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...