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Speaker 1: This episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class is

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Speaker 1: Google Play Music, anywhere you get podcasts. Welcome to Stuff

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Speaker 1: You Missed in History Class from how Stuff Works dot Com. Hello,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry, I'm Tracy B. Wilson,

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Speaker 1: and today we are going to touch on a little

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Speaker 1: bit of Persian history, specifically an empire that occupied a

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Speaker 1: massive swath of territory and it is uh the Acumenated Empire.

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Speaker 1: You'll sometimes also hear it called the Achemenid Empire. It

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Speaker 1: is also sometimes called the Accuminated Persian Empire. Sometimes the

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Speaker 1: word Persian and Achemenid are transposed. But it's also discussed

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Speaker 1: in terms of being ancient Iran. But in terms of

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Speaker 1: geography it was much much larger than modern day Iran is.

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Speaker 1: So if you overlaid the map of the Acciumenate Empire

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Speaker 1: at its peak over a modern map, it would cover

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Speaker 1: Iran and to its east Pakistan, Afghanistan, parts of Turkmenistan

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Speaker 1: and as Pakistan, and to the west of modern day

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Speaker 1: Iran Uh. The empire encompassed Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Jordan's, Greece,

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Speaker 1: parts of Egypt, Saudi Arabia. It just went on and

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Speaker 1: on and on, including Macedonia and Albania. It was, as

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Speaker 1: we will discuss the largest empire the world had ever

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Speaker 1: seen in recorded history at that point. At any time

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Speaker 1: we talked about a chunk of one area's history, it

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Speaker 1: can also be a little awkward to define the exact

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Speaker 1: beginning and end of the segment, because what comes before

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Speaker 1: it and what comes after the period that you're discussing

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Speaker 1: is all related to the period of time itself. So

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Speaker 1: in this instance, we're going to talk primarily about the

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Speaker 1: accominted empire from its founding to the height of its power,

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Speaker 1: but we're also going to feather out a bit on

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Speaker 1: either side of that for context. So first we're going

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Speaker 1: to start talking about the figure for whom the empire

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Speaker 1: was named, although that is not the person who established it, uh.

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Speaker 1: He came quite some time before the empire was actually founded.

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Speaker 1: Achimanes was the founder, at least in name of the

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Speaker 1: Persian royal house, but there's a possibility that in fact

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Speaker 1: he was a mythical figure. He was then adopted into

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Speaker 1: the royal lineage to give it a divine power. In

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Speaker 1: Plato's writing, Achimenes was Zeus's grandson, and in the writings

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Speaker 1: of Alienas he was the son of an eagle. The

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Speaker 1: name Achimenes or Achimanees, depending on how you're gonna go

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Speaker 1: with that is derived from the old Persian words meaning

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Speaker 1: friend and thinking power. But even though we lack historical

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Speaker 1: evidence of the actual existence of Achimanees tracing back the

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Speaker 1: historical line of Persia, if he had been a real person,

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Speaker 1: he would have lived roughly at the end of the

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Speaker 1: eighth century b c e. Into the first part of

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Speaker 1: the seventh century BC. But even before that, the klansmen

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Speaker 1: of the line that's linked to Achimanes may have been

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Speaker 1: leaders over the Persian tribes who lived in the area

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Speaker 1: of modern day northern Iran as far are back as

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Speaker 1: the ninth century BC. Eventually, though the Persians, possibly under Achimenes,

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Speaker 1: are just as likely under another leader, migrated south into

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Speaker 1: the Zagros region and the Zagros Mountains for a reference point,

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Speaker 1: run along the western border of modern day Iran, and

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Speaker 1: from there the kingdom was enlarged over time, but the

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Speaker 1: actual Achimenid Empire wasn't founded until the sixth century BC,

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Speaker 1: so three hundred years after that ninth century date we

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Speaker 1: mentioned earlier. To get to that point, we have to

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Speaker 1: jump in time to uh Cyrus, the second son of

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Speaker 1: camp by ses Cyrus the First was his grandfather. Just

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Speaker 1: in case you were wondering, Yeah, anytime we jump into

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Speaker 1: a numbering system and we kind of come in like

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Speaker 1: on a two or three, I feel like we should

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Speaker 1: give a little context of who maybe the first one was.

