Rhodes

Source: Wikipedia

In the second half of the 8th century, the sanctuary of Athena received votive gifts that are markers for cultural contacts: small ivories from the Near East and bronze objects from Syria. At Kameiros on the northwest coast, a former Bronze Age site, where the temple was founded in the 8th century, there is another notable contemporaneous sequence of carved ivory figurines. Phoenician presence on the island at Ialysos is attested in traditions recorded much later by Rhodian historians.

The Persians invaded and overran the island, but were in turn defeated by forces from Athens in 478 BC. The cities joined the Athenian League. When the Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 BC, Rhodes remained largely neutral, although it remained a member of the League. The war lasted until 404 BC, but by this time Rhodes had withdrawn entirely from the conflict and decided to go her own way.

In 408 BC, the cities united to form one territory. They built the city of Rhodes, a new capital on the northern end of the island. Its regular plan was superintended by the Athenian architect Hippodamus. The Peloponnesian War had so weakened the entire Greek culture that it lay open to invasion. In 357 BC, the island was conquered by the king Mausolus of Caria, then it fell to the Persians in 340 BC. Their rule was also short. To the great relief of its citizens, Rhodes became a part of the growing empire of Alexander the Great in 332 BC, after he defeated the Persians.

Following the death of Alexander, his generals vied for control of the kingdom. Three: Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Antigonus, succeeded in dividing the kingdom among themselves. Rhodes formed strong commercial and cultural ties with the Ptolemies in Alexandria, and together formed the Rhodo-Egyptian alliance that controlled trade throughout the Aegean in the 3rd century BC.

The city developed into a maritime, commercial and cultural center; its coins circulated nearly everywhere in the Mediterranean. Its famous schools of philosophy, science, literature and rhetoric shared masters with Alexandria: the Athenian rhetorician Aeschines, who formed a school at Rhodes; Apollonius of Rhodes; the observations and works of the astronomers Hipparchus and Geminus, the rhetorician Dionysios Trax. Its school of sculptors developed a rich, dramatic style that can be characterized as "Hellenistic Baroque".

In 305 BC, Antigonus directed his son, Demetrius, to besiege Rhodes in an attempt to break its alliance with Egypt. Demetrius created huge siege engines, including a 180 ft (55 m) battering ram and a siege tower named Helepolis that weighed 360,000 pounds (163,293 kg). Despite this engagement, in 304 BC after only one year, he relented and signed a peace agreement, leaving behind a huge store of military equipment. The Rhodians sold the equipment and used the money to erect a statue of their sun god, Helios, the statue since called the Colossus of Rhodes.

In 164 BC, Rhodes signed a treaty with Rome. It became an educational center for Roman noble families, and was especially noted for its teachers of rhetoric, such as Hermagoras and the unknown author of Rhetorica ad Herennium. At first, the state was an important ally of Rome and enjoyed numerous privileges, but these were later lost in various machinations of Roman politics. Cassius eventually invaded the island and sacked the city.

In the 1st century AD, the Emperor Tiberius spent a brief term of exile on Rhodes. Saint Paul brought Christianity to people on the island. Rhodes reached her zenith in the 3rd century. In 395, the long Byzantine Empire-period began for Rhodes, when the eastern half of the Roman empire became gradually more Greek.

Beginning after 600 AD, its influence in maritime issues was manifested in the collection of maritime law known as "Rhodian Sea Law" (Nomos Rhodion Nautikos), accepted throughout the Mediterranean and in use up to Byzantine times (and influencing the development of admiralty law up to the present).

Rhodes was occupied by the Muslim forces of Muawiyah I in 672. In circa 1090, it was occupied by the Muslim forces of the Seljuk Turks, not long after the Battle of Manzikert. Rhodes was recaptured by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus during the First Crusade.

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Argolis Hoplite

Source: Wikipedia

Argos was a major stronghold of Mycenaean times, and along with the neighbouring acropolis of Mycenae and Tiryns became a very early settlement because of its commanding positions in the midst of the fertile plain of Argolis.

