1.
Bendis
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Bendis was a Thracian goddess of the moon and the hunt whom the Greeks identified with Artemis. She was a huntress, like Artemis, but was accompanied by dancing satyrs and maenads on a fifth-century red-figure stemless cup. Among the events were nighttime torch-races on horseback, mentioned in Platos Republic,328, You havent heard that there is to be a race this evening on horseback in honor of the Goddess. ”Will they carry torches and pass them along to one another as they race with the horses, or how do you mean. ”“Thats the way of it, ” said Polemarchus, “and, besides. The Bendideia also featured a solemn joint procession of Athenians and Thracians to the Goddesss sanctuary, located at the harbor of Piraeus. A red-figure cup, of ca 440-430, seems to commemorate the arrival of the newly authorized cult, it shows Themis and a booted and cloaked Bendis, who wears a Thracian fox-skin cap. A small marble votive stele of Bendis, c. 400-375 BCE, found at Piraeus, shows the goddess and her worshippers in bas-relief. The image shows that the Thracian goddess has been influenced by Athenian conceptions of Artemis, Bendis wears a short chiton like Artemis. She is wrapped in a skin like Artemis and has a spear. In the fourth century BCE terracotta figurine at the Louvre she is similarly attired, elsewhere in Greece, the cult of Bendis did not catch on. The Phrygian rites Strabo mentioned referred to the cult of Cybele that was welcomed to Athens in the 5th century. The Athenians may have blended the cult of Bendis with the equally Dionysiac Thracian revels of Kotys, archaic female cult figures that are unearthed in Thrace or Bulgaria now are identified with Bendis. Bendida Peak on Trinity Peninsula in Antarctica is named after the goddess
2.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
3.
Bithynia
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Bithynia was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Propontis, the Thracian Bosporus and the Euxine Sea. It bordered Mysia to the southwest, Paphlagonia to the northeast along the Pontic coast, Bithynia was an independent kingdom from the 4th century BC. Its capital Nicomedia was rebuilt on the site of ancient Astacus in 264 BC by Nicomedes I of Bithynia. Bithynia fell to the Roman Republic in 74 BC, and became united with the Pontus region as the province of Bithynia et Pontus and it became a border region to the Seljuk Empire in the 13th century, and was eventually conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the 1330s. Several major cities sat on the shores of the Propontis, Nicomedia, Chalcedon, Cius. Bithynia also contained Nicaea, noted for being the birthplace of the Nicene Creed, on the west and southwest it was separated from Mysia by the river Rhyndacus and on the south it adjoined Phrygia and Galatia. It is occupied by mountains and forests, but has valleys, the most important mountain range is the Mysian Olympus, which towers above Bursa and is clearly visible as far away as Istanbul. Its summits are covered with snow for a part of the year. East of this the range extends for more than 100 miles, both of these ranges are part of the border of mountains which bound the great tableland of Anatolia, Turkey. At its extremity is situated the town of Gemlik at the mouth of a valley, communicating with the lake of Iznik. The Parthenius, the boundary of the province, is a much less considerable stream. The valleys towards the Black Sea abound in fruit trees of all kinds, such as oranges, while the valley of the Sangarius, extensive plantations of mulberry trees supply the silk for which Bursa has long been celebrated, and which is manufactured there on a large scale. Bithynia is named for the Thracian tribe of the Bithyni, mentioned by Herodotus alongside the Thyni, the Thraco-Phrygian migration from the Balkans to Asia Minor would have taken place at some point following the Bronze Age collapse or during the early Iron Age. Herodotus mentions the Thyni and Bithyni as settling side by side, but the last king, Nicomedes IV, was unable to maintain himself in power against Mithridates VI of Pontus. After being restored to his throne by the Roman Senate, he bequeathed his kingdom through his will to the Roman republic, the coinage of these kings show their regal portraits, which tend to be engraved in an extremely accomplished Hellenistic style. As a Roman province, the boundaries of Bithynia changed frequently, during this period, Bithynia was commonly united for administrative purposes with the province of Pontus. Under the Byzantine Empire, Bithynia was again divided into two provinces, separated by the Sangarius, only the area to the west of the river retained the name of Bithynia. Bithynia attracted much attention because of its roads and its position between the frontiers of the Danube in the north and the Euphrates in the south-east
4.
