Coming back to this after 11 years - I was 14 when they came out - it’s fun to get to think about the bigger questions in this video with an adult mind. Thanks for saying things that went over my head in 2012 so that in 2023 I can get really absorbed in thinking about the historical implications of the Greco-Persian Wars.
Hi John, My daughter loves your crash course history shows. She wants to say thank you for teaching her. I hope that you're staying safe and healthy in these challenging times. I wish you and your family prosperous, long lives, Trip Seibold
For someone who is Greek, it's surprising you are having an existential crisis as you should know better. Do not listen to this one sided guy who is throwing misinformation left and right. Better study from a real history book, at least they will know where Athens is located and who is Cyrus' son. Or spelling the word "music" utterly wrong in Greek (3 letters out of 7 wrong). Or saying that Xerxes led both campaigns which is wrong.
+computo2000 I'm not Greek 😂😂 but I do have a lot of knowledge about Greece. This channel is very one-sided and is sometimes filled with dubious facts from unknown sources. I came here to kill time tbh
Oh, ok. Looking at videos on the internet is good, you get more opinions. It's just that because they aren't approved (or helped) by anybody, while their intent is usually noble, they may end up making mistakes. That's why people should trust the internet (it is rarely malicious, unlike others), but with a grain of salt.
At university I noticed the persians, the greeks and turkish students naturally were pulled towards each other and they felt closeness and at home with one another.
Yeah man like although we ( and by we I mean persians) had many wars we still REALLY respect each other. We love Greeks because like them we are big fans of philosophy and writing and being spiritual and we’ve had a long history with Turks.
Persia (Iran) has a great civilization, rich mythology, culture and history. Persians gave to the world many great scientists, poets, and philosophers. Many things in this world are invented by Persians 1. Sulfuric acid by Rhazes 2. Computation of 2π by Jamshid Kashani, the Persian astronomer, and mathematician. 3. The first practical windmills for the first time in the history of the world were in Iran. 4. Ethanol by Rhazes 5. A mechanical planetary computer by Jamshid Kashani 6. An ancient type of evaporative cooler and refrigerator 7. Ice Cream 8. Rosewater 9. The art of tile-work was invented and perfected in Iran. 10. The first time that cake was used in a birthday party was by Darius the Great 11. Qanat, 12. Polo 13. Algebra by Khwarizmi 14. Post system, 15. Fork, spoons and many different invents. There are some Persian words from ancient times in the English language like Paradise, Magic, Bazaar, etc. Rhazes was a Persian (Iranian) polymath, physician, alchemist, philosopher, and important figure in the history of medicine. Rhazes is considered the father of psychology and psychotherapy, the father of pediatrics, a pioneer in ophthalmology, making leading contributions in inorganic and organic chemistry, also he is the author of several philosophical works, and also first to categorize the Hospital dept as well. Many scholars consider Rhazes one of the greatest medical doctor. Persians in 500 BC used gold forks and spoons and special gold cups at their dinner tables. The cutlery discovered in Pasargadae in Iran appears to pre-date the Greco-Roman cutlery by almost 1000 years. Cyrus the Great wrote the first Human Rights Charter. United Nations uses the Cyrus Cylinder as a pillar of one the earliest declaration of human rights. In Persia, in Persepolis palace female workers even had paid maternity leave. Persians were also known for having women take part in high governmental positions such as in Construction, Administration, Politics, etc as evident by the record-keeping clay tablets throughout Persepolis in Iran. This is something that would not be seen until at least many centuries after. Persian language is one of the oldest living languages. Persian literature is one of the world's oldest literature. The Persian literature described as one of the great literatures of humanity, and it is one of the four main bodies of world literature. Many great philosophers, poets, and scientists were inspired and influenced by the Persian language and literature.
The translation of the Persian language masterpieces like the Divan of Hafez, the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, the Gulistan of Saadi and the Rubaiyat of Khayyam in countries like France, England, Germany, and other European countries astounded the literary circles there Suddenly, the western literary forum faced extraordinary literary works, Saint - Beuve on seeing the Persian literature said: "If we could realize that great works such as the Shahnameh exits in the world, we would not become so much proud of our own works in such a silly manner." Upon knowing Hafez, Goethe, the great German writer and statesman who is one of the 4 pillars of European literature wished to be one of his disciples. Goethe said: "O Hafez, your word is as great as eternity for it has no beginning and no end. Your word, as the canopy of Heaven, solely depends on itself. It is all signs, beauty, and excellence". After studying the lyric poems of Hafiz, Nitsche wrote: "O Hafez, you have created a tavern of philosophy greater than any worldly palace. In it, you provided a wine of grace and word beyond the capacity of the world to drink. The highest pinnacle of any mount is but a sign of your greatness and the unfathomable depth of any vortex is just a mark of your perfection, and the excellence of your word."
As one of the great literatures of mankind the Persian literature has its roots in surviving works in Old Persian or Middle Persian. French poetess Comtesse de Noaille writes in her book, "The Enchanting Garden": " I read this point in the fragrant, pleasant and sad book the reading of which imparted an enchanting intoxication to me and I now know that an enchanting garden really exists and can be seen by the eyes. It is a garden that extends from the foot of the mountainous area named Saadi to Shiraz in Persia. O my soul would it be possible for my body to accompany you and fly to this paradise, where the nightingale frenzied with love sings from spring to summer; the tulips blossom; the air becomes fragrant; the evening breeze entrusts the roses to the winds and from atop the aspens, during the fiery summer, the winds twist while panting with burning breath. The town which is all metal, porcelain, and plaster, shines as bright as silver and gold. Every vaulted dome is like a blue fruit and the intertwining arcs are high points that cast their shadows with their enameled tiles and flowery turquoise design on waters below. " The translation of the ghazals of Hafez by Hammer in Germany, translation of Gulistan in France and the Rubaiyat of Khayyam in England by Fitzgerald, also the poems of Shahnameh by Vohl in France created a deep change in European literature. Other countries of Europe also became aware and cognizant of the precedence of Persia and the inspiring breeze of the Persian gardens. They came to know extraordinary men. This influence was so deep that among the highly valuable works of the individuals like Corneille, Racine, Volaire, Madeleine Scudery, Montesquieu and others, the influence is clearly noticed in their works such as Sorena, Rodgun, Khusrow, Mehrdad, and Bayazid and etc. Schlegel, in the preface to his translation of a part of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh into German, writes: To reach the real fountainhead of romanticism and be satiated with it one must travel to Persia. "
For centuries, Iran (Persia) has been producing some of the world’s most influential and inspiring poets, whose works revolutionized the literature of both the East and the West. Spanning themes of love, divine mysticism, and human rights. The great Persian (Iranian) Poets: Khayyam, Ferdowsi, Hafez, Saadi, Attar, etc, are well known in the West and have influenced the literature of many countries. Khayyam was the Great Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet. The Persian calendar is the most accurate calendar of the world and it was made by Khayyam. The Persian calendar became the official national calendar of Iran. The Persian calendar is more accurate than the Gregorian calendar. By the 1880s, Khayyam was extremely well known throughout the English-speaking world, to the extent of the formation of numerous "Khayyam Clubs" and a "fin de siecle cult of the Rubaiyat" Khayyam's poems have been translated into many languages. The asteroid was named "Khayyam" in 1980. The planet 3095 Khayyam was named in his honor in 1980 and the lunar crater Khayyam was named in his honor in 1970 as well. One of the holes in the moon was named in honor of "Khayyam".
Stateira Ardashiri 👋🏽👋🏽 as a Greek I believe Cyrus the great was an example of what a leader should be, compassionate and strong. The Bad guys always win in Greek history, I have persian cousins on my mothers side (Hispanic side) of the family and we seem so familiar to each other. The Persians are such beautiful and intelligent people, we must be 1st cousins in the ancient world also
@@thanasis3999 Thank you so much, I know you and I have respect for you, this is very nice that you have Persian cousins. Xenophon of Athens was a highly respected Greek general, philosopher, historian and he was Plato's friend and a student of Socrates, He was inetrested in Persia. Cyropaedia is a biography of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire written by Xenophon. Xenophon praised Cyrus the Great and Persia. Xenophon had huge respect toward Persia. In all sources, Cyrus the Great is described as a good king. Raby " what's extraordinary about Cyrus, is that he appears as a paragon of princely statesmanship in the two pillars of Western cultures, that is the Greco-Roman tradition and the Bible". Cyrus freed nations enslaved by the Babylonians and returned their various gods to their shrines. The friends and enemies respected and praised Cyrus the Great. Socrates and Plato praised Cyrus the Great. The Jews respected and praised Cyrus the Great, they called Cyrus messiah. The Babylonians welcomed Cyrus the Great as a liberator. The ancient Greek and Roman historians respected and praised Cyrus the Great. The Great western philosophers, such as Hegel, Nietzsche, etc, etc, respected and praised Cyrus the Great. 99% of the historians of the world respected and praised Cyrus the Great.
Some notable persian historical figures: Omar Khayyam: Inventor of Algebra and the Jalali calendar which is more accurate than the Gregorian calendar. Al kharazmi: Inventor of algorithm which is the foundation of the modern computer Cyrus the great: Cyrus cylinder, First declaration of human rights. Avicenna (Ibn Sina): One of the most influential philosophers. And there are many more.
Yes good things but nothing respect Greek scholars ,they invented philosphy and built the base of modern scientific thought and much more.I think That the question regards the form of government,in fact Greek scholars' thoughts didn't found much space in Greece,except Athene ,Greek city-state were litigious and very different,nevertheless Greek (specialità Ionic)philosphy could develop.The question is:would Ancient Greeks scholars give their great contribute to our history also in the well organized Persian Empire?Probably Yes,instead now authoritarianism is yet diffused in Eastern and Middle-Eastern societies and rationalism has Made Western society greater.
Yes but not as you intend that. They "steal" some technical and empirical ideas of course but their philosophical thought was totally original,it born in magna Greece colonies thanks to new merchant social classes that favoured spread of new ideas in the ancient,close and aristocratic-religious societies so maybe some elements might be external but the way those ideas develope in Greece was totally original,think about Pythagora,Platon or Hippocratus(e.g Avicenna took a lot of medical concepts from Greeks).All ancient people admire Greek yet.Nothing like that was ever seen,other nation as I said before developed only technical-empirical and religious ideas,their speculation was not philosophical(or better "disinterested" ) and philosophy actually is the root of all our sciences,arts and social policies .An example?Hippocratus was the first to separate medicine from divine ,he founded Anathomy and Phisiology,no one had ever made a thought like that until that time!Pythagorics invented maths as a subject,until that maths was only used for counting and divide soil,they found out that Earth move around sun 2200 years before Copernico,they found out that brain is centre of our emotion while people 1800 years later still believed hearth as centre of our emotion..Is that enough?
Umit Bayulken Where did you get your facts from? Because it's not from any source I've ever read. All the above listed are known Iranians/Persians and it's accepted worldwide. It's not up for debate. A breadth search on the web will confirm this. At least use wikipedia next time you decide to challenge someone.
Umit Bayulken Yes I made a mistake. Algebra was not invented by Khayyam. It was also invented by Khwarazmi who was born in Khwarezm which belonged to Persia at the time. So did Bokhara which is now in modern day Uzbekistan. The Persian empire dates back to 500 BC. and obviously its borders has changed over the years. They were born in Persia and spoke the language therefore they are PERSIAN. There's no argument here so stop with your nonsense.
Umit Bayulken Umit, please give me at least ONE source where it says Khwarizmi is a turk. I'm looking through everything and it show's that he was a ethnic Persian who was born in Baghdad. He was ethnically and linguistically persian. www.famousscientists.org/muhammad-ibn-musa-al-khwarizmi/ www.storyofmathematics.com/islamic_alkhwarizmi.html
This comment thread is pretty awesome. I actually see people complain about this video in a reasonable manner, and actually source things! People held legit discussions! Everybody, welcome to Nerdfighteria!
Daniel Sun Hank is a hot dog deliciously fried in a corn batter and then put on a stick, dipped in chocolate. Hank can also refer to the fish by that name, and the action performed by that fish, known as Hanking.
I know I am EXCEEDINGLY late, coming back to this series since it was first released years ago; but it sucks to me that we talk about equality and treatment if people's in Athens and Persia, but don't mention the most gender egalitarian of the peoples in quite possibly the entire world at the time: The Spartans. While they had a duarchy (a two-king system) and did keep an entire underclass of people, the Helots, amongst Spartan citizens, women were treated incredibly equally. Both boys and girls got an education, with women even being expected to be just as physically active as their male counterparts, women could own property (a very big deal in nearly any era of history), when men died their widows, not their sons, inherited their belongings, and when a Spartan woman died her inheritance was split equally among her children - regardless of gender. The other ancient greeks of the time note that Spartan women wielded remarkable wealth and, thusly, power and political influence. Women were even allowed to go out and drive chariots on their own - women in some parts of the world TODAY, up until very recently, still weren't able to drive. When Pyrrus attempted to invade Sparta, Spartan women were the ones who dug the trenches, built the defences, and gathered the equipment so men could fight in the morning fully rested, and they really clearly knew what they were doing militarily, a shocking idea to the world at the time. While women couldn't serve in the military or (openly) hold power, this was the society that buried women who died in childbirth with warrior's writes; who when an Athenian asked a Spartan Queen what Spartan women knew that Athenian women didn't, she responded "how to be free". If you were an able-bodied citizen, Sparta was one of the best places to be as a woman for millennia before... And arguably millennia after. But then, this is also the society that killed any children born with disabilities. But it does show that in history, nobody is ever just good or evil. Just wish this video had given the Spartans more than a single line about the Helots and Kings when a good amount of the video is discussing how we'd morally judge a society today and the treatment of women in Athens is touched on; especially with how the popular perception of Sparta is that of manly men doing manly things.
