Ancient History

Discussion in 'Historical Events Coffee House' started by GeneralofCarthage, Dec 1, 2011.

  1. GeneralofCarthage Well-Known Member

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    Anyone have anything to say?
  2. slydessertfox Total War Branch Head

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    Any specifics?
  3. GeneralofCarthage Well-Known Member

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  4. slydessertfox Total War Branch Head

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    Well then the Romans were awesome.
  5. GeneralofCarthage Well-Known Member

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    Yeah
  6. Romulus211 Proconsul

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    Romans <3

    Phalanx <3

    Carthage Fuck them.
  7. GeneralofCarthage Well-Known Member

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    Hey now don't go too far lol
  8. UnitRico Well-Known Member

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    Those Neanderthals. Damn where they sexy.

    Oh, crap, went too far back in time.

    Ehrm, so, yeah, Romans...pretty cool guys.
  9. slydessertfox Total War Branch Head

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    If only they didnt get corrupt.
  10. Viking Socrates I am Mad Scientist

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    ASSYRIANS MOTHER FUCKERS. (But i did do a report on one of my favorite battles of Ancient times)

    Battle of Thermopylae by Viking Socrates

    Thermopyales the coast of mainland Greece, on August 470 B.C.E a Greek army of only seven thousand men and 300 Spartans lead by king Leonidas fought there against a quarter million invasion force lead by Xerxes the king of Persia, at stake the future of Greek civilization

    The Greek world at the time was not a unified state but a bunch of city states like Athens, Marathon, and of course Sparta. But the Greeks city states lived under the shadow of their Persian neighbors who controlled an empire that span from the Indus River to the Nile, the Persian Empire was the most powerful empire of the ancient world and no force could stop it. But even with this vast stretch of land, it was not enough for Xerxes, whose father Darius had fought against the Greeks, Who had declared war after the failed Ionian Revolt and then demanded the Greeks to submit to the Persians, and as to prove this. They had to show a Gift of earth and water to Persian ambassadors. The Majority of the Greek states complied easily already fearful of the large Persian shadow, except most notable Athens and Sparta whose reply to the Persian king Darius was swift for In Athens, however, the ambassadors were executed by throwing them in a pit to receive 'earth'; in Sparta, they were thrown down a well to receive 'water'. This meant that Sparta was also effectively at war with Persia.
    The Greeks however would not be fighting against Darius, who had died on his way to crush an Egyptian revolt; they would be fighting against Darius’s son Xerxes who quickly ended the Egyptian revolt. After this Xerxes gathered up his armies into a force of a quarter of a million men, some counts claim half a million men. The Persian armies’ footsteps could be heard across Greece and there “barbaric” language gave fear into the hearts of the Greeks.
    The Athenian and Spartan people had been preparing for the invasion for a long time, Support thus began to coalesce around these two leading states. A congress of city states met at Corinth in late autumn of 481 BC, and a confederate alliance of Greek city-states was formed. It had the power to send envoys asking for assistance and to dispatch troops from the member states to defensive points after joint consultation. This was remarkable for the disjointed Greek world, especially since many of the city-states in attendance were still technically at war with each other.
    One by one the Greek city states fell; it seemed as though the Persians could not be stopped. The Persians where well on their way to capture Athens (the foundation of democracy) but there was but one last obstacle in their path to Athens, Thermopyales. A strategic mountain path and choke point for the vast Persian armies, and the Athens made sure the Persians could not get around Thermopyales by sea; the Athenian navy blocked the straits of Artemisium.
    Then the de facto military leaders of the Greek alliance where the Spartans. The king Leonidas realizing that something needed to be done sooner than later, took 300 men from his hippeis bodyguard and a large number of support troops on his way to Thermopyales. The oracle of Delphi had the following to say about the upcoming battle.
    “O ye men who dwell in the streets of broad Lacedaemon!
    Either your glorious town shall be sacked by the children of Perseus,
    Or, in exchange, must all through the whole Laconian country
    Mourn for the loss of a king, descendant of great Heracles.”

