History Summarized: The Other Side of Greece

The plot twist of the Archaic era is that Ionia was hiding all the cool stuff.

SOURCES & Further Reading:
“The Greeks” by Roderick Beaton
Great Courses Lectures “Challenges in the West: 513 – 493” from “The Persian Empire” by John W. I. Lee,
“Emergence of the Polis”, “Ionia and Early Greek Civilization”, “The Persian Conquest”, “Athenian Empire and Spartan Hegemony”, “Alexander the Great and the Diadochi”, and “The Hellenization of Asia Minor” from “The Great Civilizations of Asia Minor” by Kenneth W. Harl
“The Hellenistic Concert of Powers” from “Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Empire” by Kenneth W. Harl

MUSIC
"Sneaky Snitch" by Kevin MacLeod
"The Sacred Land of Artemis" from Assassin's Creed Odyssey OST

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[Lowkeylie]

1:12 A whole minute in before taking potshots at Athens? You’re unusually restrained today Blue

[BlankPicketSign]

"Where is Greece?" Red asked, looking around, confused.
Blue: completely silent, a conspicuously Hellenistic shaped lump in his cheeks.

[merrittanimation]

Fun fact: for many languages east of Anatolia, “Ionian” became the catch all term for the Greeks via the Persian “Yauna” since they were the first Greeks any of them interacted with.

[Tortferngatr]

“A ploy by Big Thesis to introduce a topic” is how I will be remembering rhetorical questions from now on.

[TheGameRonin]

Alexander the Jump Scare is the best title that Blue has come up with yet

[DragonKnightJin]

I see the tradition/running gag of giving Alexander *ANY* name but "the Great" is still going strong.
Keep it up, Blue. We love ya for it. And "Alexander the Jumpscare" is a pretty damn good one.

[Narifamen]

"In Sappho's case, a To-Do List"

I am dead.

[Awesomewithaz]

Greece is the friends we made along the way

[arutka]

As an Alexander, Alexander the Jumpscare is quite possibly the funniest epithet you've come up with.

[tumach]

Alexander the Speedrunner: "The real question is, where *isn't* Greece?"

[MinunRobotnik]

I like the part in 300 where Leonidas yells "THIS IS where we're going to draw a vague line through the Classical and Archaic periods."

[HistoryBeyondBordersTV]

Such a fresh take on Ancient Greece! I had no idea how pivotal the Anatolian Greek cities like Ionia were in shaping art, poetry, and philosophy during the Archaic period. The shift to Athens and Sparta after Persia’s rise makes so much sense now. Really opens your eyes to the overlooked eastern side of Greek history. Great stuff!

[IcarusRuthven]

You said Anatolia's where all the cool stuff came from, then panned over, the city names came in, and I was suddenly struck by how I would have been completely unable to point to some pretty familiar names on a map. I would absolutely have tried to squeeze at least half of them into mainland, modern Greece. And I'm a musician - Ionian, Dorian, (Mixo)Lydian, Phrygian, and Aeolian modes are all named after these places (maybe Locrian as well?). Lycaon is one of the mythic figures I'm well aware of. St. George was Cappadocian. Is that Galatia as in "Galatians"? Holy cow, Anatolia, you're so full of interesting things.

[jinxcat]

My favorite Blue videos are always the cultural evolution ones.

[compatriot]

2:40 Nice touch representing Miletus with a Lion given a lot of their coinage depicts the head of a Lion

[Just_Some_Guy_with_a_Mustache]

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in Greece, know you are not in Greece. You have been got by Big Thesis.

[compatriot]

The history of the rest of the Greek world outside of modern Greece is a topic severely underrated

[LordKhuzdul]

As a modern resident of the Ionian city of Klazomenai, nice to see the Anatolian coast getting some love. Anatolia is, honestly, way more interesting than people think.

[Beryllahawk]

This is why I love Blue talking history. It makes SENSE. And he challenges what you think you know, then challenges it again, then pulls out the "and now isn't THIS cool" part -
I wish like hell my school history teachers had been half this passionate about their subject. Everything I've learned to like about history, I have learned because of Blue's LOVE for history.
You rock, man!

[AegixDrakan]

Blue: "Here's a question designed to trick you... Where is Grease?"
Me: "Stuck on my frying pan, next question!"