October 16, 2025 • 10 mins
Even deep in the past, people still faced challenges. How they rose up to meet them could sometimes be curious.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Alexander the Great is known for his military conquests, but
if you think he was just a great warrior, you're
missing the forest for the trees, because Alexander's greatest talent
was in his ability as a strategist and an engineer.
And this was never more true than in three point
thirty two BC, when Alexander laid siege to the island
of Tire. Tire was an island nation near the modern
(00:58):
day border between Israel and Lebanon. It was heavily fortified
on all sides, with walls that went right up to
the shore. Alexander arrived from the north after conquering several
coastal cities belonging to the Persian Empire. He wanted to
push east and confront the Persian king Darius, but he
didn't want to leave the Persians with access to the Mediterranean,
(01:18):
Tire had to fall. Alexander was highly educated, having been
taught by none other than the philosopher Aristotle, so while
other conquerors had previously looked upon Tire and saw an
unconquerable fortress, Alexander simply saw it as a difficult problem
to solve. The king and his advisors studied the landscape
(01:39):
and realized that there were large stone ruins on the
mainland leftover from the original ancient incarnation of Tire. They
also noticed that there was a natural land bridge leading
from the land to the island, with only a few
feet of water washing over it. Alexander put two and
two together and immediately started construction of a causeway using
the stones from the old city. Once the causeway construction
(02:02):
reached out about seventy five percent of the way to
the city, the builders encountered a problem. The water suddenly
got much deeper, and so the causeway would now take
much longer to finish. But once again Alexander didn't give up,
ordering massive towers filled with catapults and other siege weapons
to be constructed on the edge of this new causeway.
(02:23):
These protected the workers and they battered the city while
the construction continued. However, now it was the Tyrant's turn
to prove their ingenuity. They sailed out toward the Causeway
from both their northern and their southern harbors, and as
their ships got closer, Alexander's eyes went wide when he
saw what they were transporting. The Tyrants had filled their
(02:44):
ships with flammable materials, and as the ships hurtled toward
the siege towers, their pilots lit the boats on fire
and weighing them down in the back so that their
bows would reach up out of the water and crash
into the towers. The tyrants soldiers then jumped out of
the boat and swam for the safety of the city
behind them. The flaming boats crashed into the towers, reducing
(03:06):
them to ash and setting the causeway on fire. Alexander
was enraged, but he knew that he couldn't allow his
enemy to outsmart him, and so he tried a new tactic.
He summoned ships from all over Greece. He split some
of the larger ships into pears, and he suspended battering
rams between them with ropes. These ships then sailed toward
(03:27):
the Tieran walls and began swinging their battering rams between them,
trying to create a breach, but once again it was
tires turn to respond. This time they rolled huge boulders
from their harbors up onto the walls, and then they
rolled those boulders over the edge, crashing them down onto
the cliffs at the base of the walls. And now
the battering rams could no longer reach their target. But
(03:49):
Alexander would not be deterred. He sent more ships to
tie ropes around the boulders and tow them away, and
in response, the tyrants fired arrows that severed the ropes,
and to count After this, Alexander replaced the ropes with chains.
It was a game of constant one upmanship, and it
was dragging on for months, costing many many lives. Something
(04:09):
obviously had to give. Finally, Alexander realized that he simply
needed to try all of his various methods at once,
rather than focusing on one at a time, and so
he sent his ships to attack the northern and southern
harbors while also battering the walls. And by this point
his workers had also finished constructing the causeway, which now
went right up to the island. The tyrants were forced
(04:32):
to defend too many different parts of the city at once.
When one of the battering rams finally breached the southern wall,
troops started to pour in, And meanwhile, Alexander led his
men from one of the siege towers on the causeway,
taking over the walls that had challenged him for so long.
And he showed no mercy when he got there either.
The protracted siege had made him furious. He killed six
(04:55):
thousand tyrants and crucified another two thousand. The remaining thirty
two thousand were taken as slaves. In the end, all
of his education had failed to teach him the value
of human life. Curiosity leads us to wonder what Alexander
might have accomplished if he had set his mind to
improving lives rather than taking them. Everyone knows the story
(05:30):
of Camelot, but few know that there was an Eastern
European kingdom with an almost equally fantastical history, and unlike Camelot,
this place was real. The kingdom was known as Kievan
russ and its impact on Europe can still be felt today.