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Speaker 1: But Cyrus the Second was a Persian prince who ascended

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Speaker 1: to the throne of king of Anshan when his father

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Speaker 1: died in five fifty nine BC. E on Sean was

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Speaker 1: a city that was conquered by the Cyrus the Second relatives,

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Speaker 1: and they assumed the name of the city as part

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Speaker 1: of the royal title. Beginning in five fifty two b C.

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Speaker 1: Cyrus the Second led a coalition of Persian tribes with

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Speaker 1: the intent to make a move for power and no

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Speaker 1: longer be dominated by the Median dynasty. In five b C,

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Speaker 1: Cyrus the Second a k a. Cyrus the Great of

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Speaker 1: Persia defeated King Astiagus of Media. The victory was aided

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Speaker 1: in part by a number of soldiers turning on their

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Speaker 1: king and siding with Cyrus Astia. Guess who's actually recorded

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Speaker 1: as Cyrus the Second's grandfather, on his mother's side, had

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Speaker 1: ruled most of the of what is now Iran. And Turkey,

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Speaker 1: and Cyrus the second had with his federation of tribes

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Speaker 1: come up from the south to take all of this land.

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Speaker 1: We don't have any real record of his lineage, but

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Speaker 1: Cyrus the second claimed royal descent from a chemen eve

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Speaker 1: as he established this new kingdom. Maybe right. There is

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Speaker 1: some cloudiness actually over whether Cyrus the second actually did

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Speaker 1: claim this relation. In his inscription from Pasargaty, Cyrus to

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Speaker 1: claims himself to be in a Kimunid but we don't know. However,

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Speaker 1: if there was another man, Darius the First, we'll talk

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Speaker 1: about him in a moment moment, who was actually responsible

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Speaker 1: for those writings rather than Cyrus the Second himself. In

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Speaker 1: any case, uh, Cyrus the Second's victory in this situation

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Speaker 1: really marks the beginning of the Acuminate Empire. Cyrus declared

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Speaker 1: himself shot of Persia, built a capital on the side

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Speaker 1: of his victory, and started figuring out what he wanted

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Speaker 1: to do with the vastly diverse assortment of lands and

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Speaker 1: people's that he now governed. This is also at a

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Speaker 1: point where a previous fracture in the Persian Kingdom, which

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Speaker 1: was formed when a prior king had split the land

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Speaker 1: that he controlled between two suns. When he died was

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Speaker 1: basically healed. That's a whole separate story really. These two

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Speaker 1: separate entities, though, were reunited in the formation of the

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Speaker 1: Accummutate Empire. And we're gonna talk more about Cyrus the

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Speaker 1: Second as a ruler in just a moment, because he

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Speaker 1: was quite unique. But first we're gonna pause for a

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Speaker 1: and now get back to our story. So before the break,

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Speaker 1: we spoke about how Cyrus the Second founding the Aciminate

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Speaker 1: Empire was a reunification in some ways, but make no mistake,

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Speaker 1: it was not exactly a rosy picture. Some of the

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Speaker 1: people's of this newly formed empire were not exactly enthused

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Speaker 1: to be ruled by this self installed Persian monarch. Still,

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Speaker 1: Cyrus the Second quickly managed to expand the land he

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Speaker 1: ruled significantly and continuously, and this is considered a really

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Speaker 1: extremely significant moment in world history. For one, it represented

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Speaker 1: the largest empire that the world had ever seen at

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Speaker 1: this point, and for another, it united all of the

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Speaker 1: existing civilized states of the ancient Near East as one kingdom.

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Speaker 1: And one of the strategies that was employed by Cyrus

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Speaker 1: the Second, at least according to legend, was to take

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Speaker 1: advantage of the knowledge of the men he had conquered.

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Speaker 1: So while normally it would be pretty standard to kill

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Speaker 1: off everyone who came before you, he actually spared the

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Speaker 1: leaders that he had bested in battle so that he

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Speaker 1: might ask their advice on how best to govern their

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Speaker 1: people what would one day be known as Asia Minor,

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Speaker 1: and then eventually Turkey was conquered by Cyrus the Second

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Speaker 1: when it was the Lydian Kingdom of Crisis, and that

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Speaker 1: was in five forty seven b C. At this point,

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Speaker 1: Cyrus advanced on the Lydian army as they were retreating

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Speaker 1: for the winter. They had been battling in the fall

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Speaker 1: all but it had not come to any kind of

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Speaker 1: conclusive outcome, and then King Creasus pulled his troops back.

