Ancient Wars

Athens.

Rome and the Gauls were enemies from the very beginning of Rome's expansion. The Gauls, who were Celts, by the way, attacked and took over almost all of Rome except the Capitoline Hill. this was in 390 BC.

A Persian expeditionary force commanded by the Mede general Datis.

Marathon was a plain, not a city. It was owned by Athens. They fought a battle against a Persian amphibious punitive expedition sent by Persia in 490 BCE.

When the Persian threat abated, Athens converted the Delian League into a virtual empire and continued to collect the funds to maintain its naval supremacy at little cost to itself. This strength allowed it to intervene in the affairs of other states, which formed the Peloponnesian League as a counter. With continuing Athenian adventurism, conflicts arose which laid the path to war.

A farming land grant in the provinces.

The retiring soldier could choose between either a plot of land in the Roman colonies (settlements) in the provinces (agraria misso) or a lump sum (numnaria misso). Under Augustus this was 12,000 sesterce (plural of sestertius). Under Diocletian it was 16 solidi (plural of solidus).

The Peloponnesian War was between alliances of Greek city-states - Athens and its empire, and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta.

The number is uncertain - best guesstimates are abuot 25,000 infantry with 1,000 cavalry in the force. All the cavalry and some of the infabtry were not engaged in the battle as they were being rowed around the coast to land and take Athens while its army was at Marathon 26 miles away.

There were two main Persian campaigns into mainland Greece:

1. Darius I of Persia, in 490 BCE, sent a punitive expedition against Athens and Eretria - defeated by Athenian forces at the Battle of Marathon.

2. Xerxes I (Darius' son) - defeated in the naval battle of Salamis 480 BCE, and in 479 BCE in the land battle of Plataia and the sea-land battle of Mykale.

3. There was subsequent fighting, including the naval battles at Euurymedon 466 BCE and Cyprus 449 BCE, after which Persia signed a peace, undertaking not to intrude into Greek waters.

In Athens, the democratic system survived. Even without the income generated by the empire, democracy proved to be a well-functioning political system.This can partly be explained from the fact that during the war, the economy of Athens changed. Once, most Athenians had been peasants; after the outbreak of the Decelean War, trade and commerce became increasingly important. These activities were almost as profitable as the old empire.Thebes increased in strength and became a major power. Sparta, on the other hand, only temporarily benefited from its victory. Its social structure was unsuited for a world larger than the Peloponnese. In the fifth century, Greece had been a bipolar political system, but changed into a multipolar system.The great victor was, of course, Persia. Not only did it regain the Greek towns in Asia, but it was to have great diplomatic influence throughout the region .Many people had been exiled and had become mercenaries to make a living. Others had become professional soldiers because they could no longer return to their farms. Warfare became specialized .

Persia was the superpower of the ancient world (before the rise of Rome); as the Greeks started to experiment with dangerous ideas such as democracy (Persia was autocratic) and citizen armies (Persia relied on mercenaries) it was inevitable that the two systems would come into conflict.

The Achaemenid kings of Persia (Cyrus the Great, Darius I, Xerxes I) were overall successful in expanding their empire, but Darius and Xerxes were aware that their sphere of influence was contained in the west by Hellenic domination of the eastern Mediterranean.

Both Darius and Xerxes accordingly mounted military expeditions against the small Greek city states, assuming that a huge empire such as Persia could simply brush these tiny democracies aside.

The Persian empire eventually spread to include the Greek cities in Asia Minor, the Islands and around the Black Sea. The cities were ruled by Greek tyrants appointed by the Persian provincial governors. As these cities were colonies of cities in mainland Greece, when they tried to throw off Persian rule, they called for help from the mother cities. Miletus did this, and Eretria and Athens responded with military force, which overstepped the mark by burning the Persian provincial capital of Sardis (modern Ankara). Persian emperor Darius mounted a punitive expedition against these two cities to try to put an end to interference in his empire. Eretria was captured and the inhabitants enslaved, but Athens turned back the expedition at Marathon and then in front of the city (490 BCE). Darius decided that, as the Greeks would become more cocky with this victory, the only way he could put an end to the unrest was to absorb mainland Greece and so establish an ethnic frontier. He planned a major expedition to subjugate all the cities there and install puppet tyrants as he had done in Asia. Darius died, however his son Xerxes continued with the idea, and invaded in 480 BCE. This too failed after defeats at Salamis (480 BCE), Plataia and Mykale (479 BCE). Thereafter there were subsequent confrontations with battles at Eurymedon and the Nile delta. It was all eventually resolved a century later by Macedonia when Alexander conquered the Persian empire.

