Ancient empire, traced province by province.
History of Persia follows the political, military, and religious history surrounding Persia and the empires around it with careful attention to sources. It suits listeners who like ancient history at the level of satraps, dynastic factions, geography, inscriptions, and battlefield logistics.
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History of Persia is a long-running narrative history series about Persia and the ancient worlds connected to it. Its center of gravity is empire. Not empire as a vague idea, but empire as a chain of governors, armies, tribute routes, family claims, siege decisions, taxes, inscriptions, and religious obligations. Recent episodes move through the Seleucid East, the upper satrapies, Babylon, Syria, Anatolia, Egypt, Sparta, and Zoroastrian festival practice. The show has a patient, evidence-minded style. It often pauses to explain why a source may be confused, why a place-name is difficult, or why later writers may have shaped a story into something too neat. That caution gives the drama more weight. Molon's revolt is not just a rebellion; it becomes a test of how much military power Antiochus could actually command. Berenice and Laodicea are not just dynastic names; their factions expose the deadly stakes of royal succession. Darius's genealogy becomes more than a pedigree when Old Persian cuneiform, Behistun, Pasargadae, and the Cyrus Cylinder enter the argument. The show also reaches beyond kings and battles. A holiday episode on Sadeh spends time with Zoroastrian ceremony, prayers, ritual food, fire, and translated liturgy. The result is dense but navigable. It assumes the listener can handle names, geography, and uncertainty, then works steadily to make those moving parts intelligible. There is plenty of violence, betrayal, and conquest, but the appeal is not spectacle. The appeal is structure. History of Persia is for listeners who want Persian, Mesopotamian, and Hellenistic history explained as a complicated political machine, one whose parts keep grinding even when the surviving evidence is incomplete.
Made for: For ancient history listeners who enjoy dense political narrative, source criticism, royal succession, military logistics, and Persian or Hellenistic history. It especially suits listeners comfortable with names, maps, disputed evidence, and slow-building context.
What sets it apart: The show stands out for treating Persian history through both narrative momentum and close source work. It connects court intrigue, regional administration, inscriptions, geography, and Zoroastrian practice instead of reducing the period to famous conquerors.
A podcast dedicated to the history of Persia, and the great empires that ruled there beginning with the Achaemenid Empire of Cyrus the Great and the foundation of an imperial legacy that directly impacted ancient civilizations from Rome to China, and everywhere in between. Join me as we explore the cultures, militaries, religions, successes, and failures of some of the greatest empires of the ancient world.
Darius's canal meets Zeus's cosmic family tree, and Trevor Culley expects you to keep up.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A Seleucid victory turns into appointments, tribute, and an uneasy succession question.
Molon's defeat does not end with the battlefield. It leaves the Seleucid East to be reordered, with Diogenes moving from Elam to Media, Apollodorus taking Susiana, Tychon receiving Carmana, and Babylonia seeming to need a new hand as well.
A sharp look at how rebellion can expose the scattered, brittle reach of imperial power.
The Great Revolt follows Molon's rebellion inside a Seleucid Empire stretched by conquest, internal revolt, and the threat of war with Egypt. The episode is strongest when it turns that strain into practical problems: Antiochus' limited access to imperial forces, the cavalry gap…
A brisk look at Spartan ambition, reform, and alliance politics on the road to war.
Episode 161 moves briskly through the pressures building around Sparta, using a speed-round structure to set its choices against the rival leagues of the Peloponnese.
A close, careful guide to Sadeh's prayers, offerings, and fire-centered jashen ceremony.
Sadeh comes through as a Zoroastrian festival shaped by fire, blessing, and the careful order of a jashen ceremony. The episode walks through trays of fruit, flowers, wine, milk, and water set before a ritually purified fire, then moves into the prayers recited before the fires…
Jason's Golden Fleece quest gathers force through prophecy, rivalry, and Orpheus' well-timed music.
History of Persia follows Jason's bid for the Golden Fleece as a quest set in motion by a deposed king, an oracle, a missing sandal, and Peleus' demand that the fleece be brought back from Colchis.
Greek myth told with fatal momentum.
Ancient empire told in old public-domain voices.
Episode 163 of History of Persia, hosted by Trevor Culley, follows Seleucid king Antiochus III's suppression of the satrap Molon's revolt in the Upper Satrapies before touring the empire's eastern Iranian provinces.
Episode 162, "The Great Revolt," covers the chaotic opening of Antiochus III's reign in 222-221 BC, when the teenage king was effectively controlled by his powerful minister Hermaeus while the satrap Molon led the eastern provinces into open rebellion.