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Speaker 1: He thought everyone was going to stop there's hostilities until

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Speaker 1: spring naiceally take a break for the wintertime, but Cyrus

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Speaker 1: the Second took advantage of the situation instead. After a

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Speaker 1: two week siege, the Accummend Empire emerged victorious and absorbed

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Speaker 1: the Lydians lands, taking over Lydia. With this, Cyrus the

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Speaker 1: Second gain power over the major commerce hub in all

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Speaker 1: of the Middle East at that point, and Cyrus the

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Speaker 1: Second also added the babylon and Neo Babylonian Empire to

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Speaker 1: the Acuminate Empire in five BC. Once the Lydian Kingdom

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Speaker 1: had been dominated, Cyrus went after its Babylonian ally, but

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Speaker 1: he did not march on these lands and take military action. Instead,

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Speaker 1: he enlisted propaganda, spreading the word that Babylonian culture would

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Speaker 1: be safer in his hands, the hands of Cyrus the Second,

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Speaker 1: who would respected than under the rule of their king Nabinatus.

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Speaker 1: The smear campaign against Nabinatus works. The people rose up

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Speaker 1: against their king, and then after he had been deposed,

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Speaker 1: Babylonia welcomed Cyrus the Second, who was able to just

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Speaker 1: walk into the city and take over. In the nineteenth century,

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Speaker 1: a clay cylinder, which is now called the Cyrus Cylinder

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Speaker 1: and it's kept in the British Museum, was found beneath

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Speaker 1: the foundations of Babylon City Wall, believed to have been

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Speaker 1: placed there very purposefully. It is another propaganda element designed

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Speaker 1: to characterize Cyrus the seconds entry into Babylon as completely benevolent.

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Speaker 1: The cylinder reads quotes when I entered Babylon as a friend,

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Speaker 1: and when I established the seat of the government and

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Speaker 1: the palace of the Ruler under jubilation and rejoicing, mar

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Speaker 1: Duke the Great Lord induced the magnanimous inhabitants of Babylon

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Speaker 1: to love me, and I was ali endeavoring to worship him.

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Speaker 1: My numerous troops walked around Babylon in peace. I did

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Speaker 1: not allow anybody to terrorize any place of the country

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Speaker 1: of sumer and a cod I strove for peace and Babylon,

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Speaker 1: and in all his other sacred city, as indicated in

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Speaker 1: the Cyrus Cylinder. Cyrus the Second restored temples in Babylon.

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Speaker 1: He reinstated religious rights that had gone neglected under the

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Speaker 1: Babylonian king's reign. And he released political prisoners, and he

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Speaker 1: proclaimed that he was the new king of the land.

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Speaker 1: He set up a system in which the peoples of

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Speaker 1: his empire could practice whatever religion and cultural traditions they

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Speaker 1: desired in exchange for tribute. This is basically like a

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Speaker 1: tax system that grants those paying the taxes the right

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Speaker 1: to live their lives as they please. The wording of

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Speaker 1: his cylinder just cracks me up a little bit. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure that is a slightly embellished translation on somebody's part. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it just sounds like I was the greatest and most magnanimous,

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Speaker 1: and I really I didn't kill anybody at all, you guys,

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Speaker 1: I'm awesome and super gentle. So for the record, we

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Speaker 1: don't know what religion Cyrus followed, if any. We should

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Speaker 1: also point out that this approach to governance and leadership

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Speaker 1: was really a steep departure from what had gone before

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Speaker 1: in most civilizations, the idea of conquering a place or

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Speaker 1: a group of people and then bending them all to

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Speaker 1: the conquerors. Ways, it's played out numerous times in history

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Speaker 1: before this point, and in fiction for that matter, and

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Speaker 1: then for that matter, lots and lots more times since then,

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Speaker 1: which is one of the reasons that this language on

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Speaker 1: the cylinder, uh being so like, I am the most

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Speaker 1: gentle ever anyway. Uh, this concept of just letting people

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Speaker 1: live their lives their way after their country had been

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Speaker 1: conquered and absorbed was really groundbreaking. Yeah. Yeah. And Cyrus

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Speaker 1: the Great is mentioned then the Old Testament Bible as

