Review of the Great Course "Ancient Empires before Alexander"

"I gave this course three (out of five) stars because although there are some very good parts, there are some boring parts.

The course started well in the first 2 or so lectures, particularly the second lecture which provided the maps / geography of the near east, which I thought was enlightening and put everything into context.

Although I learnt a lot from the course, certain parts of the lectures were quite boring, particularly in the first half of the course. For instance, I found the overly detailed discussions of the Hatti empire (4 half-hour lectures (including minute discussions on Hatti governmental routines and processes)) very long-winded and thus boring. I actually stopped the course at around this juncture for a month or two.

The second half of the course I thought was very interesting and comparatively better presented. This included the coverage of the empires of David and Salomon (Israel), Assyria, Persia and Carthage.

I particularly enjoyed the battle descriptions of Carthage's Hannibal Barca's battles (including Battle at Cannae), battles between Persian emperor's Xerxes' army against the Greeks around 480-479 BC (including the Battle at Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea), and depictions of Alexander the Great's battles with the Persians (Granicus, Issus and Gaugamela).

I also like how Prof Robert Dise discussed the sources (including archeological) and their credibilities prior to discussing the content of each lecture.

In summary, the course covered 13 near East empires, with key details summarized chronologically as follows:

1. c 2334-2278 BC Reign of Sargon the Great, creator of history's first empire (Akkad)

2. c 1800-1450 BC Minoan naval empire in the Aegean (centered on Crete)

3. c 1650 BC The beginning of Hittite empire

4. c 1450 BC Minoan civilization ends; Mainland Greeks colonized Aegean

5. After 1350 BC Assyrian begins its rise to power

6. 1278 BC 'Sea Peoples' attacked Egypt for the first time

7. 1274 BC Battle of Kadesh between Egypt (under Ramses II) and Hittite

8. c1250 - c1230 BC Trojan War

9. c1220 BC The Exodus

10. c1220 - c1180 BC Simultaneous destruction of major near east civilizations (including Mycenaean, Hittite & the Levant)

11. c1025-1000 BC Saul became the first king of Israel

12. c 1000-960 BC David became king of Israel

13. c960-920 BC Solomon reigned as king of Israel

14. c945 BC Solomon begins construction of the Temple

15. 934-612 BC The ruthless Neo-Assyrian empire

16. 608 BC Neo-Babylonian empire destroyed the final remnants of the Neo-Assyrian empire

17. 597 BC Nebuchadrezzar, king of Neo-Babylonian, took Jerusalem and plundered the Temple

18. 586 BC Nebuchadrezzar ordered the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem. The beginning of 'Babylonian Captivity'

19. 539 BC Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, destroyed the Neo-Babylonian empire and created an empire spanning almost all of the near-east

20. 480 BC Xerxes, king of Persia, led a massive land and sea assault Greece. Defeating the united Greek army at the pass of Thermopylae, Xerxes' army suffered defeat afterward at the battles of Salamis and battle of Plataea (1 year after Battle of Salamis)

21. 336 BC Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, established a bridgehead in Anatolia

22. 336 - 330 BC Alexander the Great attacked and destroyed the Persian empire

23. 264 BC First Punic war between Carthage and Rome

24. 241 BC End of First Punic War and birth of the Roman Empire

25. 218 - 216 BC Second Punic war leading to Carthage general Hannibal's victories against the Romans at Ticinus, Trebia, Lake Trasimene and Cannae. Hannibal almost destroyed Rome

26. 202 BC Roman general Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal at Zama, northern Africa

27. 146 BC Rome destroyed the city of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War; the beginning of the long reign of the Roman Empire."

My Review of The Great Courses: "Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations"

I just finished the DVD version of this course (36 lectures). The course can be divided into four main parts. The first part discussed "Archaic Humanity" (began with ancestors of humans more than 2.5 million years ago). The second part covered "Modern Humans" (whom appeared in Africa around 200,000 to 150,000 years ago). The third part covered "Food Production" period which covered the period from 12,000 years ago (the end of the last ice age). The final part covered "Civilization Formation" which happened from around 5,000 years ago in various areas globally (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Harrapan etc.) and was driven, among other things, by the surplus in food production.

I found the course to be interesting in its breadth and scope, and the presenter (Professor Brian Fagan) to be very clear. I also liked the fact that the course was based on archaeological evidence. In terms of Professor Fagan's presentation, I disagreed with a lot of reviews which criticized his pronunciation of some words. I thought Prof Fagan did just fine and his emphasizing and story-telling skills were excellent.

I particularly enjoyed the chapters which covered ancient civilizations, particularly those which were not 'popular' such as the ancient Chinese, ancient Khmer and ancient Indian / Harrapan culture & civilization.

If I could make one recommendation about the course: I just thought it dragged too much / too long at some parts in the course - particularly: The ancient pre-modern-human hominid discussions which covered more than 6 lectures, and the discussion on Ancient Americas in more than 6 lectures (including a chapter on Maize in ancient Americas). I felt these could have been discussed more succinctly.

Why can't you just Make a Decision?

I have seen many young people's lives plateau because of one major disease: They just can not make Decisions!

Many people these days, young people especially, like to 'keep their options open'. This is especially true of smart, educated, young people. Perhaps their education and university degrees had taught them too much of the so-called 'option value' and how it's valuable to keep their options open.

All I can say is, yea sure, sometime it's worthwhile to keep your options open, but to advance in life, sooner or later you have to make the tough decisions in life. 

Consider this: 

- How many people are stuck in jobs they don't even like?

- How many people are stuck in relationships that deep down inside they know are not healthy for them?

- How many people can't even answer the question "what do I want to be when I grow up?" - even when they ARE already grown up!!?

One definition of 'maturity' and 'growing up' is in fact: the state where you have made 'commitments', which are key long-term decisions in life.  

I think this is also the disease of our modern society - with myriads of options defining our landscape of products and services to choose from. In some ways, I think modern people are conditioned to be easily bored. More options keep life spiced up.

I have observed that the great and successful leaders whom I have met make their decisions quickly, frequently and change them hardly. 

Conversely, I have observed many unsuccessful people struggle to make decisions...they deliberated for days, months and even years.... and once they 'start' to make one decision, they tend to change their minds frequently!!

Some of these people who can't make decisions often ask me, "What if I make the wrong decision?" I told them that  it's much better to make the wrong decision than no decision at all because: at least you can learn from it!

Some of the best decisions I have made in my life have resulted from experiences from making wrong decisions in my past. You must keep swinging the bat at the balls life keep throwing at you.

In business and work, I often used the terms 'staying power' and 'clocking your hours' to differentiate successful from unsuccessful businessmen or managers. The unsuccessful people in business and work tend to be dabblers, unable to focus on a destination for a sustained period of time. They don't clock the hours. They start working in an area, and a few months later, they got bored and travelled overseas. One or two years later, they came back and looked for some other work. And then they are still not satisfied... they moved again to other work, and then they do some more travels.... etc. They just can't make a decision to commit. Twenty years later, they are still figuring out what they want to be when they grow up!!

The great former Chairman and CEO of ITT, Harold Geneen, also talked a lot about 'clocking your hours'. Clock your hours of experience, he said, and the cash will come later. 


The writer Malcolm Gladwell is even more ruthless with his "10,000 hour" rule! (to master a certain skill).
Think about it: Can you commit yourself to a particular course of action for 10,000 hours straight - day in and day out?

I hope you don't fall into the trap of 'keeping your options open' too many times in your lives.