[Today's my 18th Birthday!]

Hey everyone I am now 18 years old! WOW!

My Mom and Dad got me a REALLY neat main present:

James Ussher's Annals of the World

A serious history book for the serious historian (that me!)

When Saturday comes around my parents are taking me for shopping spree at this one mall, I have alot of money to spend. YEAH!

I also got a cut-out and make-it-yourself Roman Helmet, something I never been able to make otherwise (and I am really creative)

BIRTHDAY!!!! YEAH!!!

[Biographies: Philip II]

Philip II (Greek: Phillipos II) has throughout history often been overshadowed by his famous son: Alexander III the Great. But without the conquests or military reforms of Philip, Alexander could not have done what he did.

Philip was born the heir of a breaking kingdom. In 382 B.C. Philip was born Amyntas III and Queen Eurydice. Philip was the Royal couple’s youngest child. Little is known of Philip before he turned twelve years old, but in that year much happened. In 370 B.C. Amyntas died and Alexander II, the oldest of the three, rose to the throne. However Alexander II was not a very good general, or politician, and he soon got embroiled in a two front war with both the Illyrian hill tribes and the powerful city state of Thebes. The only way to make peace was for Alexander II to send his two younger brothers to each power as hostages. Philip went to Thebes in the care of a Theban politician named Pammenes. During his time as a hostage Philip observed the tactics and strategies of the greatest Greek tactician of the time: Epamiondas. Philip was even probably able to question and have talks with Epamiondas because Pammenes was friend of the general. The influence that Philip’s time in Thebes had on him can never be under estimated. In 365 B.C. Philip, now 17, was forced to leave Thebes to go back home to Macedonia, Alexander II had been assassinated and Perdiccas (the next oldest brother) had just chased the assassin out and assumed the throne as Perdiccas III. As a result Prince Philip was called home to help centralize Royal authority.

When Philip returned home he was anxious to try out all he had learned at Thebes. Perdiccas showed early on that he could play the dangerous game of Greek politics, and do it well. At some point during his reign Perdiccas became involved in a Athenian plan to conquer the city of Amphipolis. Acting together Perdiccas, Philip, and an Athenian commander named Timotheus captured Amphipolis. But Perdiccas broke off the alliance as soon as he controlled the city, and for good reason. Amphipolis was strategically important for Macedonia: he who controlled Amphipolis could blackmail a fleet with its tall trees, use the gold mines to build an great army, and block the way north. Realizing that Macedonia was backwater in terms of economy Perdiccas asked the Athenians to help reform that sector of Macedonian life. However Perdiccas would not live long enough to see what their answer would be, for in the last week or so of December 360 B.C. Perdiccas was killed fighting an Illyrian invasion under their king Bardylis. The New Year found Philip suddenly in place as regent for Perdiccas’ son Amyntas. As Philip showed he was more then ready for the job.

The first few weeks and months of Philip’s reign were quite hectic and in the military field- ground breaking. The first thing Philip realized was that his position as king/regent was anything but secure. When secret talks with Athens resulted in the Athenians promising support in exchange for Amphipolis, Philip reluctantly gave up the city in order to buy some time. Philip then turned and bribed the invading Thracians and Paeonians, thus giving him some much needed breathing room for the rest of the year. The primarily focus laid in the military, because now that Philip was king he could reform the military to his vision. One of the things that he did was improve Alexander II's Pezhetairoi (English: Foot Companions) by replacing their spears which were 13.32 feet long with a sarissa (English: Pike) which was 19.68 feet long. Of course Philip had to redesign the entire unit because of the new weapons. He made his new formation, called a phalanx, about 16 ranks deep and 16 files wide. In addition Philip created a new unit for use as his own personal bodyguard, this unit was known as the Hypaspistai, because of the scarcity of sources we do not really know what the Hypaspistai really were, but it seems that they were a elite formation of old style hoplites/skirmishers. Other important formations in the Macedonian army, such as the elite Hetatairoi cavalrymen (English: Companions) and the multi-ethnic archers and skirmishers came later on when Macedonia had more land.

Starting in 358 Philip struck back at his enemies with full force. Starting in the spring of 358 B.C. Philip struck his enemies with his new army with full force. First the Paeonians fell to Philip and then in the summer he turned against Bardylis and killed him and his army to the last man. In 357 Philip wed Olympias, daughter of the King of Molossis, which was located in Epirus. Philip also wed Phila of Elymiotis and Audata of Illyria; all three marriages were for the purpose of securing and expanding Macedonian borders. About this time Philip learned that Artaxerxes III of Persia was willing to send Philip money if he attacked Athens (Artaxerxes was doing this because Persia and Athens where at war with each other), or to be more precise Amphipolis. Philip leapt at the opportunity and took up the Persians on their offer, letting them think that they were manipulating him. Amphipolis fell easily and Philip then turned around and offered to give it up again if Athens gave him the port of Pynda. When Athens did not respond Philip simply conquered Pynda and kept both cities for himself, knowing that Athens was powerless to stop because of the war with Persia. In 356 the city of Crenides to the east of Amphipolis sent Philip a letter stating that they wished for him to be their protector, Philip of course leapt at the opportunity to gain the newly discovered silver mines of Mt. Pangaeum and took over the city, renaming it Philippi. By now Philip noticed that Macedonia had out grown her ruling traditions, so he copied some Persian institutions to help him govern his country. To the south Athens used its treasury and natural fear of a growingly autocratic Macedonia to form an alliance against Philip amongst his neighbors. Philip in response exploited the northern city-states' distrust for Athenian meddling to get more involved in Greece by capturing the Athenian controlled city of Potidaea. According to legend on the day that Philip captured Potidaea news arrived that Olympias had given birth to a son named Alexander, that Phila had also given birth and her son was named Philip Arridaeus, that Philip’s trusted general Parmenion had crushed the pro-Athens Illyrians, and finally that Philip’s horse had won a race at the Olympic Games. The authenticity of this is under debate, but mostly held to be false. Later that same year (356) the Macedonian nobility met and decided that given recent events that Philip had a right to call himself a true king, no longer just king-regent for Prince Amyntas. The following year Philip, taking advantage of Athenian distraction with Persia for the last time, besieged the port of Methone, which fell in 354 B.C., in the course of this siege Philip lost one of his eyes to an arrow.

It was after these first victories that Philip continued to reform the army. When Philip returned home from Methone he began a program that essentially weakened the power of the nobility to the point where they could no longer threaten him, and then he began to send them out of Macedonia proper and into the new territories. With that out of the way Philip created new nobility from Macedonians and none Macedonians alike, and they where obliged to serve as cavalrymen in the Macedonian army, and so was born the Hetatairoi. What made Philip’s new cavalry so remarkable was that now that he had a greater number of cavalrymen; it was cavalry, not infantry that was the center of the army. In typical Macedonian fashion the Hetatairoi fought at the fore front of the attack and in a wedge, a very radical departure from the Greek disdain for horse troops. This was the primary reason for their success; Philip knew how to use shock troops and exploited it to the fullest.

Starting in 354[ Philip would begin his march to hegemony over the Greek world. While Philip was subjugating the north Thebes began planning to regain some of her lost glory by conquering a relatively small and defenseless state of Phocis. But the Phocians found out and hired a mercenary army with treasure they looted from Delphi, Thebes used this as an opportunity to give a ‘righteous’ tinge to their ambition and once it become clear that Athens could not help Phocis they declared open war in the spring of 354 B.C. Within months the entirety of the Greek world divided on the issue of the Theban/Phocis war. In Macedonia when Philip received the news of the Sacred War, as it was called, with delight as he no longer had to worry about Athenian (or for that matter Athens-Allied) intervention as he went his merry way through Thrace, which he conquered bits of in 353 B.C. Meanwhile in Thessaly political problems lead to Philip’s intervention in the Sacred War. According to tradition the presidency of the Thessalian League (a confederacy of sorts that gave political stability to Thessaly) was chosen by the city of Larissa, but Pharae, supported by Phocis, took that power appointed a tyrant named Jason to power. Jason was soon killed by his enemies and Larissa appealed to the only available power for aid: Macedonia. Philip, who had just conquered bits of Thrace, immediately marched south declaring that he fought for righteousness and was, for the first time in his life, defeated by a Phocian named Phayllus. Philip’s defeat has been attributed to numerous causes, among them are: overconfidence, lack of reconnaissance, and the use of catapults by the Phocians. During the winter Philip was forced to put down a mutiny by his troops and in the spring of 352 Philip won a resounding victory over his enemies at the battle of Crocus Field, thus avenging his earlier defeat in the eyes of his troops. In response the Athenians, alarmed at the recent turn of events, sent a force to block the pass of Thermopylae, in order to make sure that Philip never reached central Greece. Meanwhile Philip had just returned to Larissa where he was overwhelmingly elected to the position of Tagos (English: President) of the Thessalian League. The effects of this election were enormous; by becoming the leader of a pan-Hellenic organization Philip had transformed himself from a semi-Hellenic barbarian to a full fledged Greek. Further more Thessaly became Macedonian land and stayed that way for 150 years after Philip’s election. Following the election Philip decided to rub salt on the wound so to speak by marching his army at record speed from Thessaly to the Sea of Marmara in Thrace, to prove that his army was the fastest in the world. Philip mysteriously disappeared from the scene of world affairs in 351 B.C., ancient sources say that he suffered from some year long illness; modern historians believe that the whole illness thing was to cover up that Philip was really taking a year long vacation with his wives and six year old sons in Pella, the Macedonian capital. In 350 Philip was once again active when he began to make threatening movements in the general direction of the city of Olynthus, which appealed for aid from Athens, which could not supply aid due to the Sacred War. In 349 Philip actually besieged Olynthus and when he took it through treachery in 348 so fell the whole of the Chalcidice peninsula, later that year Philip intervened in Molossis and expelled the current king, putting his brother-in-law Alexander of Molossis on the throne instead. Meanwhile to the south Thebes was losing the Sacred War as Phocis had begun an invasion of their home territory of Boeotia in 347. But the idea of asking Philip of Macedonia had become some what repugnant, his treatment of Olynthus and the rest of the Chalcidice was unnerving to many Greeks. Finally Thebes broke the ice and asked the Macedonian King to help them, thinking that they might manipulate the Macedonians into the ending the war, then leaving. Philip responded with his typical enthusiasm for war and brushed aside a pitiful attempt to block Thermopylae and in 346 B.C. Phocis fell to Philip, ending the Sacred War. While still in Thessaly a peace treaty (not to a mention a ceasefire) with Athens was already under way and this treaty discussion was incorporated into the larger discussions between the Thebes and Phocis. In the end the Athenians agreed to recognize Philip’s leadership in Thessaly and that Philip should have the League’s seat at the Delphic Amphictyony (a type of supreme pan-Hellenic council), as well as its votes. Philip also managed to force the defeated Greeks to recognize his agreement with the Phocians over the handing over of their votes in the Amphictyony to Philip. With these treaties, as well as plans for a united Greek crusade against Persia, in place Philip left Greece alone for a while, but he would be back.

With the long war against Greece over Philip turned his attention elsewhere. After securing an outright alliance with Athens upon returning home to Pella (something that the many Athenians opposed) Philip turned his attention to the frontier and advanced into modern Albania where an arrow wound resulted in difficulty walking for the rest of his life. Upon returning to Macedonia Philip began a reorganization program in Thessaly, in order to solidify his control of the area and demonstrate how Macedonia treated ‘civilized’ territory in peacetime. In 342 B.C. Philip attacked Thrace again and annexed several bits and pieces as he crushed another Illyrian prince, He also used the opportunity presented to attack the Scythians beyond his borders as far as the Black Sea. In 341 B.C. Philip founded the city of Philippopolis (modern Plodiv) and appointed a viceroy for the entire area there, in order to help govern. In 340 Philip once again turned towards Thrace, this time with the intent of conquering all the way to the Sea of Marmara, where two of Philip’s allies lay: Perinthus and Byzantion. Philip immediately called on Perinthus and Byzantion to surrender to him instead of suffering a siege, they refused and Philip declared war on his former allies and besieged Perinthus. In Persia King Artaxerxes, believing he had no other choice, declared war on Macedonia and dispatched Mentor of Rhodes to Perinthus. Meanwhile at Perinthus Philip was shocked, he never expected this to happen, but he met it with his typical professionalism and appointed Prince Alexander as regent and called up Parmenion to Perinthus to help him. In Thrace meanwhile Persian forces began to cross the Hellespont and reinforcements began to pour in from the Persian Aegean. In Athens all of this was met with dumbfounded shock, Philip had finally crossed the line for even the Athenian moderates could no longer put up with the Macedonian actions. When Philip stopped and raided 240 grain ships from Athenian colonies on the Black Sea Athens declared war on Philip and set out to blockade Macedonian ports. Philip was shocked for a second time and Artaxerxes was giddy with happiness. By 339 Philip was grudgingly forced to lift the sieges of Perinthus and Byzantion and he took the long route south to Greece, as if he wanted for his enemies to multiply and gather. That November Philip advanced to the south, rushing to get through Theban land before they could close themselves off, but the Thebans were fast and managed to cut off access before Philip could get there. The crushing decisive victory that Philip so craved over Greece did not finally come until August 338 when the Macedonians and Greeks met on the plains outside of Chaeronea, here at this pivotal battle Philip proved once and for all the superiority of Macedonian combined arms warfare, where infantry preformed a supporting role (anvil) for which the wedges (hammer) of heavy cavalry were to strike the enemy with. And Philip never let anyone forget that it was his 18 year old son Alexander who led the charge that won the battle, the battle that decided the fate of Greece.

