History of Persia

A decade after Aristagoras revolted and Athens reneged on its offerings of earth and water, a Persian army lands on the Greek mainland for the first time, camping on the plain that becomes Marathon.

Between 484 and 481 BCE Xerxes orders his subjects to prepare for war in Greece, readying infrastructure across the western empire; 200,000 soldiers converge on the Hellespont in spring 480 and march toward Hellas.

After a year of success, Persian occupation of northern Greece suffers a second massive defeat: the Hellenic League fields a full Greek army against Mardonius near the town of Plataea, and the maneuvering ends in decisive, bloody battle.

Little survives of the decade after Greek offensives against Xerxes until the Battle of the Eurymedon, when Athenian general Kimon leads a Delian League fleet to destroy the Persian fleet and army in southern Anatolia.

September 480 BCE marks the Persian high point in Greece: Athens smolders, the Greek army has retreated to Corinth and the fleet is in limbo with the Athenian refugees on Salamis, where Xerxes sends his navy and loses.

As 480 BCE ends, the war between Greeks and Persians only pauses: the Peloponnesians go home, Athenians raid the Aegean, Xerxes withdraws to Lydia, Mardonius stays in Greece, and Artabazos marches an army to Thrace.

In summer 480 BCE, King Xerxes' invasion force meets the Greek allies at the twin battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium; after three days the pass falls, and Persian troops push south through Phocis, Boeotia, Attica and Athens.

Before the fighting between the Persian Empire and the Greek city states, how the Greeks prepared for war: Athens builds a navy, everyone plans to deploy armies, and the whole history of the famous 300 Spartans.

After the Persian defeat at Mycale the Greco-Persian war drags on: late 479 BCE brings Greek offensives into Persian territory that outlast Sparta's withdrawal in 478, and the third year against Xerxes sees Athens found the Delian League.

Though the Ionian cities are defeated, their revolt has consequences; in 492 BCE Mardonius campaigns in the Balkans, then Artaphernes and Datis punish Athens and Eretria for aiding the Ionians with the first Persian invasion of Greece.

Memphis endures a five-year siege from 459 to 454 BCE as Pharaoh Inaros tries to oust Persian rule with Athenian aid; Persian reinforcements crush the rebellion, capture Inaros, and send Athens reeling back to one last attempt on Cyprus.

Athens moves from oligarchy through Peisistratid tyranny to Cleisthenes' democracy, then joins Eretria and the Ionian Greek cities in revolt; in 498 BCE their army marches from Ephesus to burn Sardis.

Exiled aristocrats from Naxos ask the Milesian tyrant Aristagoras for help retaking their island; a failed Persian invasion leaves him broke and plotting the Ionian Revolt against Darius the Great.

Persian troops drive the rebels from Aeolis across Anatolia; Greek cities led by Dionysius of Phocaea regroup on the island of Lade as satrap Artaphernes sends army and navy to retake Miletus.

After Artaxerxes I takes power in 465 BCE, the rebel Pharaoh Inaros II stalemates a satrap in Egypt until 460 BCE, when Athens sends forces that kill the satrap and join Inaros marching on Memphis.

Supposedly the same day as Plataea, the Greek fleet sails to aid Samian rebels at Mount Mycale; still recovering from Salamis, the Persians turn it into a land fight, and general Tigranes and his men are overwhelmed.

While Persian armies fight Ionian Greek rebels in Anatolia, a fourth force sails for Cyprus, where King Onesilos of Salamis has usurped his brother's throne and incited neighbors to rebellion; the Persians retake the island.

With Miletus fallen and Cyprus under control, Persian victory looks complete, yet Ionian resistance continues; the deposed tyrant Histiaeus schemes to carve out a new niche for himself inside Persian territory.

After Sardis burns, more Greek cities join the Ionian Revolt despite Persian victory at Ephesus; three Persian generals campaign through 497 and 496 BCE until Aristagoras of Miletus flees the failing revolt into exile.

Under Darius II, Persia reconquers Ionia and the Greek cities of west Asia in Anatolia, achieved only with the aid of a surprising ally: Sparta and the Peloponnesian League.

The Spartan invasion of Anatolia continues as the incompetent Thibron gives way to Derkylidas and then to Spartan King Agesilaus himself, whose successes topple Tissaphernes, only to be undone by the arrival of Persia's newest ally, Athens.

The story of the 10,000 mercenaries continues straight into the Spartan invasion of the Persian Empire, proof the Greeks kept caring about Persia even after Cyrus died.