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Speaker 1: a patron of the Jews, and that's due to his

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Speaker 1: policies and actions during this time. Exiled and imprisoned Jews

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Speaker 1: living in Babylon were released and told to go rebuild

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Speaker 1: the Temple in Jerusalem, and they were given financial assistance

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Speaker 1: at Cyrus the Second Decree. Cyrus the Second is believed

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Speaker 1: to have been killed in battle in five twenty nine

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Speaker 1: BC by the queen of an Iranian tribe when he

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Speaker 1: and his troops tried to expand their holdings farther into

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Speaker 1: the west. According to the writings of Herodotust, and he

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Speaker 1: was laid to rest in a tomb and Pasargaty, as

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Speaker 1: we mentioned just a moment ago, we don't know what

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Speaker 1: his religious beliefs were, and while some historians have come

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Speaker 1: to the conclusion that the kings of the Acumenate Empire

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Speaker 1: were zoro Astrians, a tomb burial is in direct conflict

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Speaker 1: with that idea. The practicing Zoroastrians who came after Cyrus

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Speaker 1: the Second practice something closer to a sky burial, which

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Speaker 1: you may have heard of, uh, leaving bodies on stone

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Speaker 1: structures nicknamed towers of Silence to decompose and be consumed

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Speaker 1: by animals. And there's been speculation that perhaps there were

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Speaker 1: at one point variations of the religion that would accommodate

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Speaker 1: the idea of Cyrus the Second being buried in a tomb,

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Speaker 1: but that's still all a very big question mark at

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Speaker 1: this point. Cyrus the second son cam by Sees the Second,

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Speaker 1: took the throne in five twenty nine BC when Cyrus

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Speaker 1: died and continued his father's work. Under his rule, the

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Speaker 1: Accumman Empire expanded to contain Egypt, Nubia, and the land

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Speaker 1: that makes up modern day Libya, but Cambyses the Second

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Speaker 1: was not like his father at all when it came

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Speaker 1: to how he ruled things, and that proved to be

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Speaker 1: a problem. Yeah. Whereas Cyrus the Second had tried to

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Speaker 1: unite his people by working with them and accepting their differences,

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Speaker 1: can buy Ses was considered a severe king. He was

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Speaker 1: not very good at compromise. Uh. He certainly did not

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Speaker 1: exhibit that ability to work with people the way his

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Speaker 1: father had excelled at it. Cam Byses the Second ruled

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Speaker 1: for only seven years, and the end of his life

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Speaker 1: included a pretty big amount of drama. Well, cam Byases

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Speaker 1: was away from home and five BC he received news

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Speaker 1: that a revolt had broken out, and the weird part

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Speaker 1: was the revolt was being led by cambyses brother, Bardia.

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Speaker 1: This was weird, Uh, not because it would have been traitors,

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Speaker 1: traitors like the obviously, if your brother is rising up

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Speaker 1: against you, he is a trader, but because cam Buyses

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Speaker 1: the second had actually killed his brother in secret several

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Speaker 1: years before that. Yeah. So this revolt, according to the story,

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Speaker 1: which I should say is told with some variations in

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Speaker 1: a number of different sources, was actually led by a

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Speaker 1: holy man, a magi, who was pretending to be the

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Speaker 1: deceased brother, taxes, military conscription, religious intolerance, and a serious

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Speaker 1: debt for the kingdom. For all of that military led expansion,

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Speaker 1: including some of the stuff that Cyrus the Second had done,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't all Cambyses the Second that was racking up

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Speaker 1: all of his debt, but all of that combined had

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Speaker 1: really laid the groundwork for this holy man Gaumata, to

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Speaker 1: incite a revolution among the people. Can I see the

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Speaker 1: Second never really engaged with this whole revolt situation. He

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Speaker 1: seems to have died suddenly, possibly en route to his capital.

