| A timeline by [[offtopic: Robertp6165]]. It is c. 700 BC. Greece is still in the process of emerging from the post-Bronze Age Dark Ages. The Polis system is emerging, and the Greek polei are ruled by kings or oligarchies...the first democracies are still in the future. Militarily, the Greeks have not yet developed hoplite warfare or the phalanx, which enabled them to withstand the Persian invasion some 220 years later in OTL. The Assyrians, on the other hand, are at the peak of their military power and efficiency, and ruled by some of their most militarily and politically gifted monarchs. King Sargon II goes to war with Phrygia, and conquers all of Anatolia, including the Greek colonies on the Ionian coast. After Sargon's death, the Greek cities rebel against Assyrian rule, and appeal for aid to their brethren on the Greek mainland. Under Sargon's successor, King Sennacherib, the Assyrians put down the revolt, then follow up with a campaign against Greece itself. The result is a foregone conclusion...those Greek cities which do not submit voluntarily are reduced by siege. Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, and Argos are all gone, the cities reduced to ashes, their populations either put to the sword or deported to far-flung parts of the Assyrian Empire. And a chain of events has been unleashed which will profoundly impact the world in the centuries and millenia to come. | A timeline by [[offtopic: Robertp6165]]. It is c. 700 BC. Greece is still in the process of emerging from the post-Bronze Age Dark Ages. The Polis system is emerging, and the Greek polei are ruled by kings or oligarchies...the first democracies are still in the future. Militarily, the Greeks have not yet developed hoplite warfare or the phalanx, which enabled them to withstand the Persian invasion some 220 years later in OTL. The Assyrians, on the other hand, are at the peak of their military power and efficiency, and ruled by some of their most militarily and politically gifted monarchs. King Sargon II goes to war with Phrygia, and conquers all of Anatolia, including the Greek colonies on the Ionian coast. After Sargon's death, the Greek cities rebel against Assyrian rule, and appeal for aid to their brethren on the Greek mainland. Under Sargon's successor, King Sennacherib, the Assyrians put down the revolt, then follow up with a campaign against Greece itself. The result is a foregone conclusion...those Greek cities which do not submit voluntarily are reduced by siege. Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, and Argos are all gone, the cities reduced to ashes, their populations either put to the sword or deported to far-flung parts of the Assyrian Empire. And a chain of events has been unleashed which will profoundly impact the world in the centuries and millenia to come. |
