The Celts of the East and the Iron Age Balkans

Tides of History

Wondery / Patrick Wyman

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We're most familiar with the Celts of the west, the people who eventually fought Julius Caesar in Gaul and left their languages along the Atlantic fringe. Yet thanks to mass migrations to the east, the Celtic world also extended all the way to the Black Sea. Today, we'll try to understand the world these Celtic migrants found in the Balkans, full of barely remembered ancient peoples who lived full, rich, compelling lives.

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 podcast The Pursuit of Dadliness! It’s all about “Dad Culture,” and Patrick will interview some fascinating guests about everything from tall wooden ships to smoked meats to comfortable sneakers to history, sports, culture, and politics. https://bit.ly/PWtPoD

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

Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletter

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	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Tides of History early and ad-free right now.
0:04.6	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:18.1	The slave on the auction block was a tall man.
0:23.7	Brown, thinning hair hung down over a brow notched in several places with scars. Blue swirls cut deep into the skin, decorated his chest and
0:29.6	shoulders. His dark eyes never blinked as they scanned the crowd of potential buyers gathered
0:34.5	near the harbor of amphipolis. They burned a hole in each and every onlooker, as if he were memorizing their faces for
0:41.6	some later act of revenge.
0:44.3	Demeratos of Corinth, trader in wine, timber, pitch, and enslaved bodies, carefully looked
0:49.7	the man up and down.
0:51.6	Was he a good investment?
0:52.7	A potentially sturdy laborer for some Peloponnesian
0:55.4	farmer who could be bought on the cheap and broken to his new owner's will? Or would the tall
0:59.7	man with the piercing gaze simply turn on his master at the first opportunity, cutting his throat
1:04.2	with any handy implement or fragment of broken cookery? The latter, Demerato's thought,
1:10.3	the trader had been making the run north from Corinth
1:12.4	to Thrace for many years now, long before the Macedonian kings had claimed everything they
1:16.9	surveyed, and he had seen this man's like on the block often enough to know that they were never
1:21.3	worth the trouble. Demeratos remembered an Illyrian he'd purchased an Epirus on one of his first
1:26.2	trading voyages, a thick-limbed
1:28.1	youth who had slipped free from his ropes and nearly strangled him before they even got back to
1:32.0	Corrin. The Illyrian's flawless teeth and good build had made Demeratos think that there could
1:36.8	be good profit in the man's resale. That was the moment Demeratos learned a strangled man couldn't
	...

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.