Casting Through Ancient Greece

Join us as we take you on an exploration of the fascinating world of the ancient Spartans. With Professor Paul Cartledge, a leading historian on the Spartans, as our guide, we will demystify the intriguing tales, values, and societal structure of this resilient warrior society. We'll wade through the Spartan mirage, unveiling the unique education system, political structure, and unrivalled mi...

Embark on a riveting exploration of ancient Greece as we delve into the tumultuous events surrounding Pericles, a towering political figure who shaped the destiny of the city-state for nearly four decades. Follow the gripping narrative of Athens' struggle during the siege of Potidaea, where Pericles' efforts faced unexpected challenges, leading to intricate negotiations, strained resourc...

Tad Crawford's Website Buy On Wine-Dark Seas Explore the literary world of Tad Crawford, acclaimed author of "A Floating Life: A Novel," "The Secret Life of Money," and numerous nonfiction books. With a National Endowment for the Arts award to his name, Crawford is also the founder and publisher of Allworth Press, residing in vibrant New York City. Today, our focus turns t...

Step back in time once again to the second year of the Peloponnesian War and immerse yourself in the heart of ancient Athens, a city grappling with a devastating plague. But in this intriguing narrative, our journey takes a unique twist, leading us northward to the Chalcidice, where Athens has dispatched additional forces to besiege Potidaea. Along this expedition, we'll uncover the intricate...

In the second year of the Peloponnesian War, the stage was set for a continuation of the struggle between Sparta and Athens. Archidamus, the Spartan commander, spearheaded an invasion of Attica with renewed fervour, while Athens harnessed its maritime might to direct a potent fleet towards a more expansive target on the Peloponnesian shores. Yet, amidst the echoes of warfare, an unforeseen and ins...

In this fascinating interview, I have the privilege of sitting down with Prof. Yvonne Korshak, a distinguished historian and accomplished writer, to delve into the captivating world of her latest masterpiece, “Pericles and Aspasia.” This remarkable work of Historical fiction shines a brilliant light on the period preceding the Peloponnesian War in Athens. Instead of merely employing historical eve...

The end of the first campaigning season of the Peloponnesian war had now drawn to a close. Sparta had invaded Attica with their offensive strategy, while Athens resisted with the defensive policy employed by Pericles. Athens had also launched naval operations which would harass the Peloponnese and secure Athens defensive position even further. However, no resolution to the war would be reached as...

The first year of the Peloponnesian war is now upon us. The first phase of this nearly 30-year struggle would be known as the Archidamian War, named after the Spartan king Archidamus, who had tried to prevent war developing in the first place. Archidamus being the only available Spartan king, the other not yet of age, would find himself leading the Peloponnesian forces as they invaded Attica in 43...

We have now reached the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war, where we saw the hostilities between Thebes and Plataea marking a point where the war would begin. Both of these city states were allied to Sparta, in Thebes case and Athens on the Plataean side. Even though preparations for war were underway already, this action would see that both Sparta and Athens would be ready for conflict since this...

The war party within Sparta now had the majority in favour of their policy towards Athens. A clear vote had seen that the policies of the peace that had influenced much of Spartan policy since the end of the Persian invasions had now fallen out of favour. This would see that Sparta now saw that Athens had breached the 30 years peace, created nearly 15 years ago. However, for war to be the next ste...

This is a teaser of the bonus episode, Persian Counter Attack found over on Patreon. After having looked at the reasons for the Ionian revolt breaking out, we now turn to the revolt itself. In the main series we had focused on the revolt in general with a large focus on the Greeks operations. This time around we take a closer look at the Persian response and the campaigns that they would launch ag...

With Potidaea now under siege from Athens, Corinth, although unofficial involved, was looking to help save the city and their connection to it before it would fall. To do this, they would work with the surrounding cities on the Chalcidids to mount raids on the Athenians to help relive pressure on the city. However, their primary goal was to try and get Sparta to enter the conflict along with the o...

