Fun linguistic shenanigans: The island of Korkyra (commonly spelled Corcyra when referring to the ancient city) is known today as both Kerkyra and Corfu. The name Corfu comes from an Italianized version of the Byzantine name Korufo. I use the pronunciation of "Korkyra" with an O because it reflects the more common version of the name as listed in ancient accounts - adherence to the original ancient version is also why I'm using Ks in place of any Latinized Cs. Essentially: I'm spelling everything the ancient way, but using modern Greek phonetics to sound out those words. It's an uncommon way to go about, but it feels like the right balance of ancient authenticity and modern linguistic continuity. -B
If I was a fool and didn’t love Blue’s delivery style, that line would have kept me watching. I am only a partial fool, and do love Blue’s delivery style, so I reveled in the line and kept watching.
@@derekskelton4187 nah Sparta is the dude in the corner who doesn't want to be there but will absolutely beat the shit out of any drunk dude who tries to fight him or even minorly annoys him.
Over two millenia later and that superiority complex is still (stereotypically) there among Athenians. Especially the ones who trace their family's lineage back to the 19th/early 20th century Athens, who consider themselves the "true" Athenians.
thats because where better (see the joke here is im greek and i was born and raised in athens so i will just leave this here in hopes someone will find this funny)
OH NOOOOOOOO!!! I have two girlfriends, but very few people on YT are happy for my relationship success. They disl*ke all of the videos I make with my 2 girlfriends. Please be kind, dear mi
@@hrach1384 In Greek Mythology, the Titan Kronos, or Chronos, overthrew Ouranos(who was head god at the time) by castrating him. In some tellings, his balls fell into the ocean, became sea foam, and that sea foam created Aphrodite.
Athens: "It's over Mytilene, I have the High Ground" Mytilene: "You underestimate my power" Athens: "Don't try it, I have the High Ground" *Mytileneian rebellion and Athens almost killing all the men* Athens: "You were my Debt-I mean Friend Mytilene, High Ground, why did you have to push me when I had the High Ground?" (I'm not sorry)
I read the mytilene part in Thucydides this weekend, Kleon’s speech is insane. I was sitting there like “uh, hey, this guys kind of sounding like a supervillain, are we gonna question that one?”
Apprently his name became a euphemism warmongering rulers, that in the "Song of Ice and Fire" (aka Game Thrones books), one of the freed slave cities was ruled by Cleon "The Butcher".
@@patrickfrost9405 Eh, I can't help but disagree with you on the 'delusional' thing. Kleon's speech gives off a lot of 'Make Athens Great Again' vibes what with his earnest desire to maintain Athen's Empire, contempt for discussion or 'cleverness', preference for rigid, unchanging opinions (including killing all the Mityneans), and its frustration with democracy being 'too compassionate.' Whether or not we personally consider Kleon Trumpian... the parallels do exist.
6:30 "Thucydides literally invented history" is a sentence that's surprisingly true, since Herodotus was more of a storyteller that wished to preserve said stories from fading into existence, while in turn Thucydides wrote history the way we define it today. That said, I wouldn't argue with the Romans as to who the father of history was 😄.
Yes and no. At least Herodotus travelled to various places and wrote what he saw and was told. He also always said to take it with a grain of salt when he was 100% sure, but people ignore this for some reason. Thucydides never travelled beyond Greece and only wrote about the War and the history of the parties involved.
@@ptlemon1101 You're absolutely correct; although Thucydides never travelling beyond Greece isn't necessarily a minus since that's where the war unfolded.
I LOVE this format, and how the outlying smaller cities helped to create the glorified image we read about. I'm so excited to learn more about other cities and their 'suburbs' in the future. Also, I am sort of hoping Blue gets to do a "detail diatribe" about architecture or a historical narrative.
I agree, a city can not stand without the surounding area, especially in the food department. So most cities are surounded by small port, fishing, and farming villages that grow into major suburbs and without them the "City Proper" definitely wouldn't exist ir be a strong as it was. So its really cool to learn about the "suburbs" as well, and seeing Athens' wall be essentially a dumbell is really cool and funny.
Oh yeah, agreed. Seeing the whole Athenian network at work summarized was very interesting. Hope Blue does more "city collections" like that in the future!
I really liked the format this time around! Swapping the focal points between each of the cities makes it really interesting, because you get to weave togeather the narrative of the larger empire while still getting to show off more of the niche elements. This could apply so well to so many places! Italy, the HRE, Japan, china, France, or legit like anywhere. All of them could have this same format applied and it would be super cool! Though honestly because you're not aiming for youtube shorts anymore you could probably drop the 1 minute per city restriction, or atleast be flexible with it, but that could go either way. Either way it rocks! You rock!
