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Have Toga, Will Travel: Exploring Greece and Rome, Ancient and Modern
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The Persians and the Greeks, Part II: Darius, Great King, King of Kings

46 min•15 februari 2026

Emily and Cam continue their discussion of the conflict between the Persians and the ancient Greek world. In this episode, they chat about Cyrus’ son Cambyses, about the rise to power of Darius, and about Darius’ relationships with Greeks on the western frontier of his empire.

Visit our homepage to subscribe, to find us on social media, and to contact us by email:

  1. https://havetogawilltravel.com

Episode Links

  1. The first episode in this series (The Persians and the Greeks, Part I: The Rise of the Persian Empire).
  2. Part I of our series on the Athens Marathon, which includes a discussion of the Battle of Marathon and the legend of Pheidippides.
  3. Wikipedia’s article on Darius’ Bisitun Inscription, which includes photos.

Image credits:

  1. Cover / instagram image adapted from a photo by Lee van Dorp (Wikimedia Commons), which shows a closeup of Darius as he is depicted on the Bisitun Inscription.
  2. Social sharing image adapted from a photo by Korosh091 (Wikimedia Commons), which shows the Bisitun Inscription's main relief.

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00:13 - Introduction

01:31 - Sources for the reigns of Cambyses and Darius

  1. 01:49 - Herodotus’ Persian stories
  2. 02:41 - Inscriptions and papyri documenting Persian kings

03:01 - Cambyses, son of Cyrus: portraits of his Reign

  1. 03:27 - Herodotus’ take on Cambyses: a mad and murderous king
  2. 11:59 - A more sympathetic take: the Apis inscriptions, the Udjahorresnet inscription, and what they tell us about Cambyses

16:35 - The Death of Cambyses and the rise of Darius

  1. 17:01 - Herodotus’ tale of the usurper Smerdis and the (Persian) Magnificent Seven
  2. 21:06 - Darius’ Bisitun Inscription and the “Official” story of his rise to power

28:02 - Darius and the Greeks

  1. 28:41 - Darius’ Scythian Expedition and the Greeks of Ionia and Aeolia
  2. 32:01 - The Ionian Revolt and its causes: Aristagoras and Naxos, plus the problem of tyranny, tribute, and triremes
  3. 39:39 - The Athenians and the sack of Sardis
  4. 43:00 - The Marathon Campaign: Darius seeks revenge

44:58 - Wrap-up

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Have Toga, Will Travel: Exploring Greece and Rome, Ancient and Modern med Emily Jusino, PhD (Classics) and Cam Hawkins, PhD (Ancient History) finns tillgänglig på flera plattformar. Informationen på denna sida kommer från offentliga podd-flöden.