    Now Thermopyales was a very interesting place, for it turned what had once had been the Persians greatest strength into a weakness, the Persians in order to go through the valley where forced to bottleneck there armies and as such where forced to meet the Spartan army head on, the Spartan army who train and breath military warfare hades all they do is train, and on the battlefield of Thermopyales the Persians would know what it was like to face not men but Spartans, full blown military machines.
    Four days before the battle was set to begin, our old pale Xerxes sent a Persian Emissary to “negotiate” with Leonidas; the Greeks where offered their freedom and the title "Friends of the Persian People," moreover they would be re-settled on better land than they currently possessed. When these terms were refused by Leonidas, the ambassador asked him more forcefully to lay down his weapons; Leonidas responded with Μολὼν λαβέ which translate to “Come and get theme”
    so with this the finally battle become inevitable, if the Persians win then history is changed forever not just Greek history, but world history from America to china to Italy thus all eyes are upon this battle.
    On the 5th day the Persian king Xerxes finally decided to attack, he sent a group of Medes to launch a frontal assault against the Greeks who fought in front of the Phocian wall, at the narrowest point of the path. The first wave of Medes where crushed and killed, it is said that during the course of the battle Xerxes leaped from his seat three times. According to Ctesias, the first wave was “cut to bloody ribbons” with only two or three Spartans dyeing.
    Xerxes having taken the measure of the enemy threw his best troops into a second assault the same day: the Immortals, an elite corps of 10,000 men. However, the Immortals fared no better than the Medes had, failing to make headway against the Greeks. The Spartans apparently used a tactic of feigning retreat, and then turning on, and killing the enemy troops when they ran after the Spartans
    The second day of the battle, was much like the first day (tough a few more Spartans died, as indicated by their ancient twig dog tags) at long last Xerxes stopped the assault and withdrew to his camp, utterly perplexed and stunned on what to do next.
    Traitors, the worse of the worse of scum, and no traitor fares better than the “nightmare”, Ephialtes who informed the Persian king of the mountain path around Thermopylae and offered to guide the Persian army. It is said Ephialtes was motivated by the desire of a reward.
    Xerxes commanded that Hydarnes, the rest of the immortals, and 20,000 troops flank behind the Greeks via the pathway, they quickly destroyed the Phocians troops with a horde of arrows, which the Phocians where stationed to prevent such a flanking by the Persians.
    Learning from a runner that the Phocians had not held the path, Leonidas called a council of war at dawn. Some of the Greeks argued for withdrawal, but Leonidas resolved to stay at the pass with the Spartans. Many of the Greek contingents then either chose to withdraw or were ordered to leave by Leonidas. The contingent of 700 Thespians, led by their general Demophilus, refused to leave with the other Greeks but committed themselves to the fight. Also present were the 400 Thebans, and probably the helots that had accompanied the Spartans, all were prepared to fight to the death
    it is however unknown why Leonidas decided to make him and the Spartans stay, maybe it was to prove the notions that Spartans never retreated, or because of the famous prophecy about his death, or even more to give the retreating Greeks time to well retreat. What is even more unknown is why the Thebans stayed behind and fought against the Persians, the Thebans who city had been loyal to the Persians and accepting of the submission to Persian will.

    the night before the battle Leonidas is said to have uttered to famous phrase Tonight we dine in hades
    The Greeks advanced from the Phocian wall to meet the Persians in a much wider part of the path and to slaughter as many Persians as they could. The Greeks fought with spears and xiphē (short swords). In the fighting is said that two of Xerxe’s brother died; Abrocomes and Hyperanthes. Eventually tough the Spartan king Leonidas fell, shot by Persian archers (which archery had always been seen by the Spartans as a weak means of warfare, that fighting from a distance is a sign of weakness and cowardliness) the two sides fought over Leonidas body, with the Greeks taking procession. Eventually Xerxes summon forced the Immortals, which the Greeks redrew and took a stand behind the Phocian wall. The Thebans surrendered to the advancing immortals, who slaughtered a couple Thebans just in case.
    Tearing down part of the wall, Xerxes ordered the hill surrounded, and the Persians rained down arrows until every last Greek was dead, an ironic way for the Spartans to die killed by the weapon they hated the most.


