Casting Through Ancient Greece

With the insult received at the hands of the Spartans during the helot revolt, the Athenians began setting a course to deal with the new geopolitical realities. They would first sever their connection to Sparta by dissolving their membership in the Hellenic league. This would then be followed by securing alliances with enemies of Sparta and cities that would secure Athen’s position from any attack...

Events during the 460’s would see the political sands in Athens begin to shift, with opposition to Cimon’s influence increasing in the sources. This would first come through charges of corruption at the conclusion of the Thasos campaign. While a more successful attempt would take place with Sparta’s rejection of Athenian assistance during the helot revolt, assistance Cimon had supported sending. T...

In 464 BC, Poseidon the earth shaker would rock the Peloponnese, seeing Sparta take the full force of the earthquake. A number of the ancient sources would record the terrible event and the scale of destruction and suffering experienced by the Spartans. Modern day studies would show that the what Sparta experienced was likely on the same scale as the earth quake that struck Haiti in 2021 of our ti...

After the Delian Leagues victory over the Persian forces at the Eurymedon River, campaigning would continue with it appearing other areas closer to the Greek mainland being the focus. Though, the Island of Thasos, an original Delian league member would now also revolt from the league, seeing Athens and the leagues attention being refocused to deal with this developing threat. We are told that the...

With the victory over the Persian invasions in 479 BC, the Greeks had continued operations in the Aegean against Persian controlled areas. Though, objectives and priorities of many of the city states had shifted with this common threat ejected from Greek lands. This would see yet another league formed, that of the Delian league, who would continue campaigning throughout the Aegean.  While these ca...

Dr Owen Rees is Associate Lecturer in Ancient History at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he specialises in the transition of soldiers from civilian life to the battlefield and back again. His books on the topic of ancient Greek warfare include Great Battles of the Classical Greek World (Pen & Sword, 2016); Great Naval Battles of the Ancient Greek World (Pen & Sword, 2018); and Mi...

Bernie Taylor is an independent naturalist, thought leader and author whose research explores the mythological connections and biological knowledge among prehistoric, indigenous and ancient peoples. His works in these areas include Biological Time (2004) and Before Orion: Finding the Face of the Hero (2017). Before Orion is premised on Joseph’s Campbell’s hero's journey monomyth that is at th...

The Delian League had been campaigning in and around the Aegean for the best part of ten years. Thucydides had given us the picture of Athenian growth in power during this period with the league focusing less and less on the Persian threat and looking to police Greeks in the region before then having to turn to their own members looking to leave the league. During this period the Persian Empire wa...

The Delian league had now been established with the majority of its members coming from regions throughout the Aegean. In its inception they had all turned to a Greek city state on the mainland, that of Athens who headed the league. In 477 BC the league would now find itself in a position to begin campaigning for the first time, they would set out under the leadership of a relative new comer to th...

I wanted to do an episode that focused on Rome in the same sort of format I had done with my past Greek Periphery episodes. Though, my knowledge on Roman history is quite rusty at best, so I wanted to enlist some help to present this episode. For this I turned to Dr Fiona Radford and Dr Peta Greenfield from the Partial Historians podcast. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t line up with the series of...

Please sit back and enjoy this extended podcast recommendation, an Introduction to the History of Egypt Podcast where Dominic will share a short tale with you. If you haven't yet come across the History of Egypt Podcast you can find Dominic's show at the below links: The History of Egypt Podcast website iTunes Spotify   Twitter Facebook Support the show 💬 Stay Connected with Casting Thr...

Birth of the Delian League: Leagues in Greece were not a new concept, with many being in existence in one form or another. So, far the major leagues that we have followed have been the Peloponnesian league and the Hellenic league, with both of these still in operation by 477BC. These were primarily defensive in nature and were formed around city states that had shared interests or a common foe. Th...

The Persian invasion of 480 BC had now been defeated with the victory over Xerxes land forces on the Greek Boeotian plains outside Plataea. While his navy was destroyed in Persian controlled lands below mount Mycale on the Anatolian coast. The Greeks would continue operations into 479 under Athenian command for the first time, sailing into the Hellespont where Persian influence in the area would b...

I find it very fitting that with this 50th episode we are now transitioning into a new phase of Greek history. A point that is often officially seen where the Archaic Age ends and the Classical Age starts, its also where we say goodbye to Herodotus as our main foundational source and welcome in Thucydides. While it is also a major transitional event in the Greek world coming away from the Persian...

The Greek city of Miletos in western Anatolia would be described by Herodotus as being the ornament of Ionia. This referring to the affluence of the city during the Archaic period and its position amongst the many other Greek cities in Ionia. In this episode I am joined by Prof. Vanessa Gorman who takes us through the history of this wealthy and influential city. We begin by covering the earliest...

The Ionian Greeks along with their allies from Athens and Eretria had entered and burn Sardis, though they failed to take the Acropolis. They withdrew back to the coast where the Persian would catch up to them and fight the battle of Ephesus. The Greeks would be defeated with the survivors making for their cities, the Athenians and Eritreans sailing home to take no more part in the revolt. With no...

The words of the Delphic oracle had rung true, the rising empire founded by Cyrus the great, the Persians had just destroyed a mighty empire, in that of king Croesus and his Lydians. The Greeks of Ionia had stood by idle only having been subjected to the Lydians a generation earlier. Cyrus had tried to incite the Greeks to rebel, though they would wait to see which way the winds would blow. With t...

With the collapse of the Bronze Age the Hittite Empire which had dominated Anatolian lands would vanish from the world stage. Its presence and legacy would only be rediscovered in our modern times showing the influence it once held. With its destruction the region of Anatolia would fragment into many small kingdoms and principalities looking to exert control in their immediate areas. With the pass...

45: The Greek Periphery, Anatolia We now arrive to the east of Greek lands in what would become one of the most influential regions to Greek history on its periphery. Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor would have a history of human habitation stretching back over 1 million years, with other sites dotted throughout the region pointing to its continued habitation for the hundreds of thousands of yea...

The eve of the Greek and Persian wars would see a point in Macedonian history where the transition of power from one king to another would take place. This would see Amyntas after his rule since the mid 6th century pass power to his son Alexander the first at the opening of the 5th. This would take place on the backdrop of Persian advances into Thrace before Macedon would then begin engaging diplo...

Many tribes existed throughout the Balkan region in the Neolithic to the Bronze Age where we would see defined cultures develop with the onset of the Iron Age. We hear origin stories and hints at the early Macedonians in Myth through Homer and Hesiod. We even get through Herodotus, the hint of a tribe called the Makednoi during the Bronze Age in the mountains north of Greece. The culture of the Ma...

Greek and Roman writers would highlight the Thracians as some of the best mercenaries fielded in foreign armies from the mid-5th century and beyond. They would excel at hit and run tactics, harassing heavier troops and being able to defend difficult ground. This reputation would appear to be born out of their tradition of Homeric style warfare practiced in their own lands. Though we get no detaile...

North East of Greece would be a land seen as wild and untamed stretching from the modern-day nation of Hungary to the Ukraine, and then to the Black Sea and Aegean. The Greeks would view the people that inhabited these lands as barbarians, much the same way they did to other cultures that differed from theirs. Though these people that they would call the Thracians, seemed that much more uncivilise...

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As the 6th century BC on Sicily was coming to a close expansion would continue to take place. Tyrannies were now becoming the common governing system in a lot of the Sicilian Greek cities, appearing to follow the lead of their Metropolises back in Greece. This time though expansion would see Greeks focus on exerting their influence over other Greek cities. This period would also see the rise of on...