Antiochus I Soter
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Antiochus I Soter, was a king of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire. He succeeded his father Seleucus I Nicator in 281 BC and reigned until his death in 261 BC. Antiochus I was half Persian, his mother Apama, daughter of Spitamenes, in 294 BC, prior to the death of his father Seleucus I, Antiochus married his stepmother, Stratonice, daughter of Demetrius Poliorcetes. His elderly father reportedly instigated the marriage after discovering that his son was in danger of dying of lovesickness, Stratonice bore five children to Antiochus, Seleucus, Laodice, Apama II, Stratonice of Macedon and Antiochus II Theos, who succeeded his father as king. On the assassination of his father in 281 BC, the task of holding together the empire was a formidable one, a revolt in Syria broke out almost immediately. Antiochus was soon compelled to peace with his fathers murderer, Ptolemy Keraunos, apparently abandoning Macedonia. In Anatolia he was unable to reduce Bithynia or the Persian dynasties that ruled in Cappadocia. In 278 BC the Gauls broke into Anatolia, and a victory that Antiochus won over these Gauls by using Indian war elephants is said to have been the origin of his title of Soter. At the end of 275 BC the question of Coele-Syria, which had been open between the houses of Seleucus and Ptolemy since the partition of 301 BC, led to hostilities and it had been continuously in Ptolemaic occupation, but the house of Seleucus maintained its claim. War did not materially change the outlines of the two kingdoms, though frontier cities like Damascus and the coast districts of Asia Minor might change hands, on March 27268 BC Antiochus I laid the foundation for the Ezida Temple in Borsippa. His eldest son Seleucus had ruled in the east as viceroy from 275 BC till 268/267 BC, circa 262 BC Antiochus tried to break the growing power of Pergamum by force of arms, but suffered defeat near Sardis and died soon afterwards. He was succeeded in 261 BC by his second son Antiochus II Theos and he was asked by the Bindusara to send sweet wine, figs and a philosopher. Mookerji, Radha Kumud, Chandragupta Maurya and his times, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0433-3 Traver, from Polis to Empire, the Ancient World, C.800 B. C. -A. D. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
5.
Seleucid Empire
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Seleucus received Babylonia and, from there, expanded his dominions to include much of Alexanders near eastern territories. At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, Persia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and what is now Kuwait, Afghanistan, and parts of Pakistan and Turkmenistan. The Seleucid Empire was a center of Hellenistic culture that maintained the preeminence of Greek customs where a Greek political elite dominated. The Greek population of the cities who formed the dominant elite were reinforced by immigration from Greece, Seleucid expansion into Anatolia and Greece was abruptly halted after decisive defeats at the hands of the Roman army. Their attempts to defeat their old enemy Ptolemaic Egypt were frustrated by Roman demands, contemporary sources, such as a loyalist degree from Ilium, in Greek language define the Seleucid state both as an empire and as a kingdom. Similarly, Seleucid rulers were described as kings in Babylonia and he refers to either Alexander Balas or Alexander II Zabinas as a ruler. Alexander, who conquered the Persian Empire under its last Achaemenid dynast, Darius III, died young in 323 BC. Alexanders generals jostled for supremacy over parts of his empire, Ptolemy, a former general and the satrap of Egypt, was the first to challenge the new system, this led to the demise of Perdiccas. Ptolemys revolt led to a new subdivision of the empire with the Partition of Triparadisus in 320 BC, Seleucus, who had been Commander-in-Chief of the Companion cavalry and appointed first or court chiliarch received Babylonia and, from that point, continued to expand his dominions ruthlessly. Seleucus established himself in Babylon in 312 BC, the used as the foundation date of the Seleucid Empire. The whole region from Phrygia to the Indus was subject to Seleucus, but Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus in consequence of a marriage contract, and received in return five hundred elephants. Following his and Lysimachus victory over Antigonus Monophthalmus at the decisive Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, Seleucus took control over eastern Anatolia, in the latter area, he founded a new capital at Antioch on the Orontes, a city he named after his father. An alternative capital was established at Seleucia on the Tigris, north of Babylon, Seleucuss empire reached its greatest extent following his defeat of his erstwhile ally, Lysimachus, at Corupedion in 281 BC, after which Seleucus expanded his control to encompass western Anatolia. He hoped further to take control of Lysimachuss lands in Europe – primarily Thrace and even Macedonia itself, nevertheless, even before Seleucus death, it was difficult to assert control over the vast eastern domains of the Seleucids. Seleucus invaded the Punjab region of India in 305 BC, confronting Chandragupta Maurya and it is said that Chandragupta fielded an army of 600,000 men and 9,000 war elephants. Archaeologically, concrete indications of Mauryan rule, such as the inscriptions of the Edicts of Ashoka, are known as far as Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and it is generally thought that Chandragupta married Seleucuss daughter, or a Macedonian princess, a gift from Seleucus to formalize an alliance. In a return gesture, Chandragupta sent 500 war elephants, an asset which would play a decisive role at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC. In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador, Megasthenes, to Chandragupta, Megasthenes wrote detailed descriptions of India and Chandraguptas reign, which have been partly preserved to us through Diodorus Siculus
6.
