Ep. 0287: ‘The Mad Dream of Conquest,’ Pt I

The Dangerous History Podcast

CJ

Education, History, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.6 • 647 Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2026

⏱️ 182 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

CJ decided he needed a break from modern US history as he continues to recover & reset his life, so this is the first episode of a new DHP miniseries set during the Peloponnesian War in 5th century BC Greece. The series will primarily focus on a famous Athenian military expedition to Sicily that occurred right in the middle of that conflict, an expedition that, to CJ, is eerily similar in some ways to the current war with Iran.

This first episode, though, is backstory & world-building, setting the stage for the massive, complex & costly Peloponnesian War of 431-404 BC during which the Sicilian expedition occurred.

Join CJ as he discusses:

A brief overview of ancient Greek history, from the Bronze Age through the Persian invasions of 490 & 480 BC.
The growing rivalries & tensions between the Peloponnesian League (led by Sparta) & the Delian League (led by Athens) in the aftermath of the Persian Wars, including Athens’ increasingly aggressive & destabilizing imperialism, & Sparta’s fears about it
The rise of Pericles & the construction of the Athenian Long Walls
The ‘first’ Peloponnesian War of ~460 BC-445 BC, which ended with a treaty known as “The Thirty Years’ Peace”
The rising tensions & conflicts that caused the Thirty Years’ Peace to only last about half as long as it was intended to
The ancient Greek historian Thucydides
The escalating conflicts that led, in 431 BC, to the outbreak of the Second Peloponnesian War (sometimes just referred to as “The Peloponnesian War”), a conflict that would end up dwarfing the previous war in duration, cost, death & destruction

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The post Ep. 0287: ‘The Mad Dream of Conquest,’ Pt I first appeared on The Dangerous History Podcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Death raged, in every shape.
0:03.8	And as usually happens at such times, there was no length to which violence did not go.
0:10.4	Sons were killed by their fathers, and suppliants dragged from the altar, or slain upon it.
0:18.7	So bloody was the march of the revolution, and the impression which it made was the
0:24.3	greater as it was one of the first to occur. Later on, one may say the whole Greek world was convulsed,
0:33.0	struggles being everywhere made by the popular leaders to bring in the Athenians and by the oligarchs
0:39.4	to introduce the Spartans.
0:42.2	In peace, there would have been neither the pretext nor the wish to make such an invitation.
0:49.9	But in war, with an alliance always at the command of either faction for the hurt of their
0:55.9	adversaries and their own corresponding advantage. Opportunities for bringing in the foreigner
1:01.8	were never wanting to the revolutionary parties. The sufferings which revolution
1:08.9	entailed upon the cities were many and terrible, such as have always occurred and always will occur as long as the nature of mankind remains the same, though in a severe or milder form and varying in their symptoms according to the variety of the particular cases.
1:27.7	In peace and prosperity, states and individuals have better sentiments, because they do not
1:33.7	find themselves suddenly confronted with imperious necessities.
1:39.0	But war takes away the easy supply of daily wants, and so proves a rough master that brings most men's
1:48.5	characters to a level with their fortunes.
1:52.8	Revolution thus ran its course from city to city, and the places which it arrived at last,
1:59.5	from having heard what had been done before,
2:02.8	carried to a still greater excess the refinement of their inventions,
2:07.7	as manifested in the cunning of their enterprises and the atrocity of their reprisals.
2:14.4	Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them.
2:23.0	Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal supporter.
	...

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