Despite defeat in Sicily, reports of Athenian demise in 413 BCE prove exaggerated; by 411 Athens and Sparta clash again in a protracted tug-of-war across the Aegean while Athens itself is seized by political upheaval.

While Darius III gathers forces in the east, Alexander fights the brutal Siege of Halicarnassus; then Darius arrives in person, and east faces west at the Battle of Issus.

In 334 BCE Alexander the Great crosses into Asia to invade the Persian Empire; Darius III, reluctant to intervene himself, leaves it to his Satraps, who are doomed at the Battle of the Granicus.

After the Battle of Issus, Alexander the Great and his Macedonian force move down the Persian Empire's western coast while Parmenion races through Syria; cities surrender easily until the difficult Siege of Tyre.

After his victory at Tyre, Alexander takes Egypt without much of a fight, founds the city of Alexandria, and has himself proclaimed Son of Zeus-Ammon, while Darius III braces for their next grand battle.

After the Battle of the Hydaspes, Alexander the Great moves south through the Indus River Valley, battles the Mallians, and nearly dies besieging their capital; recovered, the Macedonians turn west for home, leaving only Nearchus' fleet and small garrisons behind.

In the final weeks of 331 BCE, Alexander the Great takes Babylon, Susa and Persepolis almost unopposed; by May 330 he claims Ecbatana too and sends Darius III fleeing toward Bactria, though Artaxerxes V leads Achaemenid Persia's final stand instead.

After subduing Bactria, Alexander the Great invades India; the crossing through the Hindu Kush is heavily contested, but the Macedonians conquer each opponent before facing King Porus at the Battle of the Hydaspes River.

After Darius III's defeat at Gaugamela, Alexander tears through the Persian capitals, taking Babylon and Susa unopposed and stalling only at the Battle of the Persian Gates; Persepolis burns and King Darius flees, ceding Ecbatana.

Alexander the Great had many relationships, romantic and familial, from his parents Olympias and Philip to a vast array of step-mothers, siblings, and at least four romantic partners in a Macedonian royal family as vast as it was controversial.

In the Battle of Gaugamela, Alexander the Great finally squares off against Darius III, the Macedonians' first strike at a Persian capital inside Babylonia.

In 324 BCE Alexander the Great takes his first break from war: at Susa he stages the mass marriage of his officers to Iranian noblewomen, then faces mutiny at Opis before Hephaestion dies suddenly at Ecbatana, plunging him into depression.

In 323 BCE Alexander the Great prepares future campaigns: some sources claim he wanted to defeat Carthage, others that he planned to attack Rome, but the most likely target was actually his planned Arabian campaign.

A chat with Derek from the Hellenistic Age Podcast explains the basics of Hellenism, the new era that emerged in the aftermath of Alexander the Great's conquests.

A break from the Seleucids turns to their western neighbors: Egypt under Ptolemy II and Macedon under Antigonus II.

During the Third Syrian War, Seleucus II Callinicus discovers treachery: his younger brother Antiochus Hierax and their relatives in Anatolia try to usurp the throne, forcing a hasty peace with Ptolemy III to face his brother in open civil war.

The Seleucid narrative returns with Antiochus III as the new king; fresh off the deaths of his father and brother, Antiochus is pulled by his nobles as rebellions, wars and scheming advisers take their toll on the Empire.

After the catastrophic Battle of Raphia, Antiochus III turns north to face the rebel royal Achaios and retake Anatolia amid many surprising alliances.

After losing territory in the east to Chandragupta Maurya, the Seleucids still engage their eastern neighbors: late in Seleucus' reign, Megasthenes establishes diplomatic ties, and in later generations diplomacy and trade stabilize both the Maurya and the Seleucids.

Despite his Prime Minister's objections, Antiochus III resolves to march east and face the rebel satrap Molon in 220 BCE, launching a new Grand Tour of the Empire as he travels.

No sooner does the Second War of the Diadochoi end than the Third begins, as Antiognus Monophthalmus tries to seize the whole empire; Ptolemy, Seleucus, Cassander and Lysander rally against him as war spreads from Palestine through Greece to Thrace.

After reclaiming Babylon, King Seleucus consolidates his power over the upper satrapies, but as he works to reclaim the Iranian east, the Mauryan Empire pushes out of India and across the mountains of Gandhara.

Antiochus I succeeds his father Seleucus in 281 BCE and is immediately plunged into revolts, invasion and crises on every side: Ptolemy II seizes land, the reconquest of the northern dynasts is mismanaged, and Gauls suddenly invade Greece.

