Episode 13 - Byzantion in the Shadow of Persia (513 BC to 478 BC)

After Darius’ pontoon bridge spanned the Bosporus, Byzantion was drawn into the great currents of empire — and so was Niketas, a young citizen whose life became bound to the city’s shifting fate. He watched Persian banners rise over the hills, saw the fires of revolt reflected on the water, and endured the long hunger of siege. Through his eyes, we witness Byzantion’s struggle to survive: its brief freedom under Pausanias, its uneasy alliance with Athens, and its reluctant place in the Delian League. The city — and Niketas with it — learned to live between empires, proud yet wary, Greek in spirit but tempered by the East.

Franz Gordon, Hanna Ekström, Anna Dager / Boxes of Memories / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com.