I’m participating in the A to Z Challenge for the entire month of April, by posting an interesting topic for each letter of the alphabet. This excludes Sneak Peek Sundays. Follow this link to nearly 2000 other bloggers and authors.
The A to Z Challenge – participating blogs
Today’s Calliope’s Writing Tablet post is brought to you by the letter X for Xerxes.
After his trouncing at Marathon, Darius the Great of Persia raised a huge army intent on returning to Greece to force a different outcome. Unfortunately, an uprising in Egypt needed his immediate attention. In 485 BCE, the law of the land stated if a Persian king went into battle, he must have his affairs in order — namely those essentials like his readied tomb and successor. So before realizing his dream of conquering the Greeks, Darius broke with tradition and chose as his successor a son who wasn’t his first born. He picked Xerxes because Xerxes’ mother Atossa had given her son a powerful bloodline. Darius died shortly after. After quelling various revolts in Egypt, Bactria, and Babylon, Xerxes set his eye on finishing what his father had begun — conquering the Greeks. This would be the famous battle of Thermopylae.
Herodotus, the Ancient Greek Historian, and quite possibly the first investigative reporter to write things down, estimated a Persian army one million strong going against at best 5,200-11,200 Greeks. Hollywood would recreate this exhausting futility in the movie 300.
Here are two detailed explanations of what transpired at Thermopylae:
http://academic.reed.edu/humanities/110tech/thermopylae.html
Coming to the end — the letter Y!
I’ve had so much fun discussing my historical posts in the A to Z Challenge. To keep conversations going, I’ve just launched a new blog — a Salon Blog called Another Stone Unturned Pressed for time now that my edits are in progress, I’ve put my Gobekli Tepe post there to reanimate the discussion. Let’s talk about it. What have you found on the web? What stone might still be unturned for interested learners? What can you share? I’d love to see! Read the details and let’s start the ball rolling. http://anotherstoneunturned.blogspot.com/
Rose Anderson ~ Love Waits in Unexpected Places
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