And you must know many of the Greek philosophers spend their time in the East , in the former Persian Empire. Because Within Persian Domains there were generally a more of an open atmosphere for free debate. Like Herodotus himself and Pythagoras . The Persians held to the ideas of women and men being equal and worked to abolish slavery these ideas don't just emerge out of a vacuum but derive from a great source of learning an understanding. Lets not also forget about Vedic and Zoroastrian sources of knowledge that has defined millennia of Indo-Iranian and Aryanic heritage.
There is virtually no Persian influence in Plato or Aristotle. Maybe Plato was aware of Egyptian mythology/secret knowledge, but that is largely pure speculation.
dontcallmejon ***** I'm not hating anything, Zoroastrianism is a fascinating religion, but I just don't see any it influencing Plato or Aristotle. Historically it's effect was felt much later by influencing Manicheanism and some Neo-platonist/Gnostic schools but thats about it. Correct me if I'm wrong please.
Daniel Bagheri Sarvistani درود ببخشید می تونی برام ترجمه کنی که داره چی میگه ؟ اگه بتونی متن کامل ترجمه شدشو برام بزاری ممنون میشم چون شاید بیشتر از یه سال باشه تو کف این ویدئوئم ممنون میشم
In my opinion after watching this and hilarious helmet history the Persians were actually very, very, very cool people. Especially because of their ideas for religious freedom and that they didn't own slaves or even like The idea of Slavery.
Just noticed that "Greek" ΜΩΨΣΦΚΗ - whoa. The transliteration of that to Latin would be M-O (but the wrong O)-PS-S-PH-K-E (but the right E). "Mawpssfke." The letters you want are ΜΟΥΣΙΚΗ.
The greeks and Persians gave both Important things to this day, (greeks gave for example Alot of Important Mathematics, While the Persians gave alot of toughts on Equality for example; Ethnicality and religion) can we be friends now and stop Arguing whom was bad and good?
I love how they don't have French subtitles, but then they have Finnish subtitles. Seriously, I love it. We're on our way to becoming a world language!
Just a couple of minor clarifications. First, it was Darius who was in power and not Xerxes when Athens helped the Ionian Greek cities. He passed on his thirst for revenge to his son Xerxes as an inheritance. Second, there were about 7000 greeks and not just 300 spartans who fought the Persians at Thermopylae. Really enjoying the videos by the way! Awesome work!
I mean we didn't "take care of" slavery. There are still 25 million slaves in the world today, which is more than in any other time in human history (the percentage is a lot smaller but still.) Slavery is still a huge problem in the modern world.
Antonius Robertus It still boggles my mind that you can lose the right to vote for growing/selling marijuana to other adults...Oh and by the way you still have to pay taxes. Apparently no taxation with representation isn't a thing anymore
Antonius Robertus no, it's not legal. But giving food for work is not slavery... Because you get something, unless the cost of the food is below the minimal wage...
"It's true that Athens gave us Socrates but let me remind you, they also killed him." "All of which forces us to return to the core question of human history: What's the point of being alive?" You made this whole video for these lines didnt you?
@@kostasgamer1345 I'm certainly not mongol. Be respectable. It is clear that you're the one being unreasonable, so please, sir, do not project your personality on those people whom you have placed pre-disposed hatred.
@@saeedvazirian my apologies man i ďont know why i expressed myself like that. Sorry. What are you saying about our (Greeks) history of stabbing each other in the back is true . My apologies
There are a few mistakes in this video: 1) Darius the great was not the son of Cyrus the great, rather a distant cousin of his. 2) Darius did not conquer Anatolia and Egypt. Anatolia was conquered by Cyrus and Egypt by his son Cambyses. 3) The battle of marathon did not happen during king Xerxes' invasion of Greece, but earlier during king Darius' smaller invasion. 4) The claim about slavery not existing in ancient Persia, althogh loved by my fellow Persians, is not univesally accepted among historians. Of course there is tremendous bias among modern Persisan histrians to believe in it as afact. I am not saying it is not true. But we cannot be sure.
I'm in AP World History learning about this, and this video helped so much! I really love your channel, and love your videos! I'll probably be watching plenty more throughout the rest of my education.
Who really won the Greco-Persian Wars? 1. Greek revolt under Cyrus the Great's rule in Asia Minor was ultimately quashed by Harpagus: Achaemenid victory. 2. The Ionian revolt under Darius the Great's rule was also quashed: Achaemenid victory. 3. First Persian campaign of mainland Greece where the Cycladic islands are conquered and Eretria is sacked, however, Persians are repelled at Marathon: Overall Achaemenid victory. 4. Xerxes' campaign of mainland Greece which eventually resulted in Xerxes' forces being defeated and repelled: Overall Allied Greek victory. 5. Delian League/Athenian Empire campaigns expelled Achaemenid rule from Europe and the Aegean but were repelled from Egypt: Overall Allied Greek victory. 6. The Peloponnesian War, which resulted in Persia regaining the Aegean coast of Asia Minor and Athens being neutralised: Spartan and Achaemenid victory. 7. The Corinthian War, ending with the Peace of Antalcidas/ King's Peace: Achaemenid and its Greek allies victory.
Well no to your no, "Greece" never enslaved the Persian Empire. If you are referring to the Macedonian invasion then with that logic, you should include the Seleucid-Parthian Wars... when would it have truly been the end of the Greco-Persian Wars?
***** Yeah, Alexander was specifically an admirer of Cyrus. Also remember that they didn't conquer the WHOLE Persian Empire, that's why the Achaemenid Empire is known as the largest Empire of the ancient world. I guess your point makes more sense, though generally speaking most people put the end of the Greco-Persian Wars at around 449BCE... which is very false. I guess the victor in the end is the Macedonian Kingdom not "all Greeks" as there were probably more Greeks fighting for the Persians.
Sorry mate... Macedonian Empire: 5.2 million km squared Achaemenid Empire: 8.5 million km squared ... Alexander distrusted other Greeks in general, since they collaborated with the Persians at times and were not happy with Macedonian rulership. But to keep stability in his Empire, Alexander had to incorporate Persians and other "barbarians" in his army and administration which we know the Macedonians were generally not happy with this. Also, don't forget the Thracians who were in his army from the beginning. You should do some research, it's also quite interesting.
Hey, just to get things straight by no means am I trying to be bias, I respect ancient Greek culture as it has set the foundation of many things we still have in use today. You have the whole internet at your disposal, mate.. If you look it up, the Achaemenid Empire was the largest Empire of the ancient world under Darius the Great, period. By the way, Greeks since Cyrus' rule have collaborated with the Persians, not all Greeks but atleast a significant minority, especially by the time of Alexander's campaigns. For example, Thebes have been siding with Persia throughout all the Greco-Persian conflicts.
I wish you can just understand that the Achaemenid Empire was the largest Empire of the ancient world. Roman Empire was 5 million square km at its peak which is still no where near the 8.5 million square km. At least try to understand this, there is no debate, it's FACTUAL! Alexander may have ruled most of the Greek states and conquered an extra province of Punjab from India but he did not have Libya, Nabatea, Maka, Saka, Pontus, Armenia, Caucasian Albania, Colchis, Media Atrapotene, Iberia, Dahae, Massagatae... e.t.c Of course Alexander the Great knew which Greeks he couldn't trust, we know that he didn't trust many but the ones he did trust, he treated almost as well as the Macedonian Greeks. But the ones who "disobeyed" him, Persian or Greek were harshly executed.
I'm binge watching the AP World videos to help study for a test. I have a test over chapters 1-6 on the first day of school and watching videos of John Green be a nerd is an easy way to review 😂
My school normally works around trimesters. It has for the past 7 years. But we switched to semesters, meaning our classes are shorter than normal. Thus, my AP World history teacher doesn't have enough time to teach us everything we need for the final. So we had to do it over the summer and take a test over it ASAP.
+Marcos 989 I'm sorry you feel that way, considering I'm a straight A student and just got the highest test score in my class in AP World with 100%. I take great pride in how much I work for my grades. I don't get how I come off as dumb to you, because I just said that I was watching these videos to review. Many people don't even study for their tests. I'm going the extra mile. Sorry.
People assuming that if Persians had won there would be no democracy ever are funny. One does not simply predict what would happen in two and a half thousand years if someone else had won some war. Things are not that simple and linear. It's not a cheesy RPG game. It could have been better or worse. Nobody can say for sure.
Not mentioning the fact that modern democracy is more akin to Polish-Lithuanian Golden Liberty and British Commonwealth and Parliamentarian government (evolving into USA's model of democracy ) than the one ancient Athenian model.
+stamos legandros I don't think anybody "beats" the other. Both great civilizations, each with different strong points. I believe it is unfair that the role of Iran in the cultural heritage of the West is often forgotten - especially after 1979. I am Greek, by the way! :)
Most of Greeks math, philosophy and knowledge comes from Persian and Egyptian Scholars, Heck Math was invented in Mesopotamia where Iran and Iraq now existed on. The idea that the Western world came from Ancient Greek democracy is completely false, It actually more like a weird mix of the Zoroastrian dualism, Pre-islamic Mathematics and Philosophy (Greek learn philosophy and Mathematics from Persia), Hebrew-Jewish, Ancient Germanic and Medieval English politics, also add some Karma elements from Buddhism and Hinduism. They just slap on the "Ancient Greek Aesthetic" to make it more authentic but in contents have nothing to with Ancient Athenian politics, actually Athenian politics is aristocracy/plutocracy since more than 50% of the people are not citizens and only the rich MEN, yes emphasis on the men, are considered citizens, they use their money to pay soldiers to keep the towns running. People just liked the illusion so much so much they made it stick.
*phew* that's great, because otherwise we were gonna have some issues. Your comment sounded like it could be leaning towards the whole paranoia-everything-bad-is-communist perspective.
I think the question "did the right side win" is pretty much unanswerable. I mean, just because the Persian empire might've been better in some ways than the Greek city states doesn't say much about what would've happened in the future. The Arabic empire once upon a time was a thriving place at the forefront of technological discovery, etc. whereas the West was comparatively underdeveloped and brutal.
+oneonone 1162 it was not Arab Empire which pioneered new sciences. It was indeed the Persians who invented new technologies and poured the fundamentals of chemistry and etc. Arabs have not done any, ever.
OneOnOne1162 I agree that the "what if" argument in this video is sort of silly. We have no idea what would have happened if things turned out differently. This "one upon a time" period that you're talking about is probably the so-called "dark ages" or medieval times, the period that lies roughly between the fall of the Roman empire and the start of the Renaissance (a period of about 1000 years from around the mid 400s to the mid 1400s - which is roughly the years -172 to 828 in the Islamic calendar). Well it's interesting to note that during that time, the Caliphates and the European kingdoms were not all that different - both were busy waging holy wars, expanding their empires, and building religious buildings (mosques and cathedrals). I wouldn't say that technological discovery was really happening all over the Arabic empire. Most of the scientific research taking place in the Arabic empire was happening in Persia. Other important discoveries at the time were being made in India and China, so they were also at the forefront. But as far as Engineering and Architecture goes, it's also interesting to note that this "underdeveloped" West was building the worlds tallest structures. For example, the Notre Dame Cathedral in France was completed in the year 1345 and reached a height of 90 meters, or Chartres Cathedral (completed earlier in 1220, also in France) reaches a height of 113 m. While most of the large mosques were built by the Ottoman Turks around 300 years later, and they only reached a height of around 60 to 70 meters. Or great examples of Mughal architecture (again, the Persians) in what is now northern India, such as the Taj Mahal, reach heights of about the same: 73 m. And these too were built much later than the European castles and cathedrals (in the 1600s). I'm not saying that bigger is better, necessarily. I'm just saying that architectural feats of such great proportions at such an early age casts doubt on the claim that the West was somehow stagnating in technological advancement during the "dark ages". I do have to admit, though, that I think the great Turkish mosques and Mughal architecture are very beautiful, but so are the great Cathedrals and castles.
+oneonone1162 ok. I apologize for the temper. We get really upset that unfortunately the Persian achievements which has indeed shaped and influenced much of the world is extremely under appreciated. Even in popular culture, they state "Islamic nobles" where in reality the term Islamic refers to Arabs and they haven't contributed anything to the world and all of what is said as Islamic nobles is indeed Persian invention machines. We just get overly defensive on it. It's not your fault.
“It would have been much more fortunate had the Persians become masters (Herr) of the Greeks, rather than have the Romans of all people [gerade die Römer] assume that role”......Fredrick Nietechze (Sämtliche Werke, VIII, p. 65).
I’m almost certain if that had happened greeks would be considered middle eastern and the European line would have been drawn at Italy. Tbh that’s the way it should be because Ancient Greece has zero connection with Europe, only the Romans and that was by force. As a Greek I wish it was the Persians who would have conquered us
True, as a German I agree with him and many of his ideas and not with many others, but this I agree. Everywhere the Persians ruled, stability, prosperity and compassion followed.
@@TheOne-fe8wk Believe me, if the Persians conquered you, they themselves would not call it a conquest, rather a joint venture. The Persians detested patronizing and condescension.
@@saeedvazirian Of course Greece had a rough past unfortunately with all the constant wars and the early unstable democracy. But from all this past, many good things happened in ancient Greece that influenced the today's society we will live in. For example philosophy, architecture, democracy as it is mentioned even though it was unstable, literature, freedom of speech, drama, trials by jury, theater, much contribution on science , the Olympic games etc. But despite all that i still remember my history teacher at school telling us that Greeks may have contributed a lot in the world but all this came with a cost because they were always fighting with its other and Persians gave their people a more peaceful and more organized life then the Greeks did.
Thanks to the Persian empire, the Jews returned to Israel from an Exile and built the 2nd Temple. In addition, they could believe in the Judaism because they had religion-rights. That's what I know from bible lessons anyway :P
@@fmaaa8322 ?? you do realize this happened in BC times, right? The word "palestine" didnt even exist. The conflict now has nothing to do with that temple, which has long since been destroyed btw
John, excellent video but there's one small error: Athens is incorrectly placed in Laconia below Sparta. It's in Attica, northeast of Sparta and Argos.
