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Masistes
Masistes (Old Persian 𐎶𐎰𐎡𐏁𐎫, ''Maθišta''; Greek Μασίστης, ''Masístēs''; Old Iranian *''Masišta''; died 478 BC) was a Persian prince of the Achaemenid Dynasty, son of king Darius I (reign: 520-486 BC) and of his wife Atossa, and full brother of king Xerxes I (reign: 486-465 BC). He was satrap (governor) of Bactria during his brother's reign, where he attempted to start a revolt in 478 BC. Chief marshal Masistes was one of the six chief marshals of the Greek campaigns of Xerxes (480-479 BC). Along with general Mardonius, he commanded the army column that crossed Thrace along the coast; however, he was almost completely absent during the course of the war, including the battles of Salamis and Plataea. He reappeared close to the end of the war, when he fought in the Battle of Mycale (479 BC). According to Herodotus, the battle was just about to take place at sea, but the Persians decided to come ashore in Ionia, Asia Minor, and fight on land. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artaynte
Artaynte (f. 478 BC), was the wife of the Crown Prince Darius, son of the king Xerxes I. Life What we know of Artaynte primarily comes from the writings of Herodotus. She was the daughter of an unnamed woman and Prince Masistes, who was a marshall of the armies during the invasion of Greece in 480-479 BC, and was also the brother of King Xerxes I. During the Greek campaign Xerxes developed a passionate desire for the wife of his brother Masistes, but she would constantly resist and would not bend to his will. Upon returning to Sardis, the king endeavoured to bring about the marriage of his son Darius to Artaynte, the daughter of this woman the wife of Masistes, supposing that by doing so he could obtain Artaynte's mother more easily. After moving to Susa he brought Artaynte to the royal house with him for his son Darius, but fell in love with her himself, and after obtaining her they became lovers. At the behest of Xerxes, Artaynte committed adultery with him. When queen Amest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atossa
Atossa (Old Persian: ''Utauθa'', or Old Iranian: ''Hutauθa''; 550–475 BC) was an Achaemenid empress. She was the daughter of Cyrus the Great, the sister of Cambyses II, the wife of Darius the Great, the mother of Xerxes the Great and the grandmother of Artaxerxes I. Name The Persian name "Atossa" (or "Atusa") means "bestowing very richly" or "well trickling" or "well granting". Atossa is the Greek () transliteration of the Old Persian name ''Utauθa.'' Her name in Avestan is ''Hutaosā''. Queen Atossa is the most famous bearer of this name, however, the name Atossa appears to have been a traditional one within the Achaemenid clan. According to the genealogy of the Kings of Cappadocia, the name Atossa was also borne by a sister of Cambyses I and sister-wife of Artaxerxes II. Early life Atossa was born in 550 BCE as the eldest daughter of Cyrus the Great and his wife Cassandane. Cassandane, an Achaemenian and the daughter of Pharnaspes, bore Cyrus two sons, Cambyses ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darius (son Of Xerxes I)
Darius ( ; ; – 465 BCE), was crown prince of the Persian Empire. He was the eldest son of the Persian king Xerxes I and his wife Amestris. His younger brothers were Hystaspes and Artaxerxes, and his younger sisters were Rhodogune and Amytis. In 478 BC, before the revolt at Bactria, Darius was married to his cousin Artaynte at Sardis. She was also the daughter of his uncle Masistes. At the behest of Xerxes, Artaynte committed adultery with him. When the queen Amestris found out about the horrific event, she did not seek revenge against Artaynte, but against her mother, Masistes' wife, as Amestris thought that it was due to her connivance. On Xerxes' birthday, Amestris sent for his guards and mutilated Artaynte's mother. On seeing this, Masistes fled to Bactria to start a revolt, but was intercepted by Xerxes' army who killed him and his sons. In 465 BC, Darius may have ascended to the throne as King of Persia after his father was murdered in a conspiracy carried out by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darius The Great
Darius I ( ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of West Asia, parts of the Balkans (Skudra, Thrace–Achaemenid Macedonia, Macedonia and Paeonia (kingdom), Paeonia) and the Caucasus, most of the Black Sea's coastal regions, Central Asia, the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley, Indus Valley in the far east, and portions of North Africa and Northeast Africa including History of Persian Egypt, Egypt (), eastern ancient Libya, Libya, and coastal The Sudans, Sudan. Darius ascended the throne by overthrowing the Achaemenid monarch Bardiya (or ''Smerdis''), who he claimed was in fact an imposter named Gaumata. The new king met with rebellions throughout the empire but quelled each of them; a major event in Darius's life was his expedition to subjugate Ancient Greece, Greece and punish Classical At ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Mycale
The Battle of Mycale was one of the two major battles (the other being the Battle of Plataea) that ended the second Persian invasion of Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars. It took place on 27 or 28 August, 479BC on the slopes of Mount Mycale, which is located on the coast of Ionia opposite the island of Samos. The battle was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, including Sparta, Athens and Corinth; and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I. The previous year, the Persian invasion force, led by Xerxes himself, had scored victories at the battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium, and conquered Thessaly, Boeotia and Attica; however, at the ensuing Battle of Salamis, the Greek navy had won an unlikely victory, and therefore prevented the conquest of the Peloponnese. Xerxes then retreated, leaving his general Mardonius with a substantial army to finish off the Greeks the following year. In the summer of 479BC, the Greeks assembled an army, and marched to confront Mardon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Histories (Herodotus)