@@discountchocolate4577 this is just my personal opinion, but their pride still stands as the cause for some of the greatest athenian contributions to the world. no evidence here, but i would guess the way they recorded history in athens and china is different?? so that’s why the distinction is there. however, oral traditions in story telling i guess could be called history and same thing with cave paintings so i have no clue. ignore me lol
@@misamisaa4547 Yeah, it has the best utility of any swear word in Greek. Trying to call a friend? "Που είσαι ρε μαλάκα" ("Where are you you malaka") Trying to get in a fight? Again, you use it. Trying to show your surprise? You bet it's there!
As a born and raised Athenian I feel flattered for this video but I have to say that I each region of Greece had and has very vibrant pieces of history to tell.
I mean....it also could of just been the super villan level of charisma he possed....and the mind control powers. Probably more the mind control powers.
This format is AMAZING for enterprising DMs looking to plagia... get inspiration from real world history. That double city fortress+shipyard complex is just *chef's kiss*
Love this medium length form. Doesn't feel like you are going to pass out after giving the 60 speel. But it also is not a full 30+ commitment. It is a glancing blow about the city without skipping over everything
6:43 my thoughts about the first city-minutes were “wow this is really cool. I wish it was horizontal and longer/more in depth.” Though my insatiable appetite for history can *never* be satisfied, I definitely enjoyed this version and hope to see more
@@lorddaegoth If all it takes to be called a Diogenes is to define things by elimination, we must ask ourselves what our good boy from Sinop was doing in Russia in the 1930s with a sick 'stache and pipe.
I still can’t get over just how many parallels that Athens has to the modern US. From doing anything to be culturally and philosophically dominant, to not being called an empire (despite totally being an empire), it’s quite interesting.
@@ronaldshelny9439Sort of. Britain was a monarchy and was an outspoken empire combine this with the US and Athens quick rise to power and this rise to power coming almost immediately after a massive war; I’d say that the USA has far more parallels with Athens and the Roman republic than does Britain. Also how the heck did the British shame the United States? Considering that your colonies teamed up with your longtime rivals/enemies, and then within the next 160 years helped save you twice, and then took over the globe, I’d say that if anyone shamed anyone it would be the other way round. (That being said I wholeheartedly reject this idea of one nation shaming the other as both are extremely close allies and benefit from this friendship)
I've always questioned whether Athens was way over blown or not. My understanding is that most information about Athenian history comes from Athens and that much of the other major poleis sources were not preserved to the same degree.
We have a lot of books from that period, as well as the ruins. Pericles's age was indeed *that* good, but i would also say that was kinda a one-generation wonder.
@@lordtrigon1733 I went to a tiny small-town Class D (meaning little $$) school system. One if the high school teachers was a disgraced college professor (personally I think being an outspoken lesbian in the 70's was her "disgrace") who talked the admin into allowing both a semester of Shakespeare and Mythology (mostly Greek, a little Norse) to the "college prep" curriculum. She certainly knew her Shakespeare but not her mythology. They were fun courses tho. To give you an idea of the average student, when the career counselor asked if we knew what a pharmacist was, one kid said "yeah that's the guy my dad hired to work on the farm" and half the class agreed. "These are simple farmers. People of the land, the common clave. You know... morons."
I just wanted to say I’m a big fan of your videos! I especially like how open both you and Red are whenever it’s difficult to find sources and exact details for the topics you present, I really appreciate the level of honesty you have with your viewers. I really enjoy history and classic literature, so your channel has been an oasis for when I need to retreat and hear someone rant about how difficult the character of Loki is to define, or how Vienna stands (or floats) as a testament to the fact that some people live to spite the laws of nature. Thank you for everything you do for your viewers!
I'm glad it's longer (and horizontal), but I can't say I'd be overjoyed to see these taking over for full length videos. That said, I'm not paying for this in any way so you do you. Content's great as always, I just wish it weren't curtailed by a dumb format trend
I loved it as always!!! Both formats are fine, the shorts were interesting as youtube stories and short blurbs of information, so I like that as well as this, but no real preference. Amazing work!!!
Thanks for mentioning Mytilene. I remember it as an anecdote but I didn't recall the city's name. The Athenians condemned the entire city to be wiped out and every citizen killed. The following morning, having come to their senses, at the insistence of the ambassador of Mytilene, the Athenias recalled the penalty but the problem was the courier had already been sent by trireme (or was it a bireme) the night before. The Mytilene ambassador went around the docks, offering extra payment for volunteer rowers and quickly, they set off in pursuit of the first ship. They did not allow for any rests, the crew were being fed good food and drink while still rowing. When they arrived at the condemned city, they found the first ship had already docked. The ambassador and the new Athenian courier hurried to the local Athenian garrisson, where they fortunately caught the garrisson having just been informed of the eradication order, but not having moved yet. This anecdote was mentioned to show how fast rowing triremes or biremes could be when they rowed non stop and the weather was good.
Loved the new format! And especially the city-by-city explanation of things that fed into the one city everyone knows about, because of COURSE it wasn't actually just Athens on its own, no matter what Athens wants to say about it.