During Homeric times it belonged to a follower of Agamemnon and gave its name to the surrounding district; the Argolid which the Romans knew as Argeia.

Argos experienced its greatest period of expansion and power under the energetic 7th century BC ruler King Pheidon. Under Pheidon Argos regained sway over the cities of the Argolid and challenged Sparta’s dominance of the Peloponnese. The importance of Argos was eclipsed by Sparta after the 6th century BC.

Because of its refusal to fight or send supplies in the Graeco-Persian Wars, Argos was shunned by most other city-states. Argos remained neutral or the ineffective ally of Athens during the 5th century BC struggles between Sparta and Athens.

Arcadia

Source: Wikipedia

From the 6th century BC, Sparta dominated the Peloponnese, and compelled its neighbours, including Arcadia, to join its Peloponnesian League and fight in its wars. The Spartan military dominance that enabled this interference in Arcadian affairs was suddenly ended in 371 BC, when Epaminondas and his Theban army decisively defeated a Spartan army at Leuctra. In the aftermath, the Arcadian League was formed, combining various cities of Arcadia into a federal league. After its establishment, the Arcadian League took an active role in the politics of the Peloponnese.

However, by 362 BC, the question of whether to continue as an ally of Thebes had become so pressing as to divide the Arcadian League. The cities of the league therefore ended up fighting on different sides at the Battle of Mantinea. After the battle, and the end of the Theban hegemony, the influence of the Arcadian League diminished. Although it never regained the prominence it had held during the 360s, an Arcadian league in some form—whether a continuation or a re-creation of the original league is unclear—continued to exist in the years after the Battle of Mantinea. Various references indicate that the league endured at least into the 3rd century BC. The date of its final disappearance is uncertain, but at the latest it had vanished by the 230s BC, when the Arcadian cities joined the Achaean League.

The Arcadian League

The Arcadian League was a federal league of city-states in ancient Greece. It combined the various cities of Arcadia, in the Peloponnese, into a single state. The league was founded in 370 BC, taking advantage of the decreased power of Sparta, which had previously dominated and controlled Arcadia. Mantinea, a city that had suffered under Spartan dominance, was particularly prominent in pushing for its founding. The league had its capital at the newly founded city of Megalopolis, where an assembly of ten thousand met as its governing body.

Although initially successful in resisting Spartan influence in Arcadia, the league was soon divided in the power struggles that engulfed Greece in the 4th century BC. Thebes, which had been instrumental in the founding of the league, soon came into conflict with Mantinea. At the Battle of Mantinea (362 BC), the cities of the league fought against each other, Mantinea fighting alongside Sparta and Athens, while Tegea and others sided with Thebes. Nonetheless, the league seems to have endured in some form down into the 3rd century.

Arcadia and the Peloponnese before 370

Beginning in the 6th century BC and continuing through the 5th and early 4th centuries, Sparta dominated the Peloponnese, and compelled its neighors to join its Peloponnesian League and fight in its wars. This dominance naturally aroused anger amongst these neighboring states, and Sparta's allies proved themselves willing to rise up against their overlord on several occasions. In 418 BC, Mantinea joined a league of Peloponnesian democratic states that briefly pursued an anti-Spartan policy before being defeated at the Battle of Mantinea (418 BC).

After the end of the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC, Sparta, under king Agesilaus, took several opportunities over the ensuing years to discipline a number of restive allies. In 385 BC, the Spartans attacked Mantinea and forced the city to dissolve, splitting it into five separate villages, each of which was governed by a Spartan-backed oligarchy. Oligarchic governments throughout the rest of Arcadia also received Spartan support.

The Spartan military dominance that enabled this interference in Arcadian affairs was suddenly ended in 371 BC, when Epaminondas and his Boeotian army decisively defeated a Spartan army at Leuctra, killing a sizable portion of the elite Spartiate class. This development upset the balance of power in the Peloponnese and opened new possibilities for action by anti-Spartan factions.

