Chronicles
24 min
The Spice That Started Wars
The tiny berry that toppled empires and invented capitalism
In 408 CE, a barbarian king held Rome hostage and demanded pepper alongside gold. This is the story of a wrinkled black berry that was worth more than silver, launched the Age of Exploration, funded the first multinational corporations, and justified genocide — all before ending up on your kitchen table for almost nothing.
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About Mythio
One story, one sitting.
Mythio is a library of audio documentaries on the ideas, people, and events that shaped the world. Each episode is researched across the best sources, fact-checked, and told in full. Most run twenty to thirty minutes, long enough to go deep, short enough to finish in one sitting.