrounding Mesopotamia, the major cultures involved in our story, as well as the religion and life of the Babylonians.
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This is Part 2 of a two part bonus episode with special guest host Laura from the Chaos Divided Podcast who joined me to talk a little history and a little Warhammer 40K fiction as we go through the Top 10 Historical Figures the Emperor of Mankind Might Have Been as chosen by fans of the 40K fiction. This episode is a rundown of the Top 3 of the list as we discuss each in depth and then discuss our own optional bonus pic.
Thank you very much to fans of the show so far and this show would not be possible without your interest.
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In celebration of reaching 1000 downloads on our podcast I wanted to engage with the fans of our season 1 topic (the fiction of Warhammer 40,000 and history). I also wanted to step away from the grimdark podcast tone for a couple of episodes and have a little fun.
To thank all the fans who have supported the podcast so far I anonymously reached out to the 40KLore sub-Reddit and just asked the question "Who's your favorite historical figure the Emperor of Mankind Might Have Been?" To help get the answers flowing in the post I suggested 4 significant historical figures with 2 suggestions being conquerors and empire builders and 2 suggestions being more philosophical and softer thinking influences.
With over 350 responses to the question I took the top responses from the fans, put it into an online poll, and again engaged with everyone on Discord, Twitter, and the various Warhammer 40K subreddits asking people to now vote from the list of historical figures they suggested, "who did they feel was most likely to have been the Emperor of Mankind?"
Joining me as we go through the Top 10 list as chosen by you, the fans of 40K lore, is Laura Whitehead co-host and co-creator of the Chaos Divided podcast which discuss all things 40K with a light hearted and wholesome tone that will leave you smiling after every episode. Please check out their podcast everywhere you get your pods https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/chaos-divided-warhammer-40k-podcast/id1686139450
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In this episode we imagine the experience of an every day person inside the walls of a city during an ancient siege. The experience could really belong to anyone of any time, but we begin our exploration of Babylon, Mesopotamians, and the destruction of the Tower of Babel by experiencing the ancient siege of Jerusalem by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II during his second and final siege of the city in 589-587 BCE in which the city, and its temple were razed to the ground and entire population dispersed or enslaved.
The complete destruction of a city and dispersement of its population either through forced relocation or enslavement was rare, but not entirely unheard of. With the Babylonians themselves having experienced this almost 100 years earlier. But before we get there, we start here.
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