The The The young men of Thebes threw off the Spartan yoke, but much of Greece was still under their hegemony, in part thanks to Persia,

and despite it being broken, the king's peace still mattered.

With Athens on the rise again and Sparta still powerful despite this setback and a few others,

there was now a three-way race for supremacy as Thebes capitalized on their momentum.

But to the north, new kingdoms were forming and looking beyond their own borders to the

Greek mainland with hungry eyes and deeply held ambition.

These are states that used to be very tribal that were starting to come together and become

dangerous to more than just their neighbors.

Some of these kingdoms will become allies of the

three city-state, some will become enemies, some will be both at different times in some form or

fashion as the ever-shifting nature of these exciting times continues. Leaders of war, politics,

art, and other forms of culture abound as well. Some are involved in all four of those, or just one or two,

or what have you. Some are names we know well even today, and some claim descent from others we

know well. For example, today we've got a dynasty that claims descent from Achilles. And some have

stories even more interesting than the most famous

they just aren't as well known, which is part of the value of talking about this stuff.

We have further doings and adventures of Aegisolaus, Ardazerxes, Upamanondis, Palopidas,

Parasatus, Parasatus, that's our Circe, Cabrius, Arjanie, Lanister, Tirabazus, and more players will enter the picture, of course.

That's how history works, right?

There's always people coming and going.

The Greek world is growing too, though.

In this period, it was, well, besides it being the most important, perhaps, and in my opinion, the most interesting period of ancient Greece,

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