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I am a notoriously bad topic picker, and I traditionally pick something that I think I

can do much more quickly than I can, and then when I get into the middle of it, I feel

compelled to do the topic justice, and we end up traditionally with a very long series

of shows.

But what you're about to hear is the equivalent of like a double album by a music band

or something.

We are essentially giving you parts three and four of what probably should have been

realistically speaking a four-part series on the Achiemented Persian Empire, with an

obvious focus on their wars with the Greeks and the Macedonians.

If you missed parts one and two, you probably want to catch those before you catch this one,

but there's so much military history in this one because I knew it'd be crucified if

we didn't go into loving detail about what amounts to several of the best battles in

ancient military history.

So we do that, and we give you what is probably twice the length of what a good Hardcore

history show should be.

So save for it, let it last, and hopefully it doesn't become like one of those double albums

I grew up with where you listen to it, and you think, God, they could have cut half that

thing and just put out one really good single album.

The way I look at it, though, this is one of the great topics in all world history, and

...