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Persian Wars: *
In 499 BC, the tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras, attempted & failed to conquer the island of Naxos. Realizing he would be dismissed by his Persian overlords, heincited all Hellenic Asia Minor into rebellion (the Ionian Revolt). He secured support from Athens & Eretria; in 498 BC they captured & burned Sardis, the Persian regional capital. The Persian king Darius vowed revenge on Athens &Eretria. In 494, after a stalemate of 4 years the Persians re-grouped, attacking the centre of the revolt, Miletus. Defeated in battle, the rebellion collapsed & ended in 493.
Darius decided to punish Athens & Eretria & in 492 the first Persian invasion of Greece began under Mardonius, successfully re-subjugating Thrace & conquering Macedon. Several mishaps led to an early end of the campaign. In 490 BC a second Persian force was sent across the Aegean Sea. They subjugated the Cyclades & razed Eretria. However, while en route to attack Athens by land, they were decisively defeated by the Athenians at Marathon, ending the campaign. Darius died before he could launch a 3rd campaign which then became the responsibility of his son Xerxes. In 480 he personally led one of the largest ancient armies ever assembled. At Thermopylae he defeated a Spartan force; Athens was evacuated, the Persians buring the city. However, at the naval battle of Salamis an Athenian fleet utterly routed the Persian navy. At Plataea (479 BC) a Greek confederated army decisively defeated the Persians ending the threat.
The allied Greeks now went on the offensive, destroying the last of the Persian fleet at the Battle of Mycale & expelling Persian garrisons from Sestos (479). In 478 the Spartan general Pausanias successfully besieged Byzantium, but his actions alienated many of Greek city states against Sparta. A new anti-Persian alliance, the Delian League, was reformed under Athenian leadership. They continued the offensive & expelled the Persian garrisons from Europe. In 466 the League won a victory which secured the freedom of the Ionian cities from Persia. After this little more was achieved, & following a disaster involvement in an Egyptian revolt (460-454 BC) further operations were suspend. The end of hostilities was marked by the Peace of Callias (449) between the Delian League & Persia.
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reign of Augustus: *
He held sweeping powers granted for life by the Senate, including supreme military command, tribune & censor. He called himself Princeps Civitatis ("First Citizen of the State") and his constitution was known as the Principate. He vastly extended imperial possessions, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum & Raetia while expanding possessions in Africa; & Germania and completing the conquest of Hispania. He secured the Empire with a buffer region of client states & made peace with the Parthian Empire.
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His tax reforms made taxation consistent & stable; tax farmers were replaced with salaried civil servants, ending resentment based on tax racking. Citizens paid indirect taxes (4% on slaves, 1% on auctioned goods, 5% inheritance tax on estates); provinces were given a fixed tax quota based on population. Tax revenue from the provinces increased while the new regularized financial relationships avoided popular resentment triggered by arbitrary exaction of tribute.
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Augustus worked to insure the maintenance of the aqueducts & developed Italy's networks of roads. He established a standing army & Praetorian Guard and created an official police & fire-fighting services for the city. He rebuilt much of the urban landscape, erecting the Temple of Caesar, the Baths of Agrippa & the Forum of Augustus with its Temple of Mars Ultor.
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constitutional history of Sparta: *
in the 9th century BC Lycurgus sought counsel from Apollo; he obtained an oracle from Delphi, a divine proclamation, known as a "Great Rhetra". It instructed him to build temples to Zeus & Athena; divide the people into 5 tribes, establish a senate of 30, two hereditary kings & an assembly of the people (the Apella). Citizenship was limited to males who successfully undertook military training (the agoge). Only Spartans who could trace their ancestry back to the original inhabitants were eligible for such training & were called Spartiates. They made up the Apella, who elected the 5 ephors; the latter served 1 year & were ineligible for re-election. Along with the 2 kings they represented the executive branch. The senate (the Gerousia) was a council made up of 28 elders (all over 68 years of age) and the 2 kings. They discussed programmes & presented policies for the Apella to vote on. The duties of the kings were religious, judicial & military. They were the chief priests of the state, who communicated with Delphi, an oracle which exercised great power in Spartan politics.