This fun podcast follows the “rexipod” format: there are two hosts, one host researches a topic (in this case, each ruler of Persia in turn) and explains it to the second host (who knows very little on the subject), then they award points on various categories like how cool their death was or how good they were for Persia.
As a Roman/Euro-centric student of history, I’ve known Persia or the Parthians only as the bad guys, so seeing their side of everything from the battle of Marathon to the death of Julian the Apostate (where I am now) has been fascinating. The podcasters lean hard into identifying with the Persian side and talking about Rome as the bad guys, but then there’s like this whole other eastern border with India and the Kushans and steppe nomads and occasionally even China.
To give one example, Roman history tends to treat Odenathus as this absurdly capable warrior prince who somehow drove the Sassanids off just as they were about to conquer the entire East. From the Sassanian point of view, Shappur had finished his raid, had no intention of staying long enough for the Romans to counter-attack, and may or may not have noticed this little Palmyrene army attacking a detachment.
