UNIT 2 HISTORY

Xerxes

Xerxes I (/ˈzɜːrksiːz/; Old Persian: 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠 x-š-y-a-r-š-a (About this sound Khashayarsha (help·info)) "ruling over heroes",[2] Greek Ξέρξης [ksérksɛːs]; 518-465 BC), called Xerxes the Great, was the fourth king of kings of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia. He ruled from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC at the hands of Artabanus, the commander of the royal bodyguard. Xerxes I is most likely the Persian king identified as Ahasuerus (Hebrew אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ Hebrew pronunciation: [ˀaxaʃveroʃ]) in the biblical Book of Esther.[3][4][5] He is also notable in Western history for his invasion of Greece in 480 BC. Like his predecessor Darius I, he ruled the empire at its territorial apex, although Xerxes I would briefly manage to conquer even more land of mainland Greece than Darius I through the battles at Thermopylae and Artemisium, overrunning Attica, Boeotia, Euboea, Thessaly,[6] and the rest of mainland Greece to the north of the Isthmus of Corinth,[7] until the losses at Salamis and Plataea which reversed these gains and would eventually end the second invasion decisively.

Cimon

Cimon (/ˈsaɪmən/; Greek: Κίμων, Kimōn; c. 510 - 450 BC) was an Athenian statesman and strategos in mid-5th century BC Greece, the son of Miltiades, the victor of the Battle of Marathon. Cimon played a key role in creating the powerful Athenian maritime empire following the failure of the Persian invasion of Greece by Xerxes I in 480-479 BC. Cimon became a celebrated military hero and was elevated to the rank of admiral after fighting in the Battle of Salamis.

Corinth

Corinth (/ˈkɒrɪnθ/; Greek: Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, pronounced [ˈkorinθos] ( listen)) is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality of Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit.[2] It is the capital of Corinthia.

Satraps

A provincial governor in the ancient Persian empire.

Aspasia

Aspasia (/æˈspeɪʒiə, æˈspeɪziə, æˈspeɪʒə, æˈspeɪʃə/;[1][2] Greek: Ἀσπασία; c. 470 BC[3][4] - c. 400 BC)[3][5] was an influential immigrant to Classical-era Athens who was the lover and partner of the statesman Pericles. The couple had a son, Pericles the Younger, but the full details of the couple's marital status are unknown. According to Plutarch, her house became an intellectual centre in Athens, attracting the most prominent writers and thinkers, including the philosopher Socrates. It has also been suggested that the teachings of Aspasia influenced Socrates. Aspasia was mentioned in the writing of philosophers Plato, Aristophanes, Xenophon, and other authors of the day. Though she spent most of her adult life in Greece, few details of her life are fully known. Some scholars suggest that Aspasia was a brothel keeper and a prostitute. Aspasia's role in history provides crucial insight to the understanding of the women of ancient Greece. Very little is known about women from her time period. One scholar stated that, "To ask questions about Aspasia's life is to ask questions about half of humanity."[6

Cyrus "The Great"

Cyrus II of Persia (Old Persian: 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 Kūruš;[4] New Persian: کوروش Kūrosh ; c. 600 or 576 - 530 BC),[5] commonly known as Cyrus the Great [6] and also called Cyrus the Elder by the Greeks, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire.[7] Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East,[7] expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia and the Caucasus. From the Mediterranean Sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, Cyrus the Great created the largest empire the world had yet seen.[8] Under his successors, the empire eventually stretched at its maximum extent from parts of the Balkans (Bulgaria-Paeonia and Thrace-Macedonia) and Eastern Europe proper in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east. His regal titles in full were The Great King, King of Persia, King of Anshan, King of Media, King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad, and King of the Four Corners of the World.

