Notes for the video "Sparta before the Persian invasion"

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 that they had some kind of defensive alliance with Sparta. Tiryns is recaptured around the same time.

I ignored the Thessaly reference at Hdt 6.74, as it makes no geographical sense.

The helot uprising in Messenia in 490 is from Plato's Laws 698.

I placed the Herakleia of Dorieus at Drepana - this is pure speculation, but it must be around the coast and near Eryx, so the logical place for it is the harbor of Eryx. Diodoros 4.23.3 claims that it became such a prominent city that Carthage itself felt threatened by it, so it needs an advantageous spot.

Aigina taking Eretria's place as the leading sea power is based on Eusebius' list of thalassocracies. Plutarch's Themistokles at 4.1 also says that they controlled the sea and had more ships than Athens.

Themistokles using the revenue from the mines to build ships is from Hdt. 7.144. The date of 493 BC is from Aristotles's Constitution of the Athenians 22.7.

Aigina's status as a Spartan ally is problematic: In 6.92 the Spartans "compel" Aigina to supply ships for their war against Argos, and the other supplier, Sikyon, is a member of the Peloponnesian League. And in 6.50 it's stated that the Spartan state has a right to remove the leaders of Aigina. Both of these show that Aigina was in some sense subservient to Sparta in the 490s. But they are clearly no longer a Spartan ally in the 480s when they fight a war against Athens, and Korinthos (a member of the Peloponnesian League) supplies ships to the Athenians. And Aigina doesn't act like a Spartan ally in the c. 506 BC war either (5.81). So I show Aigina in red to mark it as a Spartan ally in the 490s, but not before or after. It's not clear if this alliance should count as a true membership in the "Peloponnesian League", and the ancient sources never distinguish between different levels of allies.

Chronology:

Herodotus doesn't provide a precise date for the Battle of Sepeia. Pausanias 3.4.1 claims it happened immediately after Kleomenes had become king, which would be around 524 BC. But modern historians usually put it 30 years later, at c.494 BC to synchronize it with the fall of Miletos, as the two events were allegedly predicted by the same prophecy (Hdt 6.19 and 6.77). Several references in Herodotus imply that it happened in the 490s rather than in the 520s: 6.83 where Tiryns is recaptured (probably in the 460s) from the slaves that started the revolution after Sepeia, 6.92 where Argos in the 480s is still upset about Aigina supplying ships against them, and 7.148 where Argos in 480 BC still hasn't fully recovered from the "recent" war. I display "490s" for the Argos war.

The Sparta-Aigina story line that starts at 6.48 begins in 491 BC when the Persian king demands "earth and water" a year before the invasion of 490. But it's impossible to tell which of the later events that take place at Sparta fall in 491 and which ones in 490. And the death of Kleomenes and Demaratos fleeing could even be pushed into 489, as they don't have to happen before Marathon. I display "491-490 BC" for these. 

As for the Athens-Aigina war and the kidnapping at Sounion that triggers it, a naive reading of Herodotus would compress all that into 490 BC before Marathon, but that's clearly unrealistic, and it also makes no sense for the Spartans to ask for the release of the pro-Persian leaders of Aigina if Persia hasn't been defeated yet at Marathon. The Constitution of the Athenians 22.7 shows that the Athens-Aigina conflict was still active in 483 BC. The festival held every four years at Sounion is usually dated to 489 BC by modern historians so I used that date, and for the rest of the war I just display "480s".

The death of Dorieus: He certainly died before Kleomenes did in 490 BC (7.205), but 5.45-46 makes it sound like it happened immediately after the 510 BC sacking of Sybaris, while 7.158 implies that it happened during or shortly before Gelon's reign. Gelon came to power somewhere between 494 (when it's still Hippokrates who welcomes the Samians at Zankle) and 491 when he first shows up as tyrant of Gela (but not of Syrakousai yet). The latter clue in Herodotus is more convincing to me, and it leaves time for Herakleia to grow into a prominent city (Diod 4.23.3) so I display "490s" for his death.