The story of this kingdom begins all the way back
in the year Age sixty two, and so many of
(05:51):
the details of the founding have been lost at time.
This is most important when it comes to the ethnic
makeup of the russ people, which is still somewhat debated
to this day. The most commonly accepted narrative is that
the lands were settled first by the Eastern Slavs, an
ethnic group from Central Europe, and these Slavs were beset
on all sides by different enemy tribes and lacked the
(06:13):
means to defend themselves. They supposedly reached a deal with
a group of legendary warriors, the Vanagarians, who were Viking
raiders from Sweden. The Vanagarians were invited to Novgorod to
rule as kings. They took the city as their new capital.
As the Vanagarian kings and Slavic villagers intermingled, they became
(06:34):
one people, the Rus. Their leader, the Viking king Rurik,
set about conquering the surrounding lands. He then sent two
of his best warriors with an army south to conquer
the legendary city of Constantinople. But on their way they
encountered a city on a hill. It was well fortified
and served as a strong base from which to raid
the surrounding areas and Eventually they were able to conquer
(06:56):
the city, which was called Kiev. Now the Rus officially
become the Kiev and russ After King Rurik died, his
closest ally Oleg, became regent until Rurik's young son Igor
could come of age. Oleg was known for his cunning
and his sense of strategy. Although his base of power
was in Novgorode, Rurik's two generals still ruled Kiev. He
(07:19):
conquered more and more of Eastern Europe until arriving at
the southern city under a white flag. He invited the
two generals out of Kiev to meet with him, and
they foolishly complied, allowing Oleg to kill them both and
take Kiev as his new capital. Oleg seemed unstoppable at
this point. In fact, there was a prophecy stating that
the only thing that could kill him was his prized stallion.
(07:42):
Why that is is still unclear. But even more unclear
is why Olig did what he did next. Instead of
killing the stallion, he sent it to a stable in
Kiev to be well cared for. After several years, word
came to Olig that the stallion had finally died of
old age, and so Oleg returned to Kiev and to
the stable, where they lit a funeral pyre for the horse,
(08:04):
and once it was reduced to ash and bone, Oleg
walked forward and smashed his heel down on the horse's skull.
Unfortunately for him, there was a snake hiding beneath it,
and it slithered out, biting him in the ankle, killing him.
Rurik's son Igor came to power at that point, but
he was assassinated by a rival tribe. His widow, Olga,
(08:26):
not to be confused with O'leg, set out on a
legendary quest for revenge. She had emissaries from the rival
tribe buried alive. She invited some of their wise men
to Kiev, claiming that she wanted peace, and then trapped
them in a bathhouse and burned it to the ground.
But her most infamous action was when she laid siege
to the capital city of the rival tribe. She had
(08:47):
her men tie pieces of hot coal to the legs
of various small birds, and when the birds flew away,
they eventually nested in the trees and the rafters around
the city. The hot coals came into contact with dry
wood and straw and eventually lit the entire city on fire.
Olga got her revenge. At its height, the Kingdom of
Kievan Russ spanned from the Baltic Sea in northern Europe
(09:11):
to the Black Sea in the south. They spread trade
and culture throughout the continent. Some of the kings and
queens even became saints within the Eastern Orthodox Church. But
eventually in fighting between various princes left them vulnerable to
invasion from the Mongols, and the kingdom was destroyed in
twelve forty. However, the legacy of these people has still endured,
(09:34):
and today the people of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia all
claimed the Kievan Rus as their common ancestor. In fact,
this is a factor in the ongoing conflict between Ukraine
and Russia. The Russian state believes the Ukraine belongs under
their control, as they see themselves as the inheritors of
the Kievan Russ legacy, and of course Ukrainians know that
(09:57):
they have just as much claimed that legacy as their
Russians and prefer their well deserved independence. It's a choice
that shouldn't be ignored, not least of all because of
the historical accuracy of it. All because while common ground
is good and valuable, it's never enough to justify taking
away a nation's freedom. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
(10:23):
tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
(10:45):
about it over at the Worldolore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Alexander the Great is known for his military conquests, but
if you think he was just a great warrior, you're
missing the forest for the trees, because Alexander's greatest talent
was in his ability as a strategist and an engineer.