I’m nervous about this exam, I’ve had to mow the lawn, go to a wake do a bunch of homework and the exam is in literally 14 hours, good luck for anyone else taking the ap world exam
Democracy is not translated as "popular government", its "the people's government". Also the Spartans didn't have kingship, they had oligarchy. "Life under the Athenians wasn’t so awesome, particularly if you were a woman or a slave, and their government was notoriously corrupt." What the heck? They didn't have a government, they had direct democracy. "And ultimately the Athenian government derived its power not from its citizens, but from the imperialist belief that Might Makes right." But every country on earth to ever survive thought like that... "They forced Socrates to commit suicide". The "they" is very abstract. Some politicians managed to get enough power in their hands to do that, I don't see how the western civilization can be accused. "The Greeks should have allowed themselves to get beaten by the Persians in order to avoid civil wars." This is too stupid for me to comment on. "Should we try to ensure the longest, healthiest, and most productive lives for humans? If so, it’s easy to argue that Greece should have lost the Persian Wars." Arguable, but all our ideals for humanism aka what he just said, come from ancient Greece. Also women in Sparta enjoyed at least equality to men. "Darius was Cyrus's son" Darius was not Cyrus' son. Cambyses was Cyrus' son and successor. "Xerxes led two campaigns against Greece" Wrong, his actual father, Darius, led the first campaign.
***** I didn't miss the point. I am just pointing out how little I can trust this guy, when he makes so many basic mistakes, and at the same time sounds so confident of what he says.
Sparta actually had two kings and a council of oligarchs. The kings were jointly in charge of the military and the oligarchs were in charge of the everyday functions and operations of the government. It ultimately proved to be an incredibly slow and inefficient system, but the Spartans kept it for centuries because they were an extremely conservative society that despised change. Athenian democracy, despite its admittedly many flaws, was vastly superior to Sparta's mess of a government in vast plethora of ways.
Literally most of the comments in this entire series is just people preparing for their AP exam (The DBQ is gonna screw me over so badly, I know because we had taken an entire practice AP test in class over the course of a week, and my DBQ score let me down)
_"The collision between the fractious political world of the Greeks and the enormous Achaemenid Empire of Persia began when Cyrus the Great conquered the Greek-inhabited region of Ionia in 547 BC. Struggling to rule the independent-minded cities of Ionia, the Persians appointed tyrants to rule each of them. This would prove to be the source of much trouble for the Greeks and Persians alike."_ The rebellions that Athens supported were in Ionian Greek cities, one of them being the home of a great mathematician: Thales of Miletus. The Persians later conquered/burned these cities, and Athens sent help, therefore triggering the Greek-Persian wars. It is wrong to think that the Persians did not hold slaves, just because of their de facto religion, many conquered states would be source of slaves, and that the Persians treated(different from the Greeks) their conquered territories with grace, freedom and all happiness and harmony is just one of the greatest bullshits I've ever heard. The greeks considered the Persians to treat their own population as serfs. If this whole video was about the American independence against the British, it would be equivalent to say that the Americans were a slavist people, who different from the British(who abolished slavery way before) hold slaves and inequality, and were wrong to declare independence against the so nice and gentlemen english, who treated their conquered territories so well.... Its not hard to imagine that an empire consisted of almost 50% of the world's population and more than 60% of the known world would not have slaves, not only because they would not be able to contain the numbers and masses of enslaved peoples, but simply because by all its resources, they didnt needed it. Even then they at some point in history had slaves, and continued to do so, like *all* ancient civilizations, and because their religion denied it, its not an excuse to elevate them as _superior_ among other civilized nations, many of wich because of the Persians being warmongers, had been annexed/subjugated/enslaved. It is estimated that 50 million people lived in the Achaemenid Empire, which at its peak ruled over 45% of the world's population, the highest such figure for any empire in history. The empire had a centralised, bureaucratic administration under a King and a large professional army and civil services, inspiring similar developments in later empires. The delegation of power to local governments eventually weakened the king's authority, causing resources to be expended in attempts to subdue local rebellions. This accounts for the disunity of the region by the time Alexander the Great invaded Persia in 334 BC. Its funny because one of the peoples that modern "historians" consider as the most brutal, dictatorial(JG even used this word) and slavist were the Spartans; they answered this to the proposal of the Persian empire, asking them to join the Achaemenids in the fight and to raze their rivals, Athens, to the ground: _"A slave's life is all you understand, you know nothing of freedom. For if you did, you would have encouraged us to fight on, not only with our spear, but with everything we have."_ Sparta while an “evil slaver state” was the main reason why Greece won in the Persian wars and remained free. John Green loves to stop all his history videos and to change his focus to talk about women, racism and slaves; So why dont we look at the supposed most patriarchal, xenofobos and slavist state of all Greece? Sparta. Sparta had most of its population composed of slaves, the Helots, Helots were tied to the land and were officially the property of the Lacedaemonian government. As a result of at least one revolt, they were regarded with increasing suspicion and subjected to ever harsher laws. In fact, the Lacedaemonian government regularly declared war on the helots to enable quick retribution against any "unruly" helot without the tedious business of a trial. Helots were not, however, routinely murdered or raped by the Spartiates, as some modern commentators claim and many novelists depict. No economy can function for an extended period of time on the basis of brutal coercion - certainly not an economy in which the elite is tiny in comparison with the oppressed. Sparta enjoyed the prosperity it did over hundreds of years (at the least from the 7th to the 5th century BC) because a high degree of internal harmony and a system of mutual benefit for all segments of the society had been established. It was not until the second half of the 5th century, when the Spartiate population shrank to roughly one-eighth of what it had been at the time of Thermopylae, that serious incidents of brutality against helots are reliably recorded. There is only one recorded incident of an organized mass murder of helots without due cause, and this incident resulted from a crisis in Spartiate society. In fact, the deteriorating relations between the Spartiates and the helots can be seen as both a symptom and a cause of the disintegration of archaic Spartan society. Many of the ancient commentators who remarked on the exceptional harshness of the Spartan system not only date from this later period, but are engaged in outright political propaganda. The only Spartan source for the status of helots is the 7th-century poet Tyrtaios, who describes the helots ‘like asses exhausted under great loads to bring their masters full half the fruit their plowed land produced.’ This statement tells us two significant facts often overlooked in shock at the image. Namely, that helots only surrendered 50% of the fruits of their labor - slaves all over the rest of the ancient world surrendered 100% - and that even half the harvest was a heavy burden; i.e., Lacedaemon's agricultural land was so productive that even half the yield was a burden. The latter element is further underlined by the fact that no less than 6,000 Spartan helots were able to save up so much money from the 50% of the harvest they retained that they could pay the enormous sum of 6 Attic minas to buy their freedom in 223/222 BC, when the slavery was somehow "abolished" by the king Cleomenes III. Helots could also engage in cottage production to earn extra money, and hence helots could accumulate wealth and spend it as they pleased. They could achieve freedom in many ways, being the two most common through military service or money. Slaves would get their freedom and be recognized as "Neodamodeis", they were loyal supporters of the Lacedaemonian government and could even be trusted to provide logistical support to the army. Women is also a bit of a bitter discussion, but Sparta is also an example of this; Women in Sparta had free will, and overall freedom; They could own land, wealth, political powers(yes, and Arachidamia is an example of this) and were free in general. But back to the Wars; Meanwhile, the Persians under the "Great King" Darius had sent a fleet of "six hundred triremes," with countless transports filled with horses and provisions, to attack Athens and Eretria. The commanders had orders to reduce both Greek city-states to slavery and bring the slaves before the "Great King." On their way they destroyed a series of smaller cities, enslaving their populations as well, this resulting in the lost of independence in Macedon and Thrace(As the persians started invading via the hellespont). Athens, seeing the juggernaut coming, sent diplomats to Sparta for aid. "The Spartans" - not more closely identified by Herodotus - agreed to send troops, but declared they could not march "before the full moon." This lack of decisiveness, may rather have reflected an internal power struggle. The task force sailed on to Euboea, and to the first major target, Eretria. The Eretrians made no attempt to stop the Persians from landing or advancing and thus allowed themselves to be besieged. For six days, the Persians attacked the walls, with losses on both sides; however, on the seventh day two reputable Eretrians opened the gates and betrayed the city to the Persians. The city was razed, and temples and shrines were looted and burned. Furthermore, according to Darius's commands, the Persians enslaved all the remaining townspeople. Sparta then made itself ridiculous - in the eyes of the powerful Persian monarchs - by warning them against enslaving Greeks. The Persian Great King, as the master of an empire stretching from modern India to modern Turkey, had never heard of Sparta. He asked who these people were who dared "warn" him. He was even more astonished to learn that they came from a city-state that controlled only a portion of the mountainous peninsula of the Peloponnese. When the Persians later sent ambassadors demanding submission to Persia, the Spartan Assembly responded by throwing the ambassadors in a well - an unprecedented breach of diplomatic immunity. When the invasion of mainland Greece finally came, Sparta was elected by the informal alliance of anti-Persian cities to take command. Sparta sent one of her own kings, Leonidas, with an advance guard of three hundred citizens and larger contingents from other members of the anti-Persian alliance, to try to halt the invasion at the pass of Thermopylae. When a traitor betrayed their position, King Leonidas released the other allies to return to their homes; but he and his Spartans, supported voluntarily by 700 Thespians. Less than a year later, Sparta fielded an army composed of what must have been every able-bodied man in the city-state and sent it north of the Isthmus. This army met the significantly superior Persian land forces still threatening Greek independence despite the defeat of the Persian fleet at Salamis the previous fall by the athenians. Together, the Spartans and Athenians, managed to defeat the much larger Persian forces and end the direct threat of Persian invasion, later liberating much of the conquered greek territories, such as northen Greece and Byzantium. Altough I dont think I need to mention all Greek-Persian battles, since overall we can conlude that the Hellenic forces were victorious, the two most important battles were Plataea(the final and most sucessful greek defence) and Marathon(fun fact: The construction of the Parthenon is originally devoted not only to Pallas Athenea, but to the 192 fallen Athenians in the battle, containing 192 figures of fallen hoplites, all of which have its own history being told). What this video forgot to show, and what many pro-persia fans dont see, is the fact that the greeks were brave enough to challenge the worlds superpower to defend its people, to defents its democracy and ideals, philosophy and art, culture, justice and all that later originated western civilization, all that inspired the renaissance, the humanism and illuminism and literacture movements. Were are so good and selfish to put the finger at our ancestors and shout "they didnt had a true democracy" or "they had slaves and women didnt vote", but without realizing that it all had to start from scratch, it all had to start from something, even if this "something" wasnt perfect, it was there and these greeks died in beaches, seas, coasts, walls, and poleis to defend their territory and their people, serving as the gates between western and eastern worlds, and perhaps if the Persians were sucessful, we would have a world domination by their dinasty, they would continue to expand to the west and Rome would also not have existed. By no means the Greeks or the Persians were better people than one another, like this annoying clown appoints in his video, but to be true no culture, philosophy, art, ideology, people, civilization, race, sex or point of view is "evil" or "saint" , "better" or "worse" ; A good historian who prizes himself of his work and duty, is one who can look at the past without judging, who can look at civilizations and analyzes them according to the viewpoint of the time, putting everything in its proper historical perspective being sensible enough to do not let his opinion be more important than the actual history. Pretty much all ancient civilizations had slaves, and were tainted by inequality, and men in power, but with time man started to fix his previous mistakes. I really respect this youtube channel, but of all videos this one is full of manichean ideals about who should have won against who. Of all the historical videos JG did, this was by far the worst, where he actually did not teach anything but his opinion on who he thinks is the "good" guy. And seriously, you just said that the greeks should let themselfs to be conquered, what kind of resonable and even decent argument/opinion does this reflects? Why did you even uploaded this? Anyway....
I agree with some of what you say, and disagree with some that are simply not true. The persians did not have slaves as the Spartans did. Even the Persepolis, the greatest structure of its time was built by paid workers. Granted they did not have 8 hour work days and minimum wage, but they were paid. I grant you however, that the earliest version of the Suez Canal built by Darius was built MOSTLY by prisoners that were unpaid. Also, the reason Darius, and later Xerxes (Darius' son whose campaign you explain) invaded the Greek lands was because of the burning of Sardis by the Ionian rebels. At the time, the burning of Athens was a retaliation to the burning of Sardis, and the burning of Persepolis by Alexander is thought of as a retaliation of burning of Athens. I also respect many Greeks (if you can point to them all as "Greeks") like Alexander as he was truly a genius. He used the network of Persian roads and inns used for their postal service to help supply his invading army for food which led to the incredibly fast invasion of Persia and the Persian King not being able to retaliate as best as he could. Also good to know that the Persian King (ArtaXerxes, I believe, I could be wrong on the name) was taken away from the battle scene in the battles against Alexander by force by his closest advisors and family members out of fear that they might lose the battle. This led to a great loss of moral among the troops since they fought for the King of Kings, and him leaving the battle was not expected at the time. The King of King was later killed by one of his satraps to avoid Alexander from killing him and assuming the title of King of Kings. All in all, I believe we cannot say we are better off or otherwise because of the survival of the Greek polis. We just simply cannot think of the alternative and say what it would definitely entail.
first of all i would like to adress the point that people should stop treating human history with evolution , thinking that democracy is the most perfect form of government is the most erroneous thought . The conditions necessary for a democracy to thrive are too perfect to be true and are nothing more than a romantic ideology . Even the american founding fathers understood this , Alexander Hamilton said; it has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government , experience has proved that no position is more false than this their very character was tyranny. And about your saying that greek ideas started the humanitarian movements i would like to remind you that Aristotle and Plato both regarded slaves as a man's best possession and apart from giving women any chance to vote they were also seen as a man's personal possession . They were political realists like Machiavelli and supported the idea that the end justifies the means so we should treat history with a neutral standpoint and not like who was the bad or the good guy , because in life there is nothing black or white but different shades of grey
I love John Green this guy is too funny while being historically accurate!!! The way his videos are illustrated and he goes about telling the facts adds the niceties to learning!! Wish I had him back in HS.