The ''Histories'' (, ''Historíai''; also known as ''The History'') of Herodotus is considered the founding work of history in Western literature. Although not a fully impartial record, it remains one of the West's most important sources regarding these affairs. Moreover, it established the genre and study of history in the Western world (despite the existence of historical records and chronicles beforehand). ''The'' ''Histories'' also stands as one of the earliest accounts of the rise of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Empire, as well as the events and causes of the Greco-Persian Wars between the Persian Empire and the Polis, Greek city-states in the 5th century BC. Herodotus portrays the conflict as one between the forces of slavery (the Persians) on the one hand, and freedom (the Athenians and the confederacy of Greek city-states which united against the invaders) on the other. ''The Histories'' was at some point divided into the nine scroll, books that appear in modern editions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xenagoras Of Halicarnassus
Xenagoras () was the name of a number of men of classical antiquity: * Xenagoras of Halicarnassus (5th century BC), companion of the Achaemenid commander Masistes * Xenagoras (historian), a historical writer, likely of the 2nd century BCE *Xenagoras, historian, and father of the historian Nymphis; possibly the same man as the historian Xenagoras * Xenagoras (geometer), who wrote in the ancient world about the heights of mountains {{disambiguation, name Ancient Greeks ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greco-Persian Wars
The Greco-Persian Wars (also often called the Persian Wars) were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Polis, Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world of the Greeks and the enormous empire of the Persians began when Cyrus the Great conquered the Greek-inhabited region of Ionia in 547 BC. Struggling to control the independent-minded cities of Ionia, the Persians appointed Tyrant#Historical forms, tyrants to rule each of them. This would prove to be the source of much trouble for the Greeks and Persians alike. In 499 BC, the tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras, embarked on an Siege of Naxos (499 BC), expedition to conquer the island of Naxos Island, Naxos, with Persian support; however, the expedition was a debacle and, preempting his dismissal, Aristagoras incited all of Hellenic Asia Minor into rebellion against the Persians. This was the beginning of the Ionian Revolt, which would last unti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achaemenid Dynasty
The Achaemenid dynasty ( ; ; ; ) was a royal house that ruled the Achaemenid Empire, which eventually stretched from Egypt and Thrace in the west to Central Asia and the Indus Valley in the east. Origins The history of the Achaemenid dynasty is mainly known through Greek historians, such as Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. Additional sources include the Hebrew Bible, other Jewish religious texts, and native Iranian sources. According to Herodotus, the Achaemenids were a clan of the Pasargadae tribe:These were the leading tribes, on which all the other Persians were dependent, namely the Pasargadae, Maraphians, and Maspioi. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most noble and include the family of Achaemenids, the Kings of Persia, who are descendants of Perseus.Darius the Great, in an effort to establish his legitimacy, later traced his genealogy to Achaemenes, Persian "". His son was given as Teispes, and from him came in turn Ariaramnes, Arsames, and Hystaspes. How ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ionia
Ionia ( ) was an ancient region encompassing the central part of the western coast of Anatolia. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionians who had settled in the region before the archaic period. Ionia proper comprised a narrow coastal strip from Phocaea in the north near the mouth of the river Hermus (now the Gediz), to Miletus in the south near the mouth of the river Maeander, and included the islands of Chios and Samos. It was bounded by Aeolia to the north, Lydia to the east and Caria to the south. The cities within the region figured significantly in the strife between the Persian Empire and the Greeks. Ionian cities were identified by mythic traditions of kinship and by their use of the Ionic dialect, but there was a core group of twelve Ionian cities that formed the Ionian League and had a shared sanctuary and festival at Panionion. These twelve cities were (from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek Language
Greek (, ; , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic languages, Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, Caucasus, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the list of languages by first written accounts, longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer, ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon. Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lydia
Lydia (; ) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom situated in western Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Later, it became an important province of the Achaemenid Empire and then the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sardis. At some point before 800 BC, the Lydian people achieved some sort of political cohesion, and existed as an independent kingdom by the 600s BC. At its greatest extent, during the 7th century BC, it covered all of western Anatolia. In 546 BC, it became a Lydia (satrapy), satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, known as ''Sparda'' in Old Persian. In 133 BC, it became part of the Roman Republic, Roman Asia (Roman province), province of Asia. Lydian coins, made of electrum, are among the oldest in existence, dated to around the 7th century BC. Geography Lydia is generally located east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish provinces of Uşak Province, Uşak, Manisa Province, Manisa and inland İzmir Province, İzmir.Rhodes, P.J. ''A History of the Classical Greek ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
