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Persians
GREAT KINGS OF PERSIA
ACHAEMENIDS |
| Achaemenes |
|
| Teispes |
675-640 |
| Cyrus I |
640-600 |
| Cambyses I |
600-559 |
| Cyrus (Kurush) II, the Great |
559-530 |
overthrows Medes, 550;
conquers Lydia, 547;
conquers Babylon, 539 |
| Cambyses (Kambujiya) II |
530-522 |
 conquers Egypt, 525;
XXVII DYNASTY
of Egypt |
|
Darius (Darayavahush) I |
522-486 |
invades Greece, defeated at the
battle of Marathon, 490 |
| Xerxes (Xshayarsha) I |
486-465 |
invades Greece, defeated at the battles
of Salamis and
Platea, 480, 479 |
Artaxerxes (Artaxshassa) I
Longimanus |
465-424 |
| Xerxes II |
424-423 |
| Darius II |
423-404 |
| Egypt breaks away, 404 |
| Artaxerxes II Mnemon |
404-359 |
|
Artaxerxes III Ochus |
359-338 |
reconquers Egypt, 343;
"XXXI" DYNASTY |
| Arses (Arsha) |
338-336 |
| Darius III Codomannus |
336-330 |
| Macedonian Conquest |
Cyrus the Great overthrew, in turn, the Medes, Lydians, and Babylonians, suddenly creating an empire far larger than even the Assyrian. Cyrus was better able, through more benign policies, to reconcile his subjects to Persian rule; and the longevity of his empire was one result. The Persian king, like the Assyrian, was also "king of kings,"
xshayathiya xshayathiyânâm (shâhanshâh in modern Persian) -- "great king,"
megas basileus, as known by the Greeks. Alexander the Great, after he ultimately overthrew the Persians, deliberately assumed the universal pretensions of the Achaemenid kings, but the division of his empire after his early death eliminates any factual universality until the Roman Empire.
| KINGS OF MACEDONIA |
| Peridiccas I |
7th Cent. |
| Aeropus I |
|
| Alcetas I |
d.500 |
| Amyntas I |
500-498 |
Alexander I
Philhellene |
498-454 |
| Philip I |
d.c.430 |
| Alcetas II |
d.c.411 |
| Perdiccas II |
454-413 |
Archelaus
Philhellene |
413-399 |
| Orest |
399-c.397 |
| Aeropus II |
c.397-c.392 |
| Amyntas II |
c.392-c.390 |
| Amyntas III |
c.390-370 |
| Alexander II |
370-368 |
| Perdiccas III |
368-360 |
| Amyntas IV |
360-359 |
| Philip II |
359-336 |
Conquest of Greece
at Chaeronea, 338 |
Alexander III
the Great |
336-323 |
Macedonia quietly grew into a power that, under Philip II, would dominate Greece and, in short order, turn against Persia. It is a little odd to think of all these monarchs, so important in Greek history, as not actually being Greek; but, like neighboring
Epirus, they are not. A revealing point in this respect is the epithet "Philhellene" of Alexander I. No Greek needs to be called "loving the Greeks." Exactly what the linguistic affinities of the Macedonians were is unclear. That it could be to the later Illyrians, or Thracians, or even modern
Albanians, is always possible, but the matter is largely speculative. Whatever it was, the Philhellenism of the Kings soon created a layer of Greek culture that made them seem proper Greeks to everyone except, of course, the actual Greeks. The Macedonian monarchy itself also struck the Greeks as rather un-Greek. When Philip added his own statue to a procession of the Twelve Olympians, his assassination shortly thereafter suggested that the gods had been offended. If so, his son, Alexander III, was untroubled, initiating Hellenistic practice by assuming divine attributes -- something else to scandalize the Greeks, if by then anyone actually cared. The modern
Macedonians are actually Slavs, but nearly everything about both the ancient and modern peoples is disputed by them and by
Modern Greeks.
Egypt, which was added to the Persian empire by Cyrus's son Cambyses, frequently revolted against the Persians. The Persian invasion of Greece in 490 was in part to be punishment of the Greeks for helping the Egyptians in these revolts. Since the invasion of 480 was then in revenge for the failure of the invasion of 490, we could say that the consequences of Greek interference in Egypt were persistent. But the Egyptians and the Greeks kept at it, and
eventually...
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