Tom Holland

So the rebels against Darius's rule are dispatched with very salutary displays of hideous violence.

So in Persia, the rebellious aristocrats there are impaled on an immense forest of stakes.

I mean, kind of spreading for miles and miles.

And actually these stakes were placed on the very place where the Shah of Iran

in 1971 would hold his party.

And I think that's something that perhaps the Shah of Iran didn't major on.

So the great capital of Media is this place called Ectana, which according to Herodotus is a bit like Minas Tirith.

It's kind of rings of fortifications around a central stronghold.

And each wall is a beautiful different colour.

And this is where this Median aristocrat has set himself up as a kind of independent king.

Darius captures him, has his nose cut off, his tongue.

his ears.

He's then blinded in one eye so that he can witness all his supporters being impaled around him.

He's then chained before the gates of Ectopetana where everyone could see him.

And then, of course, he too is impaled.

And to be impaled is a really hideous death.

I mean, it can take days, sharp spike into your bowels.

Yeah, and the Persians are masters of the protracted death, so they also have a hideous one where they kind of lock a bloke who's been covered in honey inside a...

You know, with the hands and the feet sticking out of two barges that have been placed over him.

And basically he just gets, you know, you get eaten by maggots and flies lay eggs in your eyes.