Ancient Greek Maps

  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

Daurises 's reconquest of the Hellespontos progresses from south to north, from Dardanos towards Parion (Hdt 5.117) This implies that he didn't go north on the main road that connects the two regional capitals of the Persians (Sardis to Daskyleion), since then he would have started at Parion in the north instead. But he couldn't have taken the other established road going through the coast of the Troas either, since that region was only recaptured later by Hymaies (5.112). So I show him taking a middle road crossing several mountains north of Mt. Ida instead, but this is admittedly a bit strange. The location of the first battle between the Karians and the Persians must be south of the Maiandros where the Marsyas flows into it. (5.118) This is the only entry point into the Marsyas river valley of the Karians, and the battle plan about crossing the Maiandros also implies that it must have happened here. But I'm not really convinced that the usually accepted location of

These are my notes about the territorial changes shown in the Ionian Revolt videos: Start of the revolt The Ionian Revolt starts with Miletos leaving the Persian Empire in 499 BC, followed by the rest of Ionia, and some parts of Karia and Aiolis in Hdt 5.37 Ionia : Herodotus doesn't specify which Ionians cities rebelled, but I'm assuming that it's the entire 12-city pan-Ionian alliance introduced in 1.142, even though Kolophon and Lebedos never show up during the revolt (the other 10 cities are all mentioned at some point).  I also include the territory of Smyrna, even though the city probably lies in ruins at this point, but Strabo 14.1.37 says the nation still existed in the surrounding villages. I include the other Greek cities that lie between the main 12 Ionian polises, so Marathesion, Pygela, Airai, Myonnesos etc are included as part of Ionia. I'm assuming that all of these were dependencies of the main 12 Ionian polises, but for some of them this is only known fo

Sardis campaign: The Battle of the Pamphylian Sea won by the Eretrians against "Cypriots" is from Plutarch's "On the Malice of Herodotus", it doesn't appear in Herodotus's Histories. The Cypriots here are usually interpreted to mean Phoenicians instead (who made up the bulk of the Persian navy) as it would be very strange if the Cyprus kingdoms that join the revolt later that year fought against the Greeks at the beginning of the uprising. I just write that the fleet is "coming from Cyprus", leaving its identity ambiguous. Eretria being the leading sea power of Greece at the time is a reference to Eusebius's list of Thalassocracies, which lists Eretria from 505-490 BC, so from the time its neighbor and rival Chalkis was taken over be Athens, until its destruction in the first Persian invasion of Greece.   The layout of the city of Sardis in 498 BC is problematic: Herodotus 5.101 describes the Paktolos stream flowing through the city squa

While researching the first Persian invasion of Greece, I was surprised to discover that the origin stories behind the modern-day Marathon and Spartathlon races both involved misunderstandings about the ancient sources that inspired them. Marathon After the Battle of Marathon, the Athenian army runs back to their city before the Persian fleet can get there. The modern-day Marathon race was inspired by the well-known legend of Philippides, a Greek messenger, who runs back to Athens from Marathon, then collapses and dies after announcing that the Athenians have won the Battle of Marathon.  Our main source for the history of the Persian wars is Herodotus , but this legend never appears in his work. Instead of Philippides, Herodotus has the entire Athenian army rushing back to the city before the Persian fleet can get there, and the Athenian soldiers are running the entire 42-kilometer distance in full body armor, whereas a messenger like Philippides would dress as lightly as possible. But