[Multi AAR] History of men

[stormer]

I would enjoy it no doubt.

[Fixiwee]

On a large enough time line, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero.
-Chuck Palahniuk

Death of Kûrus

Excerpt from “Life and Death of Kûrus” by Professor James Marshal, 1994 Chicago
With Damaskus in his hand Kûrus gained the Levant, thus enabling him sea trade in the Mediterranean. Sidon and Jerusalem acknowledged the Persian Empire and subdued to Kûrus. The next couple of years Kûrus spent his time quelling the last resisting cities that once belonged to the Neo-Babylonian Empire. During that time Darayawus, one of his best generals, started an attack on the Median empire. After some victories he got terribly beaten and killed by the Medians in 539BC, which ended the first try to expand into the Median territory[13]. Following defeat the Medians started invading the Persian Empire at Susim and Babylon. Kambûjiya, Kûrus' son, who was in command over Babylon would spent all his power to repel the Medians.


Who is James Marshal again?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

James Marshal is currently a professor at the University of Chicago. He is one of the most renown historians on the Babylonian and Persian empire.

Vidarna – History of Parsa (real title of the book is unknown)
(written at about 530-500 BC)

Book IX
[...]
7. It was the end of the Persian year and mighty and divine king Kûrus was spending the days at the city of Sidon. There he oversaw the rebuilding of the old Phoenician towns. He loved to spent his days at Sidon because Kûrus loved the sea and the fresh air. He was now 63 years old and yet he was of astounding health, he rode his beloved horse every day for hunting and spent an hour swimming because it made him healthy. But at the end of the year he suddenly fell terribly ill. His doctors came and did what they could. But Kûrus knew his time was coming. He said: "Auramazdā is calling me. Do not dwell on my death for I have lived long and accomplished much. I have done many good things and this is my our beloved god who made me strong and healthy is giving me a death without much suffering." He sent his doctors away, spoke to his generals and told them to aid his son in his upcoming rule. The next morning he passed away in peace, for Kûrus has reigned in the name of peace and brought it to those who wished him ill.



Cont. Excerpt from “Life and Death of Kûrus” by Professor James Marshal, 1994 Chicago

Kûrus had laid down the foundation to the Persian Empire. In 20 years he had fought and destroyed the whole Neo-Babylonian empire. His reign went over to his son without any internal troubles. Nevertheless the new King Kambûjiya faced a difficult situation for Demonsthenes tells us that the Empire was attacked on several fronts by the Medians.
With Kûrus not only a mighty military leader died, but also the historic written sources disappeared. Demonsthenes is the only source who retells parts of the Persian history after Kûrus and he leaves out certain years. The conquest of Media by the Persians remains obscure and only vague details can be reconstructed.

Over all Kûrus was a potent military genius. I have tried to draw certain lines between Alexander and him in this book because one gave birth to the Persian empire in a few years and the other one destroyed it fulminatly. Nevertheless Kûrus was not Alexander. Kûrus led simple warriors to conquered a professional army, while Alexander already had a professional army. But Kûrus was not without flaws. As Sargot demonstrated in his works, Kûrus was financial inapt, his empire was not structured well and he lost much money due to corruption and weak taxation. It took his son to reform the system.
All in all Kûrus was a devout man who believed in his own principles. His liberal ideas, like freeing the Jews from the Babylonians, made Sargot give him the title of the "first humanist of the world". I couldn't agree more.


Tomb of Kûrus, Iran

[Fixiwee]

Some behind the scene update: I'm gonna speed up the pace of Rise of Persia now. I am progressing very slowly in my campaign due to the nerve killing AI of RTW. I beg your pardon that it wont be as many "battles" for now, but there will be plenty of that in a while. If you read it, that was actually planed in some ways, hence the lacking sources that tell us what happened in detail.

[Edward lV]

Great work man.

[Fixiwee]

You can't pick up two melons with one hand.
Eastern Proverb

Campaign against Media

“Iranian empires” by François Sargot - 1853, Paris

The death of Kûrus saw no change in the Persian Expansion. During his campaign against the Levant, his son and heir Kumbûjya gathered troops in Persia and Babylon to start a campaign against the Median empire. When Kûrus died, Kumbûjiya became King without any troubles and was ready to lead his armies into Media.
But who was Kumbûjiya? Our only source for him is the Greek historian Menesthenes, who certainly did not read any Persian sources, but only Egyptian ones a century later. His account is somewhat biased on Persian cliches that the Greeks had, like for example the story of his deeds as a Persian warrior. Nevertheless we do get the picture that Kumbûjya was a smart man and brilliant military leader. It is important to note that he officially had two courts. One in Persepolis, the old capital, and a new one in Babylon. He decentralized the Persian empire, made it financially and militarily more flexible. In 535 BC his army were ready to march against Media.