Darius "The Great"

Darius I (Old Persian: Dārayava(h)uš, New Persian: داریوش Dāriush ; c. 550-486 BCE) was the third king of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. Also called Darius the Great, he ruled the empire at its peak, when it included much of West Asia, the Caucasus, parts of the Balkans (Thrace-Macedonia and Paeonia), most of the Black Sea coastal regions, parts of the North Caucasus, Central Asia, as far as the Indus Valley in the far east, and portions of north and northeast Africa including Egypt (Mudrâya),[3] eastern Libya and coastal Sudan.[4][5]

Herodotus

Herodotus (/hᵻˈrɒdətəs/; Ancient Greek: Ἡρόδοτος Hēródotos, pronounced [hɛː.ró.do.tos]) was a Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus in the Persian Empire (modern-day Bodrum, Turkey) and lived in the fifth century BC (c. 484-c. 425 BC), a contemporary of Socrates. He is widely referred to as "The Father of History" (first conferred by Cicero);[1] he was the first historian known to have broken from Homeric tradition to treat historical subjects as a method of investigation—specifically, by collecting his materials systematically and critically, and then arranging them into a historiographic narrative.[2] The Histories is the only work which he is known to have produced, a record of his "inquiry" (or ἱστορία historía) on the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars, including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information. Some of his stories were fanciful and others inaccurate; yet he states that he was reporting only what was told to him and was often correct in his information. Despite Herodotus' historical significance, little is known of his personal history.

Leonidas

Leonidas I (/liːˈɒn.ᵻ.dəs/ lee-on-i-dəs or /liːˈɒn.ᵻ.dæs/; Doric Λεωνίδᾱς, Leōnídās; Ionic and Attic Greek: Λεωνίδης, Leōnídēs, [leɔːnídɛːs]; "son of the lion";[1] died 480 BC), was a warrior king of the Greek city-state of Sparta, the third son of Anaxandridas II of Sparta[2] and the 17th of the Agiad line; a dynasty which claimed descent from the mythological demigod Heracles. Leonidas had a notable participation in the Second Persian War, where he led the allied Greek forces to a last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae while attempting to defend the pass from the invading Persian army.

Miltiades

Miltiades (/mɪlˈtaɪəˌdiːz/; Greek: Μιλτιάδης; c. 550 - 489 BC), also known as Miltiades the Younger, was the son of Cimon Coalemos,[1] a renowned Olympic chariot-racer.[2] He was an Athenian citizen and considered himself a member of the Aeacidae,[2] as well as a member of the prominent Philaid clan. He is known mostly for his role in the Battle of Marathon, as well as for his downfall afterwards. His son Cimon was a major Athenian figure of the 470s and 460s BCE. His daughter Elpinice is remembered for her confrontations with Pericles, as recorded by Plutarch.

Pericles

Pericles (/ˈpɛrɪkliːz/; Greek: Περικλῆς Periklēs, pronounced [pe.ri.klɛ̂ːs] in Classical Attic; c. 495 - 429 BC) was a prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during the Golden Age—specifically the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically influential Alcmaeonid family.

Achaemenids

The Achaemenid Empire (/əˈkiːmənɪd/, Old Persian Haxāmanišiya,[12] c. 550-330 BC), also called the First Persian Empire,[13] was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great, notable for including various civilizations and becoming the largest empire of ancient history, spanning at its maximum extent from the Balkans and Eastern Europe proper in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east. It is equally notable for its successful model of a centralised, bureaucratic administration (through satraps under the King of Kings), for building infrastructure such as a postal system and road systems and the use of an official language across its territories and a large professional army and civil services (inspiring similar systems in later empires).[14] It is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in the empire as well.

Marathon

The Battle of Marathon (Greek: Μάχη τοῦ Μαραθῶνος, Machē tou Marathōnos) took place in 490 BC, during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Greece. The Greek army decisively defeated the more numerous Persians, marking a turning point in the Greco-Persian Wars.

Salamis

The Battle of Salamis (/ˈsæləmɪs/; Ancient Greek: Ναυμαχία τῆς Σαλαμῖνος, Naumachia tēs Salaminos) was a naval battle fought between an alliance of Greek city-states under Themistocles and the Persian Empire under King Xerxes in 480 BC which resulted in a decisive victory for the outnumbered Greeks. The battle was fought in the straits between the mainland and Salamis, an island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens, and marked the high-point of the second Persian invasion of Greece.