With victory at Chaeronea Philip now had the opportunity he had always wanted to reform Greece to his image. Immediately following Chaeronea the Macedonian army moved further south to campaign against Sparta, the only Greek city that Philip had not dealt with. As Philip marched against Sparta, Prince Alexander and a courtier named Antipater negotiated with Athens and in a remarkable act of kindness only demanded that the Athenian empire be dismantled. A very easy demand to meet since most Athens’ empire was already mostly independent of the mother city. It is believed Philip treated Athens kindly because he needed Athens as a friendly ally rather then a dejected vassal plotting for revenge. As 338 came to a close the King of Persia, Artaxerxes III, suddenly died and his son, Artaxerxes IV, assumed the throne. Philip immediately recognized the opportunity granted to him, for he knew that every new Persian king needed a few months to sort out their kingdoms. When he reached the city of Corinth Philip called for every city in Greece to send a delegate there, for he was organizing a new pan-Hellenic league. This new league, called the League of Corinth, was part of the realization of Philip’s life dream of a new world fashioned to his liking. At Corinth in the spring of 337 B.C. Philip forced the delegates to sign a document that shall be outlined here: All city states may retain their autonomy, though they can not go to war against each other expect in suppressing revolution. All Greek cities are to recognize Philip II of Macedonia as the League’s supreme Commander-in-Chief (Greek: Hegemon) and that further more the position is hereditary to the Macedonian Royal House. And lastly the League is to convene in council (Greek: Synedrion) every few months, this council’s primary job is to over see the keeping of the general peace (Greek: Koine Eirene), thus making any sort of change a capital crime. Following the signing Philip announced now that Greece was unified that now was the time to make Persia pay for the invasion of Xerxes back in the 5th century. The council, not having much choice, immediately pledged to raise forces to join Philip’s army for the invasion. As the meeting ended Philip announced the invasion would begin in 336 B.C. and he sent an advance force under Parmenion to Thrace to begin preparations starting in 337.

Now with Greece under his thumb and the invasion he had wanted for decades under way Philip decided to celebrate. In mid 337 (probably the summer) Philip announced a wedding between his younger son Philip Arridaeus (who had mental problems) and the daughter of the Persian satrap of Caria, Pixodarus. This wedding was a politically brilliant move for it forced Pixodarus to give Philip access to the important Anatolian port of Halicarnassus, which could prove profitable in the coming invasion. Unfortunately for Philip however this move made his elder son, Alexander, quite upset. Alexander thought as first son he was untitled to being married first, and further more he was concerned that he had lost his father’s favor some how and was being replaced. Moving quickly Alexander wrote to Pixodarus that he would marry the princess instead, and while Pixodarus was giddy with the news, Philip was not when he heard of it. Philip immediately sent word to Pixodarus straightening out the matter and then he ordered Alexander’s advisors (these advisors were named Erigyius, Laomedon, Harpalus, Ptolemy, and Nearchus) to leave Macedonia at once. With that problem out of the way Philip then rested and relaxed, only to commit the mistake that cost him his life. That autumn Philip announced that he was marrying again, this time a woman named Cleopatra, the niece of his advisor Attalus. During one of the famous Macedonian drinking parties at the wedding Attalus remarked that he hoped his niece would provide a worthy heir to the throne. This deeply offended an already hurt Olympias and Alexander who promptly left Pella to live with Olympias’ brother Alexander of Molossis. Things only became worse as time went on, the new Queen Cleopatra was mistrusted and reviled, primarily because she had no political importance, and it looked as though Philip had married her simply due to passion, which was a cardinal sin to the Greek mind. That winter Philip received word that Alexander had allied himself with several Illyrian tribes and was preparing to raise an army. It was now that Philip finally realized the consequences of his actions and he exiled Attalus to be with Parmenion who was preparing the way to cross into Asia Minor, hoping this fixed the problem. Philip then sent word of this to Alexander, who was quite happy that the man who offended him was gone and as a result Alexander returned to Pella peacefully. In the early spring of 336 B.C. Philip managed to convince Olympias to return to Pella, when she returned she did so with her brother, so Philip decided to arrange for a marriage between Olympias’ brother and their daughter, Cleopatra. At the wedding festival held at the theater of Aegae Philip was shaking hands with the guests and before he knew what happened there was a knife in his chest, put there by a disgruntled young noble named Pausanias, who had a personal score to settle with Philip due to his wife. Because the wound was too deep and too close to his heart Philip died at Aegae, he was 46 years old.

In conclusion Philip II of Macedonia was undoubtedly one of history’s most revolutionary rulers. During his time on the throne of Macedonia Philip single handedly turned the Greek world upside down with his determination and drive to conquer, Philip also changed the face of warfare with the formation of the Macedonian Phalanx and the inspired use of his Hetatairoi heavy cavalrymen. Unfortunately Philip is often overshadowed by his son Alexander, who took up Philip’s dream and carried it as far as the Indus.

[Biographies: Hannibal Barca]

Hannibal Barca (Carthaginian: Hanba’al Barca) was undoubtedly Republican Rome’s greatest enemy. During the Second Punic War Hannibal was a literal boogey man to the Romans and even after his death the Roman people continued to fear and hate him.

Hannibal was born in 247 B.C. In the year 247 B.C. in Carthage Hannibal was born to Hamilcar Barca (a great general in the First Punic War) and an unknown woman. For the most part we know little of Hannibal’s childhood expect for one event when he was ten. In 237 B.C. Hannibal’s father Hamilcar set out to subjugate Iberia (modern Spain) in order to provide Carthage with some much needed compensation for the loss of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica in the First Punic War. Young Hannibal followed Hamilcar and begged him to let him come with him, Hamilcar agreed, but made Hannibal swear on an altar that for as long as he lived he would never be a friend of Rome. As history shows this oath would have disastrous consequences for Rome.

Hannibal would prove his military genius in Iberia. In 229 B.C. Hamilcar died in battle with the Iberians, he chose his son-in-law, Hasdrubal the Fair as his successor. Hannibal received his first military command under Hasdrubal, and he proved himself of the name Barca brilliantly. Hasdrubal for the most part worked hard on consolidation of Carthaginian possessions through diplomatic means, going as far as making deals with the Romans, something Hannibal did not approve of. As part of his diplomatic deals Hasdrubal arranged for Hannibal to marry an Iberian princess named Imilce, their marriage would prove to be a happy one. In 221 B.C. Hasdrubal was assassinated and the Carthaginian army immediately declared the 26 year-old Hannibal as their commander-in-chief, the Carthaginian government soon confirmed his position and Hannibal set out to do things his way in Iberia. For the next two years Hannibal would win victory after victory for Carthage, by 219 he had subdued all of the trouble tribes in Carthaginian Iberia. But Hannibal felt that as long as Rome remained standing he was violating the promise to his father, so he marched north from Cartagena (also called Carthago Nova) to the city of Saguntum (modern Murviedo), which was technically below the Ebro River, the border that his brother-in-law and the Romans agreed upon as Carthaginian Iberia’s northern border. However the Romans considered Saguntum as a protectorate city and sent a delegation to Carthage demanding that Hannibal retreat back across the Ebro, but he was popular in Carthage and they sent the delegation back to Rome empty handed. After 8 months of siege Saguntum fell to Hannibal and at the end of the year Rome declared war on Carthage, the Second Punic War had begun.

When the war he wanted started Hannibal set out to end the war decisively and quickly. Following the fall of Saguntum Hannibal appointed one of his full brothers, named Hasdrubal (not to be confused with Hasdrubal the Fair) as Commander-in-Chief in Iberia and with that, he crossed the Ebro in May 218 with 75,000 foot soldiers, 9,000 cavalry, and 37 Elephants. After pushing aside the meager resistance in modern Catalonia, Hannibal marched through the Pyrenees Mountains in a lightning quick campaign, having just thought up a new strategy. This new strategy which had come to him after hearing that the Romans were concentrating their defense on Sicily was to force march his army into the one place that the Romans would not expect him: Italy. Hannibal believed that by defeating the Romans on their own ground would force a quick and decisive end to the war. After reaching Gaul Hannibal began to lightning march his men through semi-hostile territory, upon reaching the Rhone River Hannibal by use of innovative engineering and tactics (A Gallic tribe named the Volcae opposed him) got his entire army across the river, including the 37 elephants. A Roman force under Publius Scipio Major (father of Africanus) arrived soon after with orders to crush Hannibal, but he had already crossed the river by then and the Romans returned to Italy. After the Rhone crossing Hannibal encountered some friendly Gallic tribes, led by the Boii, and helped in deciding a civil war in a neighboring tribe in return for supplies. By now it was autumn ( or to be more precise October 218) and in the Alps the first snow was falling, but Hannibal was determined to cross and set out with his army in a grueling 15 day march through the Alps, braving hostile Gauls, cold weather (which killed nearly all of his elephants and many men), and a ration shortage. Through it all Hannibal and his army reached the rich breadbasket of Italy, which was now open to their attack. Hannibal’s army now numbered only 20,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and an unknown but small number of elephants.

Having now reached Italy Hannibal set out to make Rome howl. The Romans were completely surprised by Hannibal’s sudden appearance and mobilized an army. A Roman cavalry force dispatched from the army of P. Scipio Major met and was defeated by Hannibal’s cavalry under Maharbal at the Battle of Ticinus River. Seeing Hannibal’s victory a force of 14,000 local Gauls joined the army of Hannibal in hopes of seeing Rome defeated. Later that same month (December 218) the Romans sent another army against Hannibal, this time at the Trebia River, and again he defeated them (It is interesting to note that after Trebia Hannibal lost the last of his elephants, except his own mount, Sarai). After Trebia Hannibal decided to rest for the remainder of the winter, something his troops were thankful for. In March 217 the Romans again sent out armies against Hannibal, and in a brilliant series of marches outmaneuvered the enemy (though he lost sight in one eye due to disease while in a swamp). Because of this maneuvering Hannibal was able to trap and eradiate two whole legions under Gaius Flamininus between the hills and the shore of Trasimene Lake. After this victory Hannibal’s generals urged for a march on Rome, but he refused stating that the army lacked siege engines. After this Hannibal moved his army south and he laid waste to every thing in his path, in attempt to both bring the Romans to battle and cause the defection of the Italians to his side. But the Romans, now under Q. Fabius Maximus Cunctator refused Hannibal’s attempts to give battle and Fabius raided Hannibal’s lines. In the summer of 216 B.C. the Romans had become fed up with Fabius and ousted him, much to Hannibal’s delight their leaders marched with a truly massive army against him. By now Hannibal was running low on supplies and he made the decision to take the vital supply depot of Cannae. On the road to Cannae lay the Roman Army, and in the most brilliant victory of his career Hannibal destroyed the enemy so completely that Cannae has become a word which means crushing, decisive victory. In Cannae’s aftermath the island of Sardinia revolted and Capua, Italy’s second largest city, defected to Hannibal. From Capua Hannibal dispatched his brother Mago Barca to Carthage with news of his victories and hundreds of gold rings as proof of it.

Hannibal had defeated Rome soundly, but the Romans did not break and counterattacked. Despite numerous reversals the Roman people stubbornly refused to come to terms with Carthage, so therefore Hannibal began negotiating with the King of Macedon, Philip V, and he got an alliance with him in 215. In 214 Hannibal managed to convince the tyrant of Syracuse to ally with Carthage. In Rome the Cunctator had returned to power and his tactics caused Hannibal much grief as he tried and failed to take the ports of Cumae and Puteoli. In 213 Hannibal managed to successfully take Tarentum and several other ports, in order to allow Macedonian and Carthaginian troops a safe landing in Italy. But the Romans managed to incite the Aetolian League in Greece to war, thus tying down the Macedonians. Carthage was able to send troops but none were sent as reinforcements to Hannibal. In 212 the Romans went on the offensive and conquered Syracuse through treachery and then they laid siege to Hannibal’s capital at Capua. Hannibal attempted to take the pressure off and camped in front of Rome itself, but the Romans paid little attention to the camp and took Capua in 211. Despite this Hannibal showed his superiority in tactics by defeating a Roman army at Herdoniac (modern Ordona) in southern Italy in 210. Hannibal lost Tarentum to the Romans in 209 and with it most of southern Italy, but Hannibal struck back in 208 by defeating a Roman siege force at Locri Epizephyrii. Hannibal knew however that these small victories meant nothing in the long run, so he decided to send for aid from his brother Hasdrubal in Iberia. With a large detachment of troops from the main Carthaginian army in Iberia Hasdrubal marched to Italy more or less on the same route of his brother. This time however the Romans were prepared and Hasdrubal was defeated and killed at the Battle of Metarus River (207 B.C.). Hannibal, shocked by his brother’s defeat, then holed up his army in Bruttium where they held off against the Romans until the Carthaginian Senate called him back in 203 B.C. to help against the threat of P. Scipio Minor, who was determined to destroy Hannibal for the mortal wounding of his father at Ticinus River in 218. Before leaving however Hannibal left a set of tablets with his achievements inscribed in Punic and Greek at Crotona, as a lasting reminder of his campaign.