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Speaker 1: There's some speculation that he actually committed suicide rather than

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Speaker 1: face what awaited him when he got there. In the

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Speaker 1: power vacuum that was left in the king's wake. Once

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00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:41,560
Speaker 1: he had died, one of his generals named Darius, who

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Speaker 1: he was also distantly related to, assumed the role of

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Speaker 1: defender of the acumenated throne. Darius killed Gaumata, the leader

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Speaker 1: of this revolution, within a few months of the uprising,

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Speaker 1: and he spent the next year suppressing additional revolts and

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Speaker 1: uprising through military action. Allegedly, there were nineteen different battles

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Speaker 1: with potential revolts that he put down rather efficiently. One

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Speaker 1: of the reasons that we use the word allegedly there though,

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Speaker 1: is because the story of Darius and his victory over

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Speaker 1: this rebellion is known to us mostly through a narrative

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Speaker 1: rock carving which Darius himself commissioned. The writings that also

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Speaker 1: tell tell the tale, including the work of Herodotus, all

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Speaker 1: come later, and we're probably influenced by this official carved

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Speaker 1: rock version of the story. So rather than the title

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Speaker 1: of king being passed down from father to firstborn son,

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Speaker 1: Darius in killing the leader of the uprising against camp

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Speaker 1: By Sees the Second believed himself to have restored the

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Speaker 1: kingdom to the house of the Acumenated family, and Darius

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Speaker 1: was related to the preceding king, but it was pretty distantly.

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Speaker 1: He certainly would not have been the next in line

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Speaker 1: for the throne. There's also a possibility that he concocted

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Speaker 1: this whole story of the Holy Man, and this is

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Speaker 1: the whole thing made up by Darius as part of

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Speaker 1: a much law dr Khan to gain power, and the

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Speaker 1: writings of Herodotus. Uh Cyrus the Second had been suspicious

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Speaker 1: of Darius during his reign. Before his death, believing that

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Speaker 1: the young man was plotting to overthrow him. Yes, so

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Speaker 1: that would definitely be a long con if he was

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Speaker 1: doing it, if it had been more than seven years

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Speaker 1: in the making, since Cyrus the Second died seven years

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Speaker 1: before Darius came to power. But just the same, Darius

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Speaker 1: supported by the Persian nobles who worked with him to

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Speaker 1: murder Gaumata and end that uprising. Uh. He still came

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Speaker 1: into power with that support, and as we mentioned just

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Speaker 1: a moment ago, he defended against a series of uprisings

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Speaker 1: in his first year's ruler, cementing his position a little

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Speaker 1: bit more with each of those victories. So, whether Darius

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Speaker 1: came to the throne through scheming or not, what's actually

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Speaker 1: kind of fascinating is that he proved to be an

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Speaker 1: important and very adept leader. Although Cyrus the Second and

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Speaker 1: cam Biases the second made massive strides and establishing and

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Speaker 1: expanding the Empire, it's really Darius the First who's considered

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Speaker 1: to be the greatest of the command rulers. Darius further

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Speaker 1: augmented empires holdings and most importantly, he moved it into

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Speaker 1: the Indus Valley. But in his thirty five year reign

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Speaker 1: he also advanced the empire in other ways as well,

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Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about how he really earned

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Speaker 1: this reputation as a great ruler. But first we're gonna

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Speaker 1: pause for another quick break and talk about one of

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Speaker 1: first made the government of the Acumeni Empire centralized and

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00:23:56,960 --> 00:24:00,480
Speaker 1: compact and efficient. He managed to develop a means of

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Speaker 1: governing people from all of the diverse lands that have

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00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:06,680
Speaker 1: been conquered in the empire's expansion, and to once again

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00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:10,359
Speaker 1: unify the rule of people's with different customs, languages, and

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Speaker 1: religions under one governmental umbrella. As you recall, Cyrus, the

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00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:17,760
Speaker 1: second was pretty good at that camp by sees less so.

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Speaker 1: Uh So, under the reign of Darius, art and culture

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00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:25,200
Speaker 1: actually flourished, and really ambitious public works and building projects

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Speaker 1: were undertaken. He divided the land into twenty provinces or satropies,

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Speaker 1: and each of these is governed by a sat trip

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Speaker 1: with a military commander in each one. To keep keep

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00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:40,040
Speaker 1: tabs on things and prevent any of the satraps from

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Speaker 1: getting ideas about amassing additional power, he also collected tributes

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Speaker 1: in other words, taxes from each of them, which in

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Speaker 1: this case was used to fund a navy public irrigation systems, roads,

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Speaker 1: and a canal to connect the Red Sea to the Nile.