While Cassander and Polyphercon fight for the regency of Macedon, Antigonus Monophthalmus and Eumenes of Cardia fight for supremacy in the Upper Satrapies; Peithon and Seleucus join Antigonus to defeat Eumenes, making Antigonus the most powerful man in the empire.

Nine Kings of Macedon, eight A-names, seven warring states, six kingdoms, five marriage pacts, four dead successors, three Ptolemies, two wars of succession and one Victor arrive together as the age of the diadochoi ends with a bang.

During and after the Second Syrian War, Antiochus II juggles the Cappadocian monarchy, threats over Bithynia, and Parthia and Bactria's autonomy against the Parni, in a busy mid-3rd Century BCE for the Seleucid Empire.

With Babylonia and the Seleucis of Syria under Ptolemaic occupation, only an Egyptian famine may have saved Seleucus II; freed to go on the offensive, he turns the tide of the Third Syrian War.

After defeating Molon and Alexander in the Upper Satrapies, Antiochus III arranges or accepts the assassination of Hermeias before resuming the Fourth Syrian War against Egypt, as the Seleucids rise toward the Battle of Raphia.

Following the Fourth Syrian War, Ptolemy IV Philopator returns to Egypt to enjoy his victory and leave administration to his advisers, until native Egyptian revolts bring Egypt's royal party to a screeching halt.

The Wars of the Diadochoi continue past 301 BCE, and their Fourth War reaches a dramatic turning point at the Battle of Ipsus, where Antigonus and Demetrius face off against Seleucus, Lysimachus and Pleistarchus.

After sweeping the Balkans, three tribes of Gauls in Thrace draw the attention of the embattled Nicomeides of Bithynia as allies against a Seleucid-backed rival; they cross the Bosporus and sweep through his enemies before turning on war-torn Seleucid Anatolia.

No sooner has Antiochus I defeated the newfound Galatians in Anatolia than war erupts in the south: Magas, brother of Ptolemy II and King of Cyrene, allies by marriage with Antiochus before fighting his brother, dragging the Seleucid Empire along.

A grab bag episode covers Seleukid politics in the last decade or so of Antiochus Soter's reign, with temples, cities and rebellion all making an appearance.

With Antipater's sudden death, the Empire of Alexander the Great is thrown into chaos again: his son Cassander forges an alliance for power, Antigonus hunts Eumenes, Polyphercon struggles in Greece, and Ptolemy quietly expands Egypt.

Though the new Seleucid king Antiochus II starts from a relatively strong position, his reign is immediately derailed by the Second Syrian War, as rebellions, invasions and alliances ensue.

Within two years of Alexander the Great's death his empire shatters into civil war: Perdiccas threatens the nobles to solidify power as regent, and with Eumenes and Alkestas faces down Antipater, Antigonus, Craterus and Ptolemy.

A step back from the narrative looks at what kind of empire Seleucus was actually running, an overview of the realm behind all the wars.

With Antiochus II Theos dead, his wives Laodike and Berenike both push their sons for the Seleucid throne, and both sides call on relatives, the Achaeids and Ptolemies, to plunder and retake the vulnerable Empire.

Having chased his brother out of Asia yet still beaten by the Parthians, Seleucus II returns to Antioch for family drama and another round of war, from the death of Seleucus Callinichus to the reign of Seleucus III Ceranaus.

Winding down Antiochus II Theos means his extended royal family: siblings spread across the Hellenistic world, powerful cousins entrenched in Anatolia, and his two wives, Laodike and Berenike, whose three sons are named Seleucus, Antiochus and Antiochus.

Near the end of the Third War of the Diadochoi, Seleucus retakes his satrapy in Babylon from the neglect of Antigonus Monophthalmus and soon holds the Upper Satrapies, while events in Macedon sunder Alexander the Great's empire.

A new Hellenistic Age is dawning, bringing new Hellenistic gods and beliefs; nearly everyone is at least vaguely familiar with Greek mythology, so the basics get a shared foundation before the story moves further into that world.

A break from the narrative brings a brief introduction to Ancient Greek Philosophy, from Thales to Epicurus.

The story of Orphic religion steps back from mythology to theology, in one of ancient Greece's more unique mystery cults.

A dip into the infamous Ancient Greek mystery cults explores their role in Hellenistic religious life and what makes them so mysterious, with secret rituals, week-long parties and ancient drugs featuring in the Eleusinian Mysteries.