Historical Notes and Amyntas: Son of Persia Official Bios
With Amyntas: Son of Persia coming out next month, I thought to provide the historical research that went into crafting this new and exciting world and releasing the official character bios.
While the story of Amyntas is one of fiction, as a Classical Historian, it was my duty to create a fictional world grounded in historical accuracy and realism with some creative liberties. When researching this story, my question initially began with ‘What if Greece lost the Persian Wars,’ but after further research in magazines, books, scholarly articles, and documentaries, I asked another question: Did the wrong side win? To best answer this complex question, I turned to my research and looked for the pivotal event that began Greece and Persia’s long and turbulent history. That event was the Ionian Revolt in 499 BC.
For those unaware, the Ionian Revolt took place in Asia Minor between the Greek inhabitants of Ionia and their Persian rulers. They openly rebelled against the Empire, and Athens and other city-states in Greece backed the rebels. The rebellion lasted for a decade. Unfortunately, the uprising failed the Greeks, with the Persian King Darius vowing revenge against Athens. To add salt to the wounds, all mainland Greece was to be punished due to Athens’s interference, forcing many to surrender to the Persian Empire, save for two. Those were Athens and Sparta. Angry at this defiance, Darius invaded in 490 BC. The Persians burned and looted many city-states, with many inhabitants now slaves to Persia. The Persians launched an invasion from the Bay of Marathon to invade Athens. However, the Athenians routed the Persians and took the offensive. The Battle of Marathon was one of the most pivotal battles in the ancient world. The Greeks took this as a sign telling all of Greece they could beat the Persians. Darius was forced to retreat and thus allowed Greece to rebuild and plan for the future.
Darius soon died, and his son Xerxes became the ruler of the Empire. During his early reign, he spent most of his time rebuilding his army to avenge the loss at Marathon. This marked the second invasion of Persia. However, instead of Athens, Xerxes wanted to conquer all of Greece. However, Xerxes and his army had to cross a narrow passage to do such a feat. May call them the Hot Gates, but to others, it was Thermopylae. Defending the gates were Leonidas and his 300 Spartan veterans. As history tells us, Leonidas and his 300 Spartans held the Persians back for two days until the Persian forces killed them. Their sacrifice allowed the rest of Greece to assemble a new army to counter the Persian troops and tip the scale of the war with the battle of Salamis and later Plataea. While Greece won the Persian wars in our history, what would have happened if they lost? This is where my research began.
While I do not detail why the Spartans joined the Persians in the story, based on my research, Sparta might have joined Persia due to foreign policy. In the Classical world, Sparta had deep isolationist views and only got involved in the Persian war to suit their goals best. In this story, Sparta joined the war on the Persian side to protect their interests. Now, the battle of Salamis would still play out as it did in our timeline, with a Greek victory, and thus leave the Battle of Plataea as the last decisive battle to turn the war. That is why the book begins with this battle and ends with a Persian victory. With Persia controlling all of Greece, what happens next? Following history in our timeline, Xerxes would have burned down Athens, thus completing his objective. This would lead many to believe that the subsequent incorporation of the Hellenic world into the Persian Empire would have prevented ideas and concepts of democracy, human rights, and philosophy from forming or suppressed them. However, contrary to popular fiction, the Persian Empire was not a totalitarian state.
The Persian Empire was organized into several dozen ‘satrapies’ provinces under the authority of a governor appointed by the Great King. Satraps were expected to collect taxes and levy troops for the Empire. Still, they were granted considerable local autonomy, a prerequisite for an Empire that stretched from the Indus River to the Aegean Sea. The Persian Empire was remarkably administratively centralized for its time–the Great Kings built a massive system of roads, created a royal postal service, established a uniform currency and taxation system, and had a corps of inspectors to monitor their satraps–but there was never any attempt at cultural uniformity or assimilation. That is why, in the story, Leonidas and the rest of Sparta maintain their cultural heritage under the Persian regime.
Furthermore, the Persian Empire was a cultural melting pot. Like his father, Xerxes was the King of Kings, a Great King who ruled over many disparate peoples and tribes. This policy of toleration led to one of the enduring historical legacies of Persia: Cyrus the Great’s release of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, allowing them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Second Temple. This was part of a general policy on the part of the Persians. Elsewhere, there are records of Cyrus boasting that he restored the Gods of Babylon to their temples and sanctuaries after conquering the city and allowing the conquered people to return to their homes. Allowing such a degree of religious and cultural autonomy was unprecedented in the ancient world and almost certainly driven by the sheer scale of the Achaemenid Empire. Thus, it is safe to assume that Greek poleis (cities) could come under Persian rule and remain recognizably Greek from a cultural and social perspective. Amyntas meets a character in the story named Heracldies, a famous Persian historian. Heracleides, though Greek in culture, was a Persian citizen due to his place of birth. And if we turn to our history, Greece was controlled by two other empires. One was the Empire of Alexander, and the other was Rome. In both scenarios, Greece continued to be a hub for culture, art, philosophy, and education.