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Speaker 1: He also united all of these financially by gating one

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Speaker 1: unified currency for all of them. And like Cyrus the

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Speaker 1: Second had done before him, Darius allowed the people of

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Speaker 1: the empire to worship whatever religion they wished. Darius, uh,

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Speaker 1: we should point out, was certainly not modest about himself

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Speaker 1: or his position. He built a mammoth palace at what

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Speaker 1: would come to be known as Persepolis, although this was

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Speaker 1: not the permanent capital of the empire, and he adopted

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Speaker 1: the title shahn Shaw, which is king of Kings, over

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Speaker 1: the previously used title of Shaw, like he was super king.

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Speaker 1: One thing that Darius the First never managed was the

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Speaker 1: conquering of Grecian revolts, and four ninety two BC, while

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Speaker 1: sailing to attack the Grecians, his entire flotilla was demolished

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Speaker 1: in a storm at sea. He made another run at

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Speaker 1: Greece and for nine BC, but his army was defeated

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Speaker 1: at Marathon by the Athenian army. Not long after, Darius,

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Speaker 1: who was weakened by an other uprising in Egypt, died,

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Speaker 1: and that was in four eighties six PC, and unfortunately

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Speaker 1: that burgeoning culture that he had really fostered and caused

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Speaker 1: to grow in his thirty five years of leadership was

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Speaker 1: not to last. So when Darius the first son Xerxes

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Speaker 1: came to power, it signaled in many ways the beginning

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Speaker 1: of the end for the Acumenate Empire. Erxes was rather smug,

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Speaker 1: and he was unable to cooperate with the various different

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Speaker 1: peoples of the empire. His relationship with the people that

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Speaker 1: he governed was generally fraught, as evidenced by his punishment

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Speaker 1: of Babylon for an uprising that was catalyzed by a

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Speaker 1: tax increase. Quick to act, even at a cost to

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Speaker 1: his own kingdom, Xerxes had the rioters quieted by completely

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Speaker 1: destroying Babylon himself. Rebellions became commonplace, and they slowly chipped

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Speaker 1: away at the domain that had been established with Virus

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Speaker 1: the second's rule. While he mounted military actions, they weren't

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Speaker 1: generally successful, one against Greece and for a d b

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00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:09,760
Speaker 1: c went so poorly that after that point he seemed

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Speaker 1: to mostly just spend his time hiding away in his palace. Yeah,

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00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:17,320
Speaker 1: there's a whole secondary thing we could do about Xerxes

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00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:20,919
Speaker 1: and palace intrigues at this point. Uh, it's a little

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00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:25,560
Speaker 1: daytime drama. It's uh. But over the course of the

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Speaker 1: next two centuries, the Acumenate Empire just continued to slowly crumble.

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Speaker 1: The sat Traps slowly made power grabs to extend their

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Speaker 1: influence and their riches. Artis Zerxies succeeded his father's Zerxies

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Speaker 1: in four sixty five b C. And he was followed

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Speaker 1: by Darius the Second in four twenty three b C.

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Speaker 1: And then artist Xerxes the second through the fourth came

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Speaker 1: after that. And while all of these rulers had their

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00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:54,360
Speaker 1: own intrigues in battles, uh, and you know their own

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00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:57,120
Speaker 1: stories that we could tell, they still are not as

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00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:01,080
Speaker 1: as sort of big and important and interesting because none

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Speaker 1: of them advanced the Acumenate Empire in the way that

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Speaker 1: Cyrus the Second and Darius the First did. Wars continued

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Speaker 1: to rage on with Greece in Egypt, and then finally,

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Speaker 1: in three thirty four BC, Alexander the Great brought his

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Speaker 1: armies up against the once mighty Persian throne under Darius

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Speaker 1: the Third. While Alexander had to fight a long series

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Speaker 1: of battles along the way, proof that even in a

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Speaker 1: weekend state, that commuted empire was still pretty formidable. He

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00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:29,880
Speaker 1: was ultimately victorious, and Darius the third was murdered by

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Speaker 1: one of his own generals. Alexander took command of the

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00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:38,880
Speaker 1: Persian Empire, which really put an end to the Acumenid Empire. Yeah,

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00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:42,240
Speaker 1: that was a rap on it. It's so um, you know.

