Jashn-e Mehregan mubarak everyone! This year's roving holiday special is all about the traditional Feast of Mithra and the yazata it honors. Grab some sharbat, maybe a bowl of pistachios, and settle in for festivities ancient and modern with a healthy side of all of Mithra's awesome and badass jobs in the cosmos.
Vulgar History – Listen Now!
Apple | Spotify | RSS | Website
Patreon | Support Page | STORE
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
—
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/history-of-perisa/support
Jashn-e Mehregan mubarak everyone! This year’s roving holiday special is all about the traditional Feast of Mithra and the yazata it honors. Grab some sharbat, maybe a bowl of pistachios, and settle in for festivities ancient and modern with a healthy side of all of Mithra’s awesome and badass jobs in the cosmos. Stream Download
The golden tablet of Arsames’ inscription (AsH) found in Hamadan via Wikimedia
We follow the Spartan general, Clearchus, as he was taken into captivity in Babylon before following the royal court off to the building projects and border disputes of Artaxerxes II’s empire. Stream Download
In the last 8 days, at time of posting, the country of Iran has been rocked by a nationwide uprising in response to the brutal murder of Zhina (Mahsa) Amini, a 22 year old Kurdish woman from the city of Saqqez who was living in Tehran. She was beaten into a coma by the Gasht-e Ershad, the Iranian morality police, and died in custody shortly after on September 16, 2022. Her crime? Being in public without a Hijab.
This is my small contribution to that. As a platform innately connected to Iran and its history, I want to express the History of Persia Podcast’s unequivocal support for all those resisting oppression and theocracy in Iran. Beyond simply lending my voice to the international chorus cheering them on, I also hope that I can at least provide some exposure for the regime’s violence and the resistance against it by directing my listeners and social media followers toward sources of information. Stream Download
After the battle of Cunaxa, both sides were left to deal with the fallout. In Babylon, Artaxerxes II and his supporters celebrated victory and punished treason. In the detritus of the battlefield, Cyrus the Younger’s supporters were left to pick up the pieces and start their long walk home. Stream Download
The Retreat of the 10,000 by Adrien Guignet, 1842 depicting the charging Greek mercenaries at Cunaxa and the resurgent Persian infantry.
After 6 months on the road, Cyrus the Younger and Artaxerxes II face off to decide who will be King of Kings, deciding the course of Achaemenid History forever after. Stream Download
The route taken by Cyrus the Younger and his mercenaries from Sardis to Cunaxa and the return journey
In 401 BCE, Cyrus the Younger set out with an army of supporters and mercenaries to defeat his brother, Artaxerxes II, and claim the Persian throne for himself. But first they had to get there. Stream Download
A coin from Phokaia (home of Aspasia the Wise) depicting an unknown satrap, likely Cyrus the Younger or Tissaphernes via Wikimedia
Cyrus the Younger returned to Sardis as Karanos in 404 BCE, still nursing dreams of becoming king. Over the next three years he quietly built up an army of mercenaries and prepared his subjects for war, gathering them under false pretenses to march against his brother, King Artaxerxes II. Stream Download
In 404 BCE, Darius II died. The king’s death sparked fierce but quiet competition for the throne between the supporters of Cyrus the Younger and Darius’s chosen heir, Arsakes. Arsakes did become King Artaxerxes II, but not without having to settle this conflict. Stream Download
Tall-e Takht, near Pasargadae, possibly the ruins of an Achaemenid-era sanctuary/temple via Livius.org
A collection of early Zoroastrian prayers to the various Yazatas, the Yashts are some of the only surviving sources that provide a detailed window into the more polytheistic aspects of ancient Iran. As a bonus, they partially stem from myths and legends as told in the Achaemenid period. Stream Download
King of the World: The Life of Cyrus The Great by Matt Waters
King of the World: The Life of Cyrus the Great by Matt Waters is a new biography of the first Persian King of Kings from Oxford University Press. I was fortunate enough to receive an advanced PDF copy to review. In short, it’s an excellent introduction to both the life of Cyrus and Achaemenid Studies as a field. Almost all shortcomings are more the product of the subject rather than the biographer. For more, give it a listen. Stream Download
The History of Persia 