“You know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
That was really interesting Blue, I like this style of summarizing several subtopics to one greater topic :) Your next challenge: The german confederation in the 18 hundreds :D
My original thought when watching this one : Oh, so that's where Blue was going with this. The Short format didn't really stick on me the first times around, but this time, I'm really impatient for the next one. (If you can, review the cities named Alexandria !) Although I truly think this format works wonders as "reminders" or post-study summaries to jug the memory. I think that kind of thing help tremendously in making sure stuff sticks to the audience's brains in the long run. Congrats Blue on being able to drastically improve and take the criticism, that alone is quite the achievement. I think you're there now, you can feel free to keep going in that direction. Thanks :)
I like the format, my only hangup is the transitions between slices. I feel like the flow needs to be better for a longer form like this, because as it stands this just feels like a bunch of videos quickly stapled together. Otherwise great work, Blue
I definitely love you doing multiple shorts of different cities over a shorter period of time. Given how messy city-state politics can get, this seems like a great way to get a 3D picture of the situation without trying to stuff them all into a single narrative
This was very informative. Blue, if by some twist of fate you ever read this, just know I love your “ancient” history videos. Unfortunately, my college doesn’t offer in-depth classes on history before the 1500s or so, so your videos are a fun way to get more information on topics that my teachers have to rush through in class.
So uhhhhh,,, I was listening to one of the older podcasts earlier (9 or 10, maybe?) because I listen when I draw, and at the end one of the questions was about your music tastes, and both of you mentioned miracle of sound. My experience with that was You Died, which is a really cool song but I’ve always associated it with video games, so when you mentioned it and the The Tail of Cu Chulainn I wasn’t expected it. Anyway, the point here is it’s really GOOD and COOL and I’m HAPPY YOU MENTIONED IT. NOW HAVE A GOOD DAY.
I saw a new city minute and was halfway through typing a comment to ask if that meant the experiment went well, when I realized this was not a short lol I'd been considering trying shorts myself for educational writing content and was on the "no" side of the fence but still struggling with the decision, and your experience has answered all of my questions and settled my content woes. Thank you for being brave enough to give it a try! PS: As a desktop viewer I personally prefer this format 7000 times over, but as a creator shiny new features are shiny and I was tempted
This video is awesome! I loved how you picked a theme (Athens and the Peloponnesian War) and explored many different cities with it. Athenian hubris, best in the world!
Hey Blue, loved the vid. I'm not sure if done one of these before but I'd love to see a history of Canada video from you. I know you don't really do videos about newer history all that often but I feel no one really knows the history of it and its honestly pretty funny overall, especially when you look up how it became independent from the crown.
It's always fun learning about the history of any given city or nation. But Blue, I feel like I have to say this, take a break from Greece, Italy, and the Roman Empire, everyone seems to talk about them to some degree, especially Greece and Rome, so maybe take a break from what we consider the foundations of the western world for a bit and take a look into Chinese and Japanese history, maybe take some time to look Celtic history a bit (there have been quite a few developments in our understanding of the Celts and just where they came from in the past few years). And as much fun as it is to hear you gush about Greek, Roman, and Italian architecture, I feel like you're missing out on discovering the technical achievements the Celts and Japanese made in their building efforts. While the Celts didn't seem to have a refined of a building process as Greece and Rome, they still managed to pull off some feats of building that people are still trying to work out the processes of today. And as for Japanese architecture, there is something to be said about building ways to keep your structures standing well into an earthquake that modern architects in Japan are doing their best to recreate with a modern twist, and that's to say nothing about how fast the ancient Japanese could seemingly get entire towns back up after a fire. To address the Japanese culture side of things, see what you can do about getting Gaijin Goombah in on things, he has two channels on RU-vid dedicated to better informing people about Japanese culture. Also, in the way Blue gushes about architecture, Gaijin Goombah is practically unapologetic in how he gushes about historical shinobi (better known as ninjas to the rest of us) and has a whole series where he analyzes ninja, and ninja-like, characters see just how well they stand up to how genuine shinobi those individual characters do, and quite a few might surprise in authentic to genuine shinobi practices they are.
You said to give feedback so hear is mine! First time actually listening to you. Usually Im hear for red lol But this was awesome and had me on the edge of my seat the whole time
Great video as always. If it helps, my favorite video is the one you did on Machiavelli. I love learning the truth about someone, someplace, or something instead of what tradition thinks of that [insert X].
I enjoyed this version of city minutes! Since the video was a bit longer you were able to go into the details about each of Athens "allies". But I was a bit confused about the map at first since I didn't know where those smaller islands but I was able to figure it out by the end. Anyway I'm looking forward to the next episode in this series!
Great video! Really puts the whole Atlanta/Athens thing plato talked about in a greater perspective, which turned out to be sound warning of hubris, as if the rest of Greek mythology wasn't enough.