Thus, much of Greece remained the same throughout the story, even under Persian rule. Leonidas was still king and ruler of Sparta, which makes sense historically. The Persian Empire was a monarchy itself but did not launch the invasion based on ideological differences but rather regional influence, such as in the case of the Ionian revolt. However, it must be noted that while Sparta still existed in the story, this was not the same as Sparta in our history. In history, Sparta was one of the worst places to live. The elite comprised only 5 percent of the population, while the rest were dominated by the helots or slaves and non-citizens. This was unsustainable, as the Spartans were terrified of the helots and ruled by brute terror and fear. Anywhere else in Greece, it was still a crime to kill a slave. Sparta was unique because citizens had the legal right to kill any slave. It was even part of their initiation rite into the military, as every young Spartan man was to go out and ambush and kill a helot. As you can imagine, slave revolts were widespread. However, it must be stated that the Persians also had their share of slave revolts, but not to the extent that Sparta dealt with. In truth, all of Greece was a shockingly violent place marked by instability and violence. Athenian democracy was notably unstable and prone to acts of political violence and unrest, and Sparta spent most of its time and energy suppressing slave revolts. Ancient Greece was a society balkanized into tiny micro-states that constantly fought each other. From my research, this led me to wonder if the imposition of the Pax Persiana might have improved things. Further into my study, I found this theory accurate and incorporated it into the story.
In the end, Amyntas: Son of Persia exists in a world where Persia’s victory would have led to the political subjugation of the Greek poleis under Achaemenid rule but would have been unlikely to lead to the “destruction” of Greek culture or society. Democracy had already spread across the Western Mediterranean and couldn’t have been prevented by Persian conquest. The Ancient Greeks may have benefited economically and socially from increased access to the broader world of Eastern Civilization and Persian administrative rule, not to mention the end of the endemic warfare between poleis that characterized so much of Ancient Greek history. The unification of the Hellenes into the same imperial network as the rest of the Near East might have kicked off an earlier version of the Hellenistic Period or a reasonable facsimile thereof, such as in the epilogue case.
Yet, this is just one possible scenario. We don’t know what a world where the Persians win looks like, and we never will. However, taking stories and events apart is essential, analyzing them critically and looking at what our sources aren’t saying. We must be willing to question the received wisdom of the past and not simply assume that the people who narrate history are correct. Because the answers aren’t always what we think they are. That is what I did for Amyntas and what I will continue to do with the following books in the series.
Speaking of which, below you will find the official character bios for Amyntas, Son of Persia, coming this October
Son of Nikolas and Katerina Barou and bodyguard to the prince, Amyntas is a young upstart in Spartan society. Dubbed ‘the Bear,’ Amyntas began his military career young in the Spartan agoge, where he earned his place in the warrior culture. As a young man, he made a name for himself on the fields of Plataea, where he led the Spartan colation against Themistocles and his men, ending the war and granting Persia dominion over all of Greece. However, despite his rough exterior, he is a kind man with a strong sense of honor, chivalry, and brotherhood.
The son of King Xerxes I, Prince Artaxerxes was raised to be the successor of the Persian empire. Intelligent, skilled, and highly educated, he is fascinated with other cultures of his father’s kingdom. When he meets Amyntas, their relationship starts as prince and protector, but they change to brother-in-arms and best friends throughout their journey.
A Persian girl living in Sparta, her family lives on the city outskirts, providing services to the Spartan elite. She and Amyntas grew up together and have known each other for years. In those years, feelings began to emerge between the two. However, Anahita is not just any regular Persian girl. She is also a skilled archer, hunter, and tracker and has repeatedly shown that she is not to be underestimated.
The Persian Commander during the Battle of Plataea. He is another protector of the prince and, later, ally to Amyntas during the Battle of Leucrta and the second Battle of Marathon.
The Athenian commander during the battle of Plataea. After Greece fell, he went into self-imposed exile and lived his days on the island of Sicily until Artaxerxes and Amyntas visited him many years later. A powerful and intelligent man and a skilled military leader, Themistocles was hesitant to join Amyntas on his quest, but after much persuasion, he joined them on their odyssey.
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An Iberian couple based in Carthage. Once the owners of Amyntas and Artaxerxes during their times as slaves, the couple joined the duo after a mysterious cult destroyed their shop.
A member of the Sacred Band of Carthage, Sikarbaal comes from a prestigious line of Carthaginian nobility. Of Sub-Saharan African descent, Sikarbaal is a proud military man and loyal servant to Carthage. He and his forces engage Amyntas and his allied army to prevent a Carthaginian invasion at the second battle of Marathon.
A veteran of many wars for the Persian Empire, Artabanus now holds the position of the grand adviser to the king. A cold and calculating individual, Artabanus has his sights set on “saving” and “rebuilding” the Persian Empire. His plans include murdering the king, selling the prince and his bodyguard into slavery, and assuming control of the Persian Throne. He is also backed by a mysterious cult tied to Persian history.
A former ally of the Persian empire, Alexander I of Macedon is nothing more than a puppet king under Artabanus with dreams of uniting Greece under the Macedonian banner. Alexander is known as the Lover of Greeks and will stop at nothing to achieve his ambitions.
A famous Persian historian who wrote the first accurate account of the Persian empire beginning with its founder. He is also one of two figures called in by Xerxes to help maintain equilibrium in Greece.
the most critical sophist in fifth-century Greece and champion of augmented-based intellectual debates. Xerxes calls in he and Heracleides to assist King Leonidas in maintaining order in Greece.
King of Sparta and Satrap of all Greece, save for Macedonia.
King of Kings, ruler of the mighty Persian Empire.
I hope you have enjoyed this little teaser into the world of Amyntas. Remember to follow me on Instagram and Linkedin, and check out my YouTube page for upcoming videos. And if you want to understand Amyntas before Son of Persia, witness his rise in The Gathering, available in print and ebook.
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Trying to be a Historian, not a storyteller!
1 年That was truely amazing! Can't wait for it!
Actor, Singer, & Amazing Women of History Portrayals
1 年What a fascinating storyline, Gabriel! Another what if of history. Congratulations!