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Phaidyme
Phaedymia (or ''Phaedyme'', ''Phædima''; ) was the daughter of Otanes, a nobleman of the Achaemenid Empire, Achaemenid Persian court in the early 6th century BCE. She was married, successively, to Cambyses II, then Bardiya (or Galatia), and then Darius I. Herodotus tells us in his ''Histories (Herodotus), Histories'' that the Persian king Cambyses II married Phaedymia. Otanes may have been the brother of Cassandane, who was Cambyses' mother. If this is correct, Phaedymia was not only Cambyses's wife but also his cousin. Cambyses died in the spring of 522 BCE and was succeeded by Bardiya, son of Cyrus. But according to the conventional history as related by ancient writers, the "Bardiya" now on the throne was an impostor; in reality he was a Magi, magus named Gaumata. Herodotus wrote that Otanes was the first to suspect that the new king was an impostor. Next came Phaedymia who, with all the other wives of Cambyses, was now wife of the false Bardiya. Phaedymia told her father of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otanes
Otanes (Old Persian: ''Utāna'', ) is a name given to several figures that appear in the ''Histories'' of Herodotus. One or more of these figures may be the same person. In the ''Histories'' Otanes, son of Pharnaspes He was regarded as a Persian nobleman, being among the few with highest ranks in the kingdom, who was also a political philosopher. ''Histories'' 3.68.1, 3.68.3, 3.69.6 has an Otanes as the son of the Achaemenid Pharnaspes, as the father of Phaidyme (or Phaedyma), who in turn is a wife of Cambyses II, and later a wife of the Gaumata alias Smerdis. Herodotus gives this Otanes a role in the overthrow of the false Smerdis, and ''this'' Otanes is therefore generally assumed to be identical to a known co-conspirator of Darius I, mentioned in Darius's own list of his helpers at overthrowing Gaumata (DB IV 83). The Behistun inscription has this Otanes as the son of Thukhra, in which case he could not have been the son of Pharnaspes, and so cannot have been a brother ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bardiya
Bardiya or Smerdis ( ; ; possibly died 522 BCE), also named as Tanyoxarces (; ) by Ctesias, was a son of Cyrus the Great and the younger brother of Cambyses II, both Persian kings. There are sharply divided views on his life. Bardiya either ruled the Achaemenid Empire for a few months in 522 BCE, or was impersonated by a magus called Gaumata ( ), whose name is given by Ctesias as Sphendadates (; ), until he was toppled by Darius the Great. Name and sources The prince's name is listed variously in the historical sources. In Darius the Great's Behistun inscription, his Persian name is Bardiya or Bardia. Herodotus calls him Smerdis, which is the prevalent Greek form of his name; the Persian name has been assimilated to the Greek (Asiatic) name ''Smerdis'' or ''Smerdies'', a name which also occurs in the poems of Alcaeus and Anacreon. Bardiya is called ''Tanyoxarces'' by Ctesias, who also names Gaumāta as ''Sphendadates'';Ctesias ''Persica'' 8 he is called ''Tanooxares'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambyses II
Cambyses II () was the second King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning 530 to 522 BCE. He was the son of and successor to Cyrus the Great (); his mother was Cassandane. His relatively brief reign was marked by his conquests in North Africa, notably Egypt, which he took by defeating pharaoh Psamtik III () at the battle of Pelusium in 525 BC. After his victory in Egypt, he expanded the empire's holdings in Africa by taking Cyrenaica, the coastal region of eastern Libya. In the spring of 522 BC, Cambyses had to leave Egypt hastily to put down a revolt in Persia. En route in Syria ( Eber-Nari), Cambyses somehow received a thigh wound; it soon became gangreneous. Cambyses died three weeks later in Agbatana, likely the modern city of Hama. He died childless, and was thus succeeded by his younger brother Bardiya. Bardiya ruled for a short time, and was then overthrown by Darius the Great (), who went on to increase the power of the Achaemenids even further. Before his acces ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darius I
Darius I ( ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of West Asia, parts of the Balkans (Skudra, Thrace–Achaemenid Macedonia, Macedonia and Paeonia (kingdom), Paeonia) and the Caucasus, most of the Black Sea's coastal regions, Central Asia, the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley, Indus Valley in the far east, and portions of North Africa and Northeast Africa including History of Persian Egypt, Egypt (), eastern ancient Libya, Libya, and coastal The Sudans, Sudan. Darius ascended the throne by overthrowing the Achaemenid monarch Bardiya (or ''Smerdis''), who he claimed was in fact an imposter named Gaumata. The new king met with rebellions throughout the empire but quelled each of them; a major event in Darius's life was his expedition to subjugate Ancient Greece, Greece and punish Classical At ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the List of largest empires#Timeline of largest empires to date, largest empire by that point in history, spanning a total of . The empire spanned from the Balkans and ancient Egypt, Egypt in the west, most of West Asia, the majority of Central Asia to the northeast, and the Indus Basin, Indus Valley of South Asia to the southeast. Around the 7th century BC, the region of Persis in the southwestern portion of the Iranian plateau was settled by the Persians. From Persis, Cyrus rose and defeated the Medes, Median Empire as well as Lydia and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, marking the establishment of a new imperial polity under the Achaemenid dynasty. In the modern era, the Achaemenid Empire has been recognised for its imposition of a succ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Histories (Herodotus)
The ''Histories'' (, ''Historíai''; also known as ''The History'') of Herodotus is considered the founding work of history in Western literature. Although not a fully impartial record, it remains one of the West's most important sources regarding these affairs. Moreover, it established the genre and study of history in the Western world (despite the existence of historical records and chronicles beforehand). ''The'' ''Histories'' also stands as one of the earliest accounts of the rise of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Empire, as well as the events and causes of the Greco-Persian Wars between the Persian Empire and the Polis, Greek city-states in the 5th century BC. Herodotus portrays the conflict as one between the forces of slavery (the Persians) on the one hand, and freedom (the Athenians and the confederacy of Greek city-states which united against the invaders) on the other. ''The Histories'' was at some point divided into the nine scroll, books that appear in modern editions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cassandane