    Aftermath: Xerxes told his men to search for Leonidas body, after finally finding the body, Xerxes ordered his head be cut off and fixed on a spear, while his body be crucified. This was very unusually for the Persians to do who usually honored warriors like Leonidas, tough it could be Xerxes was full with rage. After the Persians' departure, the Greeks collected their dead and buried them on the hill. After the Persian invasion ended, a stone lion was erected at Thermopylae to commemorate Leonidas. A full forty years after the battle, Leonidas' bones were returned to Sparta where he was buried again with full honors; funeral games were held every year in his memory. Eventually the Persian armies reach Athens, which its citizens had already been evacuated to salamis. The Persian where then force to fight a naval battle with the Peloponnesian Greeks, called the Battle of Salamis, where the Persian fleet was crushed by the Greek fleet.
    Xerxes and his Persian army now retreated with much of the army back to Asia, though nearly all of them died of starvation and disease on the return. He left a handpicked force under Mardonius to complete the conquest the following year. However, under pressure from the Athenians, the Peloponnesians eventually agreed to try to force Mardonius to battle, and marched on Attica. Mardonius retreated to Boeotia to lure the Greeks into open terrain and the two sides eventually met near the city of Plataea. There, at the Battle of Plataea, the Greek army won a decisive victory, destroying much of the Persian army, and ending the invasion of Greece. Meanwhile, at the near-simultaneous naval Battle of Mycale they also destroyed much of the remaining Persian fleet, thereby reducing the threat of further invasions

    now the significance of that battle. The battle of Thermopylae was by far the most significant battle of all ancient history. Tough it was a still a military defeat for the Greeks, it was morale booster. For the Persians I would go so far as to claim it was a Pyrrhic victory. This battle showed the heroism of the Greek people and their willingness to stand together to fight a common enemy in the name of the Greeks and of course for the Athenians “Democracy”



    and as such I leave you with the following quotes by the historian Plutarch and the great roman speaker cicero.

    Plutarch "So almost immediately, contemporary Greeks saw Thermopylae as a critical moral and culture lesson. In universal terms, a small, free people had willingly outfought huge numbers of imperial subjects who advanced under the lash. More specifically, the Western idea that soldiers themselves decide where, how, and against whom they will fight was contrasted against the Eastern notion of despotism and monarchy — freedom proving the stronger idea as the more courageous fighting of the Greeks at Thermopylae, and their later victories at Salamis and Plataea attested."

    Cicero ““Our army is great,” the Persian says, “and because
    of the number of our arrows you will not see the sky!”
    Then a Spartan answers: “In the shade, therefore, we will fight!”
    And Leonidas, king of the Spartans, shouts: “Fight with spirit,
    Spartans; perhaps we will dine today among the ghosts!”


    ALSO THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA---- SORRY HAD TO IT
    FeyBart and slydessertfox like this.
  11. slydessertfox Total War Branch Head

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    You got this from Decisive Battles.
  12. GeneralofCarthage Well-Known Member

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    Why not call it a Persian Victory? Persia lost more men than Pyrrhus to a smaller army too.
  13. Viking Socrates I am Mad Scientist

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    I watched alot of that before doing it, besides it was one of those (OH FUCK I FORGOT TO DO MY REPORT) type of situations so i had to get it from anywhere.


    THANK GOD FOR THE DVR AND SOME BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE.
  14. GeneralofCarthage Well-Known Member

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    Well I did my Language arts essay on Rome, Greece, and Carthage. 2 pages per paragraph on that one. Though we only had to have 5 sentences per paragraph. lol
  15. slydessertfox Total War Branch Head

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    lol. I kinda did my Roman website thing for tech off of Decisive Battles. My tech teacher had no idea and now e uses the website as examples for the other classes. trolololol.

    edit: 6,000 POSTS! WOOT!
  16. Viking Socrates I am Mad Scientist

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    the teacher look at my paper and went "I said take it easy not go all out your first one"

    and woot 6,000.
  17. slydessertfox Total War Branch Head

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    lol. I love when the teachers do not know about the topic you are talking about. Like I would always do history in my honors english class for my writing and my english teacher would think I was putting a lot of effort into it because she knew nothing about it.
  18. Viking Socrates I am Mad Scientist

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    My teacher knows alot, and oh the arguments we have. But shes a great teacher and historian.

    I laughed so hard when she said was a Libertarian and my entire class was like "What is that", sadly however because of budget cutbacks in the school we had to cut out the majority of the ancient world (we got two days on rome and then skiped right into the crusades)
  19. slydessertfox Total War Branch Head

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    We have had only one grade where we actually discussed anything about Rome...that was in 6th grade. Every other year was fucking American history. Sadly we were not even able to cover all of the American history with like 6 years of having it...
  20. Viking Socrates I am Mad Scientist

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    Lady in class "The american revolution was..."
    Teacher " Fuck American revolution its all about the french revolution, viva NAPOLEON"

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