Ancient Empires Before Alexander 3

This is the final episode of great empires. These empires are of the "much more well known" variety. This is primarily about the Persia and Carthage and a few of their "pretenders". Carthage is perhaps the most fascinating because so little is known of them. They set up a great empire, and were doing great when they just happened to fall on the bad side of Rome. What would have happened if Hannibal had sacked Rome?

The Persians are more historically known. However some of their compatriots are equally mysterious. And the life of Persia that we know tends to be very Greek-centric (since it is the Greek records that we have today.) Again, it begs the question of what we are missing in the history that we know today.

Ancient Empires Before Alexander 1

These lectures cover the early empires - primarily in Mesopotamia. These are the ones that are less well known, yet quite intriguing. Empires such as Ur 3 and early Babylonia had interesting histories. Some tried to create a very centralized economy, with everything planned out from the top. This eventually fell apart when unexpected events occurred. Others tried a confederated approach. This had its problems when the vassals started squabbling. The ancient history of these empires makes them even more fascinating. Bureaucracy and government systems similar to what we have today were developed 3000-4000 years ago. Could there have been things even older that we just don't know about?

This first set of lectures seem to be the most lively of the series. The opening discusses the actual definition of "empire." It comes down to "things that we call empires are empires". I guess we know it when we see it. The question of why is also posed. Often it comes down to a larger-than-life personality.

The lectures do a good job of presenting a narrative, even when one is hard to come by. After all, we are dependent for the most part on clay tablets and building inscriptions. Ancient "CD-Roms" would be totally inaccessible. How many ancient civilizations are we totally missing?

Ancient Empires before Alexander

It starts with the fall of Egypt, covers the Minoans, then goes on to Myceneans.
The Mycenians collapsed around the same time as many other empires. The "sea peoples" were part of the reason for the collapse of these empires. However, he postulates that excess "testosterone" in the age of heroes was also a big reason for the fall. They later ended up as "Philistines" - thus Goliath would have been the descendant of a veteran of Troy.

The knowledge and sources for different areas tend to very significantly. Some areas discussed, such as Israel, or based almost entirely on biblical accounts. Other areas (such as the Minoan civilization) are based almost entirely on archeology. The lecturer, however, does a good job of presenting a narrative, tieing together the available sources in to a coherent narrative. He does occasionally mention the source of the information. At times, however, I found myself wishing for more accurate details.

In this section, the Assyrians get most of the coverage for the millennium-long empire. He has some sympathy for the alleged brutality of the Assyrians (they were after all punishing disobedience to the gods, and were fair in the way they handed out penalties.) However, he also gives the brutality as one of the reasons for the eventual fall of the empire. After Assyria over-extended itself, the Babylonians were all too eager to give them everything they thought they deserved.

While the delivery often sounds as if it is poorly read from a script, the content is quite interesting and well organized.