Hello everyone.

Lanturn Jack here from the ancient Greece- classified podcast. King Darius of Persia was one of the

great military commanders of antiquity and his campaign against the Scythians which you'll

hear about today from, ranks as one of the

great military adventure stories of the ancient world.

In projecting military force on three continents, Darius was following the footsteps of his two predecessors, Cyrus the Great and Cambys, both of whom solidified their rule through conquest.

Now from our vantage point of history today with our

2020 hindsight vision,

it seems that for the Persian Empire to keep churning out these enterprising conqueror

kings one after the other wasn't exactly a sustainable business model. Eventually, this relentless growth through conquest

would have to slow down or more likely

crash against something.

And you'll hear about these crashes

in the next several episodes of this podcast. We're talking some of the most

famous wars in history and I'll be listening along with you guys to Ryan's

telling of the Persian Wars. Coincidentally, on my podcast this week, my guest is historian and archaeologist Ian Morris of

Stanford University, and we're also going to be talking about the Persian Wars.

Morris studies history using cutting edge economic, demographic, and historical models.

And I'll be asking him about the economies and technologies of the Persians and their Greek adversaries.

And we're going to see if this kind of data science meets archaeology approach can add any

insights to our understanding of the Greco-Persian conflict.

So for now, sit back and enjoy the show on Darius's campaigns, and stay tuned for upcoming episodes on the Persian Wars right here.

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