Actually the line at 8:14 is the most badass thing I've ever heard xD , anyhow a huge thanks to the greeks for being the begining of modern western civilization .
2:38 I am persian myself but they only outlawed it in Parsa and Mesopotamia. It was officially outlawed in the entire empire but impossible to enforce. So they just enforced it within the main provinces
So I know this isn't new, but Darius is definitely not Cyrus's son. In fact, the batshit craziness of how Darius made it to the throne deserves to be an entire episode of something. According to Darius's own telling of the story, he was the leader of a conspiracy that killed a magician who was pretending to be the rightful king after the actual rightful king had died of something mysterious and nobody else knew about it except Darius and his co-conspirators. After leading this conspiracy and killing the "fake" rightful king, the conspirators made Darius king despite having no claim, and then all of the conspirators and their families got special privileges within the empire forever.
I personally disagree with the open letter to Aristophanes - my drama class performed Lysistrata last year and we loved it. It was hilarious and so much fun and it's a memory I'll hold with me for years ^-^
These videos are so helpful to me as overviews. I'm teaching myself western civilization for CLEP credit and your videos are a much needed break from my textbook!
Rome is a lot more violent then Persia with the crucified torture and then Genocide the Macedonians and Epirus , I alway rooted for the west for some reason maybe the way history portray the east as bad guys
@@Gambetdz the thing is there's really no such thing as bad guy or good guy, all of the civilizations have their fair share of bad things and good things. Humans like to make the world black and white so much for some reason, make things an us vs them situation, evil vs good. When the real world is actually very very gray, nobody is ever totally good nor totally evil.
Honestly that movie is extremely insulting to Persians and Africans. Persians: because they are demonstrated as Lecherous fartbrains! And the race and culture that they used has no Persian roots what so ever! They literally made up a culture and race that they found “notorious” and then named them “Persians” Africans: because their appearance and culture is used to make up the notorious picture of Persians the producers wanted. Offensive
@@comradezvezda Wrong. In comparison the Persians were the good guys. They were far more tolerant of individual independence and abolishment of slavery, not to mention multi-faith and multi-ethnic. None of that existed in Greece. The irony is that democracy, which westerners associated to Greeks was actually practiced by the Persians while the Greeks actually behaved opposite to it, they nagged you for your every behaviour and attitude, it was pathetic. The real world is gray and Persians weren't perfect, but they were immeasurably better and more human than the Greeks. Facts, not feelings.
"But to be clear the war was not about about [the US] trying to get [Iraq] to embrace democratic reform... wars rarely are. It was about resources and power."
Darius was King of Persia during the first two invasion attempts! Xerxes simply continue with his father's wishes with what became known as the Greco-Persian Wars, with the Battle of Thermopylae ending with Plataea and Mycale. Other than that, it's reasonably useful.
The Alexander not only won the Greeks ( exactly the Athenians and the Theves who tried to stop him to became the super power of Greece ) but he also united them in one tribe as Greeks and fought the Persians.
David McConville Sparta lost it's independence after the second Achean league was defeated by the Romans. And even then there are inscriptions that say that Sparta is an "ally" of Rome. Most likely as a vassal-like city state, but I can't find anything that say that Sparta was raised to the ground in the time of Alexander or Diadochi kings.
Yeah he made the other Greeks to admit that if they don't be united they would never win the Persia and since he had the strongest army of all Greek kingdoms he took the lead :)
I had to research Sparta once for a school project. One of the things I noticedin the video was you kept calling sparta dictatorial. . They actually beat Athens to democracy. It probably was not a fair democracy (only certain men could vote), but it still was one.Yes they did have kings. Though their government was rather interesting they had two kings, a group of elders who sereved on a committee alongside the two kings. They also had an elected body. Yes, the spartans were brutal. They did a lot of terrible things when training their children for the millitary. Though, they also gave women a lot more rights than Athens ever did. As you say, sometimes the truth resists simplicity.
Actually women in Athens had more rights than we think, they were organising the economy of the family and did other important actions that later sexist civilisations would give to men, Athenian women did not have the right to vote and many other restrictions but they were not considered as trash and disrespected either. They could ask for divorce,...
As a Persian watching movies like 300 made me cringe hard. The Greece fight in their golden armor like heroes vs the 'demonic' Persians in their black masks. That's not even slightly How Persian warriors looked like lol.
@Victor Reznov Stupid excuse. If I make something antisemitic and say it's based off of a Nazi book, does that make it acceptable? Grow up. The comic and the movie are garbage.
@Anthony Graves Nope. He did it to burn knowledge and kill people to feel better. Funny how that made him and the Greeks' lives more miserable. That's Persian ingenuity for you. That was Darius III's scheme all along. To utterly humiliate and destroy Hellenism internally, before the future Parthians and Romans kill them for eternity.
@@saeedvazirian Bottom line, Greeks are superior in every way.. Especially one Greek born in Sparta and immigrated to the states at six years old by the name of Constantine. This man's level of success can not be matched..YES, this man is me !!! You stupid kids of today trying to re write history..Malakes go back to your caves :)
Did you guys seriously expect ancient Greece to be some kind of paradise? of course there was injustice etc, just like now lol. But what these people left behind is something else.
+John Baptist How did a person like you ended up on an educational video and be able to leave the stupidest comment I've ever seen, on THIS PRECISE VIDEO. As Daniel Goleman might say, this pizzled me.
In what world would you say such a thing... No matter how cruel they might have been, things are how they are, the more technology advanced people will rule over the less tech adv civilizations, and no matter what you can say, being inspired by the democracy is what has brought us more equal rights. Of course it's not perfect, but I'm happier now than I would be 200 years ago living in France, so are the women, so are the mentally hill who are not tortured because we think they are possessed, thanks to human rights, thanks tp democracy for god sake ! I know it's hard to grasp in your little head but just think and compare our world now to what it used to be when our fellow kings ruled the world. Plus, lots of slaves were sold by our own people, what does that tell you ? I'll help you here, morons are everywhere, and some of them are very strong, strong enough to piss on anybody, even their own people. This is the last thing I'll say, because the pigeon argument doesn't bring any interest of mine, but for god sake, THINK, THINK A LITTLE BIT, PLEASE ! And to say people like you are walking among us and bear children, I whip for the humanity.
I have a midterm tomorrow morning for a class I've been to literally once and this video basically covers everything I missed in the first half of the semester, so thanks for that :)
I wonder if in 2000 years historians will argue whether or not the right side won WW2, just as john asked the question of whether or not the world was better off with a Persian defeat. And I'm only partially joking, as millennia do tend to blur the lines of 'right' and 'wrong' quite a bit.
@@ComradeHellas I'll never understand why you history people get so offended when someone gets 2% of a statement wrong. You missed science dude's whole point. He's arguing that good and evil are only emotions that we feel, not what is true. Nature doesn't have any emotions so you can't say something is objectively bad without seeing it from a different perspective.
False equivalency. The Persians were far more moral people than the Greeks, while the 1930s Germans were far less moral people than the Allied powers. This goes without saying that the ALlied powers were extremely murderous too. Learn some history, mate. The world WOULD be better off with a Persian victory.
@@ComradeHellas What a steaming pile of horseshit, mass-murder is wrong regardless of the reason, but Khan was a far more evil man than Hitler, because he simply killed people anyway. Same as fools like Alexander, thinking violence will give them power or hegemony, which it didn't. In the end, Alexander was Persianised, his legacy castrated and his alliances imploded, leaving the Persians the sole hegemons of Persia.
Coming back to this after 11 years - I was 14 when they came out - it’s fun to get to think about the bigger questions in this video with an adult mind. Thanks for saying things that went over my head in 2012 so that in 2023 I can get really absorbed in thinking about the historical implications of the Greco-Persian Wars.
Hi John,
My daughter loves your crash course history shows. She wants to say thank you for teaching her.
I hope that you're staying safe and healthy in these challenging times.
I wish you and your family prosperous, long lives,
Trip Seibold
Man absolutely love these videos. I hope 2000 years from now there’s a crash course universe history with an episode on crash course world history.
I don't have an exam I just enjoy history
I am in 7th grade and I am learning about the ancient Greeks. I just love history!!!! :)
I am Iranian came here to enjoy national pride ahahahaha
me too
nerd
Lol I have an exam
I came for the history cause I was bored. now I'm lying on the floor thinking about life. thanks for the existential crisis.
For someone who is Greek, it's surprising you are having an existential crisis as you should know better. Do not listen to this one sided guy who is throwing misinformation left and right. Better study from a real history book, at least they will know where Athens is located and who is Cyrus' son. Or spelling the word "music" utterly wrong in Greek (3 letters out of 7 wrong). Or saying that Xerxes led both campaigns which is wrong.
+computo2000 I'm not Greek 😂😂 but I do have a lot of knowledge about Greece. This channel is very one-sided and is sometimes filled with dubious facts from unknown sources. I came here to kill time tbh
Oh, ok. Looking at videos on the internet is good, you get more opinions. It's just that because they aren't approved (or helped) by anybody, while their intent is usually noble, they may end up making mistakes. That's why people should trust the internet (it is rarely malicious, unlike others), but with a grain of salt.
+computo2000 more like a whole bag of salt bc everyone on the internet is salty af
computo2000 BURN
Nobody:
Highschool Ap World students: Time to binge 500 minutes of John Greene.
AP euro for me
At university I noticed the persians, the greeks and turkish students naturally were pulled towards each other and they felt closeness and at home with one another.
Yeah man like although we ( and by we I mean persians) had many wars we still REALLY respect each other. We love Greeks because like them we are big fans of philosophy and writing and being spiritual and we’ve had a long history with Turks.
"Through wars comes peace, but peace is merely a pause between wars."
- Ancient Persian Philosopher Arman é Forouzan
Good luck on the AP World exam!
4 days...
_ Cadillac99Liam
Yikes. Don’t remind me.
thank you so much! good luck to you as well :0 :)
Shailey S.
Thanks!
TOMMOROW!!!
who's watching this because they're bored and wanna learn about history and not just an AP World Student.
meee Hahahaha
+TechTubeCentral me second time
Not bored but curious
Yea not board I am just a history nerd and love watching these videos
me
"the slaves" "oh..." hahahah nailed it
Love Greece and Egypt from Iran🇮🇷🇬🇷🇪🇬
Karl marx: invents communism
Aristophones: but that was my idea
if we forget about the wars, we kind of owe part of our knowledge to Persians and Greeks
I totally forgot about Persia now I'm doing an all nighter looking at all the crash courses
Persia (Iran) has a great civilization, rich mythology, culture and history. Persians gave to the world many great scientists, poets, and philosophers. Many things in this world are invented by Persians 1. Sulfuric acid by Rhazes 2. Computation of 2π by Jamshid Kashani, the Persian astronomer, and mathematician. 3. The first practical windmills for the first time in the history of the world were in Iran. 4. Ethanol by Rhazes 5. A mechanical planetary computer by Jamshid Kashani 6. An ancient type of evaporative cooler and refrigerator 7. Ice Cream 8. Rosewater 9. The art of tile-work was invented and perfected in Iran. 10. The first time that cake was used in a birthday party was by Darius the Great 11. Qanat, 12. Polo 13. Algebra by Khwarizmi 14. Post system, 15. Fork, spoons and many different invents.
There are some Persian words from ancient times in the English language like Paradise, Magic, Bazaar, etc.
Rhazes was a Persian (Iranian) polymath, physician, alchemist, philosopher, and important figure in the history of medicine. Rhazes is considered the father of psychology and psychotherapy, the father of pediatrics, a pioneer in ophthalmology, making leading contributions in inorganic and organic chemistry, also he is the author of several philosophical works, and also first to categorize the Hospital dept as well. Many scholars consider Rhazes one of the greatest medical doctor.
Persians in 500 BC used gold forks and spoons and special gold cups at their dinner tables. The cutlery discovered in Pasargadae in Iran appears to pre-date the Greco-Roman cutlery by almost 1000 years.
Cyrus the Great wrote the first Human Rights Charter. United Nations uses the Cyrus Cylinder as a pillar of one the earliest declaration of human rights.
In Persia, in Persepolis palace female workers even had paid maternity leave. Persians were also known for having women take part in high governmental positions such as in Construction, Administration, Politics, etc as evident by the record-keeping clay tablets throughout Persepolis in Iran. This is something that would not be seen until at least many centuries after.
Persian language is one of the oldest living languages. Persian literature is one of the world's oldest literature. The Persian literature described as one of the great literatures of humanity, and it is one of the four main bodies of world literature. Many great philosophers, poets, and scientists were inspired and influenced by the Persian language and literature.
The translation of the Persian language masterpieces like the Divan of Hafez, the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, the Gulistan of Saadi and the Rubaiyat of Khayyam in countries like France, England, Germany, and other European countries astounded the literary circles there Suddenly, the western literary forum faced extraordinary literary works, Saint - Beuve on seeing the Persian literature said:
"If we could realize that great works such as the Shahnameh exits in the world, we would not become so much proud of our own works in such a silly manner."
Upon knowing Hafez, Goethe, the great German writer and statesman who is one of the 4 pillars of European literature wished to be one of his disciples. Goethe said: "O Hafez, your word is as great as eternity for it has no beginning and no end. Your word, as the canopy of Heaven, solely depends on itself. It is all signs, beauty, and excellence". After studying the lyric poems of Hafiz, Nitsche wrote: "O Hafez, you have created a tavern of philosophy greater than any worldly palace. In it, you provided a wine of grace and word beyond the capacity of the world to drink. The highest pinnacle of any mount is but a sign of your greatness and the unfathomable depth of any vortex is just a mark of your perfection, and the excellence of your word."
