The Ancient World

“But when earth had covered this generation also, Zeus the son of Cronos made yet another, the fourth, upon the fruitful earth, which was nobler and more righteous, a god-like race of hero-men who are called demi-gods, the race before our own, throughout the boundless earth.  Grim war and dread battle destroyed a part of them, some in the land of Cadmus at seven- gated Thebe when they fought for the flocks of Oedipus, and some, when it had brought them in ships over the great sea gulf to Troy for rich-haired Helen's sake: there death's end enshrouded a part of them.  But to the others father Zeus the son of Cronos gave a living and an abode apart from men, and made them dwell at the ends of earth. And they live untouched by sorrow in the islands of the blessed along the shore of deep swirling Ocean, happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, far from the deathless gods…” – Hesiod, Works and Days During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, the Archaic Greeks struggled with tyranny, warfare and social division.  But their creativity in matters of art, politics, warfare and religious practice foreshadowed the coming brilliance of the Classical Age. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_22_The_Fifth_Generation.mp3

“Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her?  Whence shall I seek comforters for thee?” – Nahum 3:7 Ashurbanipal spent the end of his reign establishing a library of Mesopotamian knowledge and culture.  Twenty years after his death, internal discord and powerful enemies combined to seal the fate of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_21_For_the_Sake_of_Distant_Days.mp3

In the mid-7th century BC, Nubia and Assyria struggled for control over Egypt before the kingdom regained independence under the pharaoh Psamtik I.  King Gyges of Lydia drove the Cimmerians from western Anatolia and sent Greek mercenaries to reinforce the pharaoh’s armies.  Ashurbanipal spent decades warring against the Empire’s enemies, including his older brother in Babylon, but his total destruction of the ancient kingdom of Elam sowed the seeds of Assyria’s downfall. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_20_The_House_of_Succession.mp3

“The city and its houses, from its foundations to its walls, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire.  The wall and outer wall, temple-tower of brick and earth, temples and gods, and many as there were, I razed and dumped into the Arahtu-Canal.  Through the midst of the city I dug canals, flooded its site with water, and the very foundations thereof I destroyed.  I made its destruction more complete than by a flood.  That, in days to come, the site of the city, its temples and gods, might not be remembered, I completely blotted it out with floods of water, and made it like a meadow.” – Sennacherib of Assyria In the early 7th century BC, Sennacherib wrestled with Judean defiance, Urartian resurgence, and Elamite invasion, but his destruction of the ancient city of Babylon led to his demise.  His son, Esarhaddon, warred against the Nubian pharaoh Taharqa to extend Assyrian domination into Lower Egypt. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_19_The_Destruction_of_Sennacherib.mp3

In the west, Phoenician mastery of the Mediterranean was challenged by widespread Greek colonization.  Rome’s first kings established the boundaries and institutions of the early state.  In the Near East, Sennacherib was confronted with the return of a Chaldean usurper to the Babylonian throne. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_18_The_Three_Pillars.mp3

“Then the King of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years.  In the ninth year of Hoshea, the King of Assyria took Samaria.” – II Kings 18:4 Toward the end of the 8th century BC, the Kushite priest-kings of Napata reunified Egypt under Nubian rule.  Sargon II continued to extend Assyrian domination over the Near East, even as Elamite armies bolstered Chaldean resistance in Babylonia.  And a desperate gambit by King Hoshea resulted in the destruction of the ancient state of Israel. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_17_The_Fall_of_Israel.mp3

“And Pul, the King of Assyria, came against the land.” – II Kings, 15:19 In 745 BC, Tiglath-pileser III reformed the administrative and military structure of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and led the armies of Assur in a virtually-unbroken string of regional conquests. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_16_The_Assyrian.mp3

During the first half of the 8th century BC, Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria all struggled against the forces of entropy and decline.  In the absence of the Aramean threat, Israel and Judah resumed their perpetual struggle.  Urartu expanded its regional influence at the expense of a weakened Assyria. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_15_Holding_Action.mp3

