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Hephaestion
Hephaestion ( ''Hēphaistíōn''; c. 356 BC – 324 BC), son of Amyntor, was an ancient Macedonian nobleman of probable "Attic or Ionian extraction" and a general in the army of Alexander the Great. He was "by far the dearest of all the king's friends; he had been brought up with Alexander and shared all his secrets."Curtius 3.12.16 This relationship lasted throughout their lives, and was compared, by others as well as themselves, to that of Achilles and Patroclus. His military career was distinguished. A member of Alexander the Great's personal bodyguard, he went on to command the Companion cavalry and was entrusted with many other tasks throughout Alexander's ten-year campaign in Asia, including diplomatic missions, the bridging of major rivers, sieges and the foundation of new settlements. Besides being a soldier, engineer and diplomat, he corresponded with the philosophers Aristotle and Xenocrates and actively supported Alexander in his attempts to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander The Great
Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II of Macedon, Philip II to the throne in 336 BC at the age of 20 and spent most of his ruling years conducting Wars of Alexander the Great, a lengthy military campaign throughout West Asia, Western Asia, Central Asia, parts of South Asia, and ancient Egypt, Egypt. By the age of 30, he had created one of the List of largest empires, largest empires in history, stretching from History of Greece, Greece to northwestern History of India, India. He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered to be one of history's greatest and most successful military commanders. Until the age of 16, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle. In 335 BC, shortly after his assumption of kingship over Macedon, he Alexander's Balkan campaign, campaigned in the Bal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Somatophylakes
''Somatophylakes'' (; singular: ''somatophylax'', σωματοφύλαξ) were the bodyguards of high-ranking people in ancient Greece. The most famous body of ''somatophylakes'' were those of Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great. They consisted of seven men, drawn from the Macedonian nobility, who also acted as high-ranking military officers, holding command positions such as General officer, general or chiliarch. Alexander the Great appointed Peucestas as eighth ''somatophylax'' after the Mallian Campaign, siege of Malli. Under Alexander the Great (Note that this list is speculative in several cases and would be disputed by scholars. For example, Hephaestion was probably not named as early as given below. The only ''complete'' list of Alexander's bodyguard in the original sources is found in Arrian (6.28.4), upon the extraordinary appointment of Peucestas in Carmania.) ;336–334 *Aristonous of Pella, Aristonous, Lysimachus, Peithon, Arybbas (somatophylax), Aryb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drypetis
Drypetis (died 323 BCE) was the daughter of Stateira I and Darius III of Persia. Drypetis was born between 350 and 345 BCE, and, along with her sister Stateira II, was a princess of the Achaemenid dynasty. Capture and marriage When Darius III began a military campaign against the invading army of Alexander the Great, he was accompanied by Drypetis, along with her sister, her mother, and her grandmother Sisygambis.Heckel (2006), p. 116. Following the Battle of Issus in 333 BCE, Darius fled and his family was captured by Macedonian troops. Alexander personally met with the women and promised to provide dowries for Drypetis and Stateira. Although Darius tried repeatedly to ransom his family, Alexander kept them with him until 331 BCE when Drypetis and her sister were sent to Susa to learn the Greek language. In the spring of 324 BCE, Drypetis was married to Hephaestion, a general in Alexander's army, during the Susa weddings. Soon after, Drypetis was widowed when Hephaestion ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amyntor (Macedonian)
Amyntor (Ancient Greek: Ἀμύντωρ ''Amýntor'' "defender") was the name of a 4th-century BC Macedonian aristocrat, possibly of Athenian descent. He was the father of Hephaestion Amyntoros, who was a close companion and lieutenant to Alexander the Great. The full history of Hephaestion's lineage is unknown. However, Jeanne Reames has suggested that he descended from Athenian expatriates to Macedon. The most popular piece of evidence pointing to such a connection is in name-tracing. "Hephaestion" is the name of the overlooking the |
Ancient Macedonians
The Macedonians (, ) were an ancient tribe that lived on the alluvial plain around the rivers Haliacmon and lower Vardar, Axios in the northeastern part of Geography of Greece#Mainland, mainland Greece. Essentially an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek people,; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; . they gradually expanded from their homeland along the Haliacmon valley on the northern edge of the Greek world, absorbing or driving out neighbouring non-Greek tribes, primarily Thracians, Thracian and Illyrians, Illyrian.. They spoke Ancient Macedonian language, Ancient Macedonian, which is usually classified by scholars as a dialect of Northwest Greek, Northwest Doric Greek, and occasionally as a distinct sister language of Greek language, Greek or an Aeolic Greek dialect. However, the Lingua franca, prestige language of the region during the Classical Greece, Classical era was Attic Greek, replaced by Koine Greek during the Hellenistic era. Their religious beliefs mirrored those of Lis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Gaugamela
The Battle of Gaugamela ( ; ), also called the Battle of Arbela (), took place in 331 BC between the forces of the Ancient Macedonian army, Army of Macedon under Alexander the Great and the Achaemenid Army, Persian Army under Darius III, King Darius III. It was the second and final battle between the two kings, and is considered to be the final blow to the Achaemenid Empire, resulting in its complete conquest by Alexander. The fighting took place in Gaugamela, a village on the banks of the river Khazir River, Bumodus, north of Arbela (modern-day Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan). Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Army of Macedon emerged victorious due to the employment of superior tactics and the clever usage of light infantry forces. It was a decisive victory for the League of Corinth, and it led to the fall of the Achaemenid Empire and of Darius III. Background In November 333 BC, Darius III, King Darius III had lost the Battle of Issus to Alexander the Great, which res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mallian Campaign
