Persia Ascendant

Tides of History

Wondery / Patrick Wyman

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 September 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

While Cyrus the Great built the Persian Empire from the ground up, his successors expanded it until the new state stretched from the Indus Valley of Pakistan to the Upper Nile, Kazakhstan to the Aegean, the Balkans to the Hindu Kush. This new Persia was built not just to expand through conquest but to endure, becoming an empire that would last for 200 years.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Tides of History add free on Amazon Music, download
0:04.5	the app today.
0:16.1	The farmer wiped the sweat off his forehead and onto his forearm.
0:19.9	That wasn't much of an improvement, given the fiery summer sun currently beating down
0:23.4	on him and served mostly to coat his face with a fresh layer of watery dust.
0:28.2	He stood up, leaving behind the weeding for a moment and stretched his aching back, flexing
0:32.4	his tired hands and fingers as he did so.
0:35.4	He muttered in disappointment, seeing just how little he'd actually gotten done before
0:39.0	the sun hit its zenith.
0:41.2	Most of his field, full of ripening wheat, still needed his attention.
0:44.8	Not for the first time, he cursed the productivity of his land outside the city of Miletus,
0:48.6	in the region his fellow Greeks called Ionia.
0:51.6	He should have gone to see like his brother, he thought, instead of sticking around here
0:54.9	covered in dirt and animal droppings, but this land was simply too good to pass up.
1:00.0	Hard work had made him a prosperous man.
1:02.7	Both his daughters had married well thanks to the dowry he'd accumulated.
1:06.2	Unfortunately, that involved working hard, especially with his son away with Miletus's
1:10.8	citizen soldiers as they fought the Persians.
1:13.8	He was somewhat less fond of that work at his age, a bit too old to fight, but not
1:17.8	old enough to leave everything to the slaves or wait for his son to return.
1:22.3	He was so deep into his reverie that he missed the rumble of hooves on the road until
1:25.7	they were nearly upon him.
	...

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