Kumbûjiya laying siege and conquering the Median border city Bagastana in 535 BC

"Tales of History" by Menesthenes
(written about 450 BC)

King Kumbûjiya brought his two armies, one from Persepolis, one from Babylon together at the city of Susim. It was one of the biggest armies of the time, so big that the people of Susim had to live in ration for 2 years to have all the soldiers fed when they came; and a whole forest at Persepolis had to be cut down to supply all the thousand archers with arrows. But the King was an able man, even more then his famous father, he had managed to gather a large force to unleash against the most hated enemy of the Persians: The Medians.
Tales of this campaign are told up to the Egyptian part of the Persian empire to this date, for the battles were numerous and very tough. The Medians were a fine enemy indeed, since they inflicted one or two terrible losses to Kumbûjiya. It is told that even in a battle that he was about to lose he and five of his best Riders would charge against a group of Median spearmen to help a few of his own soldiers from encirclement. When asked why he would so such brave deeds he would say: "I am a soldier first, a man second. My soldiers are brothers and sons to me." Five years later king Kumbûjiya would face the Median king Uvaxstra, yet another warrior king of the east and defeat him and his empire. Uvaxstra was said to fled to the far east and never heard of again, the rest of the Medians surrendered to the mighty Persian king.

Who was Menesthenes?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Menesthenes was a Greek philosopher and historian who lived on the island of Kos. He was the very first man to write down a universal history of mankind. Only the Tales of history survived to the modern days but the book is written mostly from his point of view. His work is the only source for many ancient events which make it difficult or nigh impossible to read them from a critical point of view. Without the Tales of history though we would know nearly nothing about certain periods so it indisputably remains an important historic source.

The Medians and the Persians had fierce and terrible battles during the Median Campaign. The Persian-border wars that precieded the Median campaign saw terrible losses at both sides and enchaned the brutality to the war.

Cont. “Iranian empires” by François Sargot - 1853, Paris

The war was fierce but short. Most of the battles probably took place in the Bagastana dale, eventually leading to the defeat of the Median king. By 532 BC Kumbûjiya had defeated the Medians and occupied most of their country, though it took him untill 530 BC to gain all the remaining Median eras. But in 531 a new conflict had broken out. The reasons for this remain totally obscure to us, all we know is that Kumbûjiyas brother invaded the Lydian-Ionian country in Anatolia.



The persian Empire in 532 BC. The southern concquest of Sinai happened during ~536 BC. The Median campaign can be seen as northern line against the green Median realm. The white nation is the Lydian-Ionian nation that gained influence among the Phonician people of the Levant. This is desputed among modern historians though. (The weird cursor was not edited out by a confused intern as it should have.)

[Fixiwee]

So this update was, as I announced, rather short and lacking details and screenshots. But don't worry, that was intended, since I did not want to have every year of my AAR to be covered in detail, hence make it more realistic.

The next update will be about an instressting battle (aka battles of history) with a lot of screenshots so the people who love to watch screenshots rather then read don't need to worry. : )

There is a question though. I don't think I edited the size of the pictures, is it possible that the forum does auto-edit them in a way that they get formated to the screen size?

[SonOfAlexander]

They only really get resized if you put them on albums - 600 by 600

[Paedric]

This is brillant, I love it!
Also, the proverbs are great, it is a plus.

Just one thing though, in the first part, you write "But who was Kûrus?"
Don't you want to say Kumbûjya instead?

[Fixiwee]

This is brillant, I love it!
Also, the proverbs are great, it is a plus.

Just one thing though, in the first part, you write "But who was Kûrus?"
Don't you want to say Kumbûjya instead?

Yes you are right. Fixed, and thanks.

[Fixiwee]

Oh snap. I just wrote a gigantic update on the Battle of Atana. I clicked on switch editor mode to safe the forum code onto a txt, just to be sure. And what happend! I was staring at a blank page all of the sudden. No chance of rescuing.

Oh boy. I'm so pissed right now.
Well I will most certenly not write that again. I'll post the pictures and offer a summery. But that's it.

[Edward lV]

Do it in word/notepad. Much more secure. Good AAR +rep.

[hanibalthegreat]

omg.. i just read this AAR from the begining so far and i have to say this is the greatest AAR ever its not even close to finished but i dont care rep+ forever =]

[Fixiwee]

Battles of history light
Battle at Atana 530 BC

Why the "light?"

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

As stated a post befor, the whole mega post crashed on me. I don't feel like righting it all over again in detail, so I decided to just write a summery and post a the pics. I'm sorry for that, but I want to continue working on the AAR and not rewrite it.

The Battle at Atana marked the beginning of the Anatolian campaign. The details for the reasons are not clear, but it seems that the Persian empire provoked the Ionian-greek colony at Tarsos (Close to Adana) into war. The Persian army at Damaskos was lead by Bardia [Bardiya], the brother of King Cambyses [Kamûbjiya]. Bardia was the most brilliant leader in the Persian army, but politicaly totaly interessted and a loyal servant to his kingbrother; or how Menesthenes put it: "Bardia was good at three things only; hunting animal, leading men to battle and persuing unmarried women. But in all three things he is surpasses everyone, even his king and brother."
The battle itself was the first conflict with a Greek army, but Bardia was aware that the Greek fought in Hoplite formation and prepared himself to the situation.