The Mallian campaign was conducted by Alexander the Great from November 326 to February 325 BC, against the Mallian people, Mallians of the Punjab region, Punjab. Alexander was defining the eastern limit of his power by marching down-river along the Hydaspes to the Acesines (now the Jhelum and Chenab), but the Malli and the Oxydraci combined to refuse passage through their territory. Alexander sought to prevent their forces meeting, and made a swift campaign against them which successfully pacified the region between the two rivers. Alexander was seriously injured during the course of the campaign, almost losing his life. Background The campaign against the Malli (identified with the Malavas) occurred a year after Alexander crossed the Hindu Kush, and eight years after the start of his campaigns against the Persian Empire. At this time, his conquests stretched from Greece into India; some of the Indian tribes had previously been part of the Persian Empire. The political situatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Gaza (332 BCE)
The siege of Gaza, as part of the Wars of Alexander the Great, took place in October of 332 BC. Resulting in a victory for Macedon, it ended the 31st Dynasty of Egypt, which functioned as a satrapy under the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Alexander succeeded in breaching the walls of Gaza by utilizing the engines that he had employed earlier that year, during the siege of Tyre brought by Hephaestion. Following three unsuccessful assaults, the Macedonian army was able to storm and take the Gazan stronghold. Batis, the military commander of Gaza's fortress, expected to hold the city as well as the rest of Egypt in complete subjection until the raising of another army by Persian king Darius III; confronting Alexander at Gaza was crucial to denying the Macedonians a route into the Egyptian mainland. The fortress was located on an eminence, on the edge of a desert from which the surrounding area could be easily controlled, including the main road from Assyria to Egypt. The city, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macedonian Empire
Macedonia ( ; , ), also called Macedon ( ), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, which later became the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal Argead dynasty, which was followed by the Antipatrid and Antigonid dynasties. Home to the ancient Macedonians, the earliest kingdom was centered on the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula,. and bordered by Epirus to the southwest, Illyria to the northwest, Paeonia to the north, Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south. Before the 4th century BC, Macedonia was a small kingdom outside of the area dominated by the great city-states of Athens, Sparta and Thebes, and briefly subordinate to Achaemenid Persia. During the reign of the Argead king PhilipII (359–336 BC), Macedonia subdued mainland Greece and the Thracian Odrysian kingdom through conquest and diplomacy. With a reformed army containing phalanxes wielding the '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achilles And Patroclus
The relationship between Achilles and Patroclus is a key element of the stories associated with the Trojan War. In the ''Iliad,'' Homer describes a deep, meaningful relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, where Achilles is tender toward Patroclus, but callous and arrogant toward others. Its exact nature—whether homosexual, a non-sexual deep friendship, or something else entirely—has been a subject of dispute in both the Classical period and modern times. Homer, in the original epic, never explicitly casts the two as lovers, but they were frequently interpreted and depicted as lovers in the later archaic and classical periods of Greek literature, particularly in the works of Aeschylus, Aeschines and Plato. Xenophon's '' Symposium'' established a key counterargument, asserting the relationship was not sexual, but instead a platonic perfect friendship. Ancient writers referenced both sides, and additionally debated whether and how the relationship fit into the ancient inst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achaemenid
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the largest empire by that point in history, spanning a total of . The empire spanned from the Balkans and Egypt in the west, most of West Asia, the majority of Central Asia to the northeast, and the Indus Valley of South Asia to the southeast. Around the 7th century BC, the region of Persis in the southwestern portion of the Iranian plateau was settled by the Persians. From Persis, Cyrus rose and defeated the Median Empire as well as Lydia and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, marking the establishment of a new imperial polity under the Achaemenid dynasty. In the modern era, the Achaemenid Empire has been recognised for its imposition of a successful model of centralised bureaucratic administration, its multicultural policy, building complex infrast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Companion Cavalry
The Companions (, , ''hetairoi'') were the elite heavy cavalry of the Macedonian army from the time of King Philip II of Macedon, achieving their greatest prestige under Alexander the Great, and regarded as the first or among the first shock cavalry used in Europe. Chosen Companions, or Hetairoi, formed the elite guard of the king (Somatophylakes). Etymology The name of the military unit derives from Greek ''Hetairoi'', those near the king. The Hetairoi (Companions) could be members of the Macedonian aristocracy or commoners of any origin who enjoyed the trust and friendship of the Macedonian regent. The Hetairideia, a festival pertaining to the sacred relationship which bound the king and his companions together was celebrated and even Euripides, the famed Athenian playwright, was honoured as an ''hetairos'' of the king Archelaus. The Royal friends ( Philoi) or the king's Companions (basilikoi hetairoi) were named for life by the king among the Macedonian aristocracy. Uni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