“I received the tribute of the kings of the seacoast – namely, the lands of the peoples of Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Mahallatu, Maizu, Kaizu, Amurru and the city of Arvad, which is in the midst of the seas – silver, gold, tin, bronze, a bronze vessel, multicolored linen garments, a large female monkey, a small female monkey, ebony, boxwood, and ivory of sea creatures.  They submitted to me.” – Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria Under constant pressure from Assyria, Phoenician merchant fleets aggressively expanded their influence into Sardinia, North Africa and the Tartessian coast of southern Spain.  In the central Mediterranean, they bore witness to the cultural resurgence of Archaic Greece, and the growing power of the Etruscan kingdoms of Italy. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_14_In_the_Midst_of_the_Seas.mp3

“My brother Ashur-danin-apli, in the time of Shalmaneser, his father, acted wickedly, bringing about sedition, rebellion, and wicked plotting, caused the land to rise in revolt, prepared for war, brought the people of Assyria, north and south, to his side, and made bold speeches, brought the cities into the rebellion and set his face to begin strife and battle.” – Shamshi-Adad V of Assyria Shalmaneser III’s campaigns brought unrivalled wealth and power to Assyria, but internal discord tore the empire apart toward the end of his long reign. Warfare, religious strife, and bloody usurpation continued to roil the volatile states of Syria and Caanan. Meanwhile, the new kingdom of Urartu began to challenge Assyria’s role as sole regional superpower. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_13_Civil_War.mp3

The Olmec of Mesoamerica and the Chavin of Peru laid strong cultural foundations that would influence regional civilizations down through the first European encounters with the New World. The longest-lasting Chinese Dynasty, the Zhou, bore witness to eras of unity and conquest, the devolution of power to feudal lords, and the chaos of the Warring States Period. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_12_Legacies_of_East_and_West.mp3

“I slew 14,000 of their warriors with the sword. Like Adad, I rained destruction on them. I scattered their corpses far and wide, and covered the face of the desolate plain with their wide-spreading armies. With my weapons I made their blood to flow down the valleys of the land. The plain was too small for their bodies to fall; the wide countryside was used to bury them. With their corpses I spanned the Orontes as with a bridge.” - Shalmaneser III of Assyria In the early centuries of the first millennium BC, Egypt, Babylonia and the Neo-Hittite states struggled to regain their footing, while Israel, Judah, Aram and Phoenicia continued jockeying for regional power. In 853 BC, the threat of Neo-Assyrian invasion compelled the disparate kingdoms to join forces at the Battle of Qarqar. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_11_The_Rise_of_Assyria.mp3

At the dawn of the first millennium BC, the collapse of the great Near Eastern powers allowed the cultures of Caanan to flourish.  While the Phoenicians embarked on a bold new era of maritime expansion, the Hebrews and Arameans carved out new Iron Age kingdoms that would have a lasting impact on the region. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_10_Picking_Up_The_Pieces.mp3

“Regarding what you wrote me before:  ‘Enemy ships were observed at sea!’  If it is true that ships were observed, reinforce yourself.  Where are your troops and chariots?  Are they not with you?  If not, who will deliver you from the enemy?  Surround your cities with walls and bring your troops and chariots into them.  Watch out for the enemy and reinforce yourself well!” – The King of Alashiya, writing to King Hammurabi of UgaritThe Sea Peoples cut a swath of destruction from Greece to Egypt, while wars, internal conflicts and hostile desert tribes ravaged the civilizations of Mesopotamia.  It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel...like an extended break! http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_9_The_Other_99_Percent.mp3

“…And on the pedestal these words appear:‘My name is Ozymandius, King of Kings, Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’Nothing beside remains.  Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.”  - Shelley, Ozymandius The Kassites restored and preserved the ancient culture of Babylon while defending its frontiers against the growing Assyrian threat.  The conflict between Egypt and Hatti over control of Caanan culminated in the Battle of Kadesh. http://s407341505.onlinehome.us/Episode_8_Look_Upon_My_Works.mp3