Carthage was on its last legs when Hannibal arrived. Upon his arrival at Carthage the people of the city rallied around the rapidly-losing-favor War Party and Hannibal was given supreme command over all Carthaginian forces. The remnants of the regular Carthaginian army as well as African levies all assembled at Hadrumetum (modern Sousse, Tunisia) and there Hannibal met and organized them, as a result a preliminary armistice that had been agreed upon with Scipio was immediately broken. In 202 B.C. both Scipio and Hannibal marched to the region known as Zama to meet up with each others Numidian allies, with most of the Numidians going with Scipio. It was shortly after this that the two men engaged each other in battle. At Zama Hannibal attempted a repeat of Cannae, but he failed and Scipio decisively defeated the Carthaginians, sending them reeling back to Carthage. One year later Scipio on behalf of the Roman Senate dictated very harsh terms to Carthage: surrender of the Carthaginian fleet, recognition of Roman control of Iberia, the payment of a war indemnity of 10,000 talents to be paid in 50 installments, and lastly (not to mention most importantly from the Roman prospective) the resignation of Hannibal from the office of Commander-in-Chief.

Hannibal had lost his war, but the old hatred of Rome still lived on. After the end of the Second Punic War Hannibal attempted to retire from public life for a while, to think and plan. But in 196 B.C. Hannibal was elected to the office of Suffete (the office of Suffete similar to the office of Roman Consul) and he could not argue with the will of the people. Hannibal proved himself to be just as able a statesman as he was a general and Hannibal passed several reforms that made Carthage more like a democracy like Athens was and less like an oligarchy. As a result Hannibal was wildly unpopular with the landed nobility and they accused him of criminal misconduct during the war and that further more he was planning to violate the peace treaty by allying with the Seleucid Empire and invading Italy again. Of course the nobility leaked all of this to Rome, which subsequently demanded Hannibal’s surrender to them. Hannibal in answer to this went into voluntary exile to none other then Antiochus III of the Seleucid Empire. In Syria Antiochus III welcomed Hannibal with great enthusiasm, and made him his chief military advisor. Antiochus laid out his plan to invade Greece in 192 and Hannibal told Antiochus that he needed to make major changes to face Rome in battle and win. Antiochus was considerably embarrassed by Hannibal’s words and when news of it leaked out and he gave Hannibal a command at sea to minimize the scandal. Because of his greenness with naval warfare Hannibal lost against the Roman allied fleet of Rhodes off the coast of Side, which was located in Pamphylia province (in modern Turkey). After Antiochus was defeated at Magnesia (also in modern Turkey) he was forced among other things to give up Hannibal. Realizing his life was in danger Hannibal fled to the court of Artaxias, former Seleucid governor of Armenia. After assisting Artaxias in the planning for a new capital called Artaxata (modern Yerevan) Hannibal fled again, this time to Crete and then Bithynia. King Prusias was like Antiochus enthusiastic at Hannibal’s arrival, and during a war with King Eumenes of Pergamum, a Roman ally, he held a military command. In one particular battle at sea Hannibal, having learned his lesson at Side about naval warfare, defeated the enemy fleet by throwing cauldrons of snakes unto the Pergamene ships in 184 B.C., Rome alarmed at the defeats of Pergamum then intervened, turning the tide. In the winter of 183/182 the Romans demanded that Hannibal be given up, Prusias agreed and told them that Hannibal was living in a house in Libyssa ( near modern Bursa). Soon a large group of Roman soldiers surrounded the house and demanded that Hannibal give himself up, when there was no reply for some time the Romans burst into the house and discovered to their dismay that Hannibal had taken poison and died. And so died Hannibal Barca, one of the greatest military minds of all time, at the age of 64.

Hannibal was regarded in his own time and since then as one of history’s greatest generals, for many great generals following Hannibal’s death have all sought to replicate his march across the Alps and his great victory at Cannae. In an interesting note until the coming of Islam in the 7th Century AD his house at Libyssa was pilgrimage site for aspiring military geniuses.

[Biographies: Leonidas I of Sparta]

Leonidas I was one of the two kings of Sparta during the invasion of Xerxes. Leonidas is also one of Sparta’s most well known kings because of the sacrifice at Thermopylae.

Leonidas’ early life was mostly uneventful, for a Spartan any way. At an unknown date Leonidas was born to Anaxandrias II of Sparta. If Spartan princes were treated any better then the other youths we do not know, given the fact that the Spartans did not leave much in the form of written records. It likely that Leonidas was put through the same rigorous boot camp starting at age seven and ending at age 20 as other youths followed by more training until age 30. Leonidas probably had some special training attached to this because he was to be one of the kings.

We get the first real mention of Leonidas in 490 B.C. In 490 Leonidas became a king when his half brother Cleomenes I died. As a political move Leonidas married his niece Gorgo, whom was reputed as being able to see the future, according to Herodotus. We know nothing about Leonidas’ reign as king, or what he did between then and 480, when Xerxes invaded with his huge army.

In 480 B.C. Xerxes embarked on a campaign of revenge. Xerxes knew at the time of his ascension that his father, Darius the Great, had viewed Greece as a security hazard to the Achaemenid Empire. In 480 B.C. Xerxes decided to get revenge for the defeat of his father at Marathon 10 years earlier and he set out with the biggest army of the time, followed by a similarly sized navy and headed for Greece. In Greece it was all too clear what Xerxes was doing and at a conference of sorts in either Delphi or Athens the Greeks had to find a way to give the united city-states time to form up an army. Leonidas told the assembled that he could take a force of 300 Spartans and a mass of armed helots (arming helots was a very rare act in Sparta) to the pass of Thermopylae to give the others time to assemble. On the spot the Thebans and Thespians declared that some of their forces would join the Spartans at Thermopylae. It was widely believed that Leonidas promised such a small force because an oracle told him that a king of Sparta must die to save Greece. Today a lot of people believe that the ephors (Spartan men 60 years old and up who formed a council capable of vetoing a king) were only willing to give so many men. So it was that a force of 7,000 men marched off from their respective city-states to block the pass of Thermopylae.

At Thermopylae when Xerxes saw the Greek force he reportedly laughed. At the start of the first day’s fighting at Thermopylae Herodotus wrote that an emissary came to demand that the Greeks give up their weapons. Leonidas gave him a simple answer “Come and get them!” and the battle began. Due to the narrow nature of the pass that the Spartans and other Greeks wedged themselves into the Persians could not use their superior numbers, this proved to be perfect for the Greeks, whose heavily armed hoplites could take down several of the lightly armed and armored Persians without worry of being flanked or overwhelmed. As a result the Persians got slaughtered. At the beginning of the second day another emissary went to Leonidas, telling him that “Our archers will fire so many arrows that they will block out the sun” Leonidas told him “Good, then we’ll fight in the shade!” The second day would turn into a repeat of the first, but this time with the 10,000 Immortals fighting the Spartans instead of rank-and-line troops. At the end of the day a Greek deserter named Ephialites (whose name now means terror in Greek) came to Xerxes and offered to show him a way to flank the Greek forces. At the beginning of the third day Leonidas noticing that Persians were flanking his troops through the pass divided his forces, for what reason we do not know, and told the remaining 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, and 400 Thebans to “Eat a hearty breakfast men, for tonight we dine in Hades!” In the ensuing bloodbath all of the Spartans and Thespians died, the Thebans are said to have surrendered to Xerxes. It is said that during the fighting the Spartans attempted to rescue the body of Leonidas, but due to the mass of Persians surrounding them they were unable to. After the battle Leonidas’ body was taken to Xerxes who mutilated it and presented the body as an example of what would happen to those that resist. The sacrifice at Thermopylae ended up galvanizing the Greeks instead of disheartening them, leading to Xerxes’ ultimate defeat at their hands. When the Spartans got Leonidas’ body back they buried it with full battle honors, it is said that there was much wailing and mourning over the body, something that Spartans did not normally do.

In conclusion while we do not know much about Leonidas I of Sparta, he is remembered to this day as the epitome of Spartan bravery, courage, and fighting spirit. This is all summed up by the epitaph on Leonidas’ tomb “Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to there laws we lie”

[Biographies: Quintus Fabius Maximus, Cunctator]

Quintus Fabius Maximus was a Roman commander and politician during the Second Punic War. The Romans over the course of the war gave Fabius the nickname Cunctator (Latin: Delayer) for his tactics, which ended up saving Rome despite popular opinion to the contrary.

Quintus Fabius Maximus was probably born somewhere around 275 B.C. The exact birth date of Quintus Fabius Maximus is unknown, but estimate place it somewhere in 275. Quintus’ parents are unknown, but we do know that he was born into the already ancient house of Fabii in Rome. Nothing concrete is known of Fabius’ childhood unfortunately.

Quintus Fabius Maximus had a some what unspectacular political and military career prior to the Second Punic War. We first hear of Quintus Fabius Maximus in Roman history annals as a commander in the First Punic War, though there is no records of how or what he did in the war. Fabius’ political career took off upon his being elected to the office of Consul in 233 B.C. Fabius was elected to the office of Censor three years later and then Consul again in 228 B.C When Hannibal took the city of Sanguntum in 218 B.C. the Romans sent Fabius as their emissary to Carthage, to demand that the city be handed back over and Hannibal retreat back to Carthaginian lands. When the Carthaginians refused to hand over the city Fabius returned to Rome and the Senate declared war on Carthage, the Second Punic War had begun.

The Second Punic War was where Quintus Fabius Maximus really began to shine. Hannibal invaded Italy itself in late 218 and defeated two Roman armies, the first time at the River Trebia and the second time at Lake Trasimene. It was after the disaster of Trasimene that the Senate declared Fabius Dictator (it is interesting to note that usually it is the Consuls who names a Dictator, not the Senate). Fabius knew from the reports of Roman commanders on Hannibal that he could not defeat him on the open field, so Fabius decided to fight a war of attrition. Fabius dispatched various Roman forces into the hills of Italy to tail Hannibal as close as possible with out engaging him in battle, knowing cavalry would be useless in the hills. These troops constantly cut off Hannibal’s supply lines and harassed him incessantly and without mercy. Amongst many Roman commanders and politicians these tactics, though they worked, were wildly unpopular and viewed as cowardly. Many began to call Fabius Verrucosus Cunctator (Latin: Warty Delayer) in hopes of insulting him into retirement. The high point of the opposition to Fabius came when Minucius Rufus, the Magister Equitum (Latin: Master of the Horse), began to oppose him openly. After Fabius’ term as Dictator was up the Romans, who were itching to finally engage Hannibal in decisive battle eagerly elected Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Caius Terentius Varro as Consuls. Hannibal who was by now in Campania needed to find a food source for his army, as a result he headed towards the town of Cannae and the Roman army. When word reached Rome that Hannibal with his small army had all but completely destroyed the massive Roman army at Cannae it sent shock waves through out all Italy, Rome had gotten its decisive battle and they lost. The Roman public now understood that Fabius had been right all along with his so called ‘cowardly’ tactics, as a result the title Verrucosus was dropped from Fabius’ name and the title Cunctator was made into a honorific when Fabius was overwhelmingly elected to the Consulship in 215. Fabius wasted no time and went back to his delaying tactics, which worked brilliantly against Hannibal. Fabius would make his first and only offensive move of the war in 209, during his fifth consulship, when he captured the city Tarentum (Modern Taranto) which Hannibal had captured three years before. In 205 B.C. a young man named Publius Cornelius Scipio (later known as Scipio Africanus) wished to carry the fight to the Carthaginians by attacking Africa itself. Fabius opposed him, but the tide had turned decisively against Hannibal and Carthage, many thought that the time to strike was now. Ultimately Scipio got what he wanted and the Romans attacked Africa that year, the attack would lead to the Carthaginian surrender in 201. Fabius would not get to see the end of the war unfortunately, for he died in 203 B.C. at the age of 72.

Quintus Fabius Maximus Cunctator was highly regarded by all Romans who came after him. After his death Fabius took on legendary status in the eyes of the Roman people, becoming the model of toughness and courage. Ennius wrote this of Fabius: Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem which means: “One man, by delaying, has restored the state to us”.

