Ancinet middle east

G-Man

A One Man's War
Joined
Aug 8, 2001
Messages
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Location
HUJI, Israel
I'm working on an ancinet middle-east mod and I need seggestions for civs and (more importantly) cities. The mod will include civs between the year 100 AD and 4000BC. I already got:
Romans, Greeks (changed to macedonians), Babylon, Egypt, Persians, Hebrews and phonecians but I may decide to change some if I'll get better seggestions.
 
The problem is, there are so many to choose from!

Assuming that the Babylonians also cover the Sumerians and the Akkadian empire of Sargon the 1st, and that the Persians cover the Medes and the later Parthians, you have:

(starting from Greece and then moving east)
The Minoans (2600 BC to 1425 BC) in Crete...
The Greeks or Achaens (1200 BC to 100 BC) in Greece (obviously)...
The Macedonians, a 'Hellenistic' culture, like the Greeks (1200 Bc to 133 BC)...
The Thracian barbarians(1500? BC to 100 BC) in modern Bulgaria...
The Kingdoms of Lydia and Phrygia (900 Bc to 546 BC) in western Turkey...
The Hittites (1700 Bc to 1200 BC) in cental Turkey...
The Kingdom of Van/Urartu and the Armenians, in west Iran...
The Phoenicians (1200 BC to 333 BC) on the Syrian coast...
The Hurrian Kingdom of Mitanni (1600 BC to 1200 BC ) in Syria...
The Assyrians (1800 BC to 608 BC) in northern Mesopotamia...
The Babylonians (1700 BC to 539 BC) in southern Mesopotamia...
The Hebrew Kingdoms (1250 BC to 538 BC) you should know where!...
The Egyptians (2800 BC to 586 BC) in Aegyptus (Roman spelling)...
The Medes and Persians (1500 BC to 330 BC) in modern Iran...
The Vedic Kingdoms (1500 BC to 512 BC) in western India...

All these nations, yes ALL of them, became part of Alexander the Great's Empire, which shows you how successful he was! After the break-up of his empire (in 323 BC) things changed to :-

The Achaean and Aetolian Leagues (323 BC to 145 BC) in Greece...
The Antigonid Kingdom (300 BC to 148 BC) in Macedonia...
The Thracians, still around in modern Bulgaria...
The Kingdoms of Pergamum, Bithynia, Pontus, Galatia, and Cappadocia, all in Turkey...
The Armenians, still squashed between Pontus and Parthia...
The Seleucid Empire, which was slowly conquered to become the Parthian Empire, in Persia...
The Kingdom of the Ptolomies (323 BC to 30 BC) in Egypt...
The Asoka Empire (321 BC to 185 BC) in India...
(Antigonus, Seleucid and Ptolomy were some of the successful Macedonian generals of Alexander the Great who carved up the empire when he died)

Most of these were swallowed up into the Roman Empire, except for Armenia, the Parthian Empire and the Indian states.


The list goes on and on!. I bet you wished you'd never asked now! Tell me which ones you want and I'll look up the city names for you (personally, I think the Assyrians are a must, as they were the most vicious, warlike, nastiest, hated and feared people of the Chariot Age).
 
I'd take only the major ones and combine the others into them. The Assyrians are, in the original settings, a part of Babylon. Anyway I'll probably take off the Romans and Greeks and stick with the biblical middle east (untill the time of Babylon). Also I only take the middle east, not India or Persia. The Persians and Babylonians are there because they took over areas in the middle east.
 
Sorry mate, but I didn't know what scale you was working on. It must have looked liked I got a bit carried away.

As for Ancient Middle-Eastern city names of the biblical times, I haven't got much (surely your local sources must be better informed than I am).
 
Not really. All I got is the bibel and some history books that only talk about the major cities... But I'll see what I can do.
 