Formation of the league
The first sign of rebellious activity in Arcadia came in the spring of 370 BC, when the city of Mantinea began reassembling from the villages it had been divided into, under democratic leadership. Shortly after this, a number of Arcadian communities began to assemble into a league for mutual protection against Sparta, an effort led by Lycomedes, a Mantinean. Substantial resistance was encountered at Tegea, where an oligarchic government was in power, but Tegean democrats overthrew this government with the aid of Mantinean troops, and the formation of the league proceeded. A Spartan army under Agesilaus was sent to attempt to restore the oligarchs, but achieved nothing. After driving off the Spartans, the Arcadians began work on the new city of Megalopolis, a strongly fortified capital city positioned to serve as a bulwark against Sparta.

Although this first attempt to break up the new league had ended without success, the threat of further military intervention prompted the Arcadians to dispatch ambassadors to Athens, requesting protection. The Athenians were theoretically bound by the terms of a treaty signed in late 371 BC to protect the autonomy of all Greek states, but their desire to maintain the strength of Sparta as a check on the ambitions of the Thebans led them to refuse the Arcadians' request. Continuing to Thebes, however, the Arcadians soon obtained the assistance they sought. A massive Boeotian army, led by Epaminondas and Pelopidas, was dispatched to the Peloponnese.

Reaching Arcadia, this army was swelled to some 50,000 to 70,000 men by the arrival of Argive, Elean, and Arcadian forces. For the Spartans to challenge such a massive force in the field would have been little short of suicidal; accordingly, over the next several months, Epaminondas twice led the army south into Spartan territory, first to ravage Laconia and then to liberate Messenia. This latter action, by depriving Sparta of much of her territory and placing a new hostile state on her borders, essentially ended any serious threat to the Arcadians. As the Theban army returned north, the Arcadians were free to go on with organizing their league without fear of Spartan interference. By 369 BC, most if not all Arcadian states had joined the league.

History after 370
After its establishment in 370 BC, the Arcadian League took an active role in the politics of the Peloponnese. Arcadian soldiers campaigned with a Theban army during Epaminondas's second invasion of the Peloponnese in 369, and continued to campaign in 368, defeating a joint Athenian and Corinthian force, then raiding successfully into Spartan territory, but in the summer of 368, a Spartan force invaded Arcadia and wiped out an Arcadian force without suffering a single casualty, in what became known as the "tearless battle." Xenophon asserts that the Arcadians' allies, the Thebans and Eleans, "were almost as well pleased as the Lacedaemonians at the misfortune of the Arcadians -- so vexed had they become by this time at their presumption."After this defeat, the Arcadians hurried the completion of the fortifications at Megalopolis to prevent further Spartan incursions. The league's military fortunes revived over the next few years, however, and in 365 the league fought and won a war against Elis.

A Theban army had invaded the Peloponnese in 366, but the purpose of that expedition was to establish Achaea as a counterweight to Arcadian influence; although this effort was largely a failure, it antagonized leading Arcadians. Accordingly, in that same year, Lycomedes persuaded the myrioi to make an alliance with Athens; the Athenians, although reluctant to ally with enemies of their allies the Spartans, could not pass up such a chance to undermine Theban influence. By 362, the question of whether to continue as an ally of Thebes had become so pressing as to divide the Arcadian League, with Mantinea siding with Sparta and Athens while Tegea and Megalopolis remained loyal to Thebes. Thus, the cities of the league fought on different sides at the Battle of Mantinea in that year. That battle, a Theban victory, was followed by a Common Peace which brought peace to the region for a time.

Although it never regained the prominence it had held during the 360s, an Arcadian league in some form—whether a continuation or a recreation of the original league is unclear—continued to exist in the years after the Battle of Mantinea. Various references indicate that the league endured at least into the 3rd century BC. The date of its final disappearance is uncertain, but at the latest it had vanished by the 230s BC, as the Arcadian cities joined the Achaean League.