They really were quite good at it.--Produced by David MainayarWritten by Eduardo D'Ambrosio & David Mainayar3D visualization by Eduardo D'Ambrosio Edited by David Mainayar, kingfrick, @KnowHistory Music from Epidemic Sound & Total War: Rome
Where are the Romans now? You're looking at em. 0:00 - Intro 1:20 - Level I: The Calamities 13:12 - Level II: The Blunderers 21:43 - Level III: The Benchwarmers 25:38 - Level IV: The Patriarchs 31:12 - Level V: The Firefighters 36:59 - Level VI: The Imperialists 43:49 - Level VII: The Founders...
Chapters: Intro - 0:00 Chapter I: The Early Normans - 1:26 Chapter II: The Italian Normans - 1:00:57 Chapter III: The English Normans - 1:53:51 Chapter IV: The Crusader Normans - 3:34:00 Chapter V: 4:29:56 Primary Sources: Adémar de Chabannes. Chronicon and related forgeries. Early 11th century. Amatus of Montecassino. L'Ystoire de li Normant. ca. 1080. Anna Komnene. The Alexiad. ca. 1148. Dudo of Saint-Quentin. Historia Normannorum (History of the Normans). ca. 996–1015. Geoffrey Malaterra. De ...
The final installment in a three-part series on Alexander the Great. Sources: Arrian. Anabasis of Alexander. Translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt. Bolitho, William. Twelve Against the Gods. 1929. Freeman, Philip. Alexander the Great. 2011. Plutarch. Life of Alexander and Life of Caesar. Translated by Rex Warner. “How Did Alexander the Great Sustain His Army?” https://www.historyhit.com/how-did-alexander-the-great-sustain-his-army/ “Philip II and Macedonian Logistics.” History Hit. https://www.hist...
1:10 - Level I: The Fakes 6:39 - Level II: The Traders 13:46 - Level III: The Exploiters 22:31 - Level IV: The Survivors 35:55 - Level V: The Meteors 38:49 - Level VI: The Superpowers 45:20 - Level VII: The Architects
0:00 - Intro 2:06 - Level I: The Frauds6:28 - Level II: The Pretenders9:16 - Level III: The Phantoms13:43 - Level IV: The Progenitors22:02 - Level V: The Icons30:25 - Level VI: The Comets34:30 - Level VII: The World-Builders
The second installment in a three-part series on Alexander the Great. Sources: Arrian. Anabasis of Alexander. Translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt. Bolitho, William. Twelve Against the Gods. 1929. Freeman, Philip. Alexander the Great. 2011. Plutarch. Life of Alexander and Life of Caesar. Translated by Rex Warner. “How Did Alexander the Great Sustain His Army?” https://www.historyhit.com/how-did-alexander-the-great-sustain-his-army/ “Philip II and Macedonian Logistics.” History Hit. https://www.his...
The first installment in a three-part series on Alexander the Great. Sources: Arrian. Anabasis of Alexander. Translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt. Bolitho, William. Twelve Against the Gods. 1929. Freeman, Philip. Alexander the Great. 2011. Plutarch. Life of Alexander and Life of Caesar. Translated by Rex Warner. “How Did Alexander the Great Sustain His Army?” https://www.historyhit.com/how-did-alexander-the-great-sustain-his-army/ “Philip II and Macedonian Logistics.” History Hit. https://www.hist...
The third installment in a four-part series on the Normans. This part is focused on William the Conqueror's life & times. Play War Thunder for FREE on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and mobile! New & returning PC/console players get a massive bonus pack: premium vehicles, the “Eagle of Valor” decorator, 100,000 Silver Lions & 7 days of Premium.https://wtplay.link/empirebuildershttps://wtm.game/empirebuilders--The third installment in a four-part series on the Normans. This part is focused on...
The third chapter in a six-part docuseries on the Burgundians. This part is focused on Philip the Bold.
The first chapter in a four-part series on the Normans. This one traces their journey from Scandinavia to Normandy.
The second chapter in a four-part series on the Normans. This one traces their journey from Normandy to Italy.
This is the FIRST chapter in a docuseries on the Burgundians, covering the events of 406-534. The series will culminate with the Grand Dukes of the West (the Valois).
Frederick II (1194-1250) was once the most powerful ruler in Europe. He was a Renaissance Man before the Renaissance. A scientist before the scientific method. An enlightened despot before the Age of Enlightenment. Yet his wide-spanning interests and unconventional methods eventually brought him into conflict with the papacy, who declared him "the forerunner of the Antichrist." Was he as bad as the popes say, or was he simply ahead of his time? Find out in this comprehensive documentary about th...
In January 897, Pope Stephen exhumed the corpse of Pope Formosus and put it on trial. He had a deacon serve as Formosus’ voice and proceeded to scream at the corpse at the top of his lungs...Why did he do it? And could it be that this infamous trial, known as the Cadaver Synod, invalidates the whole papal succession from Formosus to Francis?
This is the SECOND chapter in a docuseries on the Burgundians. This chapter covers the events of 534-1361. Remaining parts will focus on the Valois Dukes, continuing to the 16th century.
Video essay about THE GREATEST MOVIE NEVER MADE
Audio-only. Video is available on YouTube. Sources: Arendt, Hannah. On Revolution (1963) Gay, Peter. The Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Paganism (1995) Hamilton, Alexander; Madison, James; Jay, John. The Federalist Papers (1788) Polybius. The Histories (c. 2nd century BC) Ricks, Thomas. First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country (2020) Tacitus. Agricola and Germania (Penguin Classics, 2010) Founders Online (Correspondence and O...
