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My Original Assumptions
Wrong Again
Timeline
We read the first page of Book I for my history
class last year so yet again I thought I knew what I was getting into (not to
mention that I had already read a lot of Livy, who I figured had to be exactly
like Herodotus, what with the same title and all
).
I expected a straightforward 'this is what happened according to these people,'
more a primary source history text book than anything else.
The only thing I was right about was that it was worth reading. As I write this I'm taking a break from Book IV and so far Herodotus has said things like: "Not only is the Egyptian climate peculiar to that country, and the Nile different in its behavior from other rivers elsewhere, but the Egyptians themselves in their manners and customs seem to have reversed the ordinary practices of mankind. For instance, women attend market and are employed in trade while men stay at home and do the weaving...To ease themselves they go indoors, but eat outside in the streets, on the theory that what is unseemly but necessary should be done in private, and what is not unseemly should be done openly...They live with their animals - unlike the rest of the world, who live apart from them..." He interrupts his 'history' for literally dozens of pages to go on tangents about geography, some peculiar customs, or even history/mythology from a time other than his general story. I can't decide whether it's more amusing or interesting.
Using Encyclopedia Britannica online I added dates to the events that Herodotus mentions and arranged them in order (which Herodotus rarely does, making this project seem more like a scavenger hunt than a school assignment!).
The Mermnad dynasty:
| When it happened: | What happened: |
| c. 690 B.C. | Gyges seizes Lydian throne. Oracle of Delphi foresees the revenge of the Heraclids in the 5th generation. He attacked Miletus and Smyrna, and captured Colophon. |
| c. 652 B.C | Death of Gyges |
| c. 651-615 B.C. | r. Ardys. Attacked Miletus and captured Priene. |
| c. 615-610 B.C. | r. Sadyattes. |
| c. 610-560 B.C. | r. Alyattes. Made war on Medes and Milesians. Captured Smyrna. Signed truce with Milesians. Died of illness after burning a temple to Athena. |
| c. 560 B.C. | Croesus ascends throne of Lydia. |
| ? | Made all Asiatic Greeks west of the river Halys (except Cilicians and Lycians) pay tribute by attacking them. |
| ? | Formed treaty with Ionian islanders. |
| ? | Atys, son of Croesus, killed |
| ? | An oracle from Delphi told Croesus that if he attacked the Persians he would destroy a great empire and advises him to seek and alliance with the most powerful Greek state. |
| ? | Croesus seeks a pact of friendship and alliance with Sparta. |
| 547 B.C. | First battle between the Persians and Lydians is indecisive. |
| 546 B.C. | 2nd battle, in which Cyrus II's camels defeat Croesus' cavalry, followed by siege of Sardis. Croesus dies. |
The Early Median Dynasty:
| When it happened: | What happened: |
| c. 728-675 B.C. | r. Deioces, founder of Median dynasty. |
| c. 675-653 B.C. | r. Phraotes. Subjugated Persia, attacked Assyrians of Nineveh. |
| c. 625-585 B.C. | r. Cyraxeres. United all of Asia east of the river Halys. |
| c. 585 B.C. | Astyages ascends to the throne |
| ? | Because of a prophetic dream Astyages married his daughter to Cyrus (who was below her rank). |
| ? | Because of a second dream, in which a vine grew from his daughters womb and spread over Asia, he ordered Harpagus to kill Cyrus, his daughter's unborn child. |
| ? | Of course Cyrus survives and is discovered at age ten and allowed to live because Astyages believed that the prophecy had already come true when Cyrus was named 'king' in a children's game. As a punishment for not killing Cyrus Asyages serves Harpagus his son for dinner. |
