Authors: Jim Lacey
10.
This Gobryas does not appear to be any relation to the Gobryas who was of such great assistance to Cyrus in his assault on Babylon. Also, Herodotus gets Aspathines’ name wrong, and in this case we refer back to the Behistun inscription on the assumption that Darius had a pretty good handle on who helped him overthrow the established order. Finally, Otanes is the son of Prexaspes, who is credited by all with killing the real Smerdis on Cambyses’ orders.
11.
Soon after his rise to ultimate power, Darius had Intaphrenes and most of his family killed, claiming they were plotting his overthrow.
12.
Also called in some histories Sikayauvatis.
1.
Dadarshish is referred to in some histories as Dadarsi and as such should not be confused with another general in Darius’s service of the same name, fighting rebel forces in Armenia concurrent with Dadarshish’s campaigns.
2.
The chronology of Darius’s first year has been a matter of great dispute among historians for over a century. For what I still believe is the single best effort to make sense of this chaotic year, see Arno Poebel, “Chronology of Darius’ First Year of Reign,”
American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature
55, no. 3, (July 1938): 285–314.
3.
He also remained in Media to make sure it would remain loyal and peaceful when he marched south.
4.
Herodotus states that Darius placed Babylon under siege for almost two years before it was taken by the ruse of sending a supposed traitor into the city who would eventually gain enough trust to position himself in a place where he could give up the city. However, Herodotus appears particularly uninformed about this period, and there is no reason to give his account much credence. In this case, his account should certainly not be given any precedence over Darius’s own testimony on the Behistun inscription.
5.
The new Smerdis, whose actual name was Vahyazdata, had marched into the province of Arachosia to attack the loyal satrap, Vivana, but was decisively defeated.
6.
Fravartish is often referred to as Phraortes.
7.
Although he is not referred to by the sources, it is likely that Darius obtained substantial funds within Babylon, which would have bought quite a bit of continued loyalty from his army. He of course would not have been as concerned with Babylonian sensibilities now that they had shown themselves to be rebels. A heavy-handed approach might also account for Babylon’s renewed rebellion as soon as Darius departed the city to deal with Media.
8.
There is still some historical debate as to which army first marched against Armenia. The Behistun inscription is the only reference, and it starts its description with Vaumisa marching first. However, Darius often tells the story of this revolt in geographic order of events and not in chronological order. In order to validate the timeline the inscription presents for the entire course of events, most historians have placed the march of Vaumisa first. Also, there is general agreement that the fighting in Armenia and Media was concurrent, although they appear to be sequential on the Behistun inscription.
9.
Kundar is also referred to as Kundurus in some histories. Ahuramazda, which translates as “wise lord,” was the supreme god of the Persians, whose cult was spread by the prophet Zarathustra.
10.
Ragae was a Median religious center and Magi stronghold at this time. It is currently a suburb of Tehran.
11.
Here, where Darius learned that his forces were successful everywhere and that his empire was finally secure, was to be the location where his descendant Darius III was to lose the empire to Alexander the Great.
12.
It is interesting that on the Behistun inscription Darius refers to the rebel leaders as kings and not rebels. Why he did so is a mystery, but perhaps it enhanced his image with the people to be seen as the conqueror of kings like himself, rather than just a ruler who crushed inferior rebels.
13.
Herodotus, 3.128. It is just as likely that Darius paid off some of Oroites’ guards to murder him and Herodotus is reporting a fable concocted at a later date.
14.
The only major exception to this was the short civil war between brothers (Cyrus and Artaxerxes) over the throne in about 401 BC, as detailed by Xenophon in the
Anabasis
.
1.
As this work deals primarily with the military aspects of empire, particularly as they pertain to the momentous first clash between East and West on the Plain of Marathon, topics such as Persian art, architecture, religion, and law are not examined in the detail they deserve. Those interested in delving deeper into these topics are encouraged to start their readings with Richard N. Frye,
The Heritage of Persia
(Cleveland: Mentor Books, 1963); A. T. Olmstead,
History of the Persian Empire
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959); and Josef Wiesehofer,
Ancient Persia
(London: I. B. Tauris, 2001).
2.
Zoroaster himself reportedly had three wives, as did his father.
3.
Artystone was a maiden; however, Atossa had earlier married her brother, Cambyses, and was later forced to marry Smerdis (the pretender) when he seized the throne in a coup.