In episode 161, host Trevor Culley pauses the Seleucid narrative in 223 BCE for a rapid-fire "Meet the Neighbors" tour of Ptolemaic Egypt, Antigonid Macedon, and the Mauryan Empire.
This episode of History of Persia (a Hopeful Media production hosted by Trevor Cully) rebroadcasts his 2025 Intelligent Speech Online conference presentation, 'Darius the Great Big Liar.' Trevor argues that Darius I's official account of his rise to power — killing an impostor magus named Gomata who had posed as the murdered prince Bardiya for seven years — is almost certainly propaganda covering up Darius's own role in a palace assassination.
In the History of Persia 2025 holiday special, host Trevor Cully opens with an update on Iran's ongoing 2025-2026 protest movement, pushing back on media narratives that credit exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi's statements for escalating the unrest.
Host Trevor Culley covers the extended family of Seleucid king Seleucus II Callinicus in episode 158 of History of Persia, tracing the fates of queen mother Laodice I, aunt Stratonike of Macedon, and rival brother Antiochus Hyrax.
Episode 157, "Babylon Drift," covers the Third Syrian War, in which Ptolemy III Euergetes exploited the chaos after Antiochus II's death to seize Babylon, northern Syria, and much of Ptolemaic-claimed Anatolia from the young Seleucus II Callinicus.
Episode 155 of History of Persia covers the "War of the Mothers," the succession crisis that erupts in 246 BCE when Antiochus II Theos dies and his Ptolemaic wife Berenice, regent for their infant son, clashes with his first wife Laodice and her adult sons Seleucus II and Antiochus Hyrax.
Episode 154 of History of Persia, hosted by Trevor Culley, pauses the main Seleucid narrative to catch listeners up on Antigonid Macedon and Ptolemaic Egypt after the death of Antiochus II.
In episode 153, host Trevor Culley surveys the royal family of Seleucid king Antiochus II Theos across three generations, from his mother Stratonike of Syria to his young children.
Episode 152 of History of Persia steps away from the main Seleucid war narrative to survey the empire's periphery under Antiochus II Theos.
Episode 151 of History of Persia returns to the main Seleucid narrative as Antiochus II Theos inherits the throne from his father Antiochus I Soter in 261 BCE.
Episode 150 of History of Persia, hosted by Trevor Culley, closes a three-part arc connecting Greek Orphism to Zervanism, the Zoroastrian sect that treats time itself as the first principle of the universe.
Host of History of Persia devotes episode 149, "Theogonies," to comparing four accounts of the Orphic creation myth against Hesiod's canonical 7th-8th century BCE Theogony, ahead of tying the material back to Zoroastrianism in a future episode.
Episode 148 of History of Persia turns to the Orphic Mysteries, the Greek religious movement built around the mythical bard-cleric Orpheus and its links to Pythagoras and the Dionysian cult.
Episode 147 of History of Persia turns from Seleucid political history to introduce the mythological bard Orpheus as the first of a three-part detour toward Hellenistic Zoroastrianism.
Episode 146 of History of Persia surveys the tangled marriages and succession of Antiochus I Soter's Seleucid family before revealing that Antiochus executed his own co-king son, Seleucus, for treason around 266 BCE.
Episode 145 of History of Persia, "From Antiochus to Ashoka," turns from the Seleucid court to Mauryan India, tracing the Seleucid ambassadors Megasthenes and Demachus at Chandragupta and Bindusara's court in Pataliputra.
Episode 144 of History of Persia, hosted solo by Trevor Culley, covers events across the Seleucid Empire following the 271 BC end of the First Syrian War.
Episode 143 of History of Persia, hosted by Trevor Culley, covers the First Syrian War (274-271 BCE) between Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt and Seleucid king Antiochus I, fought alongside a simultaneous revolt by Ptolemy's half-brother Magas of Cyrene.
Episode 142 of History of Persia, "Gauls with Gall," covers the Galatian invasion of Anatolia between roughly 278 and 275 BC, after Bithynian king Nicomedes hired Gallic mercenaries from Comontorius' warband to help him win a civil war against his brother Zipoetes.
This episode discusses the Diadochoi, the successors of Alexander the Great, and their impact on Persian history.
This episode discusses the holiday Zartosht No Diso and the intertwined history of Persian conquests from Cyrus to later rulers.
This episode discusses the Battle of Ipsus and its significance in Persian history, intertwined with promotions for related podcasts.
This episode promotes two other history podcasts, The Oldest Stories and The Conqueror's Podcast, with a brief overview of Persian conquests.