| ? | For revenge Harpagus convinces Cyrus to overthrow Asyages. |
| c. 550 B.C. | Death of Asyages. |
Rule of Cyrus:
| When it happened: | What happened: |
| c. 550 B.C. | Cyrus inherits Median Empire. |
| c. 546 B.C. | Cyrus defeats Croesus at Sardis. |
| c. 546 B.C. | Ionian Greeks subjugated by Harpagus. |
| October 539 B.C. | Cyrus defeats Babylonia after a short siege. |
| c. 529 B.C. | Cyrus dreams that, Darius, the son of Hystaspes is plotting against him. |
| c. 529 B.C. | Cyrus attacks Massagetae and captures the queen's son, who later kills himself. |
| c. 529 B.C. | The Massagetae attack the Persians and Cyrus is killed on the field. |
Rule of Cambyses:
| When it happened: | What happened: |
| 529 B.C. | Cambyses, son of Cyrus, inherits the throne. |
| 525 B.C. | Cambyses marches against Psammenius (Psamtik III) and invades Egypt. |
| c. 525 B.C. | Cambyses plans to attack Carthage, the Ammonians, and Etiopia. |
| ? | Cambyses leads a badly provisioned attack on Ethiopia which ended in a Persian retreat with heavy losses. |
| ? | Cambyses goes insane. |
| ? | Cambyses orders his brother Smerdis killed because of a prophetic dream. |
| 522 B.C. | Cambyses dies by his own hands. |
| 522 B.C. | Guamata the magus seizes the Persian throne by impersonating Smerdis. |
Rule of the Darius:
| When it happened: | What happened: |
| September 522 B.C. | Darius and six Persian nobles kill Guamata and the magi. To decide who of the 7 nobles was to become king they would each mount their horses and whose horse neighed first after the sun was up would have the throne. Darius (with the help of his groom) won the contest. |
| ? | Darius sends expedition to explore Greek coast. |
| ? | Samos is the first city to fall to Darius, who restores Syloson to the throne. |
| by 519 B.C. | Darius puts down revolts in Babylon and Susa. |
| 519 B.C. | Darius invades Scythia and Indus valley. |
| 513 B.C. | Darius crosses the Danube into European Scythia; the Scythians prepare for the invasion by burning the countryside and force Darius to abandon the invasion because of short supplies. |
| 513 B.C. | Various Satraps conquer Thrace, Macedonia, Lemnos, and Imbros for Persia. |
| 499 B.C. | There is a revolt in Ionia, supported by Athens and Eretria, against the Persians. Darius suppresses the revolt and assigns his son-in-law, Mardonius an expedition against Athens and Eretria. |
| 492 B.C. | Mardonius' fleet is destroyed in a storm. |
| 490 B.C. | The expedition is resumed under Datis, who conquers Eretria, but is defeated by Athens at Marathon. |
| ? | Darius names Xerxes heir. |
| 486 B.C. | Death of Darius., |
Xerxes the Great:
| When in happened: | What happened: |
| 486 B.C. | After the death of his father, Darius, Xerxes becomes king of Persia. |
| 484 B.C. | Xerxes invades Egypt and crushes revolt in Babylon reducing the kingdoms and former allies to his rule. |
| 484–481 B.C. | Urged by Mardonius to revenge Darius' embarrassment at Marathon, Xerxes prepares for an invasion of Greece. |
| 481 B.C. | Xerxes' army builds two bridges across the Hellespont that are destroyed by a storm; the king orders the strait to be lashed as punishment. The bridges were rebuilt and, according to Herodotus, it took 7 days for his army of 5,000,000 men to cross. |
| mid-August 480 B.C. | Battle of Thermopylae (my favorite battle!) ends in a Persian victory. |
| September 21 | Occupied and burned Athens. |
| September 29 | Xerxes navy defeated by Greek fleet. |
| October 480 B.C. | Xerxes, without a navy to back his army, decides to retreat, but leaves a (relatively) small force, under Mardonius, to finish the invasion. |
| August 27 479 B.C. | Mardonius is killed at Platae and the Persians withdraw from Greece. |
| ? | Greek fleet pursues the Persians and wins a decisive battle at Mycale. |
*The background image is a map based on Herodotus explanation of the world (source)*