656 BC

Map 102: 656 BC. Previous map: **689 BC**. Next map: **630 BC** (*Maps Index*)

**GETAE**
**Wall.**
**Cur.**
**Oiom**
**CIMMERIA**
**Duna**
**Ruteni**
**Palt.**
**Jutonia**
**Ang.**
**Winnili**
**Samb.**
**Tartessos**
**To Phoenicia**
**CETUBALIA**
**To Lesbos**
**DANIA**
**Gothia**
**SUEDIA**
**RAUMICA**
**Bothnia**
**GETULIA**
**ETR.**
**LAT.**
**Sab.**
**Um.**
**Aur.**
**Oen.**
**Iap.**
**Walha**
**Fris.**
**Estones**
**Sitones**
**Qua.**
**Boh.**
**Sen.**
**Teu.**
**Rugi**
**Vand.**
**WENDICA**
**Saxones**
**GALLIA**
**AN.**
**TU.**
**PIC.**
**SAN.**
**Bo.**
**Agen**
**Arv.**
**SICAMBRIA**
**Lan.**
**Mo.**
**Bra.**
**BRITANNIA**
**Loeg.**
**Cambria**
**Albanacta**
**Cor.**
**Ulaid**
**ALBA**
**ERIU**
**CELTIBERIA**
**Mor.**
**MADERSLAND**
**Norica**
**Helv.**
**Raet.**
**PANNONIA**
**Mittanauz**
**Moesia**
**THRACIA**
**Sherden**
**Carthage**
**Mac.**
**ACHAEA**
**COR.**
**LAC.**
**Sicelia**
**Cyrene**
**MESHWESH**
**LIBYA**
**NAPATA**
**Nabatea**
**AT**
**CRETA**
**Colchis**
**BABIL**
**ASHUR**
**SUS.**
**SCYTHIANS**
**Sam.**
**Qedar**
**JUD.**
**Aram.**
**Pho.**
**Edom**
**TAWY**
**Philist.**
**SARMATIA**
**Phrygia**
**Massagetae**
**LYDIA**
**CARIA**
**Que**
**TABAL**
**MADAI**
**Man.**
**Kar.**
**Rifath**
**Hyr.**
**SAKA**
**Amazoni**
**URARTU**
**Ala.**
**Diahi**
656 BC - EMPIRE OF MADERSLAND

## MAIN EVENTS

### 687-642 BC - Manasseh in Judah

Manasseh succeeded his father Hezekiah as king of Judah in 687 BC, and reverted from Judaism to a cruel paganism and idolatry as the state religion, persecuting the prophets of Yahweh. Some accounts say he placed a four faced graven idol in the temple, with an angry cruel face screaming in each of the four directions.

While remaining nominally an Assyrian tributary, at some unknown point later in his reign, perhaps around ca. 650 BC, he was arrested and taken to Assyria. This was so harsh that he repented to Yahweh in Assyrian prison and once released and returned to Judah, he restored Judaism and the Laws of Moses, and again abolished pagan idolatry.

### 685 BC - Chalcedon founded

Several more settlements were founded or resettled by Hellenic colonists, including Chalcedon in 685 BC, Byzantium in 659 