Kitaab Az Fatah: The Persian book of Conquests

Great to see this back!

So the war's over now? Mardonius' rule over the Greeks will be interesting to watch unfold.

With the conquest of Sparta complete, what can we expect of the Messenians? I expect that they are revolting/will revolt against the Spartans after their defeat, and I'd imagine that the Persians will find them fine allies as they convert the Peloponnese to a pro-Persian stance. Actually, to continue on that thought, might the Persians force the Spartans to give up their perioikoi and helots, and force them to be like a normal Greek polis, to weaken any resistance, or would they just not bother?
 
Actually, to continue on that thought, might the Persians force the Spartans to give up their perioikoi and helots, and force them to be like a normal Greek polis, to weaken any resistance, or would they just not bother?

I think the remaining Spartiates and their families would need Persian suport just to maintain their rule in Laconia.
 
I think the remaining Spartiates and their families would need Persian suport just to maintain their rule in Laconia.

My assumption was that the terms I suggested were to be put in place basically immediately after the Persian victory, before any sort of helot rebellion could take place. It's not really in Xerxes' or Mardonius' advantage to allow a small scale war consume one of the empire's new provinces, no matter how briefly. A Messenian revolt probably wouldn't have much time to take place or much significance during that time, but because it's a bit further away I think it could briefly happen and have enough time to have some sort of organized leadership to negotiate with the Persians.
 
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Khashayar may yet just slaughter the males and sell the women and children as slaves.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that killing the men and enslaving the women and children is worse to what he's doing to Athens. You'd think that he'd punish the Athenians more than the Spartans, given that Athens is the one Xerxes really has a feud with, which is why I figured that he'd just free the helots and all that other stuff, rather than something any more severe. It just seems rather unnecessary. Besides, I'm not sure how much I'd want a twelve year old Spartan boy to be my slave - I'd imagine he'd be pretty difficult to control, with his having [some] agoge training and all. ;)
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that killing the men and enslaving the women and children is worse to what he's doing to Athens. You'd think that he'd punish the Athenians more than the Spartans, given that Athens is the one Xerxes really has a feud with, which is why I figured that he'd just free the helots and all that other stuff, rather than something any more severe. It just seems rather unnecessary. Besides, I'm not sure how much I'd want a twelve year old Spartan boy to be my slave - I'd imagine he'd be pretty difficult to control, with his having [some] agoge training and all. ;)

I think he'd at least prefer the men enslaved and sent to work on some colossal project than to have them sit around. They're fairly dangerous.
 
I think he'd at least prefer the men enslaved and sent to work on some colossal project than to have them sit around. They're fairly dangerous.

Eh, true enough. They wouldn't be nearly as powerful or much of a threat without the helots and perioikoi doing all the necessary stuff to keep a city going, but you can't really expect Xerxes or Mardonius would really see it that way, especially after having seen them in battle a couple times.
 
Eh, true enough. They wouldn't be nearly as powerful or much of a threat without the helots and perioikoi doing all the necessary stuff to keep a city going, but you can't really expect Xerxes or Mardonius would really see it that way, especially after having seen them in battle a couple times.

Indeed. Not to mention Xerxes was more like Darius than Cyrus- he was fairly ruthless and didn't really ascribe to the stereotype of kind peaceful Persians.
 
I have just caught up on the thread and so far, so good!

Re Persia spreading westwards - I agree that it would seem unlikely, but I do also see that we would have a similar situation on a smaller scale with Magna Græcia as to mainland Greece and Ionia, given the bonds of culture, language, history, trade, closeness etc.

I imagine that there would be potential for periodic nastiness
 
I have no time to read all the TL right now, but it seems very interesting.
I don't know Old Persian, but I am fairly sure that "book" was namak (nameh in Modern Persian, currently used as "letter" IIRC) and Abharwez or something similar (Parviz in Modern form) should mean victorious, or conqueror. "Barvaz-Namah" or something similar may be fair. Of course, with no Arabic conquest, I guess you can play with phonetic and grammar changes to Modern Persian at your leisure; whatever language emerges from such a far back POD has little chance to be anywere close OTL's Modern Persian.
 
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