067- What an Artist the World is Losing

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Audio excerpt from The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic by Mike Duncan. Forthcoming Oct. 24, 2017. Pre-order a copy today!  Amazon Powells Barnes & Noble Indibound Books-a-Million Or visit us at: revolutionspodcast.com thehistoryofrome.com 

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As the last vestiges of Abbasid authority crumbled, the caliphate spiraled further into chaos. It wasn’t too long before an unremarkable conflict sparked a much wider conflagration and the umma was engulfed by civil war. The turks treated the Abbasids as little more than a banner ... Show More

Despite Belisarius' victory at Dara in 530, dissatisfaction was growing with Justinian which would soon lead to rebellion.For a free ebook, maps and blogs check out my website nickholmesauthor.com Find my latest book, Justinian's Empire, on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. ... Show More

Al Ma’mun’s surprise victory over his brother left him in charge of the entire caliphate. But the conclusion of the great fitna did not bring an end to its miseries: the chaos of war had spread throughout the land and the new caliph possessed neither the experience nor the resour ... Show More

The umma spiraled further into disorder and civil war after the sudden death of the caliph and the subsequent collapse of Umayyad authority. Ibn il Zubayr’s candidacy was transformed from an unlikely proposition to a victory by default as he became the last man standing. Despite ... Show More

Now that we’ve covered Haroon al Rashid’s foreign wars, we can get started with the messy conflicts which took place within the umma, and within his administration itself. The caliphate’s distant west slowly broke away during his reign, but his armies faced off and defeated vario ... Show More

Yazid came to power following the transformative reign of the pious Omar II. The new caliph faced some immediate resistance, and after dealing with it he went about undoing all his predecessors reforms, effectively returning the caliphate to what it had been before. While the cra ... Show More

Al Mu’tasim’s armies were among the strongest ever fielded by the caliphate. They reliably triumphed over their foes and faced no problems putting down any resistance to the caliph’s authority. Al Afshin and the Ushrusania were some of their most important elements, responsible f ... Show More

Julius Caesar lies dead on the floor of the Senate. What will happen now? The answer lies with a man called Octavian, who will surprise and astonish the ancient world by reinventing the Roman state and ensuring two hundred years of peace - he is better known by his honorary title ... Show More

Instead of bringing about a measure of peace, the end of the civil war signaled a return to the anarchy that had preceded it. The new caliph was restricted by the same men whose influence had checked his predecessor’s. Furthermore, by accepting the role of a puppet, al Musta’in h ... Show More

Back in Baghdad, al Ma’mun finally began to play an active role in running the Abbasid state. The five years he spent in Khurasan were rough on the rest of the caliphate, but especially disastrous for Iraq. The caliph now had to restore peace and central control to practically ev ... Show More