And this was never more true than in three point
thirty two BC, when Alexander laid siege to the island
of Tire. Tire was an island nation near the modern
(00:58):
day border between Israel and Lebanon. It was heavily fortified
on all sides, with walls that went right up to
the shore. Alexander arrived from the north after conquering several
coastal cities belonging to the Persian Empire. He wanted to
push east and confront the Persian king Darius, but he
didn't want to leave the Persians with access to the Mediterranean,
(01:18):
Tire had to fall. Alexander was highly educated, having been
taught by none other than the philosopher Aristotle, so while
other conquerors had previously looked upon Tire and saw an
unconquerable fortress, Alexander simply saw it as a difficult problem
to solve. The king and his advisors studied the landscape
(01:39):
and realized that there were large stone ruins on the
mainland leftover from the original ancient incarnation of Tire. They
also noticed that there was a natural land bridge leading
from the land to the island, with only a few
feet of water washing over it. Alexander put two and
two together and immediately started construction of a causeway using
the stones from the old city. Once the causeway construction
(02:02):
reached out about seventy five percent of the way to
the city, the builders encountered a problem. The water suddenly
got much deeper, and so the causeway would now take
much longer to finish. But once again Alexander didn't give up,
ordering massive towers filled with catapults and other siege weapons
to be constructed on the edge of this new causeway.
(02:23):
These protected the workers and they battered the city while
the construction continued. However, now it was the Tyrant's turn
to prove their ingenuity. They sailed out toward the Causeway
from both their northern and their southern harbors, and as
their ships got closer, Alexander's eyes went wide when he
saw what they were transporting. The Tyrants had filled their
(02:44):
ships with flammable materials, and as the ships hurtled toward
the siege towers, their pilots lit the boats on fire
and weighing them down in the back so that their
bows would reach up out of the water and crash
into the towers. The tyrants soldiers then jumped out of
the boat and swam for the safety of the city
behind them. The flaming boats crashed into the towers, reducing
(03:06):
them to ash and setting the causeway on fire. Alexander
was enraged, but he knew that he couldn't allow his
enemy to outsmart him, and so he tried a new tactic.
He summoned ships from all over Greece. He split some
of the larger ships into pears, and he suspended battering
rams between them with ropes. These ships then sailed toward
(03:27):
the Tieran walls and began swinging their battering rams between them,
trying to create a breach, but once again it was
tires turn to respond. This time they rolled huge boulders
from their harbors up onto the walls, and then they
rolled those boulders over the edge, crashing them down onto
the cliffs at the base of the walls. And now
the battering rams could no longer reach their target. But
(03:49):
Alexander would not be deterred. He sent more ships to
tie ropes around the boulders and tow them away, and
in response, the tyrants fired arrows that severed the ropes,
and to count After this, Alexander replaced the ropes with chains.
It was a game of constant one upmanship, and it
was dragging on for months, costing many many lives. Something
(04:09):
obviously had to give. Finally, Alexander realized that he simply
needed to try all of his various methods at once,
rather than focusing on one at a time, and so
he sent his ships to attack the northern and southern
harbors while also battering the walls. And by this point
his workers had also finished constructing the causeway, which now
went right up to the island. The tyrants were forced
(04:32):
to defend too many different parts of the city at once.
When one of the battering rams finally breached the southern wall,
troops started to pour in, And meanwhile, Alexander led his
men from one of the siege towers on the causeway,
taking over the walls that had challenged him for so long.
And he showed no mercy when he got there either.
The protracted siege had made him furious. He killed six
(04:55):
thousand tyrants and crucified another two thousand. The remaining thirty
two thousand were taken as slaves. In the end, all
of his education had failed to teach him the value
of human life. Curiosity leads us to wonder what Alexander
might have accomplished if he had set his mind to
improving lives rather than taking them. Everyone knows the story
(05:30):
of Camelot, but few know that there was an Eastern
European kingdom with an almost equally fantastical history, and unlike Camelot,
this place was real. The kingdom was known as Kievan
russ and its impact on Europe can still be felt today.