This is all I can find (starting from the south and heading north...):-

The land of Philistia (on the coast, parallel with the Dead Sea):-
Gaza, Ascalon, Ashdad, Ekron, Joppa, Eltekeh,

The land of Canaan, later Judah (between Philistia and the Dead Sea):-
Beer-Sheba, Lachish, Arad, Gath, Hebron, Jerusalem, Gilgal, Bethel,

The land of Edom (south of Canaan), --no known cities--
(although Solomon built a fortress way down south on the Red Sea coast called Ezion-geber)

The land of Moab (east of the Dead Sea), --no known cities--
(although Solomon built a fortess on the southern tip of the Dead Sea called Tamar)

The land of Samaria, later Israel (north of Canaan, but not on the coast):-
Silo, Shecham, Ganzim, Samaria, Tirzah, Gezer, Tabor, Nazareth, Megiddo, Beth-shean, Hazor

The land of Ammon (north of Moab):-
Rabbah,

In Phoenicia (on the coast, north of the Sea of Galilee):-
Acco, Tyre, Sidon, Byblos,

In the land of Aram (inland, parallel with Phoenicia):-
Dan, Damascus, Riblah,

In the Levant (on the coast north of Phoenicia):-
Arvad, Ugarit, and inland is Qadesh, Hamath, Qarqar, Aleppo, Carchemish,

The only Egyptian city I can find west of Edom is Raphia, and I can find no cities east of Ammon/Moab, probably because of the desert.

And thats all I'm afraid. Hope it's of some use and good luck.
 
Thanks, it will be of great use. I think I'll make the smaller and less significant countries as barbarians.
 
I am trying to do a Biblical mod as well, with mixed results. The one civilization you may consider adding are the Cush/Kush.

This is one of the possibilities for the origns of Queen of Sheba. If you are interested I have a list of their city names and some leaders. I was thinking of Light Chariot(1/1/3) or using the Impi graphic with Jaguar Warrior stats (1/1/2) as their UU. Anyway, something lightly armed and armored but quick.

Here is an Encyclopaedia of the Orient entry:

Cush -
Ancient kingdom of Nubia, in today's northern Sudan, whose rulers conquered southern Egypt in the 8th century BC and established a capital at Napata. From around 730 to 671 BC they ruled over entire Egypt, after king Piankhi conquered the rest of Egypt. He had been Cu****e ruler since around 751 BC. His son, and the second king of the 25th dynasty, Taharka lost against the Assyrians in 671, but continued to rule until 664 BC.
 
Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Phoenicia and maybe Persia are musthaves.

A few suggestions:

MITANNI
Capital: Wassukani
King: Parrattarna
CSAs: Militaristic/Commercial
UU: Advanced Horseman
Other cities:
Mari, Harran

HITTITES
Capital: Hattusas
King: Mursilis the Great
CSAs: Militaristic/Scientific
UU: Iron Infantry

MACEDONIA
Capital: Pella
King: Alexander the Great or Philip II
CSAs: Expansionist/Scientific
UU: Hetaroi (advanced phalanx)
Other cities:
Aegae, Amphipolis, Methone, Pydna, Thessalonika,
Maleusa

PONTUS:
Capital: Trapezus
King: Mithridates VI Eupator (the Great)
CSAs: Expansionist/Commercial
UU: Pirate (privateer)
Other Cities:
Sinope, Amisus, Batumi, Phasis, Dioscurias

ARMENIA
Capital: Erevan
King: Tigranes the Great
CSAs: Militaristic/Industrious
Other cities:
Artxata, Van, Garin Kalakh, Tiflis, Aea, Colchidia

KUSH
Capital: Kerma
King: Queen Sheba or King Piankhi
CSAs: Commercial/?
Other Cities:
Napata, Meroe, Punt, Korosko, Buhen, Heh
 
The kush civilization wasn't really in the middle east. It was deeper into Africa. Anyway, I can do pretty much all myself except for finding cities...
 
If I can be of any help let me know...

P.S. - My school headmaster lives in timrat also... lol
 
You can help of you'll give me names of cities of the CIVs that lived around here during the biblical times.

What's the name of your school headmaster? Timrat is a small place so it's very likely I know him.
 
maybe i can scrab a few cities out of a few historic atlases we have lying in the house.

btw - his name is Zvika Amdor/Amador
 
Sounds familiar but I don't know him personally.
 
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