The Danger Zone (DZ)

The Greek soldiers blocking the Thermopylae Pass that Xerxes army needed to pour through to get into Greece, appeared pretty warlike and fierce. But Xerxes understood men. He knew exactly what was needed to drive this small band of peasant farmers out of his way and how to motivate his men to achieve this task. Now he was going to unleash them. Tag words: Thermopylae Pass; Leonidas; Persians; Xerxes; Battle of Marathon; Herodotus; Victor Davis Hanson; Spartans; The Western Way of War; Socrates; Hoplites; Carnage and Culture; Richard Nelson; Armies of the Greek and Persian War; Hydarnes; Immortals; Old Guard; Waffen SS;

As unbelievable as it is, this was Xerxes first move soon after his mighty army arrived at the Thermopylae Pass when he found it was defended and when he discovered that the defenders would not flee. Tag words: Xerxes; Thermopylae Pass; Herodotus; Histories; John Marincola; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battles of the Western World; Adolf Hitler; Leonidas; Spartans; Sparta; Heracles; Hercules; Zeus; Plutarch; Sun Tzu; Carneia; John Lewis Gaddis; Lacedaemonians; Persians; Demaratus; Artabanus; Darius; Cyrus the Great;

You’ll never believe what the Spartans did just before they faced the final attack by Xerxes mighty army – knowing they would be wiped out to a man. Herodotus tells us that they were being observed from a distance by a Persian spy who watched them in astonishment. Tag words: Spartans ; Xerxes; Thermopylae Pass; Herodotus; Histories; Persians; Heracles; Argo; Golden Fleece; J.F.C. Fuller; Decisive Battles of the Western World; Salamis; Italian campaign; Inchon landing; King Leonidas; Euboean Channel; Pysttaleia; Pass at Tempe; Thessalians; Euanetus; Themistocles; Artemisium;

Who was it that was crucified – but then was taken down before he died and survived? Tag words: Crucifixion; survival, anatomical effects; emergency room; Dr Mark Eastman; Koinonia House

Now some friction, as Clausewitz called it, was going to enter Xerxes life and planned invasion, in the form of an unknown unknown, in the form of what Herodotus tells us the people in the area called a Hellespontian, which is a south-easterly gale. Perhaps this was the wind that the Oracle at Delphi had told the people of Delphi to pray to. If they did, they must have set up their alter at Thyia, that I spoke of in Part 13, in record time – and not a moment too soon. Tag words: Clausewitz; Herodotus; The Histories; Oracle at Delphi; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battles of the Western World; Euboean Channel; Eurybiades; Xerxes; Darius; Crucifixion; Artemisium; Diodorus Siculus; Richard Nelson; Warfleets of Antiquity; diekplus; John Marincola; Homer; Troy; Iliad; Odyssey; Larry Siedentop; Inventing the Individual;

Xerxes the wise ruler, making intelligent decisions, is on show in this programme. Decisions of great insight, brilliance even. In previous programmes we’ve seen examples of decisions by Xerxes of profound stupidity. But right now, I have no trouble in calling Xerxes a smooth operator. Tag words: Xerxes; Greeks; Persians; Thermopylae; Oracle at Delphi; Herodotus; The Histories; penteconters; John Marincola; Richard Nelson; Warfleets of Antiquity; Luke; Acts 27; Paul the Apostle; 2 Corinthians 11:25; Jefferson White; Evidence and Paul’s Journeys: An Historical Investigation into the Travels of the Apostle Paul; Suetonius; Emperor Claudius; Lucian; Euroclydon

What were Xerxes plans for invading Greece. What were the Greek plans for resisting them? We’re now in the period of calm just before the storm. As John Gaddis says about plans in his book On Grand Strategy they involve drawing: upon principles extending across time and space, so that you'll have a sense of what's worked before and what hasn't. You then apply these to the situation at hand: that's the role of scale. The result is a plan, informed by the past, linked to the present, for achieving some future goal. The engagement, however, won't in all respects follow the plan. Not only will its outcome depend on what the other side does — the "known unknowns," of which former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld famously spoke — but it will also reflect "unknown unknowns," which are all the things that can go wrong before you've even encountered an adversary. Together, these constitute what Clausewitz called "friction," the collision of theory with reality Over the rest of this series we’ll see how this understanding plays out. Tag words: Xerxes; Ancient Greece; John Gaddis; On Grand Strategy; Donald Rumsfeld; Persian invasion; Greco-Persian War; Decisive Battles of the Western World; JFC Fuller; Herodotus; The Histories; John Marincola;