Athens converted its anti-Persian confederation into and empire, and used this power to try to dominate the rest of the Greek cities, many of which were members of the Peloponnesian League and opposed this. Athens' continuing aggressivenss forced the declaration of war in 431 BCE which turned into a 27-year war which devastated Greece.

The ultimate trigger was Athens' attempt to bankrupt its neighbour Megara by stopping its trade with Athens' empire. Megara was a member of the Peloponnesian League and appealed to it for support. The League urged Athens to desist. Sparta, as leader of the League was pressured by it to take action: it appealed to Athens to compromise; Athens, over-confident of its strength held out, and war ensued.

The first actual civil war between Romans was Sulla's first civil war (88--87 BC), between the forces of Lucius Cornelius Sulla's supporters and those of Gaius Marius. The final civil war of the Roman Republic, between Octavian and Marc Antony, occurred in 30 BC.

The Result of the civil wars was the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of rule by emperors. The final war was a clash over who would become the sole ruler of Rome. Octavian won, established his own absolute personal rule and became the first Roman emperor and was bestowed the title of Augustus (with which is is known for the period when he was the emperor). This was formalised in the Second Settlement between the senate and Octavian, and historians use this date to mark the beginning of the 503-year period of rule by emperors.

His generals after his death divided the empire up between them.

The sea battle of Salamis had defeated the Persian fleet, but the Persian invasion army remained. By winning the land battle at Plataea and simultaneously the sea-land battle at Mycale, the Persian invasion was repelled.

The numbers vary wildly - Herodotus who was the prime source, put the figure of the Persian army and navy at 2.5 million. Obviously he had taken the numbers of the entire levy of the Persian empire. Xerxes would obviously not have encumbered himself with unreliable and mostly unusable troops which had to be supported over a difficult supply line at enormous financial cost. There have been many modern rationalisations, the better of which seem to boil down to about 150,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry and 600 warships (with about 120,000 seamen, rowers and marines). Other estimates based on the organisation and commanders mentioned go as high as 300,000 infantry and 60,000 cavalry. Anything above that is probably unsustainable for many reasons. Of course only a fraction of these was actually engaged in the three-day battle, if for no other reason than space for deployment in the pass, so the superior numbers didn't count for much.

Athens banning Megara from trade within the Athenian empire and so ensuring its ruin; and Athens refusing an ultimatum from the Spartan alliance to lift the ban.

Athens' action was intended to bring its near neighbour Megara, hostile to it, to heel as an example to other cities restive under its overlordship. Athens acted this way confident in its walls and superior fleet. As things turned out, it over-reached itself.

It increased Athenian prestige and demonstrated to the the Greek city-states that Persian domination could be successfully resisted. Apart from that, the city-states maintained their usual caotious stance with each other including with Athens.

The Peloponnesian War was a conflict spanning nearly three decades; dozens of generals were elected during this time on both sides (Sparta and Athens) and so this question needs to be more specific. However, Pericles is considered the greatest Athenian general of this period, being both a military strategist and a impressive orator. He had encouraged war between Athens and Sparta in the belief that if won, Athens would finally dominate the whole of Greece. However he never saw his dream fulfilled as he died of the plague which ravaged Athens in the early stages of the War.

Roman soldiers did not have battle colours. They wore iron armour in mail, scale of overlapping strips and metal helmets. Legions (army corps) were distinguished by emblems such as Apollo, Boar, Bull, Two Bulls, Capricorn, Centaur, Eagle, Elephant, Fortuna, Hercules, Lion, Jupiter, Minerva, Neptune, Pegasus, She-Wolf, Stork, and Thunderbolt.

The end of the war did not bring peace to the Greeks, who continued their customary fighting amongst each other in changing alliances. Wars had so reduced Spartan manpower that they could not match the armies of others, and after being leading city-state for 35 years after the Peloponnesian War, it was defeated by Thebes and became a second rate power barely able to control its own territory and a restive serf population.

Well, Hannibal was never in command of spain. Spain is a present day country. He was a Carthaginian, and the Carthaginians conquered part of the Iberian Peninsula (present day Spain). He was in command his whole adult life. He was 29 when the Second Punic War started, which is the time for which he is famous.

Many tribes, cities, pirates, federations, kingdoms and internqally over a thousand years. When did you have in mind?

Athens surrendered unconditionally to the Peloponnesian League forces besieging it.

It was stripped of its empire and had to live on its own limited resources, which put an end to the lavish expenditure on the city and inhabitants, and dominance of its fleet, all previously subsidised by the 180 cities of its empire. It became a second-rate power thereafter, able to intervene only in concert with other cities rather than dragging other cities along with it into its adventurous interference in the affairs of other cities.