[Biographies: Darius the Great]

Darius I the Great (Old Persian: Darayavaush) was the third legitimate Achaemenid Emperor. During his reign Darius nearly rebuilt the Achaemenid Empire from the ground up, embarked on several great building projects, and brought Persia to its greatest territorial extent.

Very little is known about Darius in his youth. Darius was probably born some time around 550 B.C. though there is no way to be sure, his father was Hystaspes (Cyrus the Great’s cousin) and his mother is unknown. According to Herodotus when Darius was twenty years old Cyrus the Great had a dream about Darius’ future, for this reason he sent Hystaspes back to Persia to keep an eye on Darius. When Cyrus died a few days later and Cambyses took the throne he either appointed or confirmed Hystaspes as Satrap of Parthia, this would prove to be important in the life of Darius. It seems that Darius got his first taste of combat and his first real mention in history during Cambyses’ conquest of Egypt in 525 where we learn that he was already the arstibara (lance carrier and commander of the Royal Guard). This is all that is known about Darius before the momentous events that would catapult him to the forefront of the army and beyond.

From 525 to 522 all was peaceful in Darius’ life, but then something most unexpected happened. In 522 B.C. a revolt erupted in Persia, led by a Magian (a Persian subject people) named Gaumata. However Gaumata claimed that he was the brother of Cambyses, Bardiya, whom Cambyses had secretly killed. Because the people did not know that Bardiya was dead they followed Gaumata. Cambyses when he heard the news was driven out of his mind and he quickly gathered his army, which was still in Egypt and he marched for Persia. While the army was camped in Syria Cambyses unexpectedly died, either due to suicide or an accident while getting in the saddle. Darius as the late Cambyses’ arstibara was named army commander by the troops. Meanwhile in Persia a group of six noblemen (Otanes, Gobryas, Intaphrenes, Hydranes, Megabyzus, and Ardumanis) had discovered the truth about Gaumata and were undecided on what to do. When Darius and his army arrived in the city of Susa the six nobles joined him there and together they decided to kill Gaumata. When Gaumata arrived at the fortress of Sikayauvatis in the city of Nisaia in Media Darius along with his fellow nobles walked in and killed him (none of the guards interfered during this action, for reasons unknown). Following the death of Gaumata the conspirators now had to decide who was to become king. According to Herodotus they briefly discussed the idea of democracy, but this was obviously added. In the end it was the head conspirator, Otanes, who decided to give up his better claim to the throne to Darius, all the others soon followed suit and Darius became the next Great King (it is interesting to note that both Darius’ father and grandfather were still alive at this time, but rejected the idea of being king).

But Darius would not be given time to savor his new position, for 4 days later rebellions began all over the empire, starting with Assina in Elam and Nidintu-Bel in Babylon. From Elam and Babylon the flames spread, eventually coming to include Persia itself when another man claming to be Bardiya, Vahyazdata revolted against Darius. Realizing he had to act fast to solidify his position Darius arranged a marriage with a woman named Atossa, Cambyses’ wife and sister in order to improve his familial position. Following this Darius embarked on a campaign to defeat the rebels fighting a total of 19 battles against them in a single year. Darius first struck against Babylon at Opis, winning such a great victory against them that the Elamites gave up Assina without a fight when Darius told them to hand him over. Shortly there after Babylon fell to Darius and he personally killed Nidintu-Bel. But this was not the end of the rebellions, for not long after Nidintu-Bel’s death Vahyazdata rose up in rebellion in Persia, he was followed by Elam (again), Media, Assyria, Egypt, Parthia, Margiana, Sattagydia, and Scythia. These revolts were soon joined by Lydia, Armenia, and Sagartia. Darius now had his hands full with enemies, but he did have some allies, in particular his father still ruled in Parthia and two satraps, Dadarsi and Vivana were close friends of Hystaspes. Darius realized that the Median rebellion was central to his campaign against the rebels. For this reason he sent some troops under Hydranes (one of the nobles who had helped killed Gaumata) to the pass of Deh Bid to keep Vahyazdata and the Median rebel Phraortes from linking up. This proved to be a wise decision on Darius’ part as Hydranes was able to keep his position in the pass against furious assaults by Phraortes and Vahyazdata. Next Darius sent troops under an unknown commander named Vaumisa to keep the Armenians from linking up with Phraortes, while Vaumisa ultimately failed his presence proved troublesome to Media. In the east Hystaspes, Dadarsi, and Vivana held out against the various rebel forces and Vivana was even able to make a number of gains against Vahyazdata. After this the various armies retired for the remainder of the winter months, thus giving time to Darius to make plans for his attacks. When spring came in April 521 Darius prepared for a massive strike against Media which he led personally, a second army led by Artavardiya attacked Persia. It did not take long before Darius and Phraortes engaged in combat. At a place called Kunduru Darius defeated Phraortes decisively and when Phraortes tried to escape after the battle he was quickly caught and killed. A relative of Phraortes tried to carry on the fight from Sagartia, but he was captured and killed by a Median officer that served Darius. In Persia Artavardiya encountered and defeated Vahyazdata, who fled east ward after the defeat with Artavardiya on his trail. In Armenia a new Persian assault finally succeeded in breaking into the Armenian interior, it did not take long to link up with the forces of Vaumisa. With these victories no one could doubt Darius’ ultimate victory. In Parthia the rebellion there was crushed by the combined forces of Darius himself, his father, and Dadarsi in early July. Soon afterwards Vahyazdata was captured by Artavardiya and killed. Darius was now the undisputed Great King of Persia and was crowned in Pasargadae, but then unexpectedly Babylon revolted again under a man named Arakha. Darius responded by sending Intaphrenes (another one of the nobles who had helped killed Gaumata) to crush it, which he did in a short amount of time. There were still a few more pockets of resistance left, Margiana, Elam (for a third time), Lydia, and Scythia. Margiana was dealt with swiftly before the end of the year and Elam was crushed in 520/519. Lydia, which had not rebelled militarily yet, was dealt with by Darius when he replaced the Lydian satrap with Otanes, as a thank you for supporting him. And finally the Scythians were dealt with in 519 when Darius appointed a new king for them. Finally after years 3 years and a few months the fighting was over, Darius was now, for real, the undisputed Great King of the Achaemenid Empire, it is believed that the Jewish prophet Zechariah was speaking of Darius’ recent victory when he wrote that the whole world was now at peace.

With Darius’ victory over the rebels in 519 the Achaemenid Empire was whole once more. Darius having now solidified his empire internally now needed to continue to conquer in order to give his empire strong borders. Later in the year 519 Darius conquered the Scythians on the Caspian Sea to stop the raids originating from there. In 515 Darius led his armies east and he conquered the Indus River valley in what is now modern Pakistan and India, not much is known of this campaign. The inclusion of the Indus heralded in several changes in the Achaemenid Empire, such as the founding of a new capital at Persepolis (Old Persian: Parsa) and the introduction of new currency. After some years of peace Darius set out once again to war. In 513 he set out for the territory of the European Scythians, or Sacae, by crossing the Bosporus into Thrace and conquering the eastern part of that country. Following this Darius advanced to the Danube where Ionian Greek subjects of his built a temporary bridge, which was ordered to be destroyed once Darius crossed into modern Romania. Now in Scythian territory he attempted to destroy them, but the Scythians would not fight Darius and they constantly retreated. According to Herodotus the Persians chased the Scythians as far as the Oaros River (Modern Volga) but this has been dismissed as a mistake and/or an exaggeration. Most historians believe that Darius chased the Scythians as far as the Dnepr, before turning back on the advice of Gobryas, his arstibara. When Darius returned from his Scythian campaign he left the matter in the hands of the satraps of Asia Minor, who conquered the rest of Thrace, subdued Macedonia, the Greek towns in the Cyrenaica, and the islands of Lemnos and Imbros. In the period between the conquests of the satraps and the beginning of Darius’ war with Greece was a peaceful time in Persia.

Here we shall examine the various peacetime accomplishments of Darius the Great. According to Persian sources shortly after becoming king Darius believed that the Persian people needed a writing script of their own, instead of the writing scripts of foreigners. For this reason Darius commissioned the invention of a Persian writing system, today known as Old Persian. Darius’ next great internal achievement is one of longest lasting. The system of satrapies was already in place by the time of Darius, but it was unwieldy and there was no fixed system of tributes or taxation. Darius solidified the system into fixed tax districts and he imposed a fixed tribute system as well with the tribute demanded reflecting that particular area’s wealth. In 515 after the Indus was conquered Darius introduced a new system of money in the Achaemenid Empire. A new gold piece called the daric (Old Persian: darayaka) and the silver siglos. All currency was to be held to the daric-siglos standard from then on. Another important invention was the Royal Road system. The roads crisscrossing Persia and its empire were already in existence, but Darius introduced a system of buildings called pirradazis where a person could stay for the night and perhaps change horses. Many times these pirradazis had an inspector, called the king’s eyes in residence. These inspectors were granted passports by the ministry that employed them which allowed them food and water while resting. Darius also reformed the calendar; this would heavily influence later eastern astronomy. Another important achievement of Darius was the setting up of large granaries all over the empire for the purpose of feeding the army. These granaries would allow the Persians to maintain a large army no matter where it was in the empire, as a result the granaries would be a major contention point in all future Persian wars. Darius also patronized various endeavors in the world of trade, the new currency that he instituted shows this quite clearly in hindsight. One of things that Darius did to promote trade was to fund an expedition down the Indus River, this expedition, led by Scylax of Caryanda charted a new sea trade route going from the Indus to Egypt. Darius following the example of Cyrus was also very tolerant of other religions in his reign; this is shown in his actions in Egypt, the Greek lands, and Israel. In Egypt Darius did much there that earned him the respect of the people; he gave funds and commissions for several new temples all over Egypt. He also was a major proponent of the reopening of the medical school at Sais. In the case of the Greeks Darius showed a great interest in the cult of Apollo, often lavishing rather exorbitant gifts on temples dedicated to the cult. In Israel the case was that the Babylonian governor of the area kept impeding the construction of the Great Temple. When the Jews sent word of this to Susa Darius ordered a search of the archives there, when the scribes found Cyrus’ original order Darius told the Jews to continue building.

Darius also embarked on many great building projects over his time as king. Darius was a great builder in his time, one of the things he did for the architectural world was spearhead the creation of separate and distinct Persian building styles. The most famous building project of Darius the Great was the construction of the palace-city of Parsa (Greek: Persepolis). Building began in 515 and the most important parts, such as the Audience Hall (Old Persian: Apadana) and Treasury were completed in 490 B.C. A winter palace (Old Persian: Tachara) was added that year to the list of buildings, but Darius did not see it completed. Darius also built marvelous palaces in the city of Susa, which was Darius’ favorite residence for most of his reign. Darius built palaces in Ectbana and Babylon, though they paled in comparison to Parsa and Susa. Besides palaces Darius also built great public works, the most famous being the canal he built in Egypt. Following the voyages of Scylax of Caryanda Darius decided to build a canal to connect the Red Sea and the Nile River. This canal was probably built on the ruins of one started by Egyptian river lord, Necho I (who lived in the 7th century B.C.). The great canal of Darius was completed in 498, a testament to its chief benefactor’s vision and patronage of trade and building.

The last events of the life of Darius the Great is undoubtly the most remembered of all. The thirteen years between the conclusion of the great campaign against the Scythians and war with Greece is not well recorded either by Herodotus or Darius himself in his autobiography, though it seems that there was some conflict with a random Scythian tribe or two. The pace of record seems to pick up again around 499 when word reached Darius that for a seemingly spontaneous reason the Greek cities in Asia Minor were revolting against Persian rule (the reason for revolt is believed to have been high taxes). This came as a surprise to Darius, for no one had revolted against him for 23 years by that time. Darius ultimately decided to send a massive army against the rebelling Greeks, while he went to Egypt to oversee the final stages of the construction of the canal there. At first the Greeks enjoyed a good measure of success against the Persians, pushing them back to their regional capital at Sardis. However at Sardis, Darius’ brother Artaphernes (the satrap of Lydia), managed to hold on to the central areas of the city, despite furious Greek attacks. The rebelling Greeks also attempted to take the island of Cyprus, but they were defeated by the Persian navy. Despite their early victories the tide turned against the Ionian Greeks, the chief rebel city of Miletus was sacked by Persian forces in 494 and after this the remaining cities fell to the four Persian commanders (Hymaees, Daurises, Artaphernes, and Otanes) with ease. To help secure the region Darius sent his son-in-law Mardonius across the Bosporus into Macedonia, to fully incorporate the area into Persia, this he did in 492. In 490 Darius would order a new campaign in the region of Greece led by a Mede named Datis and Artaphernes (this Artaphernes is Darius’ nephew, not his brother). Herodotus has held that this campaign was to punish the cities of Athens and Eretria for helping the Ionians 2 years before, but some modern historians claim that the size of the army being sent shows that the aim was most likely to have been to conquer the Aegean islands between Asia Minor and Greece, in order to form a buffer zone between Greece and Persia. What ever the reason the Persians conquer the Aegean islands one by one, then the mainland city of Eretria was attacked after the fall of Delos on September 1, 490 (the alternate view holds that the Persians attacked Eretria because that city held the island of Euboa, which the Persians wanted). Whatever the reason Datis and Artaphernes attacked and destroyed Eretria, sending many former inhabitants as slaves to Elam. On September 5 Datis landed at Marathon and prepared to march to Athens (the alternate view holds that the Persians were seeking to return the former dictator of Athens, Hippias, to his throne). It did take long for the Athenians to learn of the landing and they maneuvered an army to block the road, but did not attack the Persians. On September 10 after 5 days of waiting and plundering Datis and Artaphernes decided to leave Marathon, this was when the Athenians launched their attack. The battle of Marathon was seen as great victory by the Greeks, but was seen as a rearguard action by the Persians, thus came the end of the first Greco-Persian War. In the aftermath of Marathon Darius decided that the recent war had proven that Greece had to be conquered in order to secure the stability of the region. But it was not to be for in 486 the satrapy of Egypt suddenly rebelled against Persian authority, and in October, 485 Darius I the Great died at the age of 64

Darius the Great was a truly amazing Persian king; he took a near ruined empire and transformed it into the first superpower the world had ever known. Perhaps the greatest tribute to him was from his enemies in Athens, who admitted to being greatly saddened at the death of Darius, they would later begin to copy some of his administrative institutions, this is regarded as the greatest compliment of all.