As one of the great literatures of mankind the Persian literature has its roots in surviving works in Old Persian or Middle Persian. French poetess Comtesse de Noaille writes in her book, "The Enchanting Garden": " I read this point in the fragrant, pleasant and sad book the reading of which imparted an enchanting intoxication to me and I now know that an enchanting garden really exists and can be seen by the eyes. It is a garden that extends from the foot of the mountainous area named Saadi to Shiraz in Persia.
O my soul would it be possible for my body to accompany you and fly to this paradise, where the nightingale frenzied with love sings from spring to summer; the tulips blossom; the air becomes fragrant; the evening breeze entrusts the roses to the winds and from atop the aspens, during the fiery summer, the winds twist while panting with burning breath. The town which is all metal, porcelain, and plaster, shines as bright as silver and gold. Every vaulted dome is like a blue fruit and the intertwining arcs are high points that cast their shadows with their enameled tiles and flowery turquoise design on waters below. "
The translation of the ghazals of Hafez by Hammer in Germany, translation of Gulistan in France and the Rubaiyat of Khayyam in England by Fitzgerald, also the poems of Shahnameh by Vohl in France created a deep change in European literature. Other countries of Europe also became aware and cognizant of the precedence of Persia and the inspiring breeze of the Persian gardens. They came to know extraordinary men.
This influence was so deep that among the highly valuable works of the individuals like Corneille, Racine, Volaire, Madeleine Scudery, Montesquieu and others, the influence is clearly noticed in their works such as Sorena, Rodgun, Khusrow, Mehrdad, and Bayazid and etc.
Schlegel, in the preface to his translation of a part of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh into German, writes: To reach the real fountainhead of romanticism and be satiated with it one must travel to Persia. "
For centuries, Iran (Persia) has been producing some of the world’s most influential and inspiring poets, whose works revolutionized the literature of both the East and the West. Spanning themes of love, divine mysticism, and human rights.
The great Persian (Iranian) Poets: Khayyam, Ferdowsi, Hafez, Saadi, Attar, etc, are well known in the West and have influenced the literature of many countries. Khayyam was the Great Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet. The Persian calendar is the most accurate calendar of the world and it was made by Khayyam. The Persian calendar became the official national calendar of Iran. The Persian calendar is more accurate than the Gregorian calendar.
By the 1880s, Khayyam was extremely well known throughout the English-speaking world, to the extent of the formation of numerous "Khayyam Clubs" and a "fin de siecle cult of the Rubaiyat" Khayyam's poems have been translated into many languages. The asteroid was named "Khayyam" in 1980. The planet 3095 Khayyam was named in his honor in 1980 and the lunar crater Khayyam was named in his honor in 1970 as well. One of the holes in the moon was named in honor of "Khayyam".
Stateira Ardashiri 👋🏽👋🏽 as a Greek I believe Cyrus the great was an example of what a leader should be, compassionate and strong. The Bad guys always win in Greek history, I have persian cousins on my mothers side (Hispanic side) of the family and we seem so familiar to each other. The Persians are such beautiful and intelligent people, we must be 1st cousins in the ancient world also
@@thanasis3999 Thank you so much, I know you and I have respect for you, this is very nice that you have Persian cousins.
Xenophon of Athens was a highly respected Greek general, philosopher, historian and he was Plato's friend and a student of Socrates, He was inetrested in Persia. Cyropaedia is a biography of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire written by Xenophon. Xenophon praised Cyrus the Great and Persia. Xenophon had huge respect toward Persia.
In all sources, Cyrus the Great is described as a good king. Raby " what's extraordinary about Cyrus, is that he appears as a paragon of princely statesmanship in the two pillars of Western cultures, that is the Greco-Roman tradition and the Bible".
Cyrus freed nations enslaved by the Babylonians and returned their various gods to their shrines. The friends and enemies respected and praised Cyrus the Great. Socrates and Plato praised Cyrus the Great. The Jews respected and praised Cyrus the Great, they called Cyrus messiah. The Babylonians welcomed Cyrus the Great as a liberator. The ancient Greek and Roman historians respected and praised Cyrus the Great. The Great western philosophers, such as Hegel, Nietzsche, etc, etc, respected and praised Cyrus the Great. 99% of the historians of the world respected and praised Cyrus the Great.
Some notable persian historical figures:
Omar Khayyam: Inventor of Algebra and the Jalali calendar which is more accurate than the Gregorian calendar.
Al kharazmi: Inventor of algorithm which is the foundation of the modern computer
Cyrus the great: Cyrus cylinder, First declaration of human rights.
Avicenna (Ibn Sina): One of the most influential philosophers.
And there are many more.
Yes good things but nothing respect Greek scholars ,they invented philosphy and built the base of modern scientific thought and much more.I think That the question regards the form of government,in fact Greek scholars' thoughts didn't found much space in Greece,except Athene ,Greek city-state were litigious and very different,nevertheless Greek (specialità Ionic)philosphy could develop.The question is:would Ancient Greeks scholars give their great contribute to our history also in the well organized Persian Empire?Probably Yes,instead now authoritarianism is yet diffused in Eastern and Middle-Eastern societies and rationalism has Made Western society greater.
Yes but not as you intend that. They "steal" some technical and empirical ideas of course but their philosophical thought was totally original,it born in magna Greece colonies thanks to new merchant social classes that favoured spread of new ideas in the ancient,close and aristocratic-religious societies so maybe some elements might be external but the way those ideas develope in Greece was totally original,think about Pythagora,Platon or Hippocratus(e.g Avicenna took a lot of medical concepts from Greeks).All ancient people admire Greek yet.Nothing like that was ever seen,other nation as I said before developed only technical-empirical and religious ideas,their speculation was not philosophical(or better "disinterested" ) and philosophy actually is the root of all our sciences,arts and social policies
.An example?Hippocratus was the first to separate medicine from divine ,he founded Anathomy and Phisiology,no one had ever made a thought like that until that time!Pythagorics invented maths as a subject,until that maths was only used for counting and divide soil,they found out that Earth move around sun 2200 years before Copernico,they found out that brain is centre of our emotion while people 1800 years later still believed hearth as centre of our emotion..Is that enough?
Umit Bayulken Where did you get your facts from? Because it's not from any source I've ever read. All the above listed are known Iranians/Persians and it's accepted worldwide. It's not up for debate. A breadth search on the web will confirm this. At least use wikipedia next time you decide to challenge someone.
Umit Bayulken Yes I made a mistake. Algebra was not invented by Khayyam. It was also invented by Khwarazmi who was born in Khwarezm which belonged to Persia at the time. So did Bokhara which is now in modern day Uzbekistan. The Persian empire dates back to 500 BC. and obviously its borders has changed over the years. They were born in Persia and spoke the language therefore they are PERSIAN. There's no argument here so stop with your nonsense.
Umit Bayulken Umit, please give me at least ONE source where it says Khwarizmi is a turk. I'm looking through everything and it show's that he was a ethnic Persian who was born in Baghdad. He was ethnically and linguistically persian.
www.famousscientists.org/muhammad-ibn-musa-al-khwarizmi/
www.storyofmathematics.com/islamic_alkhwarizmi.html
This comment thread is pretty awesome. I actually see people complain about this video in a reasonable manner, and actually source things! People held legit discussions! Everybody, welcome to Nerdfighteria!
yeah, the learning of things doesn't stop after the video :D
Who the eff is Hank?
Daniel Sun John's brother
Daniel Sun Hank is a hot dog deliciously fried in a corn batter and then put on a stick, dipped in chocolate. Hank can also refer to the fish by that name, and the action performed by that fish, known as Hanking.
Josh Barrett yum
Got my AP world exam TMR time to watch all 42 videos
Tyrantunchained 1 we got this
Good luck folks. Let’s hope for a Colombian Exchange LEQ...
Same but we got this
same.
omg yessssssss the only thing I actually read in the txt book @@ferriswill4929
I know I am EXCEEDINGLY late, coming back to this series since it was first released years ago; but it sucks to me that we talk about equality and treatment if people's in Athens and Persia, but don't mention the most gender egalitarian of the peoples in quite possibly the entire world at the time: The Spartans.
While they had a duarchy (a two-king system) and did keep an entire underclass of people, the Helots, amongst Spartan citizens, women were treated incredibly equally. Both boys and girls got an education, with women even being expected to be just as physically active as their male counterparts, women could own property (a very big deal in nearly any era of history), when men died their widows, not their sons, inherited their belongings, and when a Spartan woman died her inheritance was split equally among her children - regardless of gender. The other ancient greeks of the time note that Spartan women wielded remarkable wealth and, thusly, power and political influence. Women were even allowed to go out and drive chariots on their own - women in some parts of the world TODAY, up until very recently, still weren't able to drive. When Pyrrus attempted to invade Sparta, Spartan women were the ones who dug the trenches, built the defences, and gathered the equipment so men could fight in the morning fully rested, and they really clearly knew what they were doing militarily, a shocking idea to the world at the time.
While women couldn't serve in the military or (openly) hold power, this was the society that buried women who died in childbirth with warrior's writes; who when an Athenian asked a Spartan Queen what Spartan women knew that Athenian women didn't, she responded "how to be free". If you were an able-bodied citizen, Sparta was one of the best places to be as a woman for millennia before... And arguably millennia after.
But then, this is also the society that killed any children born with disabilities. But it does show that in history, nobody is ever just good or evil. Just wish this video had given the Spartans more than a single line about the Helots and Kings when a good amount of the video is discussing how we'd morally judge a society today and the treatment of women in Athens is touched on; especially with how the popular perception of Sparta is that of manly men doing manly things.
And you must know many of the Greek philosophers spend their time in the East , in the former Persian Empire. Because Within Persian Domains there were generally a more of an open atmosphere for free debate. Like Herodotus himself and Pythagoras . The Persians held to the ideas of women and men being equal and worked to abolish slavery these ideas don't just emerge out of a vacuum but derive from a great source of learning an understanding. Lets not also forget about Vedic and Zoroastrian sources of knowledge that has defined millennia of Indo-Iranian and Aryanic heritage.
***** India didn't have slavery but had caste system(which is worse than slavery) that wasn't brought to India.
There is virtually no Persian influence in Plato or Aristotle. Maybe Plato was aware of Egyptian mythology/secret knowledge, but that is largely pure speculation.
john Mars
haters gonna hate bro
dontcallmejon
***** I'm not hating anything, Zoroastrianism is a fascinating religion, but I just don't see any it influencing Plato or Aristotle. Historically it's effect was felt much later by influencing Manicheanism and some Neo-platonist/Gnostic schools but thats about it.
Correct me if I'm wrong please.
Daniel Bagheri Sarvistani درود ببخشید می تونی برام ترجمه کنی که داره چی میگه ؟ اگه بتونی متن کامل ترجمه شدشو برام بزاری ممنون میشم چون شاید بیشتر از یه سال باشه تو کف این ویدئوئم ممنون میشم
In my opinion after watching this and hilarious helmet history the Persians were actually very, very, very cool people. Especially because of their ideas for religious freedom and that they didn't own slaves or even like The idea of Slavery.
Not really. I have not seen the other video but this has just way too many inaccuracies.
@@torcaace
It's 100% accurate. Persians did not practice slavery, unlike Greeks, Assyrians and Egyptians. The Zoroastrian religion forbids slavery.
@@marmary5555 i know that. I meant inaccurasies in other things
@@torcaace Like?
@@ImanSabbahi map inaccuracies, "greek" words that don't mean anything in greek etc
"Parthenon, a temple that became a church, then a mosque, then an armory until finally settling in to its current gig, as a ruin" :)))))
Just noticed that "Greek" ΜΩΨΣΦΚΗ - whoa. The transliteration of that to Latin would be M-O (but the wrong O)-PS-S-PH-K-E (but the right E). "Mawpssfke." The letters you want are ΜΟΥΣΙΚΗ.
The greeks and Persians gave both Important things to this day, (greeks gave for example Alot of Important Mathematics, While the Persians gave alot of toughts on Equality for example; Ethnicality and religion) can we be friends now and stop Arguing whom was bad and good?
Greeks and Persians gave light, while everybody else gave darkness.
Anastasios B'
Actually every Civilization, have contributed something important to the world Not just the Persians and The Greeks.
Give me one. ;)
Anastasios B'
Norway contributed with making cheese cutting better.. Norway!
:))))
I love how they don't have French subtitles, but then they have Finnish subtitles. Seriously, I love it. We're on our way to becoming a world language!
Big deal. I wonder if world is going to end because there are no French subtitles.
Jack Phillips I don't think you even read his comment. At the very least you didn't read more than the first sentence.
It was a joke anyway XD
0:45 even Mongols were not the exceptions here. They learnt from Iranians/Persians how to rule their vast empire, as far as I researched. ;)
As far as you learned
@@friedrich9987
which is good enough!
Mhm, later dynasties like the Mughal empire was heavily Persianised.
Anyone else cramming for the test tomorrow??
Yeppity do dah yeppity day
yep :)
Mine is on monday
Rodrick Heffley my test is tomorrow:(
I'm taking my finals on this is two weeks :'(
Just a couple of minor clarifications. First, it was Darius who was in power and not Xerxes when Athens helped the Ionian Greek cities. He passed on his thirst for revenge to his son Xerxes as an inheritance. Second, there were about 7000 greeks and not just 300 spartans who fought the Persians at Thermopylae. Really enjoying the videos by the way! Awesome work!
Watching these when you don't have a test on it is really, umm, relaxing
Darius was not Cyrus' son. Cambyses was Cyrus' son and successor.
that's why books are more useful
I'm still alive :)
jk
Yes, misinformation is flying left and right from this one sided guy.