Sometimes we think of these ancient peoples that I’m talking about, like Xerxes the ruler of the Persian Empire, who lived in this ancient, primitive world, as not being as sophisticated as we are. But that might not be true. Was this campaign to invade Greece, just a part of his strategic plan to destroy the entire Greek world and its colonies including in Sicily? So was Xerxes pursuing a Grand Strategy to win his jewel of taking over all of Europe as well as Greece. As he told his nobles in Part 2 of this series: if we crush the Athenians and their neighbours who dwell in the land of Pelops the Phrygian, we shall so extend the empire of Persia that its boundaries will be God's own sky, so that the sun will not look down upon any land beyond the boundaries of what is ours. With your help I shall pass through Europe from end to end and make it all one country. For if what I am told is true, there is not a city or nation in the world which will be able to withstand us, once these are out of the way. Was the war begun by Xerxes invasion of Greece, truly the first world war? Tag words: Xerxes; Persian Empire; Greek world; Grand Strategy; Athenians; Gelon; tyrant of Syracuse; Spartans; Hamilcar; Carthage; Salamis; John Marincola; Herodotus; The Histories; Diodorus Siculus; JFC Fuller; Decisive Battles of the Western World Volume 1; the Magi; Artachaees;

Xerxes was given a lesson in the determination of the Spartans not to give up their freedom to some foreign conquering ruler. They could have immortally told their tormentor, Xerxes, Give me liberty or give me death and beaten American Patrick Henry to the punch by 2,200 years, but the Spartans were fighting men with no time for fine words. The two Spartans who visited Xerxes spoke more bluntly. Athens got the depressing prophecy from the oracle at Delphi that it was doomed if it resisted the Persians, in a prophecy that was blunt and not obscure like the one that poor Croesus received which I talked about in Part 8 of this series. But Athens resolved to fight on – even if the gods were against them. But they took the precaution of asking for a second opinion from the Oracle – perhaps an insult to the gods that may have made things worse. This prophecy was classic Delphic causing debate among the Athenians about what the prophecy meant. Let me reveal all now. Tag words: Xerxes; Persians; Athens; Croesus; Delphi Oracle; Demartus; Spartans; Herodotus; The Histories; the wooden wall; Divine Salamis; Gelon;

Xerxes had bound Europe to Asia with the two bridges that he had had thrown across the Hellespont. Now his mighty army was ready to cross. It was going to take several days and nights to achieve this task and Xerxes delivered a pep talk to the leaders before they began on the expedition. Tag words: Xerxes; Artabanus; Susa; Persians; Herodotus; The Histories; Oracle of Dephi; Croesus; Cyrus; Aeschylus; The Persians; Alan Sommerstein; John Marincola; Artemesia; Demartus; Spartans;

Was Xerxes a hedgehog or a fox? Since there’s an overwhelming chance that you have no idea what I’m talking about I am going to have to explain aren’t I. But first to get some context. Xerxes plans for invading Greece had received an enthusiastic response from everyone except his uncle, Artabanus. Now poised on the brink of crossing from Asia to Europe, Xerxes wanted to revisit this question with his uncle one last time. I think he’d like him to volunteer that he is now wholly behind the project, without being threatened by a ghost. Tag words: Xerxes; Artabanus; Greece; Herodotus’ The Histories; John Lewis Gaddis; On Grand Strategy; Bosphorous; Aeschylus; The Persians; Darius; Isaiah Berlin; The Hedgehog and the Fox; Umberto Eco; Foucault’s Pendulum; Philip Tetlock; Expert Political Judgment

Xerxes grand, triumphal parade to conquer Greece took a detour to visit the ruins of Helen’s legendary Troy. How Cyrus the Great conquered the most impregnable city fortress in the world without shedding any blood, while inside the city a ghostly hand was writing a message of doom to the ruler of Babylon. And finally Xerxes arranged to see the might and irresistible power that he had assembled to crush the pesky Greeks. All of this will be covered now. Tag words: Xerxes; Troy; Helen; Priam; Cyrus the Great; Babylon; Pythias, the Lydian; Herodotus;Magi; Bible; book of Daniel; Euphrates River; Belshazzar; Nabonidus; Belteshazzar; Book of Isaiah;

