00:00When a storm destroyed his bridge, a king declared war on the ocean.
00:04In 480 BC, Xerxes the First, ruler of the mighty Persian Empire,
00:09was preparing to invade Greece.
00:11To move his massive army across the narrow strait known as the Hellespont,
00:14he ordered engineers to build an enormous floating bridge of ships.
00:18Then disaster struck.
00:19A violent storm tore the bridge apart, scattering wood and rope into the sea.
00:24Enraged, Xerxes did something almost unbelievable.
00:26He commanded his soldiers to whip the water 300 times.
00:30As if punishing it for disobedience.
00:32Chains were cast into the waves.
00:34And the sea was symbolically branded as a traitor.
00:37The engineers responsible were executed.
00:39But the king did not retreat.
00:41He rebuilt the bridge and marched one of the largest armies
00:44the ancient world had ever seen into Greece.
00:47In the end, his invasion failed.
00:50And the empire that tried to conquer the sea
00:52would slowly begin to crack under its own ambition.
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