Ancient Wars

For the nearly 200 city-states exposed to Persian domination, protection (at a price). This benefit ceased when the Persians agreed to a peace which kept them out of the area, but Athens continued to levy the price and spend the money on a fleet not against the Persians but to continue collecting the money, by force if necessary, and spent it on its own city beautification and public service.

There were several - the most notable were Salamis (in the Saronic Gulf between the island of Salamis and Athens in 480; Mykale in Asia Minor 479 BCE and Eurymedon in Asia Minor 466 BCE.

1. Loss of their allies.

2. Loss of their fleet, arising from intervention by Persia porviding money to the Spartan league to build and man a fleet able to defeat the Athenian one.

The competition was between a temporarily-dominant Sparta, Athens trying to rebuild itself after its disasterous defeat in the Peloponnesian War, and the rising power of Thebes. They wore each other out, leaving the way for Macedon to become dominant.

The conquerors of Egypt had an advantage of Romans because of their weapons.

They were kings of Persia.

Athens' right wing was led by Callimachus. Athens' left wing was covered by the Plataeans. Athens' center was led by Themistocles and Aristides.The Greek idea was to attack first and to cross the distance from the slopes to the Persians as fast as possible in order to beat the Persian cavalry and archers to it . ~ see related link below .

It was a principal member of the Peloponnesian League headed by Sparta, and a major contributor to the League's anvy and army.

Its disputes with Athens over its own ex-colonies was a significant factor in the leadup to the war.

He bemoaned the fact that at his age Alexander the Great had conquered the Persian empire.

He always wanted to be greater than Alexander and, having conquered much of Europe, was preparing to go to the east to conquer the old Persian empire when he was assassinated.

Even without this victory, he still became regarded as greater than Alexander, the titles Kaiser, Tsar and Shah deriving from Caesar, used by modern rulers who wanted to be identified as Caesar.

The common soldier in the Roman military got several benefits, some of them are a steady employment, free medical care, a healthy body, and a nice retirement package. At retirement, depending upon the times, he either received land or a cash bonus plus his accumulated savings over his twenty years of service. The officers, or the upper class members of the military got their military experience, which in turn would help them in any civilian endeavor especially politics.

After the Persian invasion of Greece was turned back in 479 BCE under the leadership of Sparta, Athens took over leadership of the city-states in Asia Minor which had been liberated from Persian rule and formed them into the Delian League as a defensive alliance. After 30 years of failed attempts to reclaim the cities, Persia gave up and left the League to its own devices. Even with the threat gone, Athens continued to collect the annual tax which funded the League, by force where necessary, and spent the money on itself and on maintaining the navy which enforced the tax.

Athenian inscriptions show heavy casualties of its army each year, including years in which Athens was not fighting any war with its neighbours or Persia, so these arose from its annual tax enforcement. This enforcement went as far as assaulting, capturing and looting recalcitrant cities of the League, which Athens had converted to an empire. One city Mytilene had its people sold into slavery as an example to the others; the citizens of Samos were branded in the forehead to remind them not to revolt again.

The proceeds - originally to pay for the navy which protected them from Persia - were spent by Athens on beautifying its city (Parthenon etc) and putting half of Athens' citizens on its public payroll. And not satisfied with this empire, Athens started standing over cities of the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta, culminating with trying to bankrupt Megara, a member of that league. At the behest of the League, Sparta demanded that Athens back off, it refused, and all out war ensued.

1. Why - Rivalry between the Athenian empire and the Peloponnesian League.

2. What - They fought on and off for 27 years, devastating the Greek world.

3. The Peloponnesian League defeated the Athenian empire.

Sparta, having established its dominance and security in the Peloponnese, and material security through its serf population, sought peacefulness. It supported Athens, after it had expelled its tyrant, against forcible attempts of its oligarchy to reestablish control. They joined together in repelling the Persian invasion, and Athens provided military support to Sparta in putting down its serf rebellion.

Things went sour during this espedition and Sparta sent the Athenians home. Hostilities broke out as an over-confident Athens meddled in the affairs of Sparta and its allies in the peloponnese peninsula. fter 15 years they patched things up with a 30 year peace treaty. Howeve Athens continued to intervene in the problems i the Peloponnese, Sparta demanded that Athens back off, Athens persisted, and the devastating 27-year Peloponnesian War broke out, which Athens lost.

Thebes.

It left behind a lasting religious achievement with Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, stone architecture, and terrace farming.

The Greek fleet at Salamis was commanded by the Spartan admiral Eurybiades.

Hannibal proved himself to be an excellent officer while serving in Carthaginian Spain in the south. He became the ruler of this area of Spain and Commander-in-chief at the age of 26. Many in his army had served under Hamilcar, Hannibal's father, whom they deeply admired. Hannibal, who both looked and commanded like his father, immediately won their respect. Hamilcar had also cultivated the friendship of many of the local tribes of southern Spain. Hannibal also cowered less loyal Spanish tribes into submission through his military prowess. This ensured the loyalty of his Spanish conscripts. Hannibal also relied on a number of mercenaries.

Rome became dominant in the Western Mediterranean.

This success attracted the attention of states in the Eastern Mediterranean who sought Roman help in their own wars and so embroiled Rome in the Greek east, resulting in its expansion there as well.

Rome did not get involved in Greece because her success attracted attention there. She got embroiled in Greek affairs because she made alliances with Greek states during the Second Punic War. When she first got involved there, Hannibal was still routing the Roman armies in Italy.

Rome started the First Macedonian was against Macedon (the biggest and the dominant state in Greece) because Philip of Macedon had made an alliance with Hannibal and, especially, he wanted to conquer a part of Illyria just north of Greece and opposite the Italian coast on the other side of the Adriatic Sea. This threatened Roman interests in Illyria and Rome declared war and fought in Greece. During this war some Greek states became Roman allies. Rome got involved in three more wars in Greece because she was called for help by her allies during conflits between Greek states. When Rome fought a fifth war, she decided to annex Greece.

1. Sparta, Athens, Corinth and Thebes.

2. Macedonia'

Yes, most of the battles the Romans fought had names. That's so that historians, both ancient and modern, could let us know what tactics or battle stats that they were discussing. Most of the battles were named after the city or area where they were fought, such as the battles of Alesia, Pharsales, Actiuim, etc.

The Spartans made their own war aims, they did not ask Athens for them.

It caused the development of cannon, which were revolutionary siege weapons for their devastating power. Gunpowder also caused the development of handheld guns. Handheld guns such as the arquebus allowed troops to be mobilised much faster as the weapon required little training to use. The first guns were invented around the late 1400s.

CONTRARY to common belief, guns did not make armour obsolete immediately, they had to be developed for a few centuries (until the late 1600s) before they actually made wrought iron and steel plate armours obsolete.

The Royal Road was built by Darius to unite the sparse kingdoms he had conquered. The road was about 20ft. wide and stretched around 15,000 miles connecting North Africa and India and everything in between. There was an inn every few miles in which travelers could exchange their tired horses for fresh rested ones. There were also guards along the road making it the safest way to get across Persia.

The Roman military was divided and organized as follows: the contubernium, which was initially an eight man tent and later enlarged to ten men and an officer, the century, the cohort, and the legion. Two or more legions made an army.