An elite Hoplite soldier.


The army of Tarsos advances at the Battle of Atana

Bardias plan was to surprise the enemey by doing the one thing they would not expect. He spread a thin line so the Hoplites would be lured into thinking that they could break through the light infantry lines of the Persian army. He would encircle the Ionians with elite troops and annhilate them.


Battle plan by Bardia



Battle development

The battle was significant because the Persian light infantry was able to withstand the Hoplite attack and encircle the enemy.


Hand to hand fighting



Confused Ionian Spearthrower standing all alone on the battlefield



The battle saw some tense close combat. Even the Persian archers would stand their ground and fight with their daggers.


The center of the battle, where the Ionian elite troops face overwhelming number of Persian infantry.


Persian Riders charge into the Ionian formation and breaking the will to fight.


Like Bardia planned, the Ionians were encircled and completley anhilated.


Ionian surviver fleeing from the battle

The Battle was a crushing defeat for the Ionian city of Tarsos. Tarsos was infact an independend greek Colony, but it marked the beginning of Bardias invasion of Anatolia. The rest of the Ionians and the Lydians in Anatolia had no equivalent army like the one of Tarsos. The Persians lost about 10.000 troops, while the Ionians lost nearly 24.000 men.

An interessting side-fact is, that by now King Cambyses full titel was King of Persia, King of Anshan, King of Media, King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad, King of the four corners of the World and King of all Kings.

[stormer]

Oh, so by now he was called King of Kings hey?

[SonOfAlexander]

Is there many more Persia updates to go?

[Fixiwee]

Is there many more Persia updates to go?

No not really. It's gonna be one update I guess. Then I will do a little surprise update to bridge the gap between the end of the Persian expansion to the Alexander campaign. Means the new phase of this project will start soon.

[Redolegna]

Well, I'm already looking forward to it!

[stormer]

Who isn't?

[Fixiwee]

"And them that take the sword shall perish by the sword."
- The Bible, Matthew
Conquest of Anatolia and Egypt; Calm befor the storm

“Iranian empires” by François Sargot - 1853, Paris

After the defeat of the Tarsos Greeks at the Battle of Atana the Lydians and Ionians in Anatolia could not oppose the Persian King Cambyses any longer. The king himself gathered his troops from his Median campaign and marched into Anatolia in 528 BC. It is remarkable that the Lydians and the Ionians resisted conquest for nearly four years and it was not until 523 BC that the important leaders from the Ionian city states subdued to the King personally at a ceremony in Kelainai. Menesthenes adds has a lot to say about that particular ceremony, because he thought of it as the reason for the Greco-Persian Wars 20 years later.


The Anatolian campaign 528BC to 523BC. At Tarsos the Battle of Atana is marked with the X. The Lydians in the center of Anatolia put up hardly any resistance. The X in the middle marks the battle at Kelainai where combined forces of Daskyleion and Halicarnassos were defeated.

Menesthenes saw the proskynesis (submission) to the Persian king as an insult to all of the Greek, but in fact the rest of the Greek world took little notice of that event and for the first 15 years Persian rule of Anatolia was relatively calm. I have studied the reasons for the sudden changes in the Ionian moods towards the new master for a long time. I believe the reasons for that lie in the two other wars that followed the Anatolian campaign. The first one was the conquest of Egypt.


The world in 523 BC befor the Ionian surrender at Kelainai and the fast conquest of Egypt during ~522 to 520BC. The Greek city states are coloured in red, but are not to be confused as a Union. Most Greek citystates were absolutley independend.

The Egyptian campaign, which was swift and mostly bloodless put a great deal of the Mediterranean trade into Persian hands. The Ionian Greeks, who were ruled by Greek tyrants in the name of the Persian King of Kings had to search for new trade routs and started to trade with the Thracians.
But then King Cambyses died in 517 BC and his nephew Darius [Darayawus] became the new Persian King. After Darius had stabilized his rule and reconquered the rebellious Regions in 515 BC he wanted to start a campaign against the Skythians.


Supposed plan to conquere the Skythians. The Georgian troops never started off, Darius only moved troops through Thrace. Even though he was victorious against the Thracians, he was unable to continue waging war agains the Skythians.


The royal Persian army in battle against Thracians around 512 BC.

The campaign in Thrace devastated Ionian outlets in Thrace and by 510 BC to 505 BC an economic crisis hit the Ionians who blamed the Persians for their misery. Menesthenes paints a different picture of an outcry by the Pan-Hellen community against the Persian aggressor, but I do not believe that this was the aim of the Ionian Revolt.
The city of Milet started by rejecting Persian rule, which sparked many revolts in different Ionian cities. By 500 BC a small conflicted which would escalate into a full scale war.


The Palace of Persepolis build by Darius in 510BC show the rich culture during their time. Architecture became an important part of the empire, but only ruins remain today.

[stormer]

That was excellent