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Ancient Wars
The Ancient period is generally accepted as being 600 BCE to 500 CE, before which was the Archaic period, and after which began the Medieval period. However as there is not an Archaic Wars category, it is acceptable to post pre-500 BCE military questions in this area.
1,657 Questions
What Persian city did the Greeks burn in 490bc after the battle of marathon?
It was the other way round - the Athenians and Eretrians burnt the Persian provincial capital of Sardis in 498 BCE, which caused the Persians to try to suppress them, frustrated by their loss at Marathon.
How did Themistocles trick the Persians into battle?
When the Greek fleet was hoping to entice the Persian fleet into the strait between Salamis and Attica, he sent an informer to the Persian fleet commander that the Greeks were going to escape the back way through the channel past Megara, and also that he was sympathetic to the Persian cause.
Thinking Themistocles and the Athenian fleet might defect (as the Samian fleet had done in the Ionian uprising nearly two decades earlier), the Persian commander sent his Egyptian fleet to seal off the western channel, and attacked with his remaining Asian-Greek and Phoenician fleets into the waiting Greek fleet, splitting his own fleet again as it passed around either side of the facing island of Psyttaleia.
A battle in the restricted waters was just what the Greeks wanted, to neutralise the numbers and bigger ships of the Persian fleet. The absence of the Egyptian fleet helped even the numbers, and the Greeks were able to attack the Persians from the flanks as they squeezed in on two narrow fronts through the channels on either side of the facing island. Themistocles' subterfuge paid a handsome dividend.
The Greek victory at Salamis turned the whole war in their favour, as the end of the amphibious threat to the Pelopponese cities allowed them to deploy their armies and unite at Plataia the following spring, and Xerxes had to send half his army home as, unable now to protect his resupply fleet, he could not feed them in Greece.
Did Commodus kill his father Marcus?
No. Marcus Aurelius died naturally at the age of 58, having not only designated Commodus as his successor, but also earlier appointed him co-ruler to ensure a smooth succession.
What was the lie Themistocles told to save Greece?
He secretly told Xerxes that the Greeks were going to retreat from Salamis through the western channel, leading to a third of the Persian fleet being sent off to cover that exist, and so not available for the battle and evening up the fleets. He also said he would switch sides which encouraged Xerxes to send his fleet into the eastern straits where the Greek fleet was waiting to pounce from the flanks on the Persian ships strung out entering the two channels.
What is an example of the military tactic called interior lines in ancient wars?
Interior lines of communication means that the force is supported directly from its supply and reinforcement base. Wellington in Portugal behind the Lines of Torres Vedras had interior lines. The French attacking from Spain had exterior lines from France. The German army in WW2 had interior lines, the British and Americans had exterior lines after the Normandy invasion.
What struggle came after the fight with rome and Carthage?
In the same year as the end of the Third Punic War (146 BC) Rome annexed mainland Greece, two years after the winning the Fourth Macedonian War (150-148 BC). Rome annexed the Kingdom of Macedon, the largest state in Greece (in the north) and when the Achaean League in the south waged war, she annexed the whole of Greece.
The Cimbrian War (113-114 BC) against the Cimbians and Teutons, Germanic peoples who attacked the empire in Austria, Gaul, northern Spain, Gaul (again) and northern Italy
The Jugurthine War (111-104 BC) against the rebellion of Jugurtha, the King of Numidia (in Algeria)
The Social War (91-88 BC) between Rome and her Italian allies caused by Rome's refusal to grant them Roman citizenship.
Sulla's First Civil War (88-87 BC between the generals Sulla and Marius
The First Mithridiac Was (88 BC-84 BC) against Mithidates, the king of Pontus (in northeaster Turkey) who attacked the Roman Republic and its ally, the Kingdom of Bithynia (In northwestern Turkey), and encouraged the Greeks to rebel.
The Second Mithridiac War (83-81 BC)
The Sertonian War (83-72 BC) between Rome and the provinces of Hispania (Spain) led by Quintus Sertorius, a supporter of Marius
Sulla's Second Civil War (82-81 BC) between the generals Sulla and Marius
Lepidus' Rebellion (77 BC) Lepidus rebelled against Sulla's regime
The Third Mithridiac War against both Mithridates of Pontus and Tigranes the Great, the King of Armenia who allied with Pontus (75-63 AD)
The liberation of Syria form Armenia during the Third Mithridiac War and restoration of the rightful king (who had fled to Rome to ask for help) as a client king (69 BC)
Annexation of Syria (63 BC) by Pompey who was concerned about civil war there.
The Gallic Wars (58-50 BC) Julius Caesar's war against the Gauls.
Julius Caesar's two expeditions to Britannia (55 and 54 BC)
Caesar's Civil War (49-45 BC) between Julius Caesar and the Optimantes (conservatives)
The Post Caesarean Civil War (44 BC) between the army of the senate against Mark Antony and Lepidus.
The Liberator's War (44-420 BC) between the Second Triumvirate and the Liberators (Caesar's assassins)
The Sicilian Revolt (44-36 BC) between the Second Triumvirate and Sextus Pompey, the son of Pompey
The Perusine War (41-40 BC) between Octavian and Lucius Antonius and Fulvia (borther and wife of Mark Antony
The Final War of the Roman Republic (32-30 BC) between Octavian and Agrippa against Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
What would roman slave owners do with prisoners of war?