It was a triumphal victory march like none before or since even up to today, when Xerxes set out to conquer Greece, the whole of Europe even. John Lewis Gaddis, Professor of History at Yale University, founding director of the Brady-Johnson Programme in Grand Strategy, and 2012 Pullitzer Prize Winner for his biography of George F Kennan, an American diplomat who advocated a containment policy of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, had this to say about Xerxes, on the brink of crossing over from Asia to Europe to conquer everything that stood in his way without submitting. The date is 480 B.C.E. The place is Abydos, the town on the Asian side of the Hellespont where it narrows to just over a mile in width. The scene is worthy of Hollywood in its heyday. Xerxes, Persia's King of Kings, ascends a throne on a promontory from which he can see armies assembled, the historian Herodotus tells us, of over a million and a half men. Had the number been only a tenth of that, as is more likely, it would still have approximated the size of Eisenhower's forces on D-day in 1944. The Hellespont has no bridge now, but Xerxes had two then: one rested on 360 boats lashed together, the other on 314, both curved to accommodate winds and currents. For after an earlier bridge had broken apart in a storm, the furious king beheaded the builders and ordered the waters themselves whipped and branded. Somewhere on the bottom there presumably lie, to this day, the iron fetters he had thrown in for good. This is a part of the story of Xerxes invasion that, like everything about his invasion is remarkable, recounted in such vivid and memorable colour by the Greek historian Herodotus. Tag words: Xerxes; Greece; John Lewis Gaddis; On Grand Strategy; Hellespont; Artabanus; the Magi; Darius; Herodotus; The Histories; Pythius;

From the time of making the decision to invade Greece, military contingents, and their entourages from all over the Persian Empire descended on the capital, Susa. Herodotus tells us that this was made up of 2,641,610 fighting men. He says that he conservatively allows for an equal number of servants, camp followers, crews of provision boats and other craft that sailed with the expedition. So no less than 5,283,220 men and women descended on Susa. With all of those powerful individuals gathered together in Xerxes capital, Susa, it was natural for Xerxes to want to show off, among other possessions, his beautiful wife, the Queen – but not in a way that she was likely to approve of. Tag words: Persian Empire; Herodotus; The Histories; Xerxes; Candaules; The English Patient; Kristin-Scott Thomas; Gyges; Queen Vashti; Book of Esther; Bible; Mordecai;

In the world of the ancients, humans were the playthings of the gods. Xerxes, as you will remember, was thinking about not invading Greece which, as you will soon learn, would have been defying his gods’ given destiny. He was beginning to think that Artabanus, his uncle, was right. Why invade Greece? To set Xerxes on the correct trajectory, the gods wanted him to take, a little prodding was going to be needed from a transparent friend. Tag words: Xerxes; Artabanus; Greece; Darius; Magi;

Let’s pretend that you are Xerxes, in charge of the greatest empire the world has ever seen. Your dad, Darius, had suffered a humiliating defeat, in 490 B.C. at the hands of the Athenians, losing the Battle of Marathon and having to flee back to Persia with his tail between his legs. Pretty embarrassing – very embarrassing in fact. Your dad decided to revenge himself on the Greeks. He started the preparations for the rematch with the Greeks, but died just 4 years later before he could launch his invasion.  The big decision for Xerxes was whether he would go ahead with these plans of his father. But then his uncle, Artabanus, said that he thought that wouldn’t be a good idea. Pretty gutsy of Artabanus – which often in such an environment means that he was put to death. So how did Artabanus go after telling the most powerful man on earth, and I’m not talking about Joe Biden, in front of all of the Persian empires greatest noblemen, who Xerxes had just told that he had decided to invade Greece, that he might want to re-think that. Tag words: Xerxes; Darius; Artabanus; Herodotus; The Histories; Mardonius; Datis; Artaphernes; Battle of Marathon;