Cambyses brother bardiya was usurped by gaumata. Darius overthrew gaumata and ascended (he was a distant nephew of Cyrus)
I mean we didn't "take care of" slavery. There are still 25 million slaves in the world today, which is more than in any other time in human history (the percentage is a lot smaller but still.) Slavery is still a huge problem in the modern world.
Also, slavery is still legal as long as it’s punishment for a crime.
Code Red uhmmm, no. In the Roman times basically everybody was a slave... expect for the provincials. Edit: almost nobody was citizen.
Antonius Robertus It still boggles my mind that you can lose the right to vote for growing/selling marijuana to other adults...Oh and by the way you still have to pay taxes. Apparently no taxation with representation isn't a thing anymore
Antonius Robertus no, it's not legal. But giving food for work is not slavery... Because you get something, unless the cost of the food is below the minimal wage...
Not to mention the aftereffects of slavery, like systemic racism leading to wealth inequality.
"It's true that Athens gave us Socrates but let me remind you, they also killed him."
"All of which forces us to return to the core question of human history: What's the point of being alive?"
You made this whole video for these lines didnt you?
@@saeedvazirian butthurt mongol gtfoh
@@kostasgamer1345 I'm certainly not mongol. Be respectable. It is clear that you're the one being unreasonable, so please, sir, do not project your personality on those people whom you have placed pre-disposed hatred.
@@saeedvazirian my apologies man i ďont know why i expressed myself like that. Sorry. What are you saying about our (Greeks) history of stabbing each other in the back is true . My apologies
Mongols making more cameos than Stan Lee?
R.I.P.
There are a few mistakes in this video:
1) Darius the great was not the son of Cyrus the great, rather a distant cousin of his.
2) Darius did not conquer Anatolia and Egypt. Anatolia was conquered by Cyrus and Egypt by his son Cambyses.
3) The battle of marathon did not happen during king Xerxes' invasion of Greece, but earlier during king Darius' smaller invasion.
4) The claim about slavery not existing in ancient Persia, althogh loved by my fellow Persians, is not univesally accepted among historians. Of course there is tremendous bias among modern Persisan histrians to believe in it as afact. I am not saying it is not true. But we cannot be sure.
A good watch before playing AC Odyssey
I'm in AP World History learning about this, and this video helped so much! I really love your channel, and love your videos! I'll probably be watching plenty more throughout the rest of my education.
JessIsTheBest I'm here because of AP Art History lol
And I love you..
5:13
I may be seven years late on this, but...isn’t Athens in the wrong place here?
Yes, yes it is.
Rofl how the hell is that possible. We learn where Athens was when were like 14 in America
Weird right? Athens is almost in the opposite place - probably an editing error.
yes, athens is north from where it was, closer to marathon and thebes.
Allen they are the same city
Who really won the Greco-Persian Wars?
1. Greek revolt under Cyrus the Great's rule in Asia Minor was ultimately quashed by Harpagus: Achaemenid victory.
2. The Ionian revolt under Darius the Great's rule was also quashed: Achaemenid victory.
3. First Persian campaign of mainland Greece where the Cycladic islands are conquered and Eretria is sacked, however, Persians are repelled at Marathon: Overall Achaemenid victory.
4. Xerxes' campaign of mainland Greece which eventually resulted in Xerxes' forces being defeated and repelled: Overall Allied Greek victory.
5. Delian League/Athenian Empire campaigns expelled Achaemenid rule from Europe and the Aegean but were repelled from Egypt: Overall Allied Greek victory.
6. The Peloponnesian War, which resulted in Persia regaining the Aegean coast of Asia Minor and Athens being neutralised: Spartan and Achaemenid victory.
7. The Corinthian War, ending with the Peace of Antalcidas/ King's Peace: Achaemenid and its Greek allies victory.
Well no to your no, "Greece" never enslaved the Persian Empire. If you are referring to the Macedonian invasion then with that logic, you should include the Seleucid-Parthian Wars... when would it have truly been the end of the Greco-Persian Wars?
*****
Yeah, Alexander was specifically an admirer of Cyrus. Also remember that they didn't conquer the WHOLE Persian Empire, that's why the Achaemenid Empire is known as the largest Empire of the ancient world.
I guess your point makes more sense, though generally speaking most people put the end of the Greco-Persian Wars at around 449BCE... which is very false.
I guess the victor in the end is the Macedonian Kingdom not "all Greeks" as there were probably more Greeks fighting for the Persians.
Sorry mate...
Macedonian Empire: 5.2 million km squared
Achaemenid Empire: 8.5 million km squared
...
Alexander distrusted other Greeks in general, since they collaborated with the Persians at times and were not happy with Macedonian rulership. But to keep stability in his Empire, Alexander had to incorporate Persians and other "barbarians" in his army and administration which we know the Macedonians were generally not happy with this. Also, don't forget the Thracians who were in his army from the beginning.
You should do some research, it's also quite interesting.
Hey, just to get things straight
by no means am I trying to be bias, I respect ancient Greek culture as it has set the foundation of many things we still have in use today.
You have the whole internet at your disposal, mate..
If you look it up, the Achaemenid Empire was the largest Empire of the ancient world under Darius the Great, period.
By the way, Greeks since Cyrus' rule have collaborated with the Persians, not all Greeks but atleast a significant minority, especially by the time of Alexander's campaigns.
For example, Thebes have been siding with Persia throughout all the Greco-Persian conflicts.
I wish you can just understand that the Achaemenid Empire was the largest Empire of the ancient world. Roman Empire was 5 million square km at its peak which is still no where near the 8.5 million square km. At least try to understand this, there is no debate, it's FACTUAL!
Alexander may have ruled most of the Greek states and conquered an extra province of Punjab from India but he did not have Libya, Nabatea, Maka, Saka, Pontus, Armenia, Caucasian Albania, Colchis, Media Atrapotene, Iberia, Dahae, Massagatae... e.t.c
Of course Alexander the Great knew which Greeks he couldn't trust, we know that he didn't trust many but the ones he did trust, he treated almost as well as the Macedonian Greeks. But the ones who "disobeyed" him, Persian or Greek were harshly executed.
I have such an obsession with the Persian empire and I began studying Farsi 😂🤙🏻
mmm.... I would say the same about Greek language ...
@Iliya Moradi Birgani I'm an Urdu speaker and I can I guess at some of that - is it something like welcome to learning the Persian language?
@Iliya Moradi Birgani oh. I've just begun to learn. Such a beautiful language, and it holds a special place in my heart as a Pakistani
Without the Persian empire I wonder where we would be. Obv Greeks and even the Romans never considered themselves Europeans.
Kent McLeod it’s a beautiful language
I'm binge watching the AP World videos to help study for a test. I have a test over chapters 1-6 on the first day of school and watching videos of John Green be a nerd is an easy way to review 😂
How tf can you have a test on the 1st day of school
My school normally works around trimesters. It has for the past 7 years. But we switched to semesters, meaning our classes are shorter than normal. Thus, my AP World history teacher doesn't have enough time to teach us everything we need for the final. So we had to do it over the summer and take a test over it ASAP.
+Marcos 989 I'm sorry you feel that way, considering I'm a straight A student and just got the highest test score in my class in AP World with 100%. I take great pride in how much I work for my grades. I don't get how I come off as dumb to you, because I just said that I was watching these videos to review. Many people don't even study for their tests. I'm going the extra mile. Sorry.
Briana Allbright that's legit me rn but not on the first day of school lmao
bruh i got 20 chapters on a final tomorrow
People assuming that if Persians had won there would be no democracy ever are funny. One does not simply predict what would happen in two and a half thousand years if someone else had won some war. Things are not that simple and linear. It's not a cheesy RPG game. It could have been better or worse. Nobody can say for sure.
Not mentioning the fact that modern democracy is more akin to Polish-Lithuanian Golden Liberty and British Commonwealth and Parliamentarian government (evolving into USA's model of democracy ) than the one ancient Athenian model.
I'm just saying that it's not predictable.
And I agreed with that?
I don't know much about the history of Democracy really. So maybe.
I am pretty sure Vae Sapiens is agreeing with you.
Purpose of life: find safety first, then find resiliency, and finally make sure your descendents don't forget the first two.
5:10 you’ve got the location of Athens completely wrong
Was looking for this, thought i was going crazy
Very painful to see that
Stan probably wanted to see how many of is were paying attention.
i got hella confused
@Macabee Jeno Callard the rest were roughly correct
I would personally love it if everyone learned some real history before commenting with ignorance.
Max Fossland Yeah. Iran is superior to Greece in every way. There. I read it and I genuinely believe that.
+Ciaron Smith haha Greece beats iran easily
+stamos legandros I don't think anybody "beats" the other. Both great civilizations, each with different strong points. I believe it is unfair that the role of Iran in the cultural heritage of the West is often forgotten - especially after 1979. I am Greek, by the way! :)
+Ciaron Smith Hell yeah!!!Ι envy Greek history too!!!!
Most of Greeks math, philosophy and knowledge comes from Persian and Egyptian Scholars, Heck Math was invented in Mesopotamia where Iran and Iraq now existed on. The idea that the Western world came from Ancient Greek democracy is completely false, It actually more like a weird mix of the Zoroastrian dualism, Pre-islamic Mathematics and Philosophy (Greek learn philosophy and Mathematics from Persia), Hebrew-Jewish, Ancient Germanic and Medieval English politics, also add some Karma elements from Buddhism and Hinduism. They just slap on the "Ancient Greek Aesthetic" to make it more authentic but in contents have nothing to with Ancient Athenian politics, actually Athenian politics is aristocracy/plutocracy since more than 50% of the people are not citizens and only the rich MEN, yes emphasis on the men, are considered citizens, they use their money to pay soldiers to keep the towns running. People just liked the illusion so much so much they made it stick.
Why is Athens placed in the very south of todays greece? 5:13
Revan yeah exactly what I said
Cause it was there at first but later on the put the city atop a thousand chariots and put it in it's modern location.
cause the guy doesn't know what he is talking about and he just want to say his alternative funny opinion about the facts
MrSirGiorgos what
ur goddamn wrong. Repent please
"But who will till the fields?"
"The slaves"
Yep, sounds like the USSR to me.
That makes no sense...
Lilly Poush What doesn't?
What I meant was that the USSR was really bad at Communism.
*phew* that's great, because otherwise we were gonna have some issues. Your comment sounded like it could be leaning towards the whole paranoia-everything-bad-is-communist perspective.
Lilly Poush He basically quoted John :/
Lilly Poush
just thinking the same. yeah most that attempt communism usually fail sadly.
Hyped to show this to my history class today! Thanks CrashCourse and viral sensation Hank Green
I think the question "did the right side win" is pretty much unanswerable. I mean, just because the Persian empire might've been better in some ways than the Greek city states doesn't say much about what would've happened in the future. The Arabic empire once upon a time was a thriving place at the forefront of technological discovery, etc. whereas the West was comparatively underdeveloped and brutal.
+oneonone 1162 it was not Arab Empire which pioneered new sciences. It was indeed the Persians who invented new technologies and poured the fundamentals of chemistry and etc. Arabs have not done any, ever.
OneOnOne1162 I agree that the "what if" argument in this video is sort of silly. We have no idea what would have happened if things turned out differently.
This "one upon a time" period that you're talking about is probably the so-called "dark ages" or medieval times, the period that lies roughly between the fall of the Roman empire and the start of the Renaissance (a period of about 1000 years from around the mid 400s to the mid 1400s - which is roughly the years -172 to 828 in the Islamic calendar).
Well it's interesting to note that during that time, the Caliphates and the European kingdoms were not all that different - both were busy waging holy wars, expanding their empires, and building religious buildings (mosques and cathedrals).
I wouldn't say that technological discovery was really happening all over the Arabic empire. Most of the scientific research taking place in the Arabic empire was happening in Persia. Other important discoveries at the time were being made in India and China, so they were also at the forefront.
But as far as Engineering and Architecture goes, it's also interesting to note that this "underdeveloped" West was building the worlds tallest structures. For example, the Notre Dame Cathedral in France was completed in the year 1345 and reached a height of 90 meters, or Chartres Cathedral (completed earlier in 1220, also in France) reaches a height of 113 m. While most of the large mosques were built by the Ottoman Turks around 300 years later, and they only reached a height of around 60 to 70 meters. Or great examples of Mughal architecture (again, the Persians) in what is now northern India, such as the Taj Mahal, reach heights of about the same: 73 m. And these too were built much later than the European castles and cathedrals (in the 1600s).
I'm not saying that bigger is better, necessarily. I'm just saying that architectural feats of such great proportions at such an early age casts doubt on the claim that the West was somehow stagnating in technological advancement during the "dark ages".
I do have to admit, though, that I think the great Turkish mosques and Mughal architecture are very beautiful, but so are the great Cathedrals and castles.
OneOnOne1162 What? Are you dumb? Persians were responsible for 99 percent of that islamic golden age bullshit. Its was a second Persian golden age.
+oneonone1162 ok. I apologize for the temper. We get really upset that unfortunately the Persian achievements which has indeed shaped and influenced much of the world is extremely under appreciated. Even in popular culture, they state "Islamic nobles" where in reality the term Islamic refers to Arabs and they haven't contributed anything to the world and all of what is said as Islamic nobles is indeed Persian invention machines. We just get overly defensive on it. It's not your fault.
WorldMusicMasters Lol, that's fine. It happens.
honestly i think we should just have more channels like this
Hey just so you know, that clip at 2:55 where you flash the Greek word for music is wrong 😂 You wrote "mopsfki."
Signed, a Greek
“It would have been much more fortunate had the Persians become masters (Herr) of the Greeks, rather than have the Romans of all people [gerade die Römer] assume that role”......Fredrick Nietechze (Sämtliche Werke, VIII, p. 65).