Heraclea Pontica
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Heraclea Pontica was an ancient city on the coast of Bithynia in Asia Minor, at the mouth of the river Lycus. The site is now the location of the modern city Karadeniz Ereğli, the colonists soon subjugated the native Mariandynians but agreed to terms that none of the latter, now helot-like serfs, be sold into slavery outside their homeland. The prosperity of the city, rudely shaken by the Galatians and it was the birthplace of the philosopher Heraclides Ponticus. The Greek historical author Memnon of Heraclea wrote a history of Heraclea Pontica in at least sixteen books. The work has perished, but Photiuss Bibliotheca preserves an account of books 9–16. At present, it is the Turkish city of Karadeniz Ereğli, outpost of Hellenism, The Emergence of Heraclea on the Black Sea, Stanley Mayer Burstein, University of California Publications, Classical Studies,14. Coin minted in Heraclea Pontica 3rd–2nd century BC, Photiuss Bibliotheca 224, Memnon of Heraclea, History of Heraclea
7.
Antigonus II Gonatas
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Antigonus Gonatas was born around 319 BC, probably in Gonnoi in Thessaly unless Gonatas is derived from an iron plate protecting the knee. He was related to the most powerful of the Diadochi, Antigonuss father was Demetrius Poliorcetes, who was the son of Antigonus I Monophthalmus, who then controlled much of Asia. His mother was Phila, the daughter of Antipater, the latter controlled Macedonia and the rest of Greece and was recognized as regent of the empire, which in theory remained united. In this year, however, Antipater died, leading to further struggles for territory, the careers of Antigonuss grandfather and father showed great swings in fortune. The fate of Antigonus Gonatas, now 18, was tied with that of his father Demetrius. Jealousy among the victors eventually allowed Demetrius to regain part of the power his father had lost and he conquered Athens and in 294 BC he seized the throne of Macedonia from Alexander, the son of Cassander. Hoping to seize Lysimachuss territories in Thrace and Asia, Demetrius delegated command of his forces in Boeotia to Antigonus, while he was away, the Boeotians rose in rebellion, but were defeated by Antigonus, who bottled them up in Thebes. After the failure of his expedition to Thrace, Demetrius rejoined his son at the siege of Thebes, as the Thebans defended their city stubbornly, Demetrius often forced his men to attack the city at great cost, even though there was little hope of capturing it. It is said that, distressed by the losses, Antigonus asked his father, Why, father. Demetrius appears to have showed his contempt for the lives of his soldiers by replying, but he also showed a similar disregard for his own life and was badly wounded at the siege by a bolt through the neck. In 291 BC, Demetrius finally took the city after using siege engines to demolish its walls, but control of Macedonia and most of Greece was merely a stepping stone to his plans for further conquest. He aimed at nothing less than the revival of Alexanders empire and started making preparations on a scale, ordering the construction of a fleet of 500 ships. Such preparations and the intent behind them, naturally alarmed the other kings, Seleucus, Ptolemy, Lysimachus, and Pyrrhus. In the spring of 288 BC Ptolemys fleet appeared off Greece, at the same time, Lysimachus attacked Macedonia from the east while Pyrrhus did so from the west. Demetrius left Antigonus in control of Greece, while he hurried to Macedonia, by now the Macedonians had come to resent the extravagance and arrogance of Demetrius, and were not prepared to fight a difficult campaign for him. In 287 BC, Pyrrhus took the Macedonian city of Verroia and Demetriuss army promptly deserted, at this change of fortune, Phila, the mother of Antigonus, killed herself with poison. Demetrius therefore returned and besieged the city, but he grew impatient. Leaving Antigonus in charge of the war in Greece, he assembled all his ships and embarked with 11,000 infantry and all his cavalry to attack Caria and Lydia, provinces of Lysimachus
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Nicomedes I.". Encyclopædia Britannica. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 664.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Nicomedes I". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 2. p. 1196.