In 480 BC a battle took place at the Thermopylae Pass, essentially between 300 Spartan warriors and the massive army of Xerxes, the mighty ruler of the mightiest empire that the world had ever seen, with 1,700,000 men at his command, so we are told. Although at another point we’re told that his forces numbered 5,283,220 men - pretty precise eh! Now you may think that ancient history isn’t your thing. Modern warfare is what really gets your interest. But this was, in fact, a modern war. It was, if you like, a battle between the Chinese Communist Party seeking to become the ruler of our world, or the United Nations trying to achieve its dream, our nightmare, world government ambitions, or the corporate socialism ambitions of the multi-nationals, or the big governments of the West trying (who am I kidding – trying) to socialise our Western democratic nations that were built on the principles that these Greeks found themselves fighting for to prevent the end of their, and our individuality, because that was what we would have lost if these Greeks had lost their struggle 2,500 years ago. Because in this story the men of Greece, especially of Athens and Sparta, were fighting for their individual freedom. Like many people today, they refused to give up that freedom and to go into slavery, even though victory seemed impossible. They fought for their rights to be and remain individuals – and they won. Their struggle, crowned with success, offers hope for us today. It’s a story that we can learn from, a story that can give us hope. We must make the frightening words of Dennis Prager, in his interview in May 2024, with former Australian Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, the truth of which is a possibility that we’re facing today, one that will not happen: When you think of the many Aussies who died in World War II fighting for freedom and fighting for the West and Americans, of course, and other, I never thought I would ever say this, maybe they died in vain, because whatever they died for is no longer revered by the elites of the countries they fought for. And to make this story of the struggle between the Greeks and the Persians even more interesting, the account that this programme is based on, is told by the very first historian in the world – Herodotus. The man who invented history. And Herodotus, because I don’t want to exaggerate his writing skill, is the best teller of history that has ever lived and will ever live. Please join me for this story of the thrilling struggle that many of us today are fighting afresh for our right to be individuals and not to be slaves. Tag words: Battle of Thermopylae Pass; Spartans; Sparta; Athens; Xerxes; Chinese Communist Party; People’s Liberation Army; United Nations; world government; Dennis Prager; John Anderson; Herodotus; The Histories; Darius; Battle of Marathon; Aristodemus; Battle of Salamis; Battle of Platea; Book of Esther; The Bible; Candaules; John Dickson; Is Jesus History?; Alexander the Great; Arrian; Anabasis of Alexander; Ptolemy; Aristobulus; Callisthenes; Aristotle; Persian War; Gospels; New Testament; Jesus; Tacitus; Annals; Tiberius; Pontius Pilate; Paul the Apostle; road to Damascus; 1 Thessalonians; memory; substantia nigra; Plato; Silvia Ferrara; The Greatest Invention; Themistocles; Delphi Oracle; Joshua Foer; Moonwalking with Einstein; Greek Enlightenment; Richard Cohen; Making History;

For the past few parts I’ve been like a dog with a bone. Looking at animals in war. In this programme I’m going to tell you about atomic bats, under cover pussies, tank destroying dogs and fighting chickens. Tag words: Smoky the Yorkshire Terrier; General Douglas MacArthur; I Shall Return; the bat bomb; Lyle S. Adams; National Research Defense Committee; Donald Griffin; Project X-Ray; CIA; Project Acoustic Kitty; Great Patriotic War; anti-tank dogs; First Gulf War; Operation Desert Storm; Poultry Chemical Confirmation Devices; Operation Kuwaiti Field Chicken; KFC; grave of The Unknown Chicken;

Animal heroes in war. Today I’m going to talk about a great Australian dog, a navy cat, parachuting turkeys, flaming pigs and did we do something disgusting to the horses that did so much for us in World War I and a whole lot more? Hang around for a surprising answer. Tag words: animal heroes; Avenue of Remembrance Yungaburra; Merlin; Razz; Andy; Nova; Herbie; Corporal Mark Donaldson; Taliban; Quake; Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel; Australian Mounted Division; Simon the cat; the HMS Amethyst; Dickin Medal; Spanish Civil War; turkeys; ancient Rome; war pigs; elephants in war; Alexander the Great; Pliny the Elder; bottlenose dolphins; Notty; Tanker War; Marine Mammal Program; SEAL; Brandon Webb;

Animals make great friends – but in wartime, they can and do save lives. Animal heroism even has it’s own Victoria Cross – so let’s look at what animals, including slugs, have done for us in war. And let’s look at the Victoria Cross for animals. Tag words: Animals; Victoria Cross; Red Baron; Charles Schulz; Snoopy; Manfred von Richthofen; Gunner Cedric Popkin; Dickin Medal; For Gallantry; We Also Serve; Australian Defence Forces; Canine Operational Service Medal; Military Working Dogs; Steven Spielberg; War Horse; First World War; Horses; war chariots; Crimean war; pigeon; Angus Trumble; National Portrait Gallery; Royal Flying Corps; Tom Trumble; the Waler horse; Australian Light Horsemen; charge at Beersheba; Brigadier General Grant; 4th Light Horse Brigade; Lt. General Chauvel; Johnny Turk; Gallipoli; Slugs; mustard gas attacks;