[Biographies: Cyrus the Great]

Cyrus II the Great (Old Persian: Khorvash) was the founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Cyrus rose from the status of a vassal of the Medes to the Emperor of the largest empire on Earth, up until that time. Cyrus was largely regarded as the ideal king thanks to Xenophon, and he is even today regarded highly by modern nations for his legendary “Charter of the Rights of Nations”.

Cyrus the Great was probably born in Persis (modern Fars). The exact date of birth for Cyrus is in dispute due to the many legends that circulate about him and the loss of records. It is believed to be anywhere between 590-576 BC, as that period is the most likely years. The details of Cyrus’ life between his birth and his ascension to the thrones of Persia and Media is covered in legends and folk stories and the like, Herodotus’ version of the events is largely accepted by the modern community. According to Herodotus, Cyrus was the result of a marriage between Princess Mandane, daughter of King Astyages of Media and Cambyses I (later called ‘the Elder’), one of Astyages’ vassals. When Cyrus was born Astyages ordered the child killed, for fear that he would overthrow him. But Astyages’ chief advisor, who was sent to do the job, did not do it and instead hid Cyrus, for this the chief advisor lost his son. Astyages did eventually discover Cyrus anyway, but he let him live upon his chief advisor’s counsel. When Cyrus came of age in 559 B.C. he succeeded his father as King of Anshan and his uncle Arsames (who was still alive at this point, it is believed he abdicated in favor of his nephew) as King of Persia (this part here is factual). When the people of the lands he ruled told Cyrus that they were tired of Median overlordship, he revolted in 554 B.C. (the revolt is also factual). Astyages mobilized his army and put it under his chief advisor, who upon meeting Cyrus defected with his entire army (this defection’s reality is debated). From this point on we have good historical records of the events of Cyrus’ life. In 546 B.C. Cyrus had conquered the Median capital of Ectbana, but when asked what he would do with the Medes, he declared that he would treat them as equals, Cyrus also summarily declared himself the King of Medes and Persians.

After 546 Cyrus would begin his campaigns of conquest, for which he is famous. Cyrus found out soon after settling into his new throne that Astyages had formed an alliance with the three greatest kings of the area: Croesus of Lydia, Amasis II of Egypt, and Nabonidus of Babylon. These three kings planned to unite their armies to crush Cyrus, but he was faster then they were and he led a lightning campaign against Croesus, defeating his army at Pterium and after a short siege occupied the capital of Sardis, all before 546 ended. It was after the fall of Lydia that the Greeks first encountered the Persians, and many Greeks very much liked Cyrus, going as far as proclaiming him the ideal king .Cyrus would spend the next few years in the east before turning to deal with Nabonidus in 539 B.C. Cyrus had a easy time against Babylon, primarily because the whole country, even the priests hated Nabonidus. Cyrus easily defeated Nabonidus at Opis, and then he marched towards Babylon itself, to the surprise of Cyrus and the whole Persian army Babylon surrendered without a fight. Cyrus did much while in Babylon, among those things he declared himself “King of Babylon and King of the Land”, he also declared that all of the slave peoples, in particular the Jewish people held captive in Babylon were to be set free and were to be allowed to return to there own country. Lastly it is believed that it was in Babylon that Cyrus the Great issued his famous “Charter of the Rights of Nations”, this charter believed to be the first declaration of human rights in history outlined Cyrus’ belief system on how to deal with conquered people. Cyrus believed that everyone in his empire was to be allowed to have all of their rights, all of their customs intact, they only had to offer the occisonal tribute to the Great King, as Cyrus began calling himself. This system was one of Cyrus’ most lasting legacies in that it ensured his empire’s stability by not trying to force all of the people in his empire into a single mold. After these events Cyrus went on establish a new capital, Pasargadae in Persis, he named Babylon his winter capital.

Among the most lasting legacies of Cyrus the Great was the government that he built. As mentioned above Cyrus did not try to force everyone in his empire into a single mold, instead he celebrated the diversity. Because the Persian people had no real traditions of rulership of an empire Cyrus took and borrowed the ideas of rulership and government from his subject people. He drew heavily on the Median traditions regarding kingship, Cyrus’ chief advisor was probably a Mede, this shown by the reliefs on the walls of Persepolis, built by Darius the Great, Cyrus’ distant cousin. The Elamites, the native inhabitants of Cyrus’ home province of Persis were another people with an important impact, as seen by the fact that many in the Royal court dressed like the Elamites and even carried Elamite objects in many reliefs on the walls of Persepolis. Cyrus also instituted the system of dividing the Persian Empire into dozens of provinces called Satrapies, each overseen by a governor, called a Satrap. The Greek historian Xenophon, who wrote a biography of Cyrus called the Cyropedia, believed that he invented and instituted the first postal system, many historians are divided on whether or not Cyrus really did institute the first postal system, or if it was Darius. It was these achievements and more that have insured the place of Cyrus the Great on the list of great statesmen, the government system of Cyrus never went under any changes during the time his dynasty ruled Persia.

After the momentous events at Babylon and the founding of Pasargadae Cyrus turned east, where more land lay waiting for him to conquer, and according to some accounts, death. The old Median Empire had during its heyday extended far to the east, Cyrus was determined to conquer those lands and more, it is believed that Cyrus probably conquered as far as the Indus River, though it would not be until the time of Cambyses II that this became the definite eastern border of Persia. After leaving the west behind him following the capture of Babylon, Cyrus went to the eastern frontier to deal with horse nomads that gave him much trouble. According to some it would be there that set up the stage for his death

There are many conflicting accounts of Cyrus’ death. Herodotus and Josephus hold that the Queen of one of the horse nomad tribes, called the Massagetai was what killed Cyrus the Great. This Queen, named Tomryis was angry at Cyrus for he had taken her son, Spargapises, captive and he died while in captivity so she waited for Cyrus to return to try to conquer the steppes her people lived on to get her revenge. In 529 B.C. Cyrus led an expedition to deal the Massagetai and Queen Tomryis confronted and killed him on the battlefield. Tomryis was herself killed shortly thereafter by a vengeful Cambyses II, for the most part this account of Cyrus dying while fighting eastern horse nomads is largely doubted by modern historians, however there is proof that Cyrus really did venture as far as beyond the Caspian Sea in the form of the town of Cyreschata (Greek: Cyropolis).

Regardless of the tale of Cyrus dying by the hand of a vengeful mother he really did die in 529 B.C. According to Xenophon Cyrus died peacefully in his sleep, while others such as Ctesias say he died a much more violent death, in battle, like in Herodotus’ and Josephus’ accounts. In any case after Cyrus died his eldest son (Cyrus had two sons: Cambyses the Younger and Bardiya, also known as Smerdis) Cambyses II the Younger followed his father’s orders to bury him in a simple tomb, though he thought that Cyrus deserved a much better tomb ,it is located near Pasargadae. Later on Darius the Great had another tomb for Cyrus built this one near the new capital of Persepolis. Cyrus had ordered before his death that a few words be inscribed on his tomb, people today can still read it, and it reads “Passer-by, I am Cyrus the Great, I have given the Persians an empire and I have ruled over Asia. So do not envy me this tomb”.

In closing Cyrus the Great truly deserved the title he has been given by later generations. The Persian peoples have always viewed Cyrus the Great kindly for his many good acts, they still call him their father to this day. The later Great Kings of Achaemenid Persia never forgot it was to Cyrus that they owed their empire too. It is interesting to note that even Alexander the Great on his conquests stopped while at Pasargadae to offer homage to the man he considered the role model of empire founding.

[Biographies: Mithradates VI]

Mithradates VI was Rome’s greatest enemy in the times of Sulla and Marius. Mithradates was a brilliant general; this was shown by his conquests and how only Rome’s best generals could defeat him.

Mithradates was born the heir of an old and rich kingdom, called Pontus. Mithradates was born in 132 B.C. to Mithradates V Euergetes and an unknown woman. Mithradates showed early in life his intelligence in the fact that he could speak all of the languages of the Pontic domain. When Euergetes died in 120 B.C. Mithradates was only 11 years old, thus he had to share power with his mother, who acted as regent. In 115 Mithradates had his mother imprisoned and his brother assassinated, thusly Mithradates, now Mithradates VI Eupator Dionysius, came to be the sole power in Pontus. Mithradates VI showed early in his reign what kind of king he would be through displays of physical strength and force of character, this would in turn gain him the fame needed to fuel his Alexandrian ambitions.

Mithradates VI got his chance to display some martial prowess soon enough. A few years after ascending the throne of Pontus , Mithradates received word that King Parisades of the Cimmerian Bosporus (Modern Straits of Kerch) and King Chersonesus of the Tauric Chersonese (Modern Crimea) was requesting aid against the Scythians and Sarmatians. Mithradates immediately prepared for war and he managed to successfully drive back the Scythians and Sarmatians, impressing the latter so much that they promised to fight alongside him. He also impressed the Greeks he rescued from the Scythians and Sarmatians to the degree that when Parisades and Chersonesus died their lands went to Mithradates, who moved his capital from Sinope in Asia Minor to Panticapaeum (modern Kerch). Mithradates then conquered Colchis and Lesser Armenia to add more corn, men, and gold to his domain. However when Mithradates returned to Asia Minor he found that the provinces of Paphlagonia had declared itself a free state and Phrygia had gone to the Romans. Mithradates tried at first to settle the matter through a military partition of Paphlagonia and Galatia between himself and Nicomedes III, the King of Bithynia. However the two had disagreements over the fate of Cappadocia, this lead to Mithradates launching an invasion of Cappadocia with his son-in-law, Tigranes of Armenia in 93 B.C. But it was all for naught for the Roman Proconsul Sulla intervened and restored the Kingdom of Cappadocia just one year later.

Mithradates was now very upset and angry, he had lost that which he had worked so hard to gain, he wanted revenge on the Romans, and all he needed was a chance. In 90 B.C. Sulla was forced to turn his attention inward due to the outbreak of the Social Wars. Seeing this as his chance Mithradates decided to depose the new King of Bithynia, Nicomedes IV, but he was foiled by the Romans under Manius Aquilius. Aquilius then used the failed attempt on Nicomedes’ life as an excuse to drive Nicomedes to invade Pontus in revenge. But Mithradates was the superior commander and he defeated Nicomedes IV and killed Aquilius in short order. Harnessing the momentum of the attack Mithradates drove the Romans before him to the sea, promising freedom and lower taxes, the people in return hailed Mithradates VI as a savior. One by one the cities and provinces of Asia Minor either were conquered by or defected to Mithradates, eventually he even crossed the Hellespont into Greece. Along the way Mithradates ordered in 88 B.C. the death of all Romans in Asia Minor, ancient sources say 80,000 died (Modern historians think the actual number was much lower). The Romans were outraged and Sulla with five full legions landed in Epirus and marched to meet Mithradates. In 86 B.C. Sulla managed to defeat Mithradates in a series of battles, and 85 B.C. Sulla had managed to throw Mithradates out of Greece, but because of Marius’ unexpected return to Italy Sulla had to end the war fast, he eventually convinced Mithradates to meet him at the ruins of Troy. In the Treaty of Dardanus Sulla demanded that Mithradates hand over 2,000 talents, 70 warships (Mithradates’ entire fleet), and that he move back into his prewar territories.

Following the Treaty of Dardanus an uneasy peace settled over Asia Minor. In 83 B.C. the Roman general Lucius Murena invaded Pontus on the false charge that Mithradates had not kept his promise to return to his pre war territory by occupying some parts of Cappadocia. Mithradates who had been rebuilding his army easily defeated Murena and before hostilities could escalate Sulla intervened and ordered Murena to cease his attacks; he promptly declared a ‘white peace’ with Mithradates, who regarded the whole thing as not very serious at all.