Cassandane or Cassandana (died 538 BC) was an Achaemenian queen and the wife of king Cyrus the Great, the mother of Cambyses II and Atossa and the grandmother of Xerxes I. She was a daughter of Pharnaspes. She had four children with Cyrus: Cambyses II, who succeeded his father and conquered Egypt; Smerdis ( Bardiya), who also reigned as the king of Persia for a short time; a daughter named Atossa, who later wed Darius the Great; and another daughter named Roxana. Her daughter Atossa later played an important role in the Achaemenid royal family, as she married Darius the Great and bore him the next Achaemenid king, Xerxes I. When Cassandane died, all the nations of Cyrus' Persian empire observed "a great mourning". This is reported by Herodotus. According to the Nabonidus Chronicle, there was a public mourning after her death in Babylonia lasting for six days. Cassandane reportedly stated that it was more bitter to leave Cyrus's side than to die. The six days of mourning are id ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magi
Magi (), or magus (), is the term for priests in Zoroastrianism and earlier Iranian religions. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great, known as the Behistun Inscription. Old Persian texts, predating the Hellenistic period, refer to a magus as a Zurvanism, Zurvanic, and presumably Zoroastrian, priest. Pervasive throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and West Asia until late antiquity and beyond, ''mágos'' (μάγος) was influenced by (and eventually displaced) Greek ''The Lesser Key of Solomon#Ars Goetia, goēs'' (γόης), the older word for a practitioner of magic (paranormal), magic, with a meaning expanded to include astronomy, astrology, alchemy, and other forms of esoteric knowledge. This association was in turn the product of the Hellenistic fascination for Pseudo-Zoroaster, who was perceived by the Greeks to be the Chaldean founder of the Magi and inventor of both astrology and magic, a meaning that stil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Holland (author)
Thomas Holland (born 5 January 1968) is an English author and popular historian who has published best-selling books on topics including classical and medieval history, and the origins of Islam. He has worked with the BBC to create and host historical television documentaries, and presented the radio series ''Making History''. He co-hosts '' The Rest is History'' podcast with Dominic Sandbrook. Early life and education Holland was born in Oxfordshire and brought up in the village of Broad Chalke near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, the elder of two sons. His younger brother James Holland is also an author whose focus is World War II. He has said that his two passions as a child were dinosaurs and ancient civilisations: "I had the classic small boy's fascination with dinosaurs – because they're glamorous, dangerous and extinct – and essentially the appeal of the empires of antiquity is much the same. There's a splendour and a terror about them that appealed to me – and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
6th-century BC Women
The 6th century is the period from 501 through 600 in line with the Julian calendar. In Western culture, the West, the century marks the end of Classical Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. The collapse of the Western Roman Empire late in the previous century left Europe fractured into many small Germanic kingdoms competing fiercely for land and wealth. From the upheaval the Franks rose to prominence and carved out a sizeable domain covering much of modern France and Germany. Meanwhile, the surviving Eastern Roman Empire began to expand under Emperor Justinian, who recaptured North Africa from the Vandals and attempted fully to recover Italy as well, in the hope of reinstating Roman control over the lands once ruled by the Western Roman Empire. Owing in part to the collapse of the Roman Empire along with its literature and civilization, the sixth century is generally considered to be the least known about in the Dark Ages (historiography), Dark Ages. In its second g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Women From The Achaemenid Empire
A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uteruses are capable of pregnancy and giving birth from puberty until menopause. More generally, sex differentiation of the female fetus is governed by the lack of a present, or functioning, ''SRY'' gene on either one of the respective sex chromosomes. Female anatomy is distinguished from male anatomy by the female reproductive system, which includes the ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, vagina, and vulva. An adult woman generally has a wider pelvis, broader hips, and larger breasts than an adult man. These characteristics facilitate childbirth and breastfeeding. Women typically have less facial and other body hair, have a higher body fat composition, and are on average shorter and less muscular than men. Throughout human history, traditional gen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
6th-century BC Iranian People
The 6th century is the period from 501 through 600 in line with the Julian calendar. In the West, the century marks the end of Classical Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. The collapse of the Western Roman Empire late in the previous century left Europe fractured into many small Germanic kingdoms competing fiercely for land and wealth. From the upheaval the Franks rose to prominence and carved out a sizeable domain covering much of modern France and Germany. Meanwhile, the surviving Eastern Roman Empire began to expand under Emperor Justinian, who recaptured North Africa from the Vandals and attempted fully to recover Italy as well, in the hope of reinstating Roman control over the lands once ruled by the Western Roman Empire. Owing in part to the collapse of the Roman Empire along with its literature and civilization, the sixth century is generally considered to be the least known about in the Dark Ages. In its second golden age, the Sassanid Empire reached the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
