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Kings of Ancient Greek

History of Greek

By Zayn Published 3 years ago 3 min read

In the ancient Greek history, the kings oversee the administration of their subjects by leading them toward achieving goals for the regime. The traditional kingship system was used in pre-classical Greece (The Dark Ages). Whenever there were no kings existing or they died, someone else would be chosen as king. This might be caused by any number of reasons: elections, council meetings and most importantly through force of arms. In this case, men chosen to be ruled over others had to prove themselves worthy of their new role. After that they would undergo initiation rites until they became "worthy".

Alexander

Born in Macedonia, Alexander was raised by his father, Philip II, who taught him how to fight, c ompare , and lead. When Philip died in 336 BC at age 32, Alexander took over as ruler of Macedonia and aspired to be king of Asia, forge ning alliances with Persia, India, and Egypt. After conquering Persia and defeating the army of the great Persian General Memnon he went on to conquer much of Greece. He then attempted an epic invasion of Asia Minor with his army but died before reaching Babylon and territorial boundaries were settled by Antigonus after his death.

Pericles

Pericles, the son of Xanthippe, was born in Athens in 469 BCE and died there in 429 BCE. He is considered by many as the greatest statesman of all time.

Pericles was born into a wealthy family, but he did not inherit his father's wealth. He instead worked hard to acquire it because he wanted to be able to do good things with it. When he was young, Pericles was very active and participated in everything that interested him. His favorite activities included playing music and poetry, writing plays and speeches, and painting pictures. Because of this activity, Pericles became known throughout Greece as an exceptional artist.

At age twenty-two, Pericles became an Athenian citizen and began working for his city's government by serving as a general during the war with Sparta (which lasted from 431 - 404 BCE). The war was won by Athens after Pericles helped defeat a group of Spartans who were trying to invade Attica; however, just as quickly as it started, it ended when peace talks began between both sides.

After being elected general again in 405 BCE, Pericles led an attack on Syracuse with

Pyrrhus of Epirus

Pyrrhus of Epirus (Greek: Πυρρός; c. 287 – 281 BCE), also known as Pyrrhus of the Tarentines, was a Greek general and statesman of the Hellenistic period. He was king of the Greek tribe of Molossians and became King of Epirus and Macedon when he drove out the rule of Antigonus II Gonatas from 319 to 279 BC. In 278 BC, he took control over almost all Greek cities in southern Italy. He had considerable success in the Roman war against Carthage from 275-274 BC, but in Sicily he was unable to dislodge the Carthaginians from their strongholds. When his fleet was destroyed by a storm, he was forced to return home.

Pyrrhus is best known for his role in the Third Punic War, at which point he led an unsuccessful offensive against Carthage in southern Italy. The battle of Asculum brought back his reputation as a great commander, after which he returned home to attempt to reestablish himself there before returning to Italy sometime later to fight another war against Rome. In addition to his military victories, he was also noted for his diplomatic skills

Leonidas I

Leonidas I, king of Sparta and commander of the Greek force at Thermopylae in 480 BC, was one of the most celebrated leaders in Greek history. He was also known as Leonidas I or Leonidas the Brave.

Leonidas was born in the mountainous country of Phocis and was a member of the royal house of Eurypontids. His mother's name was Cleobulina, but she is better known by her nickname Cleopatra.

At an early age, Leonidas showed a great talent for war and leadership. He won several battles against his neighbours before he was 20 years old. In 479 BC he fought against Persians under Xerxes I at Thermopylae in Greece and lost 300 men, but still managed to delay Xerxes' army from crossing over into Europe until winter arrived. The following spring, Leonidas led an army of around 7,000 Spartans into battle again against Xerxes' huge army near Plataea in Boeotia. In this battle too he lost 300 men but inflicted many casualties on the enemy forces before being killed by a Persian spear during a fierce hand-to-hand fight between two sides fighting side by side

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Zayn

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