I’m almost certain if that had happened greeks would be considered middle eastern and the European line would have been drawn at Italy. Tbh that’s the way it should be because Ancient Greece has zero connection with Europe, only the Romans and that was by force. As a Greek I wish it was the Persians who would have conquered us
True, as a German I agree with him and many of his ideas and not with many others, but this I agree. Everywhere the Persians ruled, stability, prosperity and compassion followed.
@@TheOne-fe8wk Believe me, if the Persians conquered you, they themselves would not call it a conquest, rather a joint venture. The Persians detested patronizing and condescension.
@@saeedvazirian Of course Greece had a rough past unfortunately with all the constant wars and the early unstable democracy. But from all this past, many good things happened in ancient Greece that influenced the today's society we will live in. For example philosophy, architecture, democracy as it is mentioned even though it was unstable, literature, freedom of speech, drama, trials by jury, theater, much contribution on science , the Olympic games etc.
But despite all that i still remember my history teacher at school telling us that Greeks may have contributed a lot in the world but all this came with a cost because they were always fighting with its other and Persians gave their people a more peaceful and more organized life then the Greeks did.
69th like
Thanks to the Persian empire, the Jews returned to Israel from an Exile and built the 2nd Temple. In addition, they could believe in the Judaism because they had religion-rights. That's what I know from bible lessons anyway :P
Yes yes, tell that to Israel who is trying to destroy Iranians lol. We are always the bad guy
I don’t think “thanks” is the word for it because now not Israel nor Palestine is living in peace because of it
@@fmaaa8322 ?? you do realize this happened in BC times, right? The word "palestine" didnt even exist. The conflict now has nothing to do with that temple, which has long since been destroyed btw
@@eliza1826 Modern Israel and modern Iran has little to nothing to do with these ancient kingdoms.
@@ComradeHellas did I say they did you idiot?
John, excellent video but there's one small error: Athens is incorrectly placed in Laconia below Sparta. It's in Attica, northeast of Sparta and Argos.
Finals suck, am I right?
totally :/ good thing, this weeks ends :)
samuel barrero this is a procrastination essential
My teacher straight up told us "to study just watch crash course 1- French Revolution" hahahhaa
David Loomis I gotta do it today 😰
yeah. you are totally right!
I’m nervous about this exam, I’ve had to mow the lawn, go to a wake do a bunch of homework and the exam is in literally 14 hours, good luck for anyone else taking the ap world exam
Ryan Slade
Ay, a Persian here...
How are you doing?
Ryan Slade I 👏 AM 👏 IN 👏 SIXTH 👏 GRADE 👏
Democracy is not translated as "popular government", its "the people's government".
Also the Spartans didn't have kingship, they had oligarchy.
"Life under the Athenians wasn’t so awesome, particularly if you were a woman or a slave, and their government was notoriously corrupt."
What the heck? They didn't have a government, they had direct democracy.
"And ultimately the Athenian government derived its power not from its citizens, but
from the imperialist belief that Might Makes right."
But every country on earth to ever survive thought like that...
"They forced Socrates to commit suicide".
The "they" is very abstract. Some politicians managed to get enough power in their hands to do that, I don't see how the western civilization can be accused.
"The Greeks should have allowed themselves to get beaten by the Persians in order to avoid civil wars."
This is too stupid for me to comment on.
"Should we try to ensure the longest, healthiest, and most productive lives for humans? If so, it’s easy to argue that Greece should have lost the Persian Wars."
Arguable, but all our ideals for humanism aka what he just said, come from ancient Greece.
Also women in Sparta enjoyed at least equality to men.
"Darius was Cyrus's son"
Darius was not Cyrus' son. Cambyses was Cyrus' son and successor.
"Xerxes led two campaigns against Greece"
Wrong, his actual father, Darius, led the first campaign.
LOL you completely missed the point.
*****
I didn't miss the point. I am just pointing out how little I can trust this guy, when he makes so many basic mistakes, and at the same time sounds so confident of what he says.
Sparta actually had two kings and a council of oligarchs. The kings were jointly in charge of the military and the oligarchs were in charge of the everyday functions and operations of the government. It ultimately proved to be an incredibly slow and inefficient system, but the Spartans kept it for centuries because they were an extremely conservative society that despised change. Athenian democracy, despite its admittedly many flaws, was vastly superior to Sparta's mess of a government in vast plethora of ways.
Literally most of the comments in this entire series is just people preparing for their AP exam
(The DBQ is gonna screw me over so badly, I know because we had taken an entire practice AP test in class over the course of a week, and my DBQ score let me down)
_"The collision between the fractious political world of the Greeks and the enormous Achaemenid Empire of Persia began when Cyrus the Great conquered the Greek-inhabited region of Ionia in 547 BC. Struggling to rule the independent-minded cities of Ionia, the Persians appointed tyrants to rule each of them. This would prove to be the source of much trouble for the Greeks and Persians alike."_
The rebellions that Athens supported were in Ionian Greek cities, one of them being the home of a great mathematician: Thales of Miletus. The Persians later conquered/burned these cities, and Athens sent help, therefore triggering the Greek-Persian wars. It is wrong to think that the Persians did not hold slaves, just because of their de facto religion, many conquered states would be source of slaves, and that the Persians treated(different from the Greeks) their conquered territories with grace, freedom and all happiness and harmony is just one of the greatest bullshits I've ever heard. The greeks considered the Persians to treat their own population as serfs. If this whole video was about the American independence against the British, it would be equivalent to say that the Americans were a slavist people, who different from the British(who abolished slavery way before) hold slaves and inequality, and were wrong to declare independence against the so nice and gentlemen english, who treated their conquered territories so well....
Its not hard to imagine that an empire consisted of almost 50% of the world's population and more than 60% of the known world would not have slaves, not only because they would not be able to contain the numbers and masses of enslaved peoples, but simply because by all its resources, they didnt needed it. Even then they at some point in history had slaves, and continued to do so, like *all* ancient civilizations, and because their religion denied it, its not an excuse to elevate them as _superior_ among other civilized nations, many of wich because of the Persians being warmongers, had been annexed/subjugated/enslaved.
It is estimated that 50 million people lived in the Achaemenid Empire, which at its peak ruled over 45% of the world's population, the highest such figure for any empire in history. The empire had a centralised, bureaucratic administration under a King and a large professional army and civil services, inspiring similar developments in later empires. The delegation of power to local governments eventually weakened the king's authority, causing resources to be expended in attempts to subdue local rebellions. This accounts for the disunity of the region by the time Alexander the Great invaded Persia in 334 BC.
Its funny because one of the peoples that modern "historians" consider as the most brutal, dictatorial(JG even used this word) and slavist were the Spartans; they answered this to the proposal of the Persian empire, asking them to join the Achaemenids in the fight and to raze their rivals, Athens, to the ground:
_"A slave's life is all you understand, you know nothing of freedom. For if you did, you would have encouraged us to fight on, not only with our spear, but with everything we have."_
Sparta while an “evil slaver state” was the main reason why Greece won in the Persian wars and remained free.
John Green loves to stop all his history videos and to change his focus to talk about women, racism and slaves; So why dont we look at the supposed most patriarchal, xenofobos and slavist state of all Greece? Sparta.
Sparta had most of its population composed of slaves, the Helots, Helots were tied to the land and were officially the property of the Lacedaemonian government. As a result of at least one revolt, they were regarded with increasing suspicion and subjected to ever harsher laws. In fact, the Lacedaemonian government regularly declared war on the helots to enable quick retribution against any "unruly" helot without the tedious business of a trial. Helots were not, however, routinely murdered or raped by the Spartiates, as some modern commentators claim and many novelists depict. No economy can function for an extended period of time on the basis of brutal coercion - certainly not an economy in which the elite is tiny in comparison with the oppressed. Sparta enjoyed the prosperity it did over hundreds of years (at the least from the 7th to the 5th century BC) because a high degree of internal harmony and a system of mutual benefit for all segments of the society had been established. It was not until the second half of the 5th century, when the Spartiate population shrank to roughly one-eighth of what it had been at the time of Thermopylae, that serious incidents of brutality against helots are reliably recorded. There is only one recorded incident of an organized mass murder of helots without due cause, and this incident resulted from a crisis in Spartiate society. In fact, the deteriorating relations between the Spartiates and the helots can be seen as both a symptom and a cause of the disintegration of archaic Spartan society.
Many of the ancient commentators who remarked on the exceptional harshness of the Spartan system not only date from this later period, but are engaged in outright political propaganda. The only Spartan source for the status of helots is the 7th-century poet Tyrtaios, who describes the helots ‘like asses exhausted under great loads to bring their masters full half the fruit their plowed land produced.’ This statement tells us two significant facts often overlooked in shock at the image. Namely, that helots only surrendered 50% of the fruits of their labor - slaves all over the rest of the ancient world surrendered 100% - and that even half the harvest was a heavy burden; i.e., Lacedaemon's agricultural land was so productive that even half the yield was a burden. The latter element is further underlined by the fact that no less than 6,000 Spartan helots were able to save up so much money from the 50% of the harvest they retained that they could pay the enormous sum of 6 Attic minas to buy their freedom in 223/222 BC, when the slavery was somehow "abolished" by the king Cleomenes III.
Helots could also engage in cottage production to earn extra money, and hence helots could accumulate wealth and spend it as they pleased. They could achieve freedom in many ways, being the two most common through military service or money. Slaves would get their freedom and be recognized as "Neodamodeis", they were loyal supporters of the Lacedaemonian government and could even be trusted to provide logistical support to the army.
Women is also a bit of a bitter discussion, but Sparta is also an example of this; Women in Sparta had free will, and overall freedom; They could own land, wealth, political powers(yes, and Arachidamia is an example of this) and were free in general.
But back to the Wars;
Meanwhile, the Persians under the "Great King" Darius had sent a fleet of "six hundred triremes," with countless transports filled with horses and provisions, to attack Athens and Eretria. The commanders had orders to reduce both Greek city-states to slavery and bring the slaves before the "Great King." On their way they destroyed a series of smaller cities, enslaving their populations as well, this resulting in the lost of independence in Macedon and Thrace(As the persians started invading via the hellespont). Athens, seeing the juggernaut coming, sent diplomats to Sparta for aid. "The Spartans" - not more closely identified by Herodotus - agreed to send troops, but declared they could not march "before the full moon." This lack of decisiveness, may rather have reflected an internal power struggle.
The task force sailed on to Euboea, and to the first major target, Eretria. The Eretrians made no attempt to stop the Persians from landing or advancing and thus allowed themselves to be besieged. For six days, the Persians attacked the walls, with losses on both sides; however, on the seventh day two reputable Eretrians opened the gates and betrayed the city to the Persians. The city was razed, and temples and shrines were looted and burned. Furthermore, according to Darius's commands, the Persians enslaved all the remaining townspeople.
Sparta then made itself ridiculous - in the eyes of the powerful Persian monarchs - by warning them against enslaving Greeks. The Persian Great King, as the master of an empire stretching from modern India to modern Turkey, had never heard of Sparta. He asked who these people were who dared "warn" him. He was even more astonished to learn that they came from a city-state that controlled only a portion of the mountainous peninsula of the Peloponnese. When the Persians later sent ambassadors demanding submission to Persia, the Spartan Assembly responded by throwing the ambassadors in a well - an unprecedented breach of diplomatic immunity. When the invasion of mainland Greece finally came, Sparta was elected by the informal alliance of anti-Persian cities to take command. Sparta sent one of her own kings, Leonidas, with an
advance guard of three hundred citizens and larger contingents from other members of the anti-Persian alliance, to try to halt the invasion at the pass of Thermopylae. When a traitor betrayed their position, King Leonidas released the other allies to return to their homes; but he and his Spartans, supported voluntarily by 700 Thespians. Less than a year later, Sparta fielded an army composed of what must have been every able-bodied man in the city-state and sent it north of the Isthmus. This army met the significantly superior Persian land forces still threatening Greek independence despite the defeat of the Persian fleet at Salamis the previous fall by the athenians. Together, the Spartans and Athenians, managed to defeat the much larger Persian forces and end the direct threat of Persian invasion, later liberating much of the conquered greek territories, such as northen Greece and Byzantium.
Altough I dont think I need to mention all Greek-Persian battles, since overall we can conlude that the Hellenic forces were victorious, the two most important battles were Plataea(the final and most sucessful greek defence) and Marathon(fun fact: The construction of the Parthenon is originally devoted not only to Pallas Athenea, but to the 192 fallen Athenians in the battle, containing 192 figures of fallen hoplites, all of which have its own history being told).
What this video forgot to show, and what many pro-persia fans dont see, is the fact that the greeks were brave enough to challenge the worlds superpower to defend its people, to defents its democracy and ideals, philosophy and art, culture, justice and all that later originated western civilization, all that inspired the renaissance, the humanism and illuminism and literacture movements. Were are so good and selfish to put the finger at our ancestors and shout "they didnt had a true democracy" or "they had slaves and women didnt vote", but without realizing that it all had to start from scratch, it all had to start from something, even if this "something" wasnt perfect, it was there and these greeks died in beaches, seas, coasts, walls, and poleis to defend their territory and their people, serving as the gates between western and eastern worlds, and perhaps if the Persians were sucessful, we would have a world domination by their dinasty, they would continue to expand to the west and Rome would also not have existed. By no means the Greeks or the Persians were better people than one another, like this annoying clown appoints in his video, but to be true no culture, philosophy, art, ideology, people, civilization, race, sex or point of view is "evil" or "saint" , "better" or "worse" ; A good historian who prizes himself of his work and duty, is one who can look at the past without judging, who can look at civilizations and analyzes them according to the viewpoint of the time, putting everything in its proper historical perspective being sensible enough to do not let his opinion be more important than the actual history.
Pretty much all ancient civilizations had slaves, and were tainted by inequality, and men in power, but with time man started to fix his previous mistakes.