The third and final conflict between Mithradates VI Eupator Dionysius and Rome started in 74 B.C. In the time between 83 and 74 B.C. Mithradates had slowly begun rebuilding his army for a new war with Rome, a war he was determined not to lose. When in 74 B.C. King Nicomedes IV died his will left Bithynia to Rome. Outraged and to prevent Rome from growing Mithradates declared war on the Roman Republic. He quickly managed to defeat the Romans under Consul Marius Aurelius Cotta at Chalcedon, but Mithradates was unable to follow up on his victory, because of this he was defeated by the general Lucullus at Cyzicus. Following this defeat Mithradates took refuge in Lesser Armenia with his son-in-law Tigranes, from here Mithradates won a number of battles against the sub commanders of Lucullus, who was because of mutiny among his troops, replaced by Gnaeus Pompey in 66 B.C. Pompey was a much more able commander than any of the other commanders Mithradates had faced thus far. Mithradates found himself again fleeing the Romans in 64 B.C., this time to Panticapaeum in the Cimmerian Bosporus. From the relative safety the position provided him Mithradates planned for a grand invasion of Italy itself through the Danube. This was cut short however when Mithradates’ own son, Pharnaces II, led a large part of the army in revolt against the war. Mithradates fearing the worst attempted to poison himself, but found that the immunity he built up to poison when he was younger hindered the effects (it is interesting to note that Mithradates built up that immunity in the first place because of his fear of being poisoned), so he took his sword and fell on it. After finding his father dead Pharnaces sent the body to Pompey as a token of submission. Pompey treated the body with all the respect due to such a great enemy of Rome; he even gave it a full regal burial at Sinope. Witnessing the event the great Roman orator Cicero gave Mithradates VI the epitaph: “Greatest of all Kings after Alexander”.

In conclusion Mithradates VI Eupator Dionysius was undoubtedly Rome’s greatest enemy in Asia Minor; it is interesting to note that in the field of medicine the term for a cure all antidote is “Mithradate”.

[Other: Sarmatians]

The Sarmatians were a nomadic tribe of Central Asian and Iranian origin that lived in what is now southern Russia. The Sarmatians and their ground-breaking heavy cavalry had a great influence upon the cavalry of all they encountered and they have been credited with the invention of the stirrup and full saddle.

The Sarmatians burst onto the scene in the 5th century B.C. In those times the Sarmatians crossed into what is now European Russia and settled in between the Ural Mountains and the Don River. Starting in the 4th century the Sarmatians crossed the Don and went to war with their close cousins, the Scythians, whom they eventually conquered and replaced as the rulers of southern Russia. After finally crushing the Scythians in the 3rd or 2nd century (this is debated) there emerged four main tribes that comprised the coalition that governed the Sarmatian peoples. These tribes were: The Iazyges, who lived near the Sea of Azoz, the Urgi, who lived along the Dnepr near Kiev, the Royal Scythians, who lived in the eastern Ukraine, and the Roxolani, who constantly moved westward in search of bigger and better pastures.

The culture of the Sarmatians was unique among their cousin peoples. In Sarmatia the people was divided into two main classes: the warrior elite called the argaragantes and a slave class called the limigantes. The Sarmatian warrior class whom we know most about retained their nomadic ways throughout their existence. This is shown by the fact of how Sarmatians families moved: The head of the household rode on a horse with the eldest children following, while the mother and younger children rode in a felt covered wagon that served as home called a kibitka. It is interesting to note that the women in Sarmatian society could carry weapons and ride to war with their fathers or husbands until they had children, after which they stayed in the kibitka raising the children. Early on the families and tribes of the Sarmatians were ruled in part by the women, but as time moved on the men eventually came to control the government of the tribes, this resulted ultimately in a monarchy.

The first ‘civilized’ people to encounter the Sarmatians were the Greek colonies on the Black Sea, who believed that the Sarmatians, whom they called Sauromatians, were born of Scythian fathers and Amazon mothers. It is thought that the warrior women of Sarmatia were the inspiration for the Amazon myths. For the most part Greek relations with the Sarmatians fluctuated over time; some times they fought as allies against a common foe, like the Scythians before their defeat. Trade was always profitable as the Sarmatians were superb metal workers, as seen by the surviving artifacts in their tombs.

The Sarmatians first encountered Rome in one of those times of alliance. When Rome went to war with King Mithradates VI of Pontus, he had a powerful ally in the Sarmatians, whom he had defeated and earned the respect of. Eventually Mithradates was defeated by the forces of Rome under Pompey in Asia Minor in 66 B.C., Mithradates continued the fight from the modern Crimea with Sarmatian support and this support continued even after Mithradates death by supporting his son Pharnaces. The Sarmatians moved back into their territory after Pharnaces was defeated by Julius Caesar at Zela (It is interesting to note that Caesar made his famous statement of “Veni, Vedi, Vichi” after this battle). When the Romans encountered the Sarmatians they named them the Sarmatae and their land Sarmatia, which were we get the name Sarmatian from.

The Sarmatians stayed quiet after the war against Rome, but they would soon move west again, and they would inevitably clash with Rome by doing so. The first of these new clashes came when the Sarmatians invaded the Roman province of Lower Moesia (modern Bulgaria), during Nero’s reign but they were ultimately repulsed. Later on the Iazyges tribe and Roxolani advanced in to Dacia (modern Romania), with the Iazyges settling on the mouth of the Danube river and the Roxolani on its lower sections. When the Roxolani attempted to expand out of their territory the Roman Legio III Gallica managed to halt their attack and push them back across the Danube in 68/69 AD. During Trajan’s Dacian War the Sarmatians rode along side the Dacians, in one battle in 92 AD they destroyed Legio XXI Rapax. This event convinced Trajan that he must conquer the lands along both banks of the Danube to protect his empire, which he did between 102 and 106 AD. When Hadrian became Emperor in 117 he gave the Iazyges and Roxolani their independence, they in return rode in support of Rome that is until the reign of Marcus Aurelius.

The Sarmatians became once again a threat during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. During this period the Sarmatians broke their relations with Rome and resumed their war against them, during this time a new tribe within the Sarmatian Coalition, the Alani (Alans) appeared and are believed to have been the driving force behind this new rash of hostilities. Together with their new allies the Marcomanni the Sarmatians waged bloody war on Rome. Eventually the Romans managed to drive back the Sarmatians to the Danube River, but they could not hold them forever, in the early 3rd century AD the Sarmatians overran the Romans and conquered all of Dacia, and the Romans never regained the province, but they did manage to hold them there. But the Sarmatians suffered a stunning blow later that century when the Goths invaded Russia and pushed back the Sarmatians, many of those defeated tribes rode with the Goths in their invasion of Western Europe. Some Sarmatians remained free and proved to be a thorn in the Goths’ side until the sudden appearance of the Huns in Russia in 370 AD. This event spelt the end of a free Sarmatian people, while some tribes still existed after 370; it was only as a client tribe of either the Huns or Romans. It is interesting to note that even after 370 the Sarmatians were still dangerous. This is shown by a particular incident that occurred in 374 when Sarmatian forces in Pannonia (modern Hungary) destroyed two full legions while chasing a senior Roman army officer named Aequitius.

In conclusion the impact of the Sarmatians can not be underestimated. It was partly because of the appearance of the Sarmatians that caused the Romans to seriously rethink their own use of cavalry, and thusly this affected all later heavy cavalry.

[Others: The Maccabees]

The Maccabees were a Jewish priestly family that fought for a free Israel against the oppression of the Seleucids and Hellenisation. The Maccabees achieved those goals eventually and founded a free Jewish state, but they also became corrupt over time, this ultimately led to their downfall.

The seeds of rebellion were laid by the early attempts of Hellenisation by the Seleucids. The Seleucids had attempted to Hellenize the Jews directly after they conquered Judea in 198 B.C. and having failed, they called upon Hellenized members of the Jewish aristocracy to do it. The Seleucids chose Josue (Jason) the brother of the cohen hagadol (High Priest) Onias III to carry out the Hellenisation of Jerusalem and appointed him cohen hagadol in place of his brother in 174 B.C. Josue immediately began to do so, building a gymnasium below the Temple. The gymnasium was immensely popular with the youths of Jerusalem, and eventually many began to uncircumcize themselves to avoid embarrassment in the gymnasium. After three years in office Josue was replaced by his financial agent, Menelaus, who in order to fulfill his debts began selling off various gold and silver vessels from the Temple. Onias, upset with this act protested, and he was killed by order of Menelaus. When rumors that Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who was campaigning in Egypt, had been killed, Josue saw his chance and he attacked Jerusalem, forcing Menelaus to take refuge in the Citadel of the Temple. Antiochus was not dead however and he marched north from Egypt to deal with Jerusalem. In the attack on Jerusalem Antiochus massacred the inhabitants, stripped the Temple clean of all of its furnishings, and destroyed the walls, this act angered the Jews beyond comprehension, and Antiochus would only get worse.

After the massacre and stripping of the Temple anger at the Seleucids was at a high, but Antiochus’ next move would push them over the edge. In 168 B.C. Antiochus Epiphanes was at war with Egypt again, this time however Antiochus was forced to abandon his campaign because of the threat of Roman intervention. Antiochus retreated from Egypt in a rage, he decided to take out his anger on his empire’s weakest point: the Jews. When Antiochus arrived in Jerusalem he completely outlawed Judaism, and all means of staying true to it. Over the course of the next several months Antiochus burned all of the Torah scrolls he could find, banned the Kosher diet, and worst of all he placed an alter to the Olympic Zeus in the Temple and daily sacrificed pigs on it. As an afterthought Antiochus also banned circumcision as well. Of course the Jewish people resisted this, and this made Antiochus even worse then before. He began sending groups of men into all of Israel to enforce the law, if a mother was found having let her son be circumcised then they were killed and the child hung on the mothers neck, if a person did not eat pork they were tortured, and in every city, town, and hamlet an alter to Zeus was erected and everyone was forced to worship it on pain of death.

With the beginning of the persecution all of Israel was a tinderbox, all it needed was spark to ignite it. One day in 167 B.C. a group of Seleucids entered into the town of Modi’in, which lies in between Jerusalem and Joppa (modern Tel Aviv), they demanded a pig be offered in sacrifice to Zeus. The town’s cohen (priest) Mattathias (Matthew) refused to do so, however one of the Hellenized Jews moved forward to sacrifice the pig. Mattathias, unable to stand it any longer struck down the Hellenized Jew and the Seleucid officer and then turned to crowd shouting “Follow me, all of you who are for God's law and stand by the covenant!” Mattathias is immediately joined by several of the townspeople; among them are his five sons: Judah (Judas), Ele’zar (Lazarus), Yohanan (John), Yonaton (Jonathon), and Shimon (Simeon). The group flees into the hills and there ranks swelled over the next few weeks, during which the group destroyed many Greek alters, circumcised boys, and killed Seleucids and Hellenistic Jews. Many of the rebels were Hasidim, the predecessors of the later Pharisees. With in a year of the start of the rebellion Mattathias died, on his deathbed he appointed Judah to be the leader, and Judah would soon prove himself worthy of his father’s choice.

With the rebellion now in full swing Antiochus made his move. When he heard of the rebellion Antiochus ordered it crushed, immediately, but he underestimated the Jews’ fighting ability. In his first military engagement Judah ambushed the army of Apollonius, the man responsible for the massacre of Jerusalem’s citizens and the desecration of the Temple. Judah then destroyed the army of Seron at Bethoron and then in a decisive victory he destroyed a massive Seleucid army that was lead by three men: Ptolemee, Nicanor and Gorgias while Gorgias was absent as the army camped out at Emmaus. After these victories Judah gained the name of Maccabee, which is Hebrew for “The Hammer”. Now Antiochus sent his regent, Lysias against Judah, but he too was defeated by Judah the Hammer at Bethsura. It was now that a victorious Judah Maccabee marched into Jerusalem and chased out the Seleucids, though some held out in the Citadel. The first thing that Judah did was purify the Temple of everything unclean or detestable to God. The Jewish feast of Hanukkah celebrates this occasion of cleansing. Following this Judah went on several expeditions out of Maccabee controlled territory, for various reasons. After Antiochus IV Epiphanes finally died in 164 B.C. Lysias led two more expeditions against the Maccabees, the first at Bethsura ended in defeat for the Seleucids, and the next one at Bethzacharam, in which the young Antiochus V Eupator made an appearance the Maccabees suffered a defeat, losing Ele’zar in the process. Lysias marched on to Jerusalem and besieged it, but was forced to call off the siege when pressing matters of royal succession called him home, but before he left he agreed to peace, promising to stop the persecution (he had decided to do this anyway shortly after Bethsura). As a result of this the Hasidim separated from the Maccabees, but Judah was not convinced of the Seleucids' good intentions. Meanwhile in the land of the Seleucids Antiochus V was dethroned and Demetrius I became the new king, he immediately appointed a new cohen hagadol, Alcimus, but Judah did not trust any appointee of a Greek, so he resumed hostilities with the Seleucids. Demetrius sent the general Nicanor to Jerusalem to enforce his decision, but Judah defeated Nicanor, killing him during their second battle. Judah realized by this time he needed outside aid, so he sent a delegation to Rome, however Judah was also willful and headstrong, as a result he was killed in 161 B.C. during a charge against the Seleucid general Baccides.

