Ancient Greek Maps

Full sized map on deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/ancientgreekmaps/art/The-Persian-satrapies-of-Herodotus-1150623823 This map shows how Herodotus imagined the division of the Persian empire into satrapies, which is fundamentally different from how Persian inscriptions and all the later greek/roman writers describe it. I was originally trying to reconcile Herodotus' evidence with all the other sources to create a single definitive satrapy map, but once you actually plot the Herodotus provinces on a map it quickly becomes undeniable that he was simply wrong in many cases, and that his version is an outlier, while all the other sources paint a relatively coherent picture with only minor differences. Some of Herodotus's provinces, like no. 19, are absurdly small, others like no. 14 and 16 are absurdly large. The southern half of satrapy #16 (Parthia and Aria) is separated from Chorasmia and Sogdiana by the Karakum desert with no road connection between the two halves, and th...

When Babylon fell to the Persian empire in 539 BC, it was probably the most populous city in the known world. It was famous for its thick double walls that were surrounded by a moat, and the city was supposed to be able to withstand a siege for several years. Aside from the city walls there was also an additional, second line of defense, that enclosed a much larger area around the city, more than 50 kilometers on each side. The northern border of this area was the famous "Median Wall" that Xenophon reports about in his Anabasis when the ten thousand Greek mercenaries passed through the region. Only a short section of this wall has been uncovered by archaeologists, but it's clear from the ancient sources that its western endpoint stretched to somewhere beyond Sippar, while its eastern endpoint was the city of Opis. The Babylonians also built a southern wall from Babylon to Kish, and from there towards the Tigris river, but it's not known where exactly the wall intersec...

para. year event 5 1-2 c.512 Persian invasion of Thrace 5 +1 early 6 th century Paionians attack Perinthos 5 3-10 - Thracian tribes 5 11-24 c.512 Persian invasion of Paionia, embassy to Macedonia, Darius at Sardis 5 25-27 c.511 Otanes as Persian governor, captures Lemnos and Imbros 5 28-29 c.550-c.500 internal conflict of Miletos resolved by Paros 5 30-32 500 Naxos invasion planned 5 33-38 499 Persian invasion of Naxos fails, Ionian revolt starts 5 39-41 c. 540 ? Birth of Kleomenes, Dorieus, Leonidas, and Cleombrotus 5 42-43 btw. 524? and 510 Dorieus’s failed colony in Libya 5 44-45 510 Fall of Sybaris 5 46-48 btw. 510 and 490 Dorieus’s failed colony in Sicily and aftermath 5 49-51 499 Ionian embassy to Sparta 5 52-54 - Persian royal road 5 55-56 514 death of the Athenian tyrant Hypparkhos 5 57-61 c. 9 th century Phoenician alphabet introduced to...

  I'm following the Athenian folk history from Herodotus that considered Hipparkhos the real tyrant until his death in 514, but Thucydides and other historians claim Hippias was the true ruler all along even before 514. Kineas of Kondaia , king of Thessaly: Hdt. 5.63 has "Koniaios" as an ethnic name, which most translations change to Gonnoi, but this is not convincing: Gonnoi was in Perrhabia not even in Thessaly proper, and Herodotus mentions it twice in Book 7, so he knows the correct name and location. Other translations make up an unknown city called Konion. But in the video I identify it with Kondaia (Kondaios) instead, a real city in ancient Thessaly. I show Kineas as king of all of Thessaly, following a literal interpretation of Herodotus, but it's possible that he was just one of the many Thessalian princes with the title of "king" appointed to lead the campaign. The Aleuadai of Larisa appear as kings of all Thessaly later in Herodotus (480 BC, at 7...

Sepeia : the exact location is not known, what I'm showing is just a guess.  Siege of Argos : in the narrative of Herodotus, Kleomenes sends most of his army home even before visiting the Heraion, and he never besieges the city of Argos. But the prophecy in 6.77 implies that there was an actual battle between the women of Argos and the Spartans, and this is what happens in Pausanias 2.20.9 and Plutarch's Mul Virt §4. It's impossible to resolve this contradiction so I stick with Herodotus and don't show a siege.  Tiryns and Mykenai becoming Spartan allies: the ancient sources don't explicitly say this, but in 480 they fight against the Persians alongside the members of the Peloponnesian League (Hdt. 9.28) even though Argos explicitly refused to join the anti-Persian alliance. Argos has to recapture Mykenai by force in 468 BC, and the reason cited for the campaign is that the weakened Spartans couldn't come to the aid of Mykenai (Diodoros 11.65.3) which shows tha...

  6.101: I'm not showing the three landing places of Eretria (Temenos, Chioreai, Aigilea) because historians can't seem to agree about what they are. Most translations replace Temenos with Tamynai, a place deep inland and out of place for an invasion of Eretria city, and Aigilea with the Aigleia of 6.107, but that's an island of Styra, not Eretria. I would assume that all 3 landing places are on the coastal plain of Eretria city. For the issues with the modern day Marathon and Spartathlon routes see my previous post . The role played by Aristeides in the battle of Marathon is from Plutarch's Life of Aristeides. Arimnestos is named as the Plataiai leader by Paus. 9.4.2. Herodotos only names Miltiades and Stesileos of the ten generals. Plutarch also calls Cynegeirus and Polyzelus generals, but the wording in Hdt 6.114 contradicts this, and it would be really strange if the Athenians lost 4 of their 11 leaders when they only had 192 casualties (with the 2 confirmed losses...