Cyrus the Great and the Rise of the Persian Empire

Tides of History

Wondery / Patrick Wyman

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2023

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Persians were unlikely successors to the Assyrians and Babylonians, a fringe people of no particular importance, until Cyrus the Great became the most successful conqueror the world had ever seen. He built an empire stretching from Central Asia to the borders of Egypt, the Aegean to the Persian Gulf, and laid the foundations for a state that would last for 200 years.

Patrick's book is now available! Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (read by Patrick) here: https://bit.ly/PWverge. And check out Patrick's new review podcast of the TV series Rome: https://bit.ly/PWrome

Listen to new episodes 1 week early, to exclusive seasons 1 and 2, and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App https://wondery.app.link/tidesofhistory

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to Tides of History add free on Amazon Music.
0:04.2	Download the app today.
0:07.0	The rock made for a comfortable seat, and so far as a rock could be considered comfortable.
0:20.5	It was better than standing, thought the shepherd, when singing his pain shot through his
0:24.5	arthritic knees and ankles.
0:27.0	He was getting old now, his once black beard shot through with gray and even white.
0:32.0	The formerly abundant hair on top of his head reduced to a mere tough, a memory of the
0:36.3	glorious mane he'd been so proud of as a younger man.
0:40.0	That was the way of things he knew, life went on.
0:43.0	The sheep scattered across the hillside, their wool white against the bright green summer
0:47.0	grass, wouldn't protect themselves from wolves and other predators.
0:51.3	Most of those predators, if he was being honest, weren't animals but people.
0:55.2	Delicious riders from the north and east, soldiers from the west, all of them keen
0:59.8	on taking his sheep.
1:02.0	It had happened before and it would probably happen again, if it did it would be soon.
1:07.4	This was the time of the year when armed men tended to travel.
1:11.1	When the snows in the high Anatolian mountains had mostly melted, pastors were full for grazing
1:16.7	and the biting cold that afflicted these rugged highlands was less likely to take fingers
1:20.8	or a nose from the unwary.
1:23.3	One of the other shepherds in the area had spotted horsemen passing through a nearby valley.
1:27.7	Not many, but enough to be worrisome if they had friends with them.
1:31.0	Of course it was his job to worry.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wondery / Patrick Wyman, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Wondery / Patrick Wyman and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.