Babylon: The Most Important City of Antiquity
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The urban cultures of ancient Mesopotamia formed the foundation for so much of our modern world. Nowhere exemplifies this better than the city of Babylon, which was the cultural seedbed for the Greek and Roman civilisations that in turn left such lasting legacies.
On this episode, Dan is joined by Amanda Podany, professor emeritus of history at the California State Polytechnic University. Amanda draws on an astonishing breadth of original documents and objects to explain just how foundational this civilisation was, and how people learnt to live side by side with one another.
Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.
We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.
You can also email the podcast directly at [email protected].
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This episode is brought to you by the film The Alto Knights in cinema's March 21st, |
| 0:05.8 | from the hitmakers behind Goodfellers and the Irishman, |
| 0:09.0 | and starring Robert De Niro comes this love letter to the gangster genre. |
| 0:15.0 | Inspired by the true story of New York mob bosses, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. |
| 0:23.0 | It follows the bitter feud that pitted them against one another for control of the city streets. It's directed by the Academy Award winning |
| 0:29.1 | filmmaker Barry Levinson with Academy Award winner De Niro in a jewel role. That's twice as much |
| 0:35.8 | De Niro as you would usually get. He plays these complex |
| 0:39.2 | characters so well that you can't help but root for them. The story is thrilling. The cinematography |
| 0:45.2 | is masterful. This is definitely one to go and check out on the big screen, folks. The Alto Knights |
| 0:49.5 | is in cinemas from the 21st of March, suitable for ages 15 and over. |
| 1:00.7 | This advertisement is from Nutmeg, a J.P. Morgan company. Nutmeg can help your work towards your investment goals. That could mean planning for your child's future by putting money aside |
| 1:05.4 | for university, or helping to get on the housing ladder, or it could mean investing towards your |
| 1:10.2 | forever future home. |
| 1:11.9 | Retirement goals or going on that bucket list once in a lifetime trip. Nutmeg offers a range |
| 1:17.0 | of investment styles and products to suit you, such as stocks and shares, Isis, pensions, junior, |
| 1:22.2 | Ices and more. Their team of wealth experts offer free financial guidance to help you get on your investment journey. |
| 1:29.2 | So whatever your investment goals are, nutmeg can help you figure out the best path to achieve them. |
| 1:34.1 | Search nutmeg to find out more. Capital at risk, pension, ISA and junior ISO rules apply. |
| 1:41.5 | Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's history hit. You've heard of Greece. You've heard of Rome. |
| 1:47.4 | As I understand it, some people think about Rome, rather a lot. But do they think about Mesopotamian culture? |
| 1:54.3 | That bedrock culture on which so much subsequent Greek and Roman science, politics, engineering and warfare was based. |
| 2:04.4 | For more than 3,000 years, from 3.5,000 BC, right up to the year dots, the year zero or one, |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in -12 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.