Ancient history, told from the water.
Brandon Huebner narrates ancient history with the sea at its center, following the Delian League through its clashes with Persia at the Eurymedon River and in Egypt. He builds on Thucydides, points out his own simplifications and signs off with 'fair winds and following seas.'
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The Maritime History Podcast puts the sea at the center of ancient history: the fleets, alliances, colonies and trade that tied Greek cities together and set them against Persia. It is a one-person production. Brandon Huebner hosts, opening with 'Ahoy crew' and closing with 'fair winds and following seas,' and he says openly that a show this research-heavy is hard to keep going when one person runs it. Each episode builds on the one before. The Delian League: High and Dry in Egypt says it continues right where the previous episode stopped, almost as a second part to The Delian League v. Persia: Eurymedon. That earlier installment covers the double battle at the Eurymedon River, where naval and land victories came on a single day, along with fights against remaining Persian forces and campaigns against piracy. The Egypt episode turns to a Persian army besieged at Memphis and a Persian envoy sent to Sparta with money to buy an invasion of Attica, an offer Sparta seems to have refused. In episode 041, A League of (Our) Own: The Delian League, the host spends time on the Peloponnesian League, in which, he says, Sparta held all the cards. Thucydides is the show's main source. Huebner calls him the best framework available and builds from him, but he is open about the gaps. He calls one of his own characterizations a bit simplistic before letting it stand. He allows that some reasons are simply unknown. He also discloses that his title joke for the League episode accidentally echoes a chapter in John Hale's book Lords of the Sea. That habit of showing his reasoning is what the show sounds like. Series recaps help anyone catching up. The Series 2 Recap loosely walks back through earlier material in chronological order, adding commentary. It covers Miletus, which the recap says founded more colonies than any other Greek city, the Pontic Greek identity that grew up around the Black Sea, grain from what is now Ukraine, and the myths of Jason and the Argonauts. It ends by pointing ahead to a Series 3 set in the period of the Peloponnesian War. Member episodes follow side threads off the main story. The unlocked member episode The Ship(s) of Theseus looks at how Athenian leaders, Peisistratus among the first, recast Theseus as a hero whose deeds mirrored their own, inventing labors that closely follow those of Heracles. The main feed sometimes previews these side threads, as the Eurymedon episode does for the Theseus material. Supporters who join the crew get bonus episodes, a growing timeline and early access, while the podcast itself stays free and independent. The feed also carries something different: a multi-part reading of William Hope Hodgson's The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig', framed as a story told in 1757 about survivors of a wrecked ship. In it, a bosun fights off a monstrous crab, and a plan forms to fly a kite to carry a line across to a hulk. A good place to start is the Series 2 Recap, followed by the Delian League episodes in order.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants ancient Greek history told through its navies, alliances and colonies, and who likes a narrator who names his sources and admits where the record runs thin.
What sets it apart: The sea stays at the center: fleets, colonies and alliances at sea drive the story, which builds series by series with Thucydides as the main source. The host also says openly whenever he is simplifying. Member episodes add side threads, such as how Athenian leaders used the Theseus myth for political ends.
The Maritime History Podcast is a chronological look at maritime history and its numerous facets. Beginning with ancient history, the podcast looks at trade, exploration, boat and ship-building, economics, and the relationship between the ocean and the development of society and culture throughout history. Learn more about the podcast at https://maritimehistorypodcast.com.
Athens' naval alliances or a bosun facing a giant crab: pick your kind of sea trouble.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Theseus becomes a mythic hero recast around Athenian political ambition.
The Ships of Theseus looks at a famous Greek hero as something more than a figure of myth, following the way Peisistratus and Athenian leadership drew on Theseus's deeds to give ambition and authority a more familiar public shape.
A wide Delian League campaign sharpens around Persian pressure, Spartan caution, and 185 Athenian dead.
Egypt is where the Delian League begins to feel less like a narrow anti-Persian alliance and more like a force with ambitions across the eastern Mediterranean.
A war against Persia becomes a study in how an alliance starts compelling its neighbors.
The Delian League's war against Persia darkens as Simon's campaign shifts from Persian holdouts and piracy to pressure on cities that had stayed outside the alliance. Charistis, on Euboea, was neither a League member nor under Persian control, yet it is forced in by arms.
A measured look at Greek alliance politics, with the Delian League framed by Spartan leverage and the anti-Persian Hellenic League.
