This is the History of the World Podcast with me Chris Hasler

And you're listening to volume three the classical world

episode 54

The Battle of Adrianople. So, Adrianople is the modern Turkish city of Adirme, located right on the Turkish border with Greece,

renamed by the Ottomans. It briefly served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire.

It sits on the Maritza River in the geographical region of Thrace.

Travelling east from Adrianople would take you to the Bosporus Strait and the incredible city of Constantinople, now Istanbul.

The location of where Adrianople would be built was significant in that you would have to pass through

this area should you want to get from the Balkan Peninsula to Anatolia with the least amount of sea crossing.

From Greek lands you would pass this area to make your way to the Hellers Pond or the Bospora Strait, both of which

separate Europe from Asia. This was a similar area of the world to Troy, but on the European side of the ProPontis the modern sea of Marmara.

It is likely to have been an area of tribal life during the second millennium

B.C. E. without any known identity that we can be aware of.

Byzantine were supposedly founded during the seventh century b c.

e. which is the city that would become Constantinople and then in turn Istanbul.

Macedonians would have to pass through Thracian lands to get to Byzantium and vice versa.

The first really significant political event to hit the area of today's story was after the

Akeminid Persians had expanded their empire from the banks of the Persian

Gulf all the way up to and including Anatolia. This would unnerve the Greek city states

who would each individually pick their side with this huge threat now on their doorstep.

They could either submit to the Persians or collaborate against

them. The Akeminid ruler was Darius the Great who recognised the value of crossing the Hellas Pond and occupying Thrace, bringing

...