City Minutes: The Athenian Empire

Deja Vu? Only slightly! I'm re-imaging City Minutes, and this time the plan is to *Actually Make It Good*! With MULTIPLE CITIES per episode, and HORIZONTAL VIDEO!
I heard your feedback on the first run of the shorts loud and clear — City Minutes Good, Shorts Bad — so this will be the format going forward: networks of cities, with each getting a minute of spotlight.
We're starting where I always start, in ancient Athens (I wanted to give you the proper version of the pilot), but we've got tons of other City Minutes planned!

Cities by timestamp:
00:00 — Athens
1:00 — Piraeus
2:01 — Sounion
3:03 — Delos
4:05 — Mytilene
5:03 — Korkyra
6:03 — Conclusion

Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.

[OverlySarcasticProductions]

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

[enfield]

Athens was that guy who wouldn't let people forget about how great they are

[mera-mori]

"the annoying thing about athenians is that there almost as great as they say they are" is an amazing line

[pridelander]

"Diss the fleet, get the yeet!"
*British Empire* : Write that down, write that down!

[mazarajr]

All other Greeks: Can't you do something about your superiority complex?
Athenians: *But I'm superior.*

[michaelscott]

*Athens:* "What do you mean, 'my hubris isn't good enough'?! Look at my hubris! My hubris is the best in the world!!"

[paulwagner]

Last time I was this early Ouranos still had a pair.

[apileofratz]

"In a surprising twist of fate, other cities also had Navy's"
I laughed so hard at this

[HistoryOfRevolutions]

"As iron is eaten away by rust, so the envious are consumed by their own passion"

- Antisthenes

[leeschelly]

Athens just would not let people forget they had the highground.

[macoy]

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?”

[curiousKuro]

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.

[christermi]

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 😄.

[flareboytanor]

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!

[EdwardENigma]

"Diss the Fleet.
Get the Yeet."
~Cultured Athenian

[bioleader]

*suddenly materializes* “WHO SUMMONED ME”

[shahbazshaik]

I really like this format, as the shorts were like delicious hors d'oeuvres, while these longer video are like equally delicious meals :)

[deargodwhatamidoing]

Athens: “we have the best navy! NO ONE Can beat us.”
Me and Kasandra: “try us malaka!”

[danielduvernay]

I think blue is in a time loop that always begins with covering Athens

[johng]

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.