Epic Greek History
Embark on an epic journey through ancient Greece with history enthusiast Scott Emmons as your guide. From the Mycenaean warrior kings to the flowering of the Greek city-state, from the astonishing victories over the Persian invaders to the catastrophic power struggle between Athens and Sparta, each episode brings the past to life with vivid detail and compelling narrative. Along the way, there will be side trips to explore fascinating aspects of Greek culture, from art and literature to everyday life. Whether you're a history buff or new to the world of classical antiquity, this podcast is your gateway to the life and legacy of ancient Greece.
Publishes one full episode and one short episode per month.
See images for each episode at epicgreekhistory.substack.com
Episodes
33 episodes
The Persians are Coming! Showdown at Marathon
The battle of Marathon was the first great confrontation between mainland Greeks and Persian forces. The Athenian victory over a numerically superior force gave the citizens a heightened confidence that carried them through the next Persian inv...
Herodotus: What Was His Deal, Anyway?
The Roman orator Cicero dubbed Herodotus the “father of history.” 19th-century skeptics called him the “father of lies.” Since antiquity, scholars have debated Herodotus’ reliability, his methods, and his sincerity. In this episode, host Scott ...
Fighting the Power: The Ionian Revolt
In 499 BCE, Aristagoras of Miletus led the Ionian Greek cities in a revolt against the Persian Empire. Athens sent a force of 20 ships to support her allies. As Herodotus puts it, “These ships were the beginning of evils for both the Greeks and...
Bonus Episode: Thoughts on Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey"
Look! It's another podcaster sharing his thoughts about the new Odyssey movie! Opinions expressed here are solely those of a philhellenic film buff.
Epic Persian History Part 2
After the death of Cyrus in 530 BCE, the Persian Empire continued to expand. His successor Cambyses II subdued Egypt and neighboring territories. Darius I, whose claim to the throne may have rested on a massive cover-up, reorganized the empire ...
Epic Persian History Part 1
No historical event loomed larger in the minds of the ancient Greeks than their successful defense against the vast military might of the Persian Empire. Who were these Persians, and how did they come to dominate the Near East? Over the next tw...
The Bad Boy of Sparta: The Life of King Cleomenes
Cleomenes I of Sparta has been called the most powerful Greek of the 6th century BCE. His reign included a major military victory over Argos, repeated attempts to meddle in Athenian politics, and a legendary feud with his co-king Demaratus. In ...
You Say You Want a Revolution: Cleisthenes and Athenian Democracy
After the expulsion of the tyrant Hippias, two prominent citizens were foremost in the competition for power. Isagoras was a conservative aristocrat who favored a narrow oligarchy. Cleisthenes, although a member of the blue-blooded Alcmaeonid c...
Hurrah for the Pirate King! Polycrates and the Tyranny of Samos
The tyrant Polycrates of Samos impressed classical authors by building the first naval empire in the Aegean since the legendary king Minos of Crete. He dominated island cities, employed his navy for piracy, dedicated an island to Delian Apollo,...
Won't You Be My Ally? The Expansion of Spartan Power in the Peloponnese
While Athens was transforming itself under the lawgiver Solon and the tyrant Pisistratus, Sparta was busy extending its influence in the Peloponnese. What began as an attempt to conquer and enslave the Arcadian city of Tegea evolved into a poli...
Hey, Gang, Let's Put On a Show! Thespis and the Origins of Greek Tragedy
The Athenian tyrant Pisistratus centralized the Attic worship of Dionysus with an elaborate new festival. The Great Dionysia went on to become the city’s main dramatic festival, where later giants like Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides would c...
Pisistratus and Sons: The Age of Tyranny in Athens
Despite the best efforts of the lawgiver Solon, political upheaval continued in Athens. A strongman named Pisistratus, after twice seizing power and losing it, ultimately established an autocratic regime that lasted over 35 years. During that t...
Weird Science: The Beginnings of Greek Philosophy
While the Athenians were setting up a new constitution under Solon, the Milesians across the Aegean were busy inventing philosophy. Perhaps not philosophy as we usually think of it, but a search for rational principles to explain the natural wo...
Chaos and Compromise: Early Athens and the Reforms of Solon
At the start of the 6th century BCE, Athens had only recently escaped a tyranny. Draco's published law code made the law accessible to more people but did nothing to alleviate the crushing debt that afflicted the poor. As Aristotle puts it, the...
Nothing Queer About It: Same-Sex Relationships in Ancient Greece
Modern labels like “straight” and “gay” don’t map neatly onto ancient Greek culture. While same-sex relationships were considered normal and even expected, there were still taboos and rules of proper behavior. In this episode, host Scott Emmons...
This... Is... Sparta!!!
Imagine a state where no citizen works for a living; where children are kept hungry to encourage them to steal; where the most powerful military force in the known world is reluctant to fight far from the city for fear of a slave revolt at home...
Poetry Slam: Early Greek Politics in Verse
No one was writing history in Greece during the 7th and 6th centuries BCE. But that doesn't mean we have no voices speaking to us from that time. Fragments of works by early Greek poets can provide real-time commentary on the social and politic...
Not Such an Ugly Word: Tyranny in Archaic Greece
In modern English, a “tyrant” is someone who rules oppressively. To the ancient Greeks, the word tyrannoscould just refer to a king, but more specifically it meant an autocrat who had come to power by overthrowing an existing regime. T...
Light Infantry, Cavalry and Mercenaries: What Were They, Chopped Liver?
The hoplite infantry was the backbone of a Greek city-state's land army. But hoplites weren't the only ones who served. Those who couldn't afford hoplite armor served as light infantry, hurling javelins, shooting arrows, or even throwing rocks ...
Tales of the City-State: The Rise and Flourishing of the Greek Polis
The polis was the defining sociopolitical system of ancient Greece. It was the environment where Greek drama, architecture, philosophy, and other cultural developments reached their peak. In this episode, host Scott Emmons explores the beginnin...
Delphi: The Magic Eight Ball of Greece
In Greek myth, Delphi was the literal center of the world. In real-world religious practice, it lived up to its reputation. People came from all over the Greek world — and even outside it — to seek Apollo’s guidance in matters both personal and...
Straight Outta Greece: The Age of Expansion
Ancient Greece was defined by its culture, not by its borders. Starting in the 8th century BCE, Greeks planted settlements in southern Italy and Sicily — so many that the area came to be known as Magna Graecia, "Great Greece." Hellenic settleme...
(Bonus Episode) The First Truly Historical Greek War — Maybe
The Lelantine War between Khalkis and Eretria was the first major historical conflict that drew in combatants from around the Greek world. And yet, we know next to nothing about it. Ancient historians and other authors mention it in passing, bu...
Owned! People as Possessions in Ancient Greece
In ancient Greece, freedom was something to be cherished — in part because its opposite was an ever-present part of Greek life. Slaves worked as farmhands, domestic servants, skilled craftsmen, miners, prostitutes, and more. While some lived al...