Buy them and use them in the household, farms or mines.
What struck Athens in 430 bce during the peloponnesian war?
A Plague that has yet to be identified by experts .
How long did some of the ancient Greek wars go on for?
They were usuall a one-year affair to settle a dispute between two cities. Then various alliances and leagues often extended the capacity to fight extended wars. A case in point is the Peloponnesian War between Athens and its allies and Sparta and its allies which lasted from 421 BCE to 404 BCE.
What was the last battle of peloponnesian war?
Aigospotomai - a naval engagement in the Dardanelles 404 BCE.
Which generals ended up with alexanders empire?
The Diadochi (Or successors) to the Alexandrian Empire were three of Alexanders former generals named Perdiccas , Craterus amd Antipater .
(Lower ranking officers who also vied for power were Ptolemy I Soter , Lysimachus , Peucestas , Peithon and Leonnatus .)
What is the difference between a corselet and a cuirass?
A corselet is a light cuirass or armor worn to protect the front of the body.
What was the Persian campaign?
It was the campaign by King of Kings Xerxes of Persia (Achaemenid dynasty), son of Darius the Great, who followed in the steps of his father and attacked the Western fronts of the Persian Empire to expand Persia and to conquer Greece.
In the Persian and Spartan war who are two people who fought in it?
There was no Persian and Spartan war. Persia invaded the Greek mainland on two occasions. The first time in 490 BCE, a punitive expedition against Athens and Eretria for supporting Miletus in revolt against Persia. An Athenian commander was Miltiades, the Persian one Datis. The second time was a general invasion of Greece, commanded initially by King Xerxes, with his land commander Mardonius. Greek commanders included the Athenians Themistocles and Aristeides and Spartans Eurybiades and Pausanias.
Who was Rome's greatest general politician public speaker patrons of the arts and general?
Mussolini?
What is the name of the king who first built a wooden fort at Warwick?
Henry de Beaumont built the first Warwick Castle out of wood on the orders of William the Conqueror in 1068 as part of a chain of castles to control newly-conquered England.
Why do they call Greece Greece?
The Greeks called and still call themselves Hellenes.
They overpopulated their small and poor country, and the city states sent out their surplus populations into colonies around the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Some colonies were established in Italy (Naples = Nea Polis, new city, Tarentum, Sybaris, Croton etc plus plenty in Sicily).
In their expansion down the Italian Peninsula in the 4th and 3rd Centuries BCE, the Romans encountered a Latin tribe called the Graeci. As they went further they ran into the Greek cities at the bottom of Italy, and thinking them to be a lot more of the Graeci tribe, called them the Magna Graeci.
The word Graeci (anglicised to 'Greek') was erroneously extended to the home country and people of the widespread Hellenic colonies, and the word Greek has stuck.
The Hellenic civilization took place in what country?
Hellene is what the Greek peoples called themselves. Greek is a misnomer originated by the Romans who mistook them for a tribe in southern Italy called the Graeci.
So Hellenic civilization developed initially in mainland Greece, and was transplanted around the Mediterranean and Black Seas by the colonies which the Greek city-states sent out to relieve their over-population.
Further, when Alexander the Great conquered the east, he began establishing cities based on the Greek model of the city-state, and with a veneer of Greek culture (there were about a dozen Alexandrias alone). His successors - his generals - carved up his eastern empire and formed kingdoms - today known as the Hellenistic Kingdoms - and in these kingdoms continued establishing city-states on the Greek model (eg Antioch in Syria was named after its Greek founder Antiochos). This incorporated most of the Middle East, including present-day Turkey, Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine/Israel and Egypt.
What two civilizations did Alexander the Great conquer as he built his empire?
Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire in a series of invasions and battles lasting from 334 to 331 BCE. He then conquered Egypt and founded the city of Alexandria.
Carthage did not defeat Numidia. When she raised an army to defend herself, she was defeated by the Numidians. Then the Romans declared war and destroyed Carthage.
How did the peloponnesian war contribute to the expansion of mancedonia?
Although thr Greek city-states were devastated by the war, they continued to fight each other in varying alliances for the next 50 years. The three principal cities in all this - Athens, Sparta and Thebes - were by then so debilitated that they could not provide sufficient opposition to prevent the growing Macedonian ascendency in the vacuum they had themselves created.
When were crescent firearms used?
Crescent Firearms Co dates back to 1888. George W, Cilley bought out the defunct Bacon Arms Co. of Norwich, Conn. Cilley teamed up with Frank foster and formed the Crescent Fire Arms Co. Cilley and Foster each held firearms patents and both were qualified firearms design and manuafacture. In 1932 the city of Norwich, Conn. took over the Crescent property for back taxes. The Crescent firearms were well respected.
That war was the culmination of a polarisation of states to two opposing sides, pursuing offensive, expansionary objectives as Athens did, and defensive turning to offensive measures as happened with the Peloponnesian League.
It was the first well-documented struggle of power blocks, which changed Greek warfae from limited local contests to a broad one encompassing the Greek world from Sicily to Asia Minor.