4.
The reader may see some parallels with Caesar giving his daughter in marriage to his ally and later great rival (after her death), Pompey.
5.
For a similar achievement, we have to turn to the accomplishments of Augustus at the end of the Roman civil war.
6.
Herodotus, 3.89.
7.
The Behistun inscription lists almost thirty peoples within the Persian Empire, and many historians have held that this is a list of satrapies. This may indeed be the case, and there is evidence that some on this list were added at a later date, probably reflecting new conquests. However, the jury is still out on this interpretation, and Herodotus’s detailing of Darius’s administrative arrangements remains our best source in this case.
8.
Translating ancient currency amounts into something understandable to a modern reader is always difficult, but some effort must be made to present an impression of the awesome wealth at the empire’s disposal in the event of war.
9.
Readers of Donald Kagan’s masterwork on the Peloponnesian War will see different weightings than given here, as his calculations needed to account for the tremendous inflation that war sparked.
10.
Donald Kagan,
The Peloponnesian War
(New York: Penguin Books, 2004), p. 61.
11.
J. B. Bury, ed.,
The Cambridge Ancient History
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960), p. 200.
12.
Herodotus, 5.52–5.53.
13.
Ibid., 8.98.
14.
He had linked the Nile to the Red Sea by means of a canal running from modern Zaqaziq in the eastern delta through Wadi Tumelat and the lakes Bohayrat al-Temsâh and Buhayrat al-Morra near modern Suez.
1.
Later, Athens would have the silver from its Laurion mines to fall back on, but during this period the richest veins had yet to be discovered.
2.
Herodotus, 5.78. This was written after Athens had decisively defeated a Theban army and annihilated a Chalcidian army within twenty-four hours of each other.
3.
For a fuller example of Herodotus’s thoughts about democracy as compared with other systems of government, see Herodotus, 3.80–3.85.
4.
Some histories place this event in 612 BC.
5.
As quoted in Bury, ed.,
Cambridge Ancient History
, vol. 4,
The Persian Empire and the West
, p. 36.
6.
Ibid.
7.
Plutarch in his
Life of Solon
tells this story and says the poem was one hundred lines long, but only small fragments exist today. Plutarch also states that Solon led the expedition against Megara, but given his age and the fact that other chroniclers make no mention of his participation, this appears unlikely.
8.
Solon fragment 1–2; see Ivan M. Linforth,
Solon the Athenian
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1919), 129–173. For an account of Salamis, see pp. 249–265.
9.
Plutarch’s Lives
(New York: Modern Library, 2000).
10.
For an excellent account of Pisistratus (with a different spelling of the name), his family, and the basis of the family’s power, see A. French, “The Party of Peisistratos,”
Greece & Rome
, 2nd ser., 6, no. 1 (March 1959): 46–57.
11.
This short sketch of early Athenian political developments, of the reforms of Draco, and of the legal system instituted by Solon fails to do justice to these and many other important developments in Athenian society. This is a fascinating story, but not truly pertinent to the central theme of this work. For anyone interested in pursuing this background, see John Boardman and N. G. L. Hammond, eds.,
The Cambridge Ancient History
, vol. 3, part 3,
The Expansion of the Greek World, Eighth to Sixth Centuries B.C
. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992); N. G. L. Hammond,
A History of Greece to 322 B.C
. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986); and Bury, ed.,
Cambridge Ancient History
, vol. 4,
The Persian Empire and the West
.
12.
For an excellent account of this period, see Brian M. Lavelle,
Fame, Money, and Power: The Rise of Peisistratos and “Democratic” Tyranny at Athens
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005).
13.
The exact dates of Pisistratus’s seizure of power or, for that matter, any of the
key events of his long career and those of his sons are still matters of dispute. The dates presented here are at best assumptions based on the estimates of numerous scholars in the field. For a thorough academic study of the matter, see P. J. Rhodes, “Pisistratid Chronology Again,”
Phoenix
30, no. 3 (autumn 1976): 219–233.
14.
Herodotus, 1.61. According to Herodotus, Thebes gave more money to Pisistratus’s cause than any other Greek city.
15.
For reference, this is the year before the Spartans and the Argives began the war that led to the Battle of the 300 Champions in about 545 BC.
16.
