The Persian War
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2020
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the 5th century BC the world's first super power, the Persian Empire, went to war against a ragtag collection of cities and statelets on its western frontier. It was the start of the Persian War. Thankfully for us this war was recorded in some detail by the world's first historian. Herodotus. Despite previous millenia of history in the ancient Near East, this historical record means that the Persian Wars feels recognisably modern. The attitudes and decisions of commanders are discernable. The course of the battles, traceable.
William Shepherd has written an engaging new account of the war. He took some time to sit down with Dan and explore the course of the war and why it still matters.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello History Hit listeners, as you are listening to this right now at this exact second I am |
| 0:05.8 | currently on an epic cross-country road trip of England. 600 miles and 1 million years of history |
| 0:14.4 | from the first humans through to Stonehenge, Dovercastle, Hastings up to Ironbridge in the |
| 0:19.3 | Black Country and to the northeast where I'm visiting a Cold War bunker in York. |
| 0:25.0 | I want to hear from you. I want to do more stops. Tell me when I should stop. Any local tips or |
| 0:29.8 | hints that you want to share or you want to see me report on on my social media channels and Twitter |
| 0:34.1 | and Instagram etc. just send me a message ds.hh at historyhit.com. That's delta Sierra. |
| 0:41.4 | . hotel hotel at historyhit.com or tweet me at the History Guy. You can keep up with the road trip |
| 0:47.4 | this week on Instagram and Twitter at the History Guy on both and then you can hear the whole thing as a |
| 0:52.1 | podcast series next week. Thanks and enjoy this episode. |
| 1:02.3 | Hello everybody. Welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. We are back in the game. I bring you this |
| 1:10.0 | having been freed from a 19th century Birmingham police cell where I've been filming, filming a |
| 1:15.8 | new show for History Hit TV so check that out, be coming soon. And we got podcasts, lots and lots |
| 1:20.6 | of Christmas. Some of you complaining that there's been too many and you haven't been able to catch up. |
| 1:25.1 | I'm sorry about that. We just generating so many podcasts at the moment. I want to get them out. |
| 1:31.3 | I want to get them out. I owe it to the historians to get them out and I just can't help. Every time I |
| 1:36.7 | meet one of a historian I want to do them. So I can't help creating all the content. So sorry about |
| 1:41.2 | that. Apologies. Just sleepless. Sleep less guys. We're in a battle against sleep here. Don't let |
| 1:47.0 | sleep. When? Listen to some more pods. Head over to historyhit.tv. I'm just putting the |
| 1:52.5 | finishing touches to a beautiful script. We're going to make a big show. One of our most ambitious |
| 1:56.2 | yet about a big anniversary coming up this year. So I hope you enjoy that. The January Cell comes |
| 2:00.6 | to an end. I think thank goodness. Just after the weekend, I'm not sure. The point being it's |
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