“I freed those here who suffered unseemly enslavement and feared the tempers of their masters. I did this by harnessing force and justice together with power, and I carried through my promises. I wrote statues alike for those of high and of low social status, […]
Episode 23 – Captives of Babylon
“So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgment on him. Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all the […]
Episode 22 – The Fifth Generation
“But when earth had covered this generation also, Zeus the son of Cronos made yet another, the fourth, upon the fruitful earth, which was nobler and more righteous, a god-like race of hero-men who are called demi-gods, the race before our own, throughout the boundless […]
Episode 21 – For the Sake of Distant Days
“Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? Whence shall I seek comforters for thee?” – Nahum 3:7 Ashurbanipal spent the end of his reign establishing a library of Mesopotamian knowledge and culture. Twenty years after his death, internal discord and powerful enemies combined to […]
Blogger and iTunes
I just found out that the first few episodes of TAW are no longer showing up on iTunes, which is obviously an issue for new subscribers. I’m working to address the issue, but in the meantime, if any listeners have any advice on making Blogger […]
Episode 20 – The House of Succession
In the mid-seventh century BC, Nubia and Assyria struggled for control over Egypt before the kingdom regained independence under the pharaoh Psamtik I. King Gyges of Lydia drove the Cimmerians from western Anatolia and sent Greek mercenaries to reinforce the pharaoh’s armies. Ashurbanipal spent decades […]
Episode 19 – The Destruction of Sennacherib
“The city and its houses, from its foundations to its walls, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire. The wall and outer wall, temple-tower of brick and earth, temples and gods, and many as there were, I razed and dumped into the Arahtu-Canal. Through […]
Episode 18 – The Three Pillars
In the west, Phoenician mastery of the Mediterranean was challenged by widespread Greek colonization. Rome’s first kings established the boundaries and institutions of the early state. In the Near East, Sennacherib was confronted with the return of a Chaldean usurper to the Babylonian throne. Series […]
Episode 17 – The Fall of Israel
“Then the King of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the King of Assyria took Samaria.” – II Kings 18:4 Toward the end of the eighth century […]
TAW and Mobile Devices
I know, I know, you were probably hoping I’d developed an app for the show or something (which would be awesome!), but no such luck. A listener recently raised an issue that I realized might be more widespread, and I just wanted to get the […]