The Persian Empire(s)

When Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas, members of his crew observed the Taíno people offering them dried leaves as gifts. They had no clue why, but they soon found out that native people smoked the burning leaves, and when they brought these leaves back to Europe, it ...  Show more

The 19th-century Ottoman Empire was in decline and was called the “sick man of Europe”. The Ottoman Empire, like Qing China and Imperial Russia, failed to implement the forces driving European nations toward dominance. A group known as the Young Turks developed a strong admiratio ...  Show more

The Persian Empire followed in the footsteps of the Assyrians and Babylonians, but it was a much different entity than its predecessors, and its founder - Cyrus the Great - deserves to be mentioned among history's most accomplished conquerors. Professor Matt Waters joins me to ...

The Achaemenid Empire, or better known as the First Persian Empire, was one of the largest empires in History - led by Cyrus the Great it covered 2.1 million square miles. But where did it come from? And what do we know about their society? It was in their DNA to travel and ex ...

The late Bronze Age world of the Near East was an incredibly rich and complex place, full of long-distance trade, the exchange of ideas, bickering kings, and empires rising and falling. Among those empires, one of the most powerful and enigmatic was that of the Hittites, whose ...

The Sasanians are renowned as one of Rome's most feared enemies. Founded in third century Persia by an Iranian noble called Ardashir, their dynasty oversaw the growth of a mighty empire that brought down the Parthians and survived into the early Middle Ages. But how did one fa ...