Matthew Jankowski > Recent Status Updates

The Allied Congress at Sparta: Corinth gives great speech.dorians vs Ionians! Let the war begin...One year from now. "What an appalling thing to imagine that, while their allies never stop bringing in contributions to maintain their own slavery, we, (dorians)whose aims are vengeance and survival, should hesitate to incur the expense!"

Delian League: how Athens became so powerful. Really, this section was pretty confusing. I would need to sit down with a map to work it all out. Safe to say there wasn't much peace in Greece!

Sparta Votes for War: archidamus gives a speech for moderation, the ephor stuenelais gives more inflammatory speech. Assembled Spartans declare war! Moderation vs growing powerful innovation.

Flashpoint Potidaeus: A city located on one of the westernmost 'fingers' of Greece. The Greeks rightly feared Potidaeus would revolt, bringing the region with it. Perdiccas, son of Alexander of Macedonia, supported revolt against Athens, he needed a buffer. Aristeus brought troops from Corinth. Battle ensued. Perdiccas led from olynthos, Athenians prevail.

Corcyra: Corinth and Peloponnesus clash with Athens and Corcyra Ina sea battle. Something of a draw. Corinth more opposed to Athens now. Nice speeches trying to gain Athenian support.

Epidamnus: Founded by Corinth, epidamnus was a colony of Corcyra. Epidamnus democrats warred with the aristocrats. Corcyra, swayed by the aristocrats, beseiges epidamnus. Corinth supports the democrats. Corinth loses a sea battle. Corcyra reigns supreme.

Introduction: the reason for the war was the growth of Athenian power and the fear it caused the Spartans.

The Bacchants: Tiresias and Cadmus make ready to go dance with the Bacchants. Pentheus, cadmus's grandson by agave, hates the Bacchants for he follows rational appollo. He impressions a stranger who escapes and simultaneously palace is destroyed, the stranger, who is really Dionysius, convinces pentheus's wear women's clothes and spythe Bacchants. The stranger cause pentheus's to be revealed, agave kills pentheus.

Hippolytus: he follows chaste Artemis. Phaedra, his fathers wife but not his mother, loves Hippolytus. She commits suicide, blaming Hippolytus wrongly. Theseus expels Hippolytus, calls in a favor from Poseidon who has Hippolytus grievously injured in a chariot accident. Artemis appears to Theseus, he knows Hippolytus was innocent and Athena is to blame. Artemis promises to kill the next mortal Athena loves.

Medea: don't mess with Medea! Jason loses, wife, children and noble father in law to Medea. The introduction did a nice job providing context, though too much. Read the I traditions after the first read through.

Medea: Don't mess with Medea! Jason, of Argo nuts fame, loses his pretty new wife, noble father in law, and children all in one blow from Medea. Portrait of a woman scorned.

I'm on page 610 of 786 of The Icon and the Axe: Chapter 8: phew"! The naval battle during thermypylae, the political wrangling heading up to salamis. Themistocles influential Athenian, mardonus the Ionian I think, eurybates the spartan in charge of the fleet. battle of salamis, xerxes retreat to Hellespont, protect bridge from Greek fleet. Themistocles beseiges Greek islands to extort money. Alexander the Macedonia b

Chapter 8: phew"! The naval battle during thermypylae, the political wrangling heading up to salamis. Themistocles influential Athenian, mardonus the Ionian I think, eurybates the spartan in charge of the fleet. battle of salamis, xerxes retreat to Hellespont, protect bridge from Greek fleet. Themistocles beseiges Greek islands to extort money. Alexander the Macedonia brings bribe from mardonus, Athenians refuse.

Chapter 7: Thermopylae xerxes moves down the coast. AME Greeks join him. Athens and Sparta give him the finger. Leonidas and the 300 defend the pass. Xerxes loses 400 ships should have listened to artabanus.

Chapter 7: Darius dies. Xerxes, son of atossa, takes over. Artabanus argues against invading Greece. Mardonus argues for. Zeroes changes his mind a few times but a ghost convinces him and zeroes to invade Greece. An awesome host is assembled and enumerated, Old Testament style. Poor Pythias eldest son cut in half. The Persians do that an awful lot.

Read this a while back. How to journey safely to Ra, I guess.

Chapter 6: The Persians squelch the rebellion; Miletus and the Ionians are brought to heel. The Persians seek revenge on the Athenians, but are turned back at Marathon. Militiades, who causes much trouble and leads at Marathon, dies.

Darius asks 'who are the Athenians?' Setting the stage for chap 6, and sets out to punish Ionia. flees the trouble he cause in Ionia. Dieting in Thrace. End chapter 5.

Aristagoras reaches Athens at just the right time. The Athenians assist Miletus, burning Sardis. Aristagoras plots to bug king Darius.

Chapter 5.7: cleistthenes takes popular control of Athens, thwarting cleomenes and is abroad. Cleisthtese sends envoy to Sardis, envoy's basically give away the farm. Cleomenes raises Peloponnesus army to take revenge on cleistthenes.

Chter 5.6: aristagoras fails to persuade cleomenes, king of Sparta. Diogenes dies for not listening to the oracle, he ought have waited. Aristagoras attempts to convince the Athenians.

Chapter 5.5:aristagoras, king of Miletus, finds himself in dire straits and leads a revolt. He sets people freeso they will support and then goes to lacedaemonia to whip up some support.

Chapter 5.3 Aristagoras insults megabytes. Megabates thwarts the invasion of Naxos.

Chapter 5.1 Alexander of Macedonia kills 7 Persians.

Chapter 5.1: how the Persians came to conquer the paeonians. Meabazus came at them from Theace.

Chapter 4 end: bar a is besieged, putatively for recent on arecelias because he tried to take the public land. The Egyptians fool the barcans by swearing an oath on weak soil. Even the barcans women's breast end up on spikes. Cyrene does not get captured and the Egyptians just go home.

Chapter 4.?: after Darius left the scythians alone, herotodus turns to Libya. The lacedaemons and other assorted Greeks are told by the Parthia to colonize Libya. They can't really find Libya so they attempt to colonize Thera which I think is an isla d off Libya. With strong prompting dro the pythia the greeks ecentually coloniZe.Eventually the Persian rulers of Egypt become I retested in Libya and mount an invasion.

Chapter 4.4: scythians lead Darius through the lands of all the allies who refused to fight. Darius realizes scythians really despise him and that he will not win. Ionians at Bosporus trick the scythians by pretending to break the bridge. The egyptian with the loudest voice in the world summons them back. :) scythians despise Ionians.

Chapter 4.2 ozysomeone asks Darius to let one of his three sons stay behind. Darius says all three sons may stay, slitting the throats of all of them. Ionians stay behind to guard the bridge. Amazons marry scythians forming the sauritanians or so e such truly interesting. Everyone is a little worried that the Persians might not even see a nomadic Scythian.

Scythia appears to be roughly Iran, north of Black Sea, Caspian Sea.