Summary of Jonathan W. Jordan & Emily Anne Jordan's The War Queens

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The Massagetae, a rough, rural folk, were little known to the glittering courts of the Persian Empire. They were a target of conquest by King Cyrus the Great.
#2 In 530 BC, the season of swords, Cyrus turned his attention to his northeastern frontier. He tried a soft approach with the barbarian queen Tomyris, but her response was to offer him a fair fight on her side of the river.
#3 The Battle of the Araxes River was the final confrontation between the Persians and the Massagetae. It was a difficult victory for the Persians, and Cyrus took many prisoners, including Tomyris’s son.
#4 The battle was a spit-and-blood struggle of unalloyed savagery. Tomyris won, and the Persian emperor died fighting her. But times change, and no enemy, ally, or situation is ever truly permanent. In two generations, a queen from modern Turkey would serve Cyrus’s grandson in one of history’s greatest battles.

Sujets

• History
• The Women
• Woman
• Women
• Histoire

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 31 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822564374
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Jonathan W. Jordan & Emily Anne Jordan's The War Queens
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Massagetae, a rough, rural folk, were little known to the glittering courts of the Persian Empire. They were a target of conquest by King Cyrus the Great.

#2

In 530 BC, the season of swords, Cyrus turned his attention to his northeastern frontier. He tried a soft approach with the barbarian queen Tomyris, but her response was to offer him a fair fight on her side of the river.

#3

The Battle of the Araxes River was the final confrontation between the Persians and the Massagetae. It was a difficult victory for the Persians, and Cyrus took many prisoners, including Tomyris’s son.

#4

The battle was a spit-and-blood struggle of unalloyed savagery. Tomyris won, and the Persian emperor died fighting her. But times change, and no enemy, ally, or situation is ever truly permanent. In two generations, a queen from modern Turkey would serve Cyrus’s grandson in one of history’s greatest battles.

#5

The Persian king Xerxes was going to launch an invasion of Greece. He assembled a massive army in Asia Minor, and crossed the Hellespont into Europe. The Greek coast was a constant source of worry for the Persian generals and rulers.

#6

Xerxes’s army marched towards the Greek state of Attica and its capital city, Athens. They met no serious opposition until a small force of Spartans, Thebans, and Corinthians managed to halt them briefly at Thermopylae.

#7

The Persian general Mardonius asked the Greek leaders for their opinions. They all agreed that the Persians should launch a frontal attack against the Greek fleet in Salamis Bay. But Artemisia, queen of a coastal kingdom, understood the political and military mindset of states surrounded by water. She advised against it.

#8

The Battle of Salamis was the decisive battle in the war between the Greeks and the Persians. It was fought in September, when the Persian fleet was at its strongest. The Greeks were able to stop the Persians from getting to their fleet, and they were able to escape.

#9

The Battle of Salamis was a huge victory for the Greeks, and it was largely thanks to the queen of thebes, Artemisia, who rammed a Persian ship and saved the day.

#10

Artemisia was a vassal queen who served her commander well. She was allowed to rule her kingdom independently, and she became another chip at the ancient world’s patronizing image of a queen at war.

#11

Cleopatra was the sister of Ptolemy XII, the pharaoh of Egypt. She was raised in the court of her father, King Ptolemy XII, an effeminate fop who was derided as the Flute Player.

#12

Cleopatra’s sister, Cleopatra, was too pushy for Ptolemy’s liking. She began dropping Ptolemy’s name from official documents, and his supporters began to line up against her. In 49 BC, a civil war raging in Rome triggered Cleopatra’s first major political misstep.

#13

In late August, as she weighed her next move, an unexpected visitor arrived in Egypt. Pompey, the longtime patron of King Ptolemy, wished to meet the king of Egypt. Ptolemy murdered Pompey as he came ashore, and left the Roman’s head preserved for Caesar.

#14

Cleopatra was eventually able to sneak into Alexandria and make her way to Caesar’s apartment. She presented her side of the story, and Caesar politely ordered the two siblings to make peace and rule as equals.

#15

In 47 BC, Cleopatra was pregnant with Caesar’s child, and she was probably aware of his plans. She was able to keep him in the palace by day and in his bed by night, and she knew more about the city than him.

#16

Cleopatra was very attracted to Caesar’s power, and she used his money to build temples and pay his war debts. She was able to rest easy while he held power, since she knew she had his support.

#17

Cleopatra was Caesar’s queen, and after his death, she threw her support to Antony, who was also favored by the public. She sent him the three legions Caesar had left in Egypt, along with a fleet to carry the army against Gaius Cassius Longinus, one of Caesar’s murderers.

#18

Antony, having rode to power on superheated winds of conquest, luck, and Caesar’s patronage, was now set on enjoying his new empire. He summoned Cleopatra to set her straight on the East’s new reality.

#19

Cleopatra’s plan was to carry Antony away with her beauty, her food, and her extravagances. She did this by having lavish banquets, and Antony fell for her.

#20

In 40 BC, Cleopatra gave birth to twins: a baby girl named Cleopatra Selene, and Alexander Helios, her Sun. The cries and laughter of the newborns mingled with the voice of six-year-old Caesarion and rang through palace hallways.

#21

Antony and Cleopatra were married in 37 BC, and their love was so strong that they lived a dreamlike procession of parties and banquets. But the snapping wolf of Parthia could not be held at arm’s length, even if that arm belonged to the richest woman in the world.

#22

The Donations of Alexandria, in which Antony and Cleopatra gave away their children, was a huge shock to Rome. It ruptured the tense but workable framework that held the peace.

#23

Antony and Cleopatra set up a military base at Patras, a harbor town on Greece’s Gulf of Corinth. They bivouacked the ragged remnants of the Parthian expedition, and supplemented their army with levies from Antony’s client kingdoms. But Octavian got the jump on them at sea.

#24

Antony’s plan was to move the army north into the mountains of Thrace and Macedonia, where he would maneuver Octavian into a land battle. The strategy made no sense, and Antony reluctantly agreed with Cleopatra that he would have to fight Agrippa at sea.

#25

Antony launched his fleet attack against the Romans. His fleet was much larger than Octavian’s, but his commanders kept their plans from the soldiers until just before the battle. As the sun reached its zenith, Antony’s fleet attacked.

#26

Following Actium, Cleopatra and Antony exchanged private letters in an attempt to settle their differences. Cleopatra hoped to broker a settlement between the Romans and Antony. But Octavian informed Cleopatra that the price of peace was Antony’s head.

#27

Cleopatra had a mausoleum built for herself, and as Octavian’s army approached, she ordered her servants to move gemstones, gold, inlaid furniture, rich tapestries, robes, spices, incense, pearls, and jewelry into it. If Octavian forced Cleopatra to die, her funeral pyre would be the most expensive blaze in history.

#28

Cleopatra’s death marked the end of the last obstacle to Octavian’s unification of the empire. But as the Caesars settled into an unprecedented era of wealth, power, and excess, subjugated men and women of the outlying provinces began to resent the iron collar of an arrogant city that taxed and commanded.

#29

The Iceni were a tribe in eastern Britain who were invaded by the Romans in 54 BC. The Romans subjugated them, and they were never seen again by their fellow Celts.

#30

The Romans were not very fond of client kings, because they saw them as merely tenant overseers whose contracts lasted only until their deaths. After a king died, his domains might remain a client state under his heir, but Rome would annex them and rule them directly.