Athens support of Corcyra had seen hostilities once again develop with Corinth who had been engaged in a dispute with the island polis. Athens would send ships to support Corcyra, as the Corinthian set sail to impose their will. Out of this affair would see the battle of Sybota take place and with it the first engagement seeing Athenian and Corinthian ships openly fight one another. This would see...

Athens had now taken the decision to send aide to Corcyra after having swayed from one side of the argument to the other. However, the assistance would be limited, with it being defensive in nature. Athens would send a small force of 10 triremes to Corcyra to lend their support with the commanders being instructed they were to only engage the Corinthians if Corcyrean territory was directly threate...

The analogy of a powder keg in historical events it often used to describe a volatile situation that is waiting to explode into something larger. The most famous example of this is the events leading up to the breakout of World War 1. A seemingly remote region in the Balkans would see an act of violence take place that would end up embroiling all the empires within Europe in the most destructive w...

Athens had extinguished another fire in the Aegean when the island of Samos and Miletus, both Delian League members had gone to war with each other. Athens would assist Miletus seeing Samos revolt, though after a couple years Samos was back in the league. However, this had highlighted weaknesses in Athens control around its empire as other areas had also followed Samos’ example, including the impo...

Links: https://www.odysseus-unbound.org/   Faceook   YouTube   Book: Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer's Ithaca   In the series we have look at some elements within Greek history that have connections to traditional tales and mythology. Some big examples of these were when we looked at the Trojan War, Mycenae and the Minoans. Well once again we are looking at historical connections to wh...

We continue our look at the development of Corinth in the series. Last episode we ended with the period of tyranny that had lasted two generations and ended with the assassination of the third. However, Corinth would continue to flourish, with cultural and economic advances taking place. Corinth would end up hosting one of the Pan Hellenic games, being one of the first mainland cities to mint thei...

The polis of Corinth has remained in the background of events as we have travelled through the narrative of the series so far. Now though, we have reached a point, the years leading to the break out of the Peloponnesian War, where Corinth starts to feature in the ancient sources on a more regular basis. This would be through diplomatic dealings, both within the Peloponnesian league and on larger G...

Athens and Sparta had now entered into an agreement known as the 30 years’ peace, seeing the first Peloponnesian come to an end. This would see the creation of two spheres of influence within Greek lands that they would now turn their attention to. In Athens, Pericles would now also see a challenge to his influence within the Athenian political system. All accounts in the sources indicate that the...

So, it’s now mid-December and I am taking a break over the Christmas period and month of January. Though, before signing off for the holidays I wanted to leave you all with a different sort of episode to see out the year. I decided to contact my good friend Steve over at The Spartan History Podcast to see if he would be interested in coming on just to talk about Greek history. He has just entered...

Athens and Sparta were now in a position to turn their attention to matters within their own spheres of influence, with the truce that existed between them. Sparta would look at eliminating the threats that they had faced on the Peloponnese, seeing Argos now at peace with Sparta, and Tegea brought back into the Peloponnesian league. While negotiations would appear to be taking place with other cit...

After the battle of Tanagra, Athens was able to focus on pursuing its aims throughout Boeotia, the Gulf of Corinth and the Peloponnese. This saw Athens power and influence grow even more at the expense of Sparta and its allies. However, the disaster that would take place in Egypt for Athens would see them now needing to change their policies to better deal with the crisis that was brewing in the A...

Sparta had defeated Athens at the battle of Tanagra in 457 BC, though both armies had taken heavy losses. Both would look to make a temporary truce so that they could regroup without the fear of being attacked while in a vulnerable position. This would see the forces of both Athens and Sparta return to their cities bringing a close to this campaign. However, this would not be the end of hostilitie...

Athens was engaging in developing new alliances on the Greek mainland in response to the hostility with Sparta. This would also see a number of campaigns launched by the Athenians to establish their security, these being fought by Sparta’s allies. However, as these events on the mainland were unfolding, a plea for help from a rebel king in Egypt would arrive requesting Athenian assistance in fight...