Soon after the Battle of Marathon, a new rich vein was found in these mines, which at the behest of Themistocles was used to construct a fleet of two hundred ships. These ships won the great naval battle at Salamis a decade later and propelled Athens to empire. The silver from this mine would also finance much of the Peloponnesian War, particularly after Athens was cut off from the revenues of the Delian League.
17.
The importance of this grain trade became apparent in the Peloponnesian War. Although Athens had suffered many severe setbacks, it was not until their fleet was destroyed at Aegospotami and they were thereby cut off from the Black Sea that they finally surrendered rather than starve.
18.
Here I have taken a position that directly contradicts what since Victor Davis Hanson’s publication of
The Western Way of War
has become the widely accepted view of the historical community. I will not defend my position here but will come back to it in detail later in this work. See Victor Davis Hanson,
The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000). Also see Victor Davis Hanson,
Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).
19.
Herodotus recounts a fable in his version of events. He relates that the Dolonci asked the Delphi oracle and were told to walk along the Sacred Way until they met a man who offered them hospitality. They were instructed to offer that man, whoever he may be, the leadership of the Chersonese. After a long journey, Miltiades was the first man to offer them lodging and refreshment, so in accordance with the oracle’s orders, they asked him to be their king.
1.
Cynosura, Mesoa, Limnae, Pitana, and Amyclae.
2.
As this is mostly a military history of the period, very little time will be spent on the development of the Spartan political system, its unique constitution (the Great Rhetra), or cultural developments. For those interested in pursuing these matters further, I suggest Paul Cartledge,
Sparta and Lakonia: States & Cities of Ancient Greece
(New York: Routledge, 1979); or for some new viewpoints based on recent research, see Stephen Hodkinson and Anton Powell,
Sparta: New Perspective
(London: Classical Press of Wales, 1999). For the
nonspecialist reader, see Paul Cartledge,
The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece
(Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 2003).
3.
During this period, Sparta was known to have established one colony at Taras (modern Taranto) in 706 BC. For what I consider one of the most interesting perspectives on Spartan society and politics, see Paul A. Rahe,
Republics Ancient & Modern
, vol. 1,
The Ancien Régime in Classical Greece
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), 122–171.
4.
Most of the histories of the period quote Pausanias, who lived at least eight hundred years after the events he relates (as far as the Fourth Crusade is from the present day). Moreover, it appears that his account can be traced only as far back as the Cretan poet Rhianus, who lived some five hundred years after the Messenian Wars. In the third volume of the 1925
Cambridge Ancient History
, H. T. Wade Geary says of the Messenian Wars, particularly the revolt: “Of their course we know almost nothing. After the liberation of Messenia in 369 BC, the early wars of liberation were freely treated as themes for romance … conceived in romantic enthusiasm in the pages of Strabo and Pausanias, but almost certainly false history.” Historians have found very little since then to challenge this judgment, and the version presented in this book is presented in the full awareness that it is more legend than fact. However, it is upon these legends that Sparta built its warrior society and therefore they are integral to understanding the ethos that propelled the Spartan hoplite into battle.
5.
For an excellent in-depth discussion that attempts to separate the history from the legends about this revolt, see L. R. Shero, “Aristomenes the Messenian,”
Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association
69 (1938): 500–531. This article also presents an excellent analysis of each of the sources of the Spartan-Messenian Wars.
6.
Historical tradition has it that Sparta requested guidance from the Delphi oracle and was told “to ask Athens for a leader.” Athens, fearing to disobey the oracle but not wishing to aid Sparta, supposedly sent a lame schoolteacher named Tyrtaeus to command the Spartan army. More than likely, this version of events is an Athenian insertion placed into the story centuries after the event. What appears certain is that a man named Tyrtaeus did rise to command the Spartan army, but it is likely he was a born Spartan.
7.
Thomas Kelly makes the case that there was no traditional enmity between Sparta and Argos and this is a later invention of historians. As his own paper on the topic details three major wars between Sparta and Argos, in one of which a generation of Argive manhood was annihilated, I find his case less than convincing. See Thomas Kelly, “The Traditional Enmity Between Sparta and Argos: The Birth and Development of a Myth,”
American Historical Review
75, no. 4 (April 1970): 971–1003.
8.
In similar fashion to how the USSR, before its collapse, controlled the separate votes of its constituent parts in the United Nations.
9.
Some historians place the battle’s date at 546 BC.