The Delian League comes into focus through a wider look at how Greek alliances actually functioned. The episode sets it against the Peloponnesian League, where Spartan military weight could count for more than tidy constitutional design, before moving to the Hellenic League and…
A focused recap ties Iron Age trade, Greek colonization, and Black Sea geography into the season's larger arc.
The Maritime History Podcast's Series 2 Recap frames a wide stretch of maritime history through scale: how to keep the big post-Late Bronze Age Collapse movements in view while still tracking trade, colonization, and identity.
Greek myth told with fatal momentum.
Ancient empire told in old public-domain voices.
The Maritime History Podcast's *Unlocked* Member Ep.
The Maritime History Podcast episode 43, "The Delian League: High and Dry in Egypt," follows Athens after Eurymedon as the Delian League shifts from anti-Persian coalition to wider conflict with Sparta.
Episode 42 of The Maritime History Podcast follows Athens, Simon, and the Delian League from the aftermath of Plataea and Mycale to the 469 BCE battle at the Eurymedon River.
Episode 41 of The Maritime History Podcast, A League of Our Own: The Delian League, follows how Athens replaced Sparta after Salamis, Plataea, and Mycenae.
The Maritime History Podcast's series 2 recap retraces the path from the Late Bronze Age collapse to the rise of Phoenician, Greek, and Etruscan maritime power in the Mediterranean.
["The Maritime History Podcast episode on William Hope Hodgson's The Boats of the Glen Carrig follows a crew stranded after a hidden rock strike, with John Winterstraw's manuscript framing the story in 1757.", "The bosun feeds the men broken biscuit, salt meat, shellfish, vinegar, and molasses, then tries hot water, rum, and molasses for Job, who still cannot eat.", "The crew finds slime, slug-like tracks, broken toadstools, and the same foul stench that first came from the boat, then cuts the mast and topmast into timber for keel repair.", "Chapter 10 adds rainwater collection, Job's beach burial, a move to the hilltop, and a giant crab attack that ends when the bosun blinds the creature."]
The Maritime History Podcast reads 'The Boats of the Glen Kerrig,' where John Winterstraw describes the crew leaving the 'land of lonesomeness' with a wrapper fragment that says, 'my loneliness is not to be borne.' On the second day out, the sky turns 'fiery redness' and the bosun orders canvas, whalebacks, oars, mast, and a long hemp rope into place before the storm arrives.
["The Maritime History Podcast opens part one of its nautical Halloween special with William Hope Hodgson's The Boats of the Glen Carrig, which the host says will run as four feed episodes from 17 chapters.", "The host says Hodgson was a sailor in his early life, frames the novel as a survivor's account told to a son, and quotes Lovecraft calling it a story of malign marvels and accursed unknown lands.", "Chapter One moves from five days in boats to a flat, mudbound coast with stunted vegetation, no birds or frogs, and a first cry that sounds like sobbing.", "Chapter Two and Chapter Three move aboard an abandoned brig stocked with biscuit, rum, flour, and tobacco, then into a night of wailing, growling, and a thing searching outside the cabin."]
The sharpest scene is Themistocles at Andros, where he demands money with 'persuasion and necessity' and gets back 'poverty and helplessness.' The episode then tracks how his post-Salamis power turns into friction with Athens, Sparta, and other Greek cities as he pressures them for money and tries to manage the alliance.
The Maritime History Podcast's episode 039 examines the aftermath of Salamis, where Xerxes withdrew most of Persia's navy while Mardonius remained in Greece with part of the army.
This episode covers the Persian navy and the Ionian Revolt, focusing on the role of triremes in ancient naval warfare.
This episode covers Greek maritime expansion into the Black Sea and conflicts with Carthage, focusing on trade and colonization.
This episode covers the rise of the Phoenicians and transitions to Greek history, using Hesiod's sailing advice as a framing device.
This episode explores the foundation of Carthage, its mythic origins, and its role in ancient maritime history.
The episode covers the aftermath of the Sea Peoples' conflict with Egypt and the early Iron Age reorganization, focusing on Wen Amun's journey.
A recap episode summarizing Season 1 of a maritime history podcast, with a recommendation for a related episode on Tudor naval history.
This interlude episode explores prehistoric boats used by various cultures around the world, from reed boats of Mesopotamia to vessels of Polynesia and Southeast Asia.
This episode examines the Sea Peoples' encounters with Egypt and the collapse of Bronze Age civilizations.