Accusing the Greeks of violating the union treaty (framed by the «small text» as the protectorate of the Asian state), he invades Greece, but gets repulsed (Marathon battle, 20 years after the battle of Thermopylae, Salamis battle, Plataeus – the expulsion of his son Xerxes).
In the First Peloponnesian (Civil) War, Sparta gained the upper hand, captured Athens, completed the golden age of democracy by the accession of its own oligarchy, devoid of any creative origin. This ceases to please numerous colonies. Eventually, the troops of Thebes (a policy somewhat north of Athens) and the revived Athens themselves, reconcile, unite, free the helots, push the Dorians to their peninsula – where they become, in their own way, a relic, gradually evolving into ordinary Greeks.
Macedonia (the northern part of the Balkans), up to that time, being an ally of Xerxes, places its garrisons on all the still sovereign Greek policies, is preparing to attack Persia.
Alexander of Macedon conquers Persia in 330 BC; in another seven years the state breaks up into Seleucia, Parthia and Egypt. In Egypt, Ptolemy reigns, becoming a new pharaoh.
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1. Assyria is an unparalleled cruel military state, perhaps the first super-drajava in history. Destroyed Scythians, Medes and Babylonians.
2. Developed incredibly, swallowed Israel and Egypt, the Babylonian kingdom.
3. The state of things before the attack of Darius on Greece (which is nominally part of his empire). Let’s pay attention: Macedonia is an ally of Persia.
The beginning of the Chinese civilization. Twenty-eight centuries BC. The first state covered by written sources is Shan-Yin. In the seventh century BC. conquered by the commander of Wu-Wan, now called Zhou. The heyday of Confucianism (the fourth century BC) and Taoism. Zhou is divided into seven belligerent states – Qin, Wei, Zhao, Han, Qi, Yan, Chu. In the two centuries before our era, Emperor Qin Shihuandi conquers them and unites the Qin empire. The parts of the walls of individual northern kingdoms also unite, forming the Great Wall of China. The dictator rules by cruel methods, destroys scientists burns books, however, soon after his death, this entire order, together with the state (and dynasty) Qin, is disintegrating.
Ancient Rome
Seven centuries BC – the foundation of the capital. Two centuries – the royal period. Then – the Republic, invasion of the Gauls, geese, «grief defeated». The war with Great Greece – King Pyrrhus and the catastrophic Pyrrhic victory.
The First Punic War. The struggle with Carthage for Sicily, the foundation of the fleet after the model of a Carthaginian ship thrown ashore by the storm. The action is transferred to Africa, where the victories of the Romans entail euphoria, and then a serious defeat. Remnants of the army are evacuated, on the way back the fleet dies in a storm.
Actions are transferred to Sicily, where the troops of Carthage are commanded by Hamilcar Barca. The forces of the parties are depleted, the Carthaginian fleet is defeated by the curtain. Carthage pays a solid indemnity and renounces Sicily.
The Second Punic War – two centuries BC – Hamilcar Barca perishes, leaving three sons – Hannibal, Magon and Hasdrubal. Hannibal crosses to Italy through the Alps, defeats the Romans at Cannes, after a year tries to take Rome, but for some reason (a thunderstorm interpreted by both sides as the wrath of the gods, or the fall of a meteorite) the battle will not take place. The Romans seize the allied Carthage of Syracuse, and the great scientist of antiquity, Archimedes, dies. The Thirty-thousandth Corps of the Romans, under the command of Scipio of Africa, lands in Africa, makes alliances with local Libyan tribes, and defeats Carthage’s army. Hannibal runs to the king of Antioch, to the south of modern Turkey, takes part in battles against Rome, the second time after the battle of Zama, personally meets Scipio. Then he moves to become Armenia, independent of the Seleucids, where he leads the construction of the capital near modern-day Yerevan, then Bithynia (northern Turkey). The Bithynian king, wishing peace, decides to extradite Hannibal, but the Carthaginian general accepts the poison.
Fifty years of peace, all contributions paid, in 149 BC. the third Punic war begins. Violating the terms of the treaty, the Carthaginians rebuff the local tribe of the Libyans, the official ally of Rome. The thought of Cato the Elder, «Cartago dilindum ess» – Carthage must be destroyed, «repeated every time at a meeting of the Senate, becomes one of the motives for the existence of the Romans. Landed in Africa, the troops begin a siege. Three years later Carthage was taken, burned, plowed, covered with salt for 17 days, so that even the spirits of its former inhabitants could not appear here. The capital of the new Roman province of Africa is the city of Utica, located a few kilometers from the former capital of the eastern power, formerly a stronghold of Roman legionaries. The civilization of Puno-Phoenician Canaanites is almost completely destroyed.
…The Roman Republic, undergoing the tyranny of Sulla and Gaius Maria, hardly reflects the new invasion of the Gauls and Teutons. Then comes the rebellion of Spartacus. Ten years after the suppression of the mutiny, the Caesar-Pompeii-Crass triumvirate is created. Crassus, along with seven legions, perishes in Parthia, (modern Iran and Turkmenistan) formed from the Seleucid state.
Fifty years BC. – the rise of Caesar, the war in the territory of modern France, a brief invasion of Britain. With the death of his wife Pompey, daughter of Caesar, the relative and spiritual ties break down, the commander crosses the Rubicon River, captures Rome. Civil war takes more than a quarter of Roman male citizens. Pompey is trying to hide in Egypt, but is dying off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea under unclear circumstances.
Caesar starts a romance with the heiress of the pharaohs Cleopatra, which, in the end, leads to the inclusion of Egypt in the composition of Rome.
Ancient China
Two hundred years BC. – After the death of Shihuandi in the Han empire, Confucianism is reborn (jusue, school of scribes) – a philosophy that replaces China with religion. Han exists for six hundred years, it is replaced by the Jin dynasty. With it, in the fourth century, North China is captured by the Huns. Two centuries, the Chinese assimilate them, turning into themselves, so that the next dynasty restores the state in full.
…A new series of wars, enlargement of kingdoms, crushing, eventually leads to the emergence of a flourishing, very advanced Tang Empire (636—907), in the east of modern China. The dynasty controls part of Central Asia – Sogdiana, the territory of present-day Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. A native of these regions, the border governor of the «tszedushi» in the service of the emperor, An Lushan persuades the latter to replace a significant number of officers of the «titular nation» at the court with the mercenaries who were loyal to the Sogdian. The further move is the almost unhindered formation of our own army, a campaign to the capital of Chang’an (now the sub-provincial Xian, the location of the famous terracotta army of Qin Shihuandi). Next – a series of intrigues, battles, invasions, wars of all against all, for the emperor, the idea, finally just for food. Soldiers, or simply murderers, are women and children. The greatest city of that time, with a million population, because of the specially thought-out layout of the quarters resembling a chessboard, Chang’an turns into a pile of ruins. All roads of the country are filled with corpses.