The story of this kingdom begins all the way back
in the year Age sixty two, and so many of
(05:51):
the details of the founding have been lost at time.
This is most important when it comes to the ethnic
makeup of the russ people, which is still somewhat debated
to this day. The most commonly accepted narrative is that
the lands were settled first by the Eastern Slavs, an
ethnic group from Central Europe, and these Slavs were beset
on all sides by different enemy tribes and lacked the
(06:13):
means to defend themselves. They supposedly reached a deal with
a group of legendary warriors, the Vanagarians, who were Viking
raiders from Sweden. The Vanagarians were invited to Novgorod to
rule as kings. They took the city as their new capital.
As the Vanagarian kings and Slavic villagers intermingled, they became
(06:34):
one people, the Rus. Their leader, the Viking king Rurik,
set about conquering the surrounding lands. He then sent two
of his best warriors with an army south to conquer
the legendary city of Constantinople. But on their way they
encountered a city on a hill. It was well fortified
and served as a strong base from which to raid
the surrounding areas and Eventually they were able to conquer
(06:56):
the city, which was called Kiev. Now the Rus officially
become the Kiev and russ After King Rurik died, his
closest ally Oleg, became regent until Rurik's young son Igor
could come of age. Oleg was known for his cunning
and his sense of strategy. Although his base of power
was in Novgorode, Rurik's two generals still ruled Kiev. He
(07:19):
conquered more and more of Eastern Europe until arriving at
the southern city under a white flag. He invited the
two generals out of Kiev to meet with him, and
they foolishly complied, allowing Oleg to kill them both and
take Kiev as his new capital. Oleg seemed unstoppable at
this point. In fact, there was a prophecy stating that
the only thing that could kill him was his prized stallion.
(07:42):
Why that is is still unclear. But even more unclear
is why Olig did what he did next. Instead of
killing the stallion, he sent it to a stable in
Kiev to be well cared for. After several years, word
came to Olig that the stallion had finally died of
old age, and so Oleg returned to Kiev and to
the stable, where they lit a funeral pyre for the horse,
(08:04):
and once it was reduced to ash and bone, Oleg
walked forward and smashed his heel down on the horse's skull.
Unfortunately for him, there was a snake hiding beneath it,
and it slithered out, biting him in the ankle, killing him.
Rurik's son Igor came to power at that point, but
he was assassinated by a rival tribe. His widow, Olga,
(08:26):
not to be confused with O'leg, set out on a
legendary quest for revenge. She had emissaries from the rival
tribe buried alive. She invited some of their wise men
to Kiev, claiming that she wanted peace, and then trapped
them in a bathhouse and burned it to the ground.
But her most infamous action was when she laid siege
to the capital city of the rival tribe. She had
(08:47):
her men tie pieces of hot coal to the legs
of various small birds, and when the birds flew away,
they eventually nested in the trees and the rafters around
the city. The hot coals came into contact with dry
wood and straw and eventually lit the entire city on fire.
Olga got her revenge. At its height, the Kingdom of
Kievan Russ spanned from the Baltic Sea in northern Europe
(09:11):
to the Black Sea in the south. They spread trade
and culture throughout the continent. Some of the kings and
queens even became saints within the Eastern Orthodox Church. But
eventually in fighting between various princes left them vulnerable to
invasion from the Mongols, and the kingdom was destroyed in
twelve forty. However, the legacy of these people has still endured,
(09:34):
and today the people of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia all
claimed the Kievan Rus as their common ancestor. In fact,
this is a factor in the ongoing conflict between Ukraine
and Russia. The Russian state believes the Ukraine belongs under
their control, as they see themselves as the inheritors of
the Kievan Russ legacy, and of course Ukrainians know that
(09:57):
they have just as much claimed that legacy as their
Russians and prefer their well deserved independence. It's a choice
that shouldn't be ignored, not least of all because of
the historical accuracy of it. All because while common ground
is good and valuable, it's never enough to justify taking
away a nation's freedom. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
(10:23):
tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
(10:45):
about it over at the Worldolore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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