I really respect this youtube channel, but of all videos this one is full of manichean ideals about who should have won against who. Of all the historical videos JG did, this was by far the worst, where he actually did not teach anything but his opinion on who he thinks is the "good" guy. And seriously, you just said that the greeks should let themselfs to be conquered, what kind of resonable and even decent argument/opinion does this reflects? Why did you even uploaded this? Anyway....
ρε μαλάκα δουλειά δεν έχεις; άντε τράβα να σερβίρεις κάνα τουρίστα και κόψε τις μαλακίες της τρίτης δημοτικού
d
I agree with some of what you say, and disagree with some that are simply not true. The persians did not have slaves as the Spartans did. Even the Persepolis, the greatest structure of its time was built by paid workers. Granted they did not have 8 hour work days and minimum wage, but they were paid. I grant you however, that the earliest version of the Suez Canal built by Darius was built MOSTLY by prisoners that were unpaid. Also, the reason Darius, and later Xerxes (Darius' son whose campaign you explain) invaded the Greek lands was because of the burning of Sardis by the Ionian rebels. At the time, the burning of Athens was a retaliation to the burning of Sardis, and the burning of Persepolis by Alexander is thought of as a retaliation of burning of Athens. I also respect many Greeks (if you can point to them all as "Greeks") like Alexander as he was truly a genius. He used the network of Persian roads and inns used for their postal service to help supply his invading army for food which led to the incredibly fast invasion of Persia and the Persian King not being able to retaliate as best as he could.
Also good to know that the Persian King (ArtaXerxes, I believe, I could be wrong on the name) was taken away from the battle scene in the battles against Alexander by force by his closest advisors and family members out of fear that they might lose the battle. This led to a great loss of moral among the troops since they fought for the King of Kings, and him leaving the battle was not expected at the time. The King of King was later killed by one of his satraps to avoid Alexander from killing him and assuming the title of King of Kings.
All in all, I believe we cannot say we are better off or otherwise because of the survival of the Greek polis. We just simply cannot think of the alternative and say what it would definitely entail.
d
first of all i would like to adress the point that people should stop treating human history with evolution , thinking that democracy is the most perfect form of government is the most erroneous thought . The conditions necessary for a democracy to thrive are too perfect to be true and are nothing more than a romantic ideology . Even the american founding fathers understood this , Alexander Hamilton said; it has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government , experience has proved that no position is more false than this their very character was tyranny. And about your saying that greek ideas started the humanitarian movements i would like to remind you that Aristotle and Plato both regarded slaves as a man's best possession and apart from giving women any chance to vote they were also seen as a man's personal possession . They were political realists like Machiavelli and supported the idea that the end justifies the means so we should treat history with a neutral standpoint and not like who was the bad or the good guy , because in life there is nothing black or white but different shades of grey
"except for... Wait for it... The monguls" 😂 is a running gag I'm here for.
who else is watching these the day before the ap test
Same
+Brady Walczak same man
Me sadly
+Vanessa Rodriguez +Pinkladykitty27 +Alex None I have my AP Stats test 20 minutes after this one
same... my test is tomorrow
I love John Green this guy is too funny while being historically accurate!!! The way his videos are illustrated and he goes about telling the facts adds the niceties to learning!! Wish I had him back in HS.
Hi John! Your videos are fantastic. We watch them in my history college in class.
it’s 12 am and i have a final tomorrow. let’s see how many crash course videos i can cram into my head before my whap class
Proud to be PERSIAN
N i dont see greeks as enemies although 2 empires fought alot, but their empire was great aswell.
Along with the 300 Spartans that took their last stand at Thermopylae there were also 700 Thespians that also fought on the third day at Thermopylae.
indeed by the Spartans were more like warriors then the Thespians, just saying
True, but we must not forget the Thespians just because of that. They also sacrificed their lives for Greece.
"The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must!"
This video is very fun!
김예준 ikr
John's so particular with the amount of globes in every episode. Sometimes there's too many, sometimes there's not enough. He's like Globe-ilocks.
Actually the line at 8:14 is the most badass thing I've ever heard xD , anyhow a huge thanks to the greeks for being the begining of modern western civilization .
Cheers
2:38 I am persian myself but they only outlawed it in Parsa and Mesopotamia. It was officially outlawed in the entire empire but impossible to enforce. So they just enforced it within the main provinces
This vid kinda felt like it really was more about ancient Greece than Persia. Still very enjoyable and thanks!
5:10 Athens is in the wrong spot. (I know this because of Rome 2 lol)
+striker161 Oh, I had annotations off :/
+striker161 lol :)
I love Rome 2 what's your sream name
+Vaxe 252 steam*
I know this because Sparta or the Mycenaeans usually ruled the entire thing.
So I know this isn't new, but Darius is definitely not Cyrus's son. In fact, the batshit craziness of how Darius made it to the throne deserves to be an entire episode of something. According to Darius's own telling of the story, he was the leader of a conspiracy that killed a magician who was pretending to be the rightful king after the actual rightful king had died of something mysterious and nobody else knew about it except Darius and his co-conspirators. After leading this conspiracy and killing the "fake" rightful king, the conspirators made Darius king despite having no claim, and then all of the conspirators and their families got special privileges within the empire forever.
I personally disagree with the open letter to Aristophanes - my drama class performed Lysistrata last year and we loved it. It was hilarious and so much fun and it's a memory I'll hold with me for years ^-^
Little late but can there be a crash course to Greek mythology. PLEASE. It is literally the most interesting topic ever (to me).
Sincerely,
Issa
They have a crash course mythology
Honestly the reference to the “This is Sparta” meme from 300 on the chalkboard is amazing.
"God and Satan, or Harry and Voldemort"
Those are like vastly different examples 😂
Good luck AP test takers!
😢
+THATcommentor What is AP?
Araling Panlipunan? No?
Advanced Placement**
thanks in 5 months :))
hello my daughter is 7 years old and she watches this channel all the time she asked me to put a comment from her on here: " I LOVE CRASH COURSE!!!!!'
These videos are so helpful to me as overviews. I'm teaching myself western civilization for CLEP credit and your videos are a much needed break from my textbook!
Hold on a second, you telling me Persians wasn't the monsters like in the 300 movie !
300 is just result of a sick mind about Persians that's way far from the reality.
See *one night with the king* movie that's about Xerxes the great.
Rome is a lot more violent then Persia with the crucified torture and then Genocide the Macedonians and Epirus , I alway rooted for the west for some reason maybe the way history portray the east as bad guys
@@Gambetdz the thing is there's really no such thing as bad guy or good guy, all of the civilizations have their fair share of bad things and good things. Humans like to make the world black and white so much for some reason, make things an us vs them situation, evil vs good. When the real world is actually very very gray, nobody is ever totally good nor totally evil.
Honestly that movie is extremely insulting to Persians and Africans.
Persians: because they are demonstrated as Lecherous fartbrains! And the race and culture that they used has no Persian roots what so ever! They literally made up a culture and race that they found “notorious” and then named them “Persians”
Africans: because their appearance and culture is used to make up the notorious picture of Persians the producers wanted.
Offensive
@@comradezvezda Wrong. In comparison the Persians were the good guys. They were far more tolerant of individual independence and abolishment of slavery, not to mention multi-faith and multi-ethnic. None of that existed in Greece. The irony is that democracy, which westerners associated to Greeks was actually practiced by the Persians while the Greeks actually behaved opposite to it, they nagged you for your every behaviour and attitude, it was pathetic.
The real world is gray and Persians weren't perfect, but they were immeasurably better and more human than the Greeks. Facts, not feelings.
Morning of the AP exam. Good luck everyone!
Oh and did I ever mention? Thank you! This series is very nicely done.
"But to be clear the war was not about about [the US] trying to get [Iraq] to embrace democratic reform... wars rarely are. It was about resources and power."
Lol so tru
Darius was King of Persia during the first two invasion attempts! Xerxes simply continue with his father's wishes with what became known as the Greco-Persian Wars, with the Battle of Thermopylae ending with Plataea and Mycale. Other than that, it's reasonably useful.
Proud persian zoroastrian!❤🙆♀️🇮🇷
Parysatis Shahrokhi stfu no one cares
@@bryantwulu3405 And we Persians do not care about you.
@@bryantwulu3405 stfu
Cassandane Cyrus AND?
N
O
I can binge watch this like for days ❤️
The Alexander not only won the Greeks ( exactly the Athenians and the Theves who tried to stop him to became the super power of Greece ) but he also united them in one tribe as Greeks and fought the Persians.
David McConville Sparta lost it's independence after the second Achean league was defeated by the Romans. And even then there are inscriptions that say that Sparta is an "ally" of Rome. Most likely as a vassal-like city state, but I can't find anything that say that Sparta was raised to the ground in the time of Alexander or Diadochi kings.
yeh alexander not united the greekes but kindeof concured them
Yeah he made the other Greeks to admit that if they don't be united they would never win the Persia and since he had the strongest army of all Greek kingdoms he took the lead :)
David Stojkov HA ha! Very funny! Why did he then speak Greek and did not impose his own language to the people he conquered?
MsListener27 Because ancient Macedonian was a variation of Greek and not a separate language? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Macedonian_language
I had to research Sparta once for a school project. One of the things I noticedin the video was you kept calling sparta dictatorial. . They actually beat Athens to democracy. It probably was not a fair democracy (only certain men could vote), but it still was one.Yes they did have kings. Though their government was rather interesting they had two kings, a group of elders who sereved on a committee alongside the two kings. They also had an elected body. Yes, the spartans were brutal. They did a lot of terrible things when training their children for the millitary. Though, they also gave women a lot more rights than Athens ever did. As you say, sometimes the truth resists simplicity.
Actually women in Athens had more rights than we think, they were organising the economy of the family and did other important actions that later sexist civilisations would give to men, Athenian women did not have the right to vote and many other restrictions but they were not considered as trash and disrespected either. They could ask for divorce,...
new subscriber and im loving the style and charm of this channel.
This helped me to better understand AC Odyssey and drove my interest in The Persian & Greek history.
I'm quite sure I'm not the only one that saw Athens in the wrong spot at 5:12
As a Persian watching movies like 300 made me cringe hard. The Greece fight in their golden armor like heroes vs the 'demonic' Persians in their black masks. That's not even slightly How Persian warriors looked like lol.
@Victor Reznov Stupid excuse. If I make something antisemitic and say it's based off of a Nazi book, does that make it acceptable? Grow up. The comic and the movie are garbage.
made me laugh thanks
@Anthony Graves Actually the Persians won a couple of battles as well and Xerxes burned Athen down
@Anthony Graves Nope. He did it to burn knowledge and kill people to feel better. Funny how that made him and the Greeks' lives more miserable. That's Persian ingenuity for you. That was Darius III's scheme all along. To utterly humiliate and destroy Hellenism internally, before the future Parthians and Romans kill them for eternity.
@@saeedvazirian Bottom line, Greeks are superior in every way.. Especially one Greek born in Sparta and immigrated to the states at six years old by the name of Constantine. This man's level of success can not be matched..YES, this man is me !!! You stupid kids of today trying to re write history..Malakes go back to your caves :)
Did you guys seriously expect ancient Greece to be some kind of paradise? of course there was injustice etc, just like now lol. But what these people left behind is something else.
+Nomen Oblitus agreed
***** yea sure thing m8
+John Baptist How did a person like you ended up on an educational video and be able to leave the stupidest comment I've ever seen, on THIS PRECISE VIDEO. As Daniel Goleman might say, this pizzled me.
In what world would you say such a thing... No matter how cruel they might have been, things are how they are, the more technology advanced people will rule over the less tech adv civilizations, and no matter what you can say, being inspired by the democracy is what has brought us more equal rights. Of course it's not perfect, but I'm happier now than I would be 200 years ago living in France, so are the women, so are the mentally hill who are not tortured because we think they are possessed, thanks to human rights, thanks tp democracy for god sake ! I know it's hard to grasp in your little head but just think and compare our world now to what it used to be when our fellow kings ruled the world. Plus, lots of slaves were sold by our own people, what does that tell you ? I'll help you here, morons are everywhere, and some of them are very strong, strong enough to piss on anybody, even their own people.
This is the last thing I'll say, because the pigeon argument doesn't bring any interest of mine, but for god sake, THINK, THINK A LITTLE BIT, PLEASE ! And to say people like you are walking among us and bear children, I whip for the humanity.
Thanks for the laugh John. Your ignorance and your attitude are very delightful.
I have a midterm tomorrow morning for a class I've been to literally once and this video basically covers everything I missed in the first half of the semester, so thanks for that :)
I wonder if in 2000 years historians will argue whether or not the right side won WW2, just as john asked the question of whether or not the world was better off with a Persian defeat.
And I'm only partially joking, as millennia do tend to blur the lines of 'right' and 'wrong' quite a bit.
people are already asking that. Look at the comments on one of Hitlers speeches, its actually scary. Like nazi central
@@ComradeHellas I'll never understand why you history people get so offended when someone gets 2% of a statement wrong. You missed science dude's whole point. He's arguing that good and evil are only emotions that we feel, not what is true. Nature doesn't have any emotions so you can't say something is objectively bad without seeing it from a different perspective.
@Chris Middleton ugh postmodernism...
False equivalency. The Persians were far more moral people than the Greeks, while the 1930s Germans were far less moral people than the Allied powers. This goes without saying that the ALlied powers were extremely murderous too. Learn some history, mate. The world WOULD be better off with a Persian victory.
@@ComradeHellas What a steaming pile of horseshit, mass-murder is wrong regardless of the reason, but Khan was a far more evil man than Hitler, because he simply killed people anyway. Same as fools like Alexander, thinking violence will give them power or hegemony, which it didn't. In the end, Alexander was Persianised, his legacy castrated and his alliances imploded, leaving the Persians the sole hegemons of Persia.
The self hate is strong with this one
ElconTonyMontana call it truth
"Yet youre seen as homework, drudgery" john, you realize this is you too!