Now leadership of the Maccabees shifted to Yonaton (Jonathon) the next oldest brother. Yonaton seemed to have inherited quite a handful at first, especially with Yohanan’s death at the hands of the desert natives and Baccides’ advance. But Yonaton was able to avoid the advance of Baccides’ army. Eventually Baccides did lay siege to the town of Bethbessen, but he was so disgusted with his self that he called off the siege and left Israel. For the next four years Yonaton was the undisputed ruler of Judea and a sort of quasi-peace reigned. In the Seleucid territories Demetrius had to contend with Alexander Balas, who had a claim on the throne. Yonaton, who was a shrewd diplomat, aligned himself with Balas, and he was rewarded for it when Balas appointed Yonaton as the new cohen hagadol as well as giving him the secular title of Prince. Three years passed before Alexander Balas again rewarded Yonaton, this time by recognizing him as ruler of Judea. When Balas was challenged by Demetrius II Yonaton again supported Balas, who again rewarded Yonaton, this time with the city of Accaron. After the defeat of Alexander Balas, Demetrius II called Yonaton before him, but instead of trying to kill him, Demetrius confirmed Yonaton’s position as cohen hagadol and as the secular ruler of Judea, he also gave Yonaton three full districts in Samaria and he promised to pull out all remaining Seleucid troops in Judea. But when Demetrius proved slow in fulfilling his promises to Yonaton, he went over to Antiochus VI, the son of Alexander Balas for support. Antiochus, on the advice of his cunning advisor Tryphon, recognized Yonaton’s position, Yonaton in return promised Antiochus support. However when Yonaton promoted his brother Shimon to the post of second-in-command, Tryphon had Yonaton kidnapped and later killed in 143 B.C.

Now the reigns of authority passed to Shimon, who would see the dream of a free and independent Israel fulfilled. Immediately following Yonaton’s capture the General Assembly of elders appointed Shimon to be both military commander and high priest. By now Tryphon, whose dreams of a empire included Judea as a possession, invaded but Shimon pushed him back and defeated Tryphon, though he had lost both of his elder sons to Tryphon as well as Yonaton. When Demetrius II came back to power Shimon managed to force him to take the last steps towards admitting the full and complete independence of Judea by forcing him to abandon tax collection in Judea. There was much rejoicing throughout the entire land at this news, finally after thirty years of fighting they had their independence. Shimon soon announced the formal centralization of the powers of cohen hagadol, commander-in-chief, and prince in the title Ethnarch or Nasi and that further more the title was to be hereditary, this was to prove later on to be a big mistake, as it made him king in everything but name. While Shimon managed to avoid the mistake of actually taking the title of King, for that title was restricted to the descendents of the famous shepherd King David. For five years Shimon reigned peacefully, then the Seleucid King Antiochus VII sent an army to conquer Judea, but it was defeated by two sons of Shimon, Judah and Yohanan. But there would be no time for rest, for Shimon, Judah, and Yohanan were all killed by Shimon’s power hungry son-in-law, D.V. Ptolemee. From here on the new royal family, known as the Hashmoneans for Mattathias’ ancestor Hashmon, would begin to morally and politically deteriorate

Following the death of Shimon his remaining son, called Yohanan Hyrcanus, assumed the new throne. Yohanan Hyrcanus managed to survive while his father and brothers did not through a timely warning he received from a friend. After this Hyrcanus was officially recognized by the General Assembly as Ethnarch, he would rule for 30 years. Hyrcanus was the first Maccabee to start to show Hellenistic influences, this would ultimately lead to their losing support among the people. Within a year of ascending to his father’s throne Hyrcanus is drawn into a war against Antiochus VII, who managed to besiege Jerusalem. While Hyrcanus did surrender to Antiochus, he managed to get such good terms out of the negotiations that it wasn’t really a defeat as much as momentary setback. A few years passed, during which Hyrcanus centralized and consolidated his authority in Judea, before problems in the Seleucid Empire allowed for Hyrcanus to conquer the rest of Samaria, Idumea, and some parcels of land beyond the Jordan River virtually unopposed. With these conquests Hyrcanus increased the size of the Maccabee kingdom to the point where it rivaled David’s and Solomon’s in size. However Hyrcanus also did something that David and Solomon would have never done, he forced the Jewish religion on the peoples of his new land. This act brought two groups of religious Jews to prominence: the Sadducees, who supported the Hashmoneans/Maccabees, and the Pharisees, who opposed them. After thirty years of rule Yohanan Hyrcanus passed away peacefully in 105 B.C.

After the death of Hyrcanus power was divided between his wife and his eldest son Judah Aristobulus Philellen. So in order to not anger the Pharisees any more then he had Hyrcanus had set it up so that when he died his wife became the secular ruler and his son Aristobulus the cohen hagadol. But Aristobulus did not like the idea of having to share power with anyone. So Aristobulus ordered that his mother and three of his younger brothers were to be imprisoned. Taking advice from a political group at court Aristobulus ordered the execution of his fourth brother Antiogonus. Shortly there after Judah Aristobulus suddenly died, he had ruled for only one year.

After Aristobulus’ death he was succeeded by his eldest brother, Alexander Yannai (or Jannaeus). Alexander Yannai was the first completely Hellenized Jewish ruler, after his confirmation by the General Assembly Alexander married his brother’s widow, Salome Alexandra, as required by Jewish law. Alexander very early on announced that he was formally taking the title of King of the Jews (in some sources Aristobulus was the one to take the title); this caused much dissent throughout the kingdom, for only a descendent of King David could be King according to Jewish law. At the forefront of the opposition to the new King were the Pharisees, Alexander did not tolerate this question to his authority, so he had 800 of them killed while he held a feast. For the rest of his thirty year reign Alexander tried to keep the peace, he did go to war a few times, but was generally unsuccessful, though he did secure some coastal towns Hyrcanus failed to capture. Alexander Yannai died in 78 B.C.

After the death of Alexander Yannai power was divided once again, this time between Queen Salome Alexandra with the secular power and Yohanan Hyrcanus II as cohen hagadol. At his wife’s request Alexander Yannai had towards the end of his life separated secular and religious authority. Unlike Aristobulus, Hyrcanus II did not attempt to usurp his mother’s secular powers; he was content as cohen hagadol. Salome Alexandra ruled for nine years as Queen, because she was more conservative in her beliefs then her husbands the general populace and the Pharisees loved her. Salome tried hard during her reign to bring the kingdom back in line with the Torah, and did manage to in a small part succeed; unfortunately it was all undone by her death in 69 B.C. and the start of the Maccabee Civil War between her sons.

At the death of Salome her eldest son Hyrcanus II became King, but his younger brother Judah Aristobulus II would not let it go uncontested. Shortly after the death of Salome her younger son, Aristobulus II revolted against the rule of Hyrcanus II and defeated him in battle, forcing Hyrcanus off the throne. After four years Hyrcanus II returned to Jerusalem with the support of the neighboring Nabeteans, with this force he besieged Jerusalem. But Aristobulus II called upon his new friend, the Roman commander of the new province of Syria, Scaurus, who managed to defeat the Nabeteans, forcing Hyrcanus II to retreat. A short while later Scaurus was replaced by Gnaeus Pompey, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus both decided to take their dispute to him for settling, Pompey chose Hyrcanus, and when Pompey tried to capture Aristobulus, he escaped. Pompey then marched on Jerusalem, after a bloody siege and even bloodier post siege aftermath Jerusalem fell, the Temple though held out for a further three months. With this Israel as an independent state had ceased to exist, it had become the Roman client state of Judea.

With the Roman intervention a free Jewish kingdom had ceased to exist, but the Hashmonean/Maccabee dynasty had not ended yet. Hyrcanus II was now the King of the Jews in name only, but soon after the taking of Jerusalem, Pompey abolished the title of King and reinstated the title of Ethnarch. The years passed, when the Roman Civil War started between Caesar and Pompey, Antipater II, the real power behind Hyrcanus II, made sure that Judea supported Caesar. When Caesar emerged victorious over Pompey, he went to Judea and confirmed Hyrcanus II as Ethnarch. After Caesar’s assassination Antipater made sure that Hyrcanus sided with Cassius when he gained control over Judea. During this time Aristobulus II and his eldest son Alexander were both caught and killed by the Romans, Antiogonus then took his father’s banner. After the Parthians invaded Roman territory Antiogonus asked them to make him King of the Jews, and they complied by invading Judea. To try to save his kingdom Hyrcanus and the now dead Antipater’s eldest son Phasael set out to talk to the Parthians. However the Parthians took the two prisoner and after killing Phasael cut off the ears of Hyrcanus, in order to disqualify him for the title of cohen hagadol and thusly Ethnarch as well. Antiogonus was then made King of the Jews, but Antipater’s sole surviving son, Herod, escaped to the Romans, he eventually managed to enlist their aid. After a while Herod returned with Roman legions and fought against the coalition of Antiogonus and the Parthians. Eventually the Parthians were defeated by the Romans and they soon laid siege to Jerusalem. After five months of siege Jerusalem fell to the Romans and Herod, Antiogonus was executed soon afterward in 37 B.C. As a final move Herod married Mariamne, the granddaughter of Hyrcanus II, the Roman recognized Ethnarch. After this Herod was installed as King of the Jews by the Romans because of his marriage to Mariamne and so ended the Hashmonean/Maccabee dynasty of Israel, replaced by one of the Roman occupation and the Herodian dynasty.

In conclusion the Maccabees started off as nationalist movement that was a champion of the Jewish people and religion, only to denigrate into a mockery of all it once stood for.

[The FCC]

Mythos_Ruler:

When I say that this country was founded on God I do not look at the Constuition, I look at the men who wrote it. Like it or not the fact is very clear: The Founding Fathers were all devout Christian men, who founded our country on God. It may not be in the Constuition, but the Founding Fathers were Christians and they had God in mind when they founded our country.

1: I am not saying that nudity itself causes abortion and teen pregentices, I am saying what goes on while the people are naked, and children imitating that causes it.

2. I am do not mean to sound like an opressor, but woman were never ment to have lives outside the home. God created women as a man's helpmate, not his equal. I have no problems with unmarried women or girls working, but once they have children they need to stay home and raise them, not the state.

3. I did not say that T.V. is linked to divorce, do not put words in my mouth.

4. Nudity in itself is not evil, and I apoligize if that was what you got. Nudity and sex were created by God as strictly between a man and woman to do privatly inside of marriage and I italized that to emphize a point, we do not need to show nudity and sex on T.V., we just don't.

5. I won't argue with your statement on parents Micheal and Yiuel, but regardless the FCC is doing a good job in what they were created to do: help increase morality (from the Christian P.O.V)

Yiuel:

1. I see your point there Yiuel, but I can not help it saying that. I believe in God, I am going to give him the glory in my typing.

2. See point 4 in my reply to Micheal

3. Again see point 4. As for the point on abortion, that is whole other matter

4. Yiuel in what I believe a person who had 'pleasure' as you call it is disobeying God. You are not supposed to have sex outside of marriage, a person can make the choice or marrying someone without having sex with them. Like I said to Micheal sex was created by God as something to do within marriage only. I believe also that everyone regrets divorce sooner or later, regardless of what they say.

5. See point five on my answer to Micheal

[The FCC]

Okay let me see here..

Mythos_Ruler: What do you mean again? Anyway the Founding Fathers founded America on God, this has been proven time and time again.

Klaas: Family Values are defined by God in the Bible. A family is supposed to be one man, one woman, and children. Because of all the bad things happening today we are seeing the traditional family going down hill. Nudity on t.v. I think moves the children seeing it think is okay and they may imatate it, teen pregentacies and abortions show this. Because of the loss of morality many more people are getting divorced, a very sad thing both sides usually regret sooner or later. I understand what you are saying Klaas, you are probably mature engougth to see such things and not imatate it, but what I am worried about is younger people seeing and imating. Thus I belive that T.V. nudity should be censored until the parents believe that thier children are old engouth to see it and not imatate it.

Centurion_13: See above

[The FCC]

Well I for one think that the FCC is doing a fine job protecting family values by doing what it is. I understand that you may dissagree with me and I don't really care that you do. America is a nation founded on Christian values, including the family ones.

You know what, I am a home-schooler, and I for one do not get it while people think that going to public school is better. Home Schoolers learn more, that has been proven time and time again. I know I am learning more. And as for home-schoolers not being prepared for such situtions as encountered in public school, I think that by being taught at home, home-schoolers are actually better prepared for those situtions.