Audio-only. Video is available on YouTube. Sources: Beard, Mary & Hopkins, Keith. The Colosseum (2011) Futrell, Alison. The Roman Games: Historical Sources in Translation (2008) Futrell, Alison & Scanlon, Thomas. The Oxford Handbook of Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World (2021) Jacobelli, Luciana. Gladiators at Pompeii (2003) Mellor, Ronald. The Historians of Ancient Rome (1997) Wiedemann, Thomas. Emperors and Gladiators (1992)...
When I have issues with historians, I ask: "Excuse me, mate, were you there? No? Well, shut the fuck up then." Sources: Beard, Mary. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (2016) Brauer, George C. The Young Emperors, Rome, A.D. 193-244 (1967) Dio, Cassius. Roman History, Book 79 (3rd century) Dunstan, William E. Ancient Rome (2010) Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume I (1776) Goldsworthy, Adrian. How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower (2010) Hekster, Olivier. R...
MUSIC: 'Shadows and Dust' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au 'The Distant Sun' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au Remaining tracks sourced from Epidemic Sound & Motion Array. SOURCES: Brownworth, Lars. Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (2009) Heather, Peter. The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians (2005) Kaldellis, Anthony. The New Roman Empire: ...
The second part in a trilogy about the life & times of Frederick II, the Hohenstaufen Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Sources: Alighieri, Dante. Divine Comedy: Inferno & Paradiso (1321) Casady, Richard. The Emperor and the Saint: Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, Francis of Assisi, and Journeys to Medieval Places (2011) Haskins, Charles H. "Science at the Court of the Emperor Frederick II" (1922) Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (1886) Paris...
Sources & further reading: Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire (Peter H. Wilson) The Medieval Empire in Central Europe: Dynastic Continuity in the Post-Carolingian Frankish Realm, 900–1300 (Herbert Schutz) Weinfurter, Stefan (1999) [1992]. The Salian Century: Main Currents in an Age of Transition. Translated by Kaiser, Denise A. Wolfram, Herwig (2006) [2000]. Conrad II, 990–1039: Emperor of Three Kingdoms. Translated by Bowlus, Barbara M. I. S. Robinson, Henry IV of Germany, ...
The first part in a trilogy about the life & times of Frederick II, the Hohenstaufen ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. -- Sources: Alighieri, Dante. Divine Comedy: Inferno & Paradiso (1321) Casady, Richard. The Emperor and the Saint: Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, Francis of Assisi, and Journeys to Medieval Places (2011) Haskins, Charles H. "Science at the Court of the Emperor Frederick II" (1922) Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (1886) Paris...
Sources & further reading: 1. Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire (Peter H. Wilson) 2. The Medieval Empire in Central Europe: Dynastic Continuity in the Post-Carolingian Frankish Realm, 900–1300 (Herbert Schutz) 3. Weinfurter, Stefan (1999) [1992]. The Salian Century: Main Currents in an Age of Transition. Translated by Kaiser, Denise A. 4. Wolfram, Herwig (2006) [2000]. Conrad II, 990–1039: Emperor of Three Kingdoms. Translated by Bowlus, Barbara M. 5. I. S. Robinson, Henry ...
This is the story of Pope Sylvester II, born Gerbert d'Aurillac: wandering monk, imperial tutor, cathedral canon, one-time abbot, Ottonian spy, siege engineer, archbishop, and pope. His remarkable rise was attributed to a pact with the Devil. Sources & further reading: - The Letters of Gerbert, With His Papal Privileges as Sylvester II - The Abacus and the Cross (Nancy Marie Brown) - A 10th-century Monk in the Caliph's Court (Nancy Marie Brown) - Otto III (Gerd Althoff) - Chronicles of the K...
This is the story of the Ottonians, the descendants of Otto the Great, who steered Germany and Italy through the dawn of a new millennium. Sources & further reading: - Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire (Peter H. Wilson) - Otto III (Gerd Althoff) - Death and Life in the Tenth Century (Eleanor Duckett) - Warfare in Medieval Europe c.400-c.1453 (Bernard S. Bachrach, David S. Bachrach) - Warfare in Tenth-Century Germany (David S. Bachrach) - Germany in the Early Middle Ages 800...
The Saxons were Charlemagne's greatest foe, yet it was a Saxon family that restored his empire. This is the story of the first Ottonians: Henry the Fowler & Otto the Great. Sources & further reading: - Warfare in Medieval Europe c.400-c.1453 (Bernard S. Bachrach, David S. Bachrach) - Warfare in Tenth-Century Germany (David S. Bachrach) - The Costs of Fortress Construction in Tenth-Century Germany: The Case of Hildagsburg - Medieval Germany, 500–1300: A Political Interpretation (Benjamin ...
The Franks were arguably the most successful barbarian people that emerged in the late antique period. Though they helped bring an end to the Western Roman Empire, they later restored it under Charlemagne, even as they laid the primitive foundations for a new age and order. This is the story of the Franks, spanning six centuries of war, intrigue, and statesmanship, which saw this people rise from tribe to kingdom to empire. Sources & further reading: - Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy ...
This episode focuses on the last chapters of the Carolingian Empire, in the days of Charlemagne's grandsons and great grandsons. What were the last Carolingians really like, and how did they navigate this time in flux? Our story coincides with the Viking Age, the birth of feudalism, and the origins of French & German statehood. This is the sixth episode in a series covering the Holy Roman Empire. Sources & further reading: - Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire (Peter H. W...