Thermoplyae

The Battle of Thermopylae (/θərˈmɒpᵻliː/ thər-mop-i-lee; Greek: Μάχη τῶν Θερμοπυλῶν, Machē tōn Thermopylōn) was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium, in August or September 480 BC, at the narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae ("The Hot Gates"). The Persian invasion was a delayed response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece, which had been ended by the Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. Xerxes had amassed a huge army and navy, and set out to conquer all of Greece. The Athenian general Themistocles had proposed that the allied Greeks block the advance of the Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae, and simultaneously block the Persian navy at the Straits of Artemisium.

Delian League

The Delian League, founded in 477 BC,[1] was an association of Greek city-states, members numbering between 150[2] 173,[3] to 330 [4] under the leadership of Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Second Persian invasion of Greece. The League's modern[5] name derives from its official meeting place, the island of Delos, where congresses were held in the temple and where the treasury stood until, in a symbolic gesture,[6] Pericles moved it to Athens in 454 BC.[7] Shortly after its inception, Athens began to use the League's navy for its own purposes. This behavior frequently led to conflict between Athens and the less powerful members of the League. By 431 BC, Athens' heavy-handed control of the Delian League prompted the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War; the League was dissolved upon the war's conclusion in 404 BC under the direction of Lysander, the Spartan commander.

Ionian Revolt

The Ionian Revolt, and associated revolts in Aeolis, Doris, Cyprus and Caria, were military rebellions by several Greek regions of Asia Minor against Persian rule, lasting from 499 BC to 493 BC. At the heart of the rebellion was the dissatisfaction of the Greek cities of Asia Minor with the tyrants appointed by Persia to rule them, along with the individual actions of two Milesian tyrants, Histiaeus and Aristagoras. The cities of Ionia had been conquered by Persia around 540 BC, and thereafter were ruled by native tyrants, nominated by the Persian satrap in Sardis. In 499 BC, the then tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras, launched a joint expedition with the Persian satrap Artaphernes to conquer Naxos, in an attempt to bolster his position. The mission was a debacle, and sensing his imminent removal as tyrant, Aristagoras chose to incite the whole of Ionia into rebellion against the Persian king Darius the Great.

Eyes and Ears

The Persian Eyes were appointed by the king to inform him of what was going on in the empire. They supervised the payment of tribute, oversaw how rebellions were suppressed, and reported evils to the king. Inside their well-defined regions, they had more powers than the satraps. (According to the Athenian writer Xenophon, the Eyes also commanded armies to check satraps.note) Even when the monarch was not present, people knew that he would be informed of their actions and anxieties.

Royal Road

The Royal Road was an ancient highway reorganized and rebuilt by the Persian king Darius the Great (Darius I) of the first (Achaemenid) Persian Empire in the 5th century BCE.[1] Darius built the road to facilitate rapid communication throughout his very large empire from Susa to Sardis ("centralized rule is the victim of time and distance," Robin Lane Fox has observed in this context).[2] Mounted couriers of the Angarium could travel 1677 miles (2699 km) in seven days; the journey from Susa to Sardis took ninety days on foot.[3] The Greek historian Herodotus wrote, "There is nothing in the world that travels faster than these Persian couriers." Herodotus's praise for these messengers—"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"— was inscribed on the James Farley Post Office in New York and is sometimes thought of as the United States Postal Service creed.

Athenian Empire

The Second Athenian Empire or Confederacy was a maritime confederation of Aegean city-states from 378-355 BC and headed by Athens, primarily for self-defense against the growth of Sparta and secondly, the Persian Empire.

Thermistocles

Themistocles (/θəˈmɪstəˌkliːz/; Greek: Θεμιστοκλῆς Greek pronunciation: [tʰemistoklɛ̂ːs] Themistoklẽs; "Glory of the Law";[1] c. 524-459 BC) was an Athenian politician and general. He was one of a new breed of non-aristocratic politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy. As a politician, Themistocles was a populist, having the support of lower class Athenians, and generally being at odds with the Athenian nobility. Elected archon in 493 BC, he convinced the polis to increase the naval power of Athens, a recurring theme in his political career. During the first Persian invasion of Greece, he fought at the Battle of Marathon,[2] and was possibly one of the ten Athenian strategoi (generals) in that battle.[citation needed]