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00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:46,200
Speaker 1: It's one of those things where it was the apex

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00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:49,720
Speaker 1: of all things. It was the biggest government in some

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00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:54,360
Speaker 1: under some rulers. It was a really pretty spectacular government

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00:28:54,400 --> 00:29:00,080
Speaker 1: in terms of of having a vastly diverse population and

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00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:04,080
Speaker 1: that was able to sort of uh just live as

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00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:06,000
Speaker 1: it would, all of the people being able to do

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Speaker 1: what they wanted in terms of their culture and their religion.

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00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:11,960
Speaker 1: And then it all fell apart, which is sort of sad,

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00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:15,680
Speaker 1: but that is how history works. Do you also have

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00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:19,840
Speaker 1: listener mail? I do, and it's really pretty uh. This

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00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:23,800
Speaker 1: listener mail is postcard from our listener Amy, and it

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00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:30,440
Speaker 1: is an absolutely gorgeous postcard with four ladies in beautiful

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00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:34,040
Speaker 1: rococo gowns on it. And she says, dear Holly and Tracy,

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00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:35,960
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of stuff you missed in history

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00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:38,760
Speaker 1: class and felt compelled to send you a postcard from

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00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:42,120
Speaker 1: my recent European vacation. Is My boyfriend and I were

490
00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:44,440
Speaker 1: taking a train from Nice in the south of France

491
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:48,120
Speaker 1: to Paris. Your episode on Elizabeth Louise Vija le Blanc

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00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:50,840
Speaker 1: came on my playlist. How fortune it is. I was

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00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,200
Speaker 1: able to listen to the fascinating story of le Blin

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00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:56,400
Speaker 1: and her talent while watching the beautiful French landscape that

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00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:59,640
Speaker 1: she loved so much rush before my eyes. The next day,

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00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:02,000
Speaker 1: we took in the wonderful art of both Elizabeth and

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00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:04,720
Speaker 1: her father at the Palace of Versailles. It meant a

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00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:07,000
Speaker 1: lot to look at their art and understand the context

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00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:10,320
Speaker 1: of their work and the triumphs and tragedies they had experienced.

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Speaker 1: I'm sending this card, is it? Thank you for hours

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00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:15,640
Speaker 1: of entertainment on the New York City subway because I know,

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00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:18,080
Speaker 1: and because I know of Holly's enjoyment of costume and

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00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:21,160
Speaker 1: fashion all the best. It's so pretty. Thank you so much, Amy,

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00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:23,520
Speaker 1: I love it, And I'm going to confess a lot

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00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 1: of times I keep our postcards here so Tracy can

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00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:27,840
Speaker 1: enjoy them when she comes to the office. But I'm

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00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:29,520
Speaker 1: probably going to steal this one and use it as

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00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:34,200
Speaker 1: a personal bookmark, because I'm selfish that way. If you

509
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:36,320
Speaker 1: would like to write to us, you can email us

510
00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 1: at History Podcast at how stuff works dot com. You

511
00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:41,200
Speaker 1: can also find us at Facebook dot com slash misst

512
00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:44,600
Speaker 1: in history, on Twitter at misst in history, at pinterest

513
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:47,560
Speaker 1: dot com, slash miss in history at misst in history

514
00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:51,560
Speaker 1: dot tumbler dot com, and on Instagram at missed in history.

515
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:55,680
Speaker 1: If you would like to uh do a little research

516
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:57,440
Speaker 1: on the area we talked about today, you can go

517
00:30:57,480 --> 00:30:59,760
Speaker 1: to our parents at how stuff Works. Type in the

518
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 1: word Mesopotamia in the search bar and you will get

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00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:07,000
Speaker 1: an article called why is Mesopotamia called the Cradle of civilization? Uh.

520
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:09,440
Speaker 1: You can also visit us at misst in history dot

521
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:12,240
Speaker 1: com and you'll find all of our episodes going back

522
00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:14,920
Speaker 1: to when the podcast first existed in very short form

523
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:17,920
Speaker 1: with other hosts and every episode since then, as well

524
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:20,040
Speaker 1: as show notes on every episode that Tracy and I

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00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:23,200
Speaker 1: have appeared on I and the occasional other fun Gideon

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00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:26,200
Speaker 1: blog post. We encourage you come and visit us at

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00:31:26,240 --> 00:31:28,520
Speaker 1: misston history dot com and at our parents site, how

528
00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:36,120
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands

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00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:38,280
Speaker 1: of other topics because it has staff workstatter