That is all

EDIT:

* Puts on flame retardent suit and pulls out a great santsetku *

[JFK Reloaded]

My goodness........ I saw this on the news while at my Grandma's, something like this is sick and wrong. I understand what they are trying to get at, trying to dispell the conspiracy therioes, but to make a video game where you kill the President is sick and wrong.

[Medicine in the Ancient World]

Medicine in the Ancient world was by our standards primitive, but at the same time advanced as well. Today most our knowledge of medicine was first pioneered by the Greek Hippocrates and his students, then further advanced by the Romans, among some of the more famous are Pedanios Dioscorides and Galen. Today most of our modern medicine has its roots in Greek and Roman medicine, which in turn had its roots in Egypt and beyond.

The first forms of medicine first began to appear in Egypt and other areas of the Near East. The first kinds of early medicine began in Egypt, and from there it spread over the Mediterranean area; however the study of medicine first really began to advance when the Greeks began studying it. The first doctors in Greece were also philosophers; some of the more famous of these philosopher-doctors were Alcmaeon of Croton, Empedocles of Sicily, and Anaxagoras of Clazomenae. All of these men heavily influenced Hippocrates later in time.

‘Rational’ medicine as it was called by the Greeks, started with Hippocrates and his students. Hippocrates was of the island of Cos off the coast of Asia Minor, for the most part his entire life has been shrouded in mystery, not much is known of him. What we do know of Hippocrates was that he traveled all over the Greek world teaching his way of thinking, he had a large number of followers by the time of his death .Hippocrates’ legacy on the world of medicine is his writings, the Hippocratic Corpus, which contains all that he wrote. For the most part Hippocrates wrote that medicine should be completely separate from philosophy and religious cults, such as that of Asclepius, to whom healing was contributed. The most important part of the writings to people today is the Hippocratic Oath, which is an oath to use medical skills to only heal, never to harm. Hippocrates wrote that good and bad health was from the balance or imbalance of the ‘Four Humors’ which were phlegm, blood, yellow bile and black bile. Hippocrates also wrote extensively on how to treat broken joints and fractures, as well as on how to perform a surgery correctly. The teachings of Hippocrates went basically unchallenged for the next 2,000 years.

Some advances in medicine were made in Alexandria during the period of great intellectual growth there during the reigns of Ptolemy II and Ptolemy III. During this time the city of Alexandria was the intellectual capital of the world, all of the greatest and brightest minds gathered to the city and doctors were no exception. Two of the greatest medical minds were Herophilos of Chalcedon and Erasistratos of Iulis. Herophilos is famous because he was the first doctor to correctly identify the pulse of one’s heart through the blood. However Herophilos also believed that the pulse was the music of the body, he eventually took this theory to the point where only a skilled musician could understand it. Erasistratos made leaps and bounds in the area of anatomy, and was able to correctly tell some of the different parts of the brain as well as being able to correctly identify some of the different kinds of nerves. A frequent practice in Alexandria that survived for some time afterwards was the taking of dead bodies for dissection to prove a specific theory, this practice was condemned originally, but by the time of Alexander the Great the works of Aristotle had dispelled many of the moral problems of dissection.

Despite all of this however the temple healing cults still existed and was sometimes still preferable to ‘rational’ medicine. Though Hippocrates had hoped to make a permanent split between medicine and religion, medicine was still in some ways tied to religion. The predominate of these healing cults was that of Asclepius, the temples of Asclepius (called Asklepia) were usually situated on the sites of natural health spas throughout the Mediterranean area. We today know a lot about these temple cults because the people who went there left a tablet with a likeness of the healed body part on it hanging on the walls of the temple. The Romans continued this practice in their Empire, spreading it as far as Britain.

In Rome medicine was not really advanced before the arrival of the Greek doctors. Before the first Greek doctors began arriving in force in Rome their medicine was limited to the knowledge of the Etruscans from which they were descended. Early Roman medicine was usually made up of various home remedies that could be grown locally or bought from a neighboring farm. There were no real doctors in Early Rome; medicine was handed out by the Pater Familias, who was the head of the entire family.

Roman medicine increased dramatically after the arrival of the Greek doctors. The first Greek doctor in Rome was Arcagathus, but because of Roman dislike of doctors and Greek culture he soon lost his practice among the Romans. No other doctor would come to Rome for another century, by then the atmosphere was much friendlier, but at first still hostile, later things did change though. Roman doctors (Latin: singular medicus plural: medici) were until the times of the Late Republic viewed as quacks, and because many of them were former slaves they were viewed as a lowly class. The medici eventually proved themselves in the realm of surgery, which is where they really excelled. In the Roman legions the medici were often called upon to treat war wounds, it was in the military that Roman medicine really grew up in. It is interesting to note that there was no separate branch for doctors in the Roman army; they were actually soldiers with medical experience prior to joining. It is believed that only the doctors specially assigned to treating gladiators were superior to the army doctors.

Among the Roman medici there were a few outstanding individuals that deserve mention. One such man was Celsus, who lived in the days of Augustus. Celsus was this period’s preeminent writer of medical texts; most of what we know of medicine up to Celsus’ day comes from his writings. Celsus was also a very good physician; he had thriving practice as a result. Another famous medici was Pedanios Dioscorides. Dioscorides was one of those people who was a doctor before joining the Roman army. While on campaign Dioscorides became quite the accomplished doctor and found many herbal medicines to use. He later wrote a book on his findings; today Pedanios Dioscorides is considered the father of alternate medicine and Rome’s premiere pharmacist. The most famous of all Roman medici however was Galen, whose authority was never challenged for 1,000 years after his death. Galen wrote many books during his lifetime, in some of them he wrote that being a good philosopher was essential to being a good doctor; there was no separating the two he believed. Galen also accused many of his fellow doctors of just being in it for the money, not for the joy of it. Galen is most famous for his study of the human anatomy and in physiology, in which he got a amazing amount of things right, but also a number of things wrong. The ideas of Galen got into the realm of the importance they were given when he moved to Rome and established a great and thriving amongst Rome’s rich and famous, among them were four emperors: Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, Commodus, and Septimius Severus.

In conclusion the doctors of the ancient world were brave pioneers in the realm of medicine and health, as well as in some cases brilliant philosophers. Today we remember many of these ancient doctors in the many fields of modern medicine.

[Pictures of Kim Jong-Il have been taken down]

Hey everybody I noticed this topic while on another board today. Here is a link to the story as reported by the BBC: Looke Here!

What do you guys think it means? Nothing?

[0 A.D. Historians Question]

Oh........ I did not do the drawing! that was Mythos_Ruler. I have no problem if you use some of my work, it is a honor,........... in a wierd way.

[0 A.D. Historians Question]

Hi History Guy! I was the one that wrote the Greek Architecture article. I am afriad that I do not understand what you mean by architectural pointers. Can you explain? I will try my best to assist you.

[Other: Trade in the Ancient World]

Trading has always been vital to civilizations all over the world and across history. No matter where, trading has always been an important part of a nation’s wealth and some cases, survival.

For Rome, trade was the primary way of paying the expenses of running the empire. At its height the Roman Empire was crisscrossed with trade routes all over the empire, on both land and sea. Trade prompted the Romans to build special ships just for trade and the Roman roads were built not just for the Legions, but for land trade too. The single most important trade center in the Roman world was Ostia, which was situated on the mouth of the River Tiber and only fifteen miles from Rome. Nearly all of the water borne trade went through Ostia, such as the trade goods from North Africa, Hispania (Spain), and Gaul (France), and the vital grain from Egypt. In order to make trading go as easy as possible the Romans implanted a system where only one type of currency was used in trade. The Romans primarily traded beef, corn, glassware, iron, lead, slaves, leather, marble, olive oil, perfumes, purple dye, silk, silver, spices, timber, tin, and wine.

For the Greek states, in particular Athens, trade was what kept their commercial empires together. In Greece trade really did not take off until some of the Greek states began founding colonies in, first the Aegean, then gradually all over the Mediterranean area. For the Greeks trading was strictly a privately run business, the state got its money by collecting dues from the traders and the businesses associated with them. Most of the trading in the Greek states was done over water routes, for this reason many Greek states that depended on trade built large trade ship navies. Because Greece was not unified it is impossible to say what they all traded and what was their main port and such, here we shall use Athens as an example their primary trading port was Piraeus, and they primarily traded grain, timber, iron, copper, salt fish, hides, slaves, fine wines, drugs, paints, dyes, papyrus and linen.

For Carthage trade was the whole reason their empire existed. In Carthage the whole state was geared towards their lucrative trade routes. At its height the Carthaginians had trade routes that crossed the whole Mediterranean, interior Africa, and the Atlantic seaboard of Africa. There is even evidence out there that the Carthaginians reached Mexico and Southeast Asia. The Carthaginians were famous for their massive trade vessels, capable of carrying 100 tons worth of goods, which had to have a special port built for them. The Carthaginians are credited to this day with the invention of the auction .The main trade port of the Carthaginians was Carthage itself, in particular a massive circular harbor, the largest of its kind. The Carthaginians mainly traded purple dye, salt, amber, tin, sliver, furs, cinnamon, cassia (Chinese cinnamon),sesame seeds, frankincense, myrrh, ebony wood, ivory, copper, lead, gold, glass, wine, grain, fruits, nuts, fish, olive oil, pottery, and drugs.

In Persia trade was simply one of the other ways to gain wealth in that empire. During the Achaemenid period of Persian history trade did not truly start until Darius I the Great instituted several reforms, some of these were geared towards trading, in particular Darius invented a careful system of weights and measures, he also encouraged the use of the new Lydian invention, coinage for trading. During the Parthian period the system of Darius was largely kept intact, the Parthians however did introduce a new item into the trade system, silk. The silk trade from Han China made the already rich Parthian Empire, even richer than before, though once the silk trade began to decline and then finally go out altogether after 220 AD the Parthians lost their greatest trade good. When the Sassanians came to power they too kept Darius’ system intact, they also introduced several new trade routes, many of them going through modern Fars province and the Persian Gulf. The Sassanians introduced incense from Arabia as a new trade good; silk was traded again after the rise of the Sui and T’ang in China, but this is beyond 0 AD. For the most part the Persians primarily traded along land routes that crisscrossed their large empire, The Royal Road of the Achaemenids was the main route land trade followed, they also had sea routes, but these were primarily on the Persian Gulf only. The Persians did not have a single most important trading city, they had several such cites. During the Sassanian period the Persian trade was primarily focused on Fars province, but not any one city. The Persians traded linen, wool, cotton, perfumes, brocades, carpets, several kinds of exotic jewels, incense, silk, frankincense, myrrh, gold and much more.

In the land of the Celts trade was part of how they came in contact with other peoples outside of war. The Celts traded with a variety of peoples all over Europe and the Mediterranean area. Because of the Celts amazing metal working abilities, their work was in high demand, though most of it stayed in Celtic territory. For the most part the Celts were strictly land traders, traveling long distances to reach the nearest trading center. There was some sea trade, but not a whole lot. The Brythonic Celts and the Irish did however develop a sea trade ship, the Curragh, which could go long distances for a long while. Because the Celts were never unified there was not one important trade center in any Celtic territory, probably because they never saw the need. The Celts primarily traded copper, tin, iron ore, gold, various types of furs, metalwork pieces, and in Britain, slaves.

In conclusion trade was a very important part of the ancient world. Trade was a vital way of gaining wealth, knowledge, and needed food in some cases for every civilization in not only 0 AD’s timeline, but for all time.

[Post A Fact About The Previous Poster]

Is a funny guy

[Discourse On Migration]

Well Tim that is quite a difficult assignment you have got there, I think I can help you. Well I would suggest the following sources:

http://www.geocities.com/muntzer2/thesis.html This one looks good

http://www.rootsweb.com/~wggerman/map/germantribes.htm This one is a map

http://users.tyenet.com/kozlich/germhist.htm the section on the migrations is short but I decided to post this link anyway

http://www.cast.uark.edu/student_pubs/david_holt/ This one presents a good theroy on why the Germanic tribes moved in the first place

And lastly I have a old link lying around a online version of "The Origin and Deeds of the Goths" by Jordanes for some help in that area

*sounds of some one rumaging through thier link closet is heard*

EUREKA Here it is

http://www.corvalliscommunitypages.com/Eur...oths.htm#united

Hope this helps,

Joshua

[Help]

Thanks for the link Akya, it is very helpful.

[Help]

Okay I need some help here with finding a good website for infomation on Ancient Greece, I need a good source that covers the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenic periods. I would perfer a overview or summary if at all possible.

[If you could capture one history event..]

The Battle of Hastings and its aftermath, mostly because my ancestors from two branches of my mom's side of the family were at Hastings. I would have liked to see them in action, not to mention being able to see William the Conqueror himself.

[Todays My Birthday]

Yep Today is my Birthday. I am now 17 years old.