Pretty basic POD. What if the rebellion in 465 BC after the Earthquake did actually succeed?
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A successful slave revolt only a decade after Thermopylae could destroy the popular image of the Spartans as unparalleled warriors, so no 300On the other hand, it might leave Greece open to Athenean domination later on, so more democracy I guess? Maybe Athenean dominated Greece is even strong enough to prevent the rise of Macedonia without the devastation of the Peloponnesian War?
Maybe a good POD would be Sparta somehow alienating the rest of Greece some time earlier.
Not a bad idea.I've had an idea in my head for a timeline for forever where this is actually the case, and this earthquake and helot rebellion is a much bigger deal. I'll share it since I'm almost certainly not going to write it or post it, because I'm lazy and am more interested in other projects, and because I doubt there'd be many people interested. Anyways, the idea is that Croesus realizes the open-endedness of the Oracle's statement that "a great empire would fall if he warred with Persia", and as a result he asks for some Spartan assistance in his war against Cyrus. (He made an alliance with Sparta beforehand) The result is a far less isolationist Sparta that ends up becoming a de facto hegemon of Greece much sooner than IOTL. Athenian democracy is butterflied away. Over time Sparta overplays its hand and comes to be hated by its allies, who take advantage of this earthquake to overthrow Sparta and free the helots. Sparta then retreats back into isolationism while Greece is fought over between Corinth, Argos, Athens, and Thebes in a series of wars. Meanwhile in the Middle East the 26th Dynasty of Egypt and the Chaldean Empire survive.
I've had an idea in my head for a timeline for forever where this is actually the case, and this earthquake and helot rebellion is a much bigger deal. I'll share it since I'm almost certainly not going to write it or post it, because I'm lazy and am more interested in other projects, and because I doubt there'd be many people interested. Anyways, the idea is that Croesus realizes the open-endedness of the Oracle's statement that "a great empire would fall if he warred with Persia", and as a result he asks for some Spartan assistance in his war against Cyrus. (He made an alliance with Sparta beforehand) The result is a far less isolationist Sparta that ends up becoming a de facto hegemon of Greece much sooner than IOTL. Athenian democracy is butterflied away. Over time Sparta overplays its hand and comes to be hated by its allies, who take advantage of this earthquake to overthrow Sparta and free the helots. Sparta then retreats back into isolationism while Greece is fought over between Corinth, Argos, Athens, and Thebes in a series of wars. Meanwhile in the Middle East the 26th Dynasty of Egypt and the Chaldean Empire survive.
I thought Croesus did request Spartan support, but they busied themselves instead attacking Argos?