Sargon

The Sword of Damocles is the cautionary tale of Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, who demonstrates to Damocles, an admirer and lackey at his court, that the riches and power the tyrant possesses cannot be enjoyed because the tyrant is but a horse-hair away from death at the hands of his own subjects.

The story is related by Cicero in his work The Tusculan Disputations.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=02NZAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA215&lpg=PA215&dq=cicero+sword+of+damocles+translation&source=bl&ots=T_rUiDx3Ry&sig=aVyl6NZbsRXIoUVqmFUZoVVdt_c&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwim8sHYhd7KAhUEPxQKHcvSCBgQ6AEIVjAJ#v=onepage&q=cicero%20sword%20of%20damocles%20translation&f=false

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The Assyrian bas-reliefs on display at the British Museum are not only beautiful to behold but present to us a wealth of information about contemporary Assyrian life.

This video is part 1 of 3, looking at the Assyrian army from 900 BC - 635 BC, the height of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

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A selection of wall art and graffiti from the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, which was destroyed by an eruption from Mount Vesuvius in 79AD.

Needless to say, this is not safe for work.

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Source: http://www.pompeiana.org/Resources/Ancient/Graffiti%20from%20Pompeii.htm

After overcoming the Greek army at Thermopylae, the Persians captured and razed Athens. Meanwhile in the West, Gelon of Syracuse has to deal with a colossal Carthaginian invasion.

Battle of Artemesium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLZnsUU1Fx0

Battle of Salamis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ59EZyIC-w

Battle of Himera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmrJX0YQR_0

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Upon learning of Xerxes’ invasion of Greece, the Spartans and Athenians send envoys to treat with Gelon, tyrant of Syracuse to come to their aid. Gelon agrees on the condition that he is made overall commander of the Greek forces, given that his personal army would make up the bulk of the Greek forces.

The ancestral pride of the Spartans and Athenians will not permit this, and so Gelon refuses the envoys help from what is possibly the most powerful army in the Greek world.

However, it turns out on the very same day as the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC that the Carthaginians (the Carchedonians, in the text) invaded Sicily with “300,000 men” drawn from the Western Mediterranean.

Source: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D7%3Achapter%3D154

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The Battle of Salamis was the major turning point in the Second Persian Invasion of Greece. Although the Persian host had suffered setbacks, delays and even minor reversals at Thermopylae and Artemesium, the main body of the force had not suffered any major setbacks.

Themistocles' ruse that the Greek fleet at Salamis was all but ready to retreat embolded the Persians to attack despite the natural force multiplier that the Straits of Salamis provided to the Greeks.

After this defeat, Xerxes could see the writing on the wall, and sent word back to Persia of his "victory" over the Athenians and that he would be returning to Persia.

Source: http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/Herosal.html

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The Battle of Artemesium was a 3-day naval action by the combined fleet of the Greek coalition against the enormous naval forces of the Persian Empire.

The battle took place in 480 BC during the Second Persian Invasion of Greece, on the same three days as the Battle of Thermopylae.

The Greeks were victorious due to clever maneuvering and a fortuitous storm that wrecked a large detachment of the Persian fleet that was rounding Euboea to encircle the Greek fleet.

Source: http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.8.viii.html

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Instead of doing commentaries on each video, I've decided to compile them into a podcast.

In this first episode, we look at the reasons the Persians brought 3 million men to fight with a few thousand at the Battle of Thermopylae.

Battle of Marathon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar8nAKEyXQo

Battle of Thermopylae: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_Q1T1ExaMQ

Source: http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.html

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The Battle of Thermopylae was the initial engagement between the Persian Empire and the confederation of Greek city-states led by Sparta during the Second Persian Invasion of Greece in 480 BC.

The vast Persian army first encounters significant Greek resistance at the narrow pass of Thermopylae (the Hot Gates), where he found an advance force of approximately 4,000 troops from various Greek city-states.

Unable to break through the Greek line, Persian King-of-Kings Xerxes was confounded until a local man named Ephialtes betrayed the Greek confederacy by informing him of a hidden trail over the mountains.

Xerxes sent a force around to the back of the Greek army holding the narrow pass of Thermopylae, outflanking and eventually overwhelming them.

Although this battle was not especially significant other than a delaying action against the Persian invasion, the story of the events is so compelling, combined with the sheer heroism displayed by the hugely-outnumbered Greek troops, that it has become the most famous last stand in history.

Source: http://www.sjsu.edu/people/james.lindahl/courses/Hum1A/s3/Thermopolyaesm.pdf

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Some extra commentary on the Battle of Marathon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar8nAKEyXQo

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