Welcome to Empire-Builders, the podcast all about the rise and fall of the world’s imperial civilizations. We will take for the object of our investigation those civilizations which have something to teach us about what happens when human societies with distinct cultural traditions, histories, and mythologies converge, even if only for a single page in the story of mankind. And we will start from the beginning, when the very concept of civilization was only just ripening, for make no mistake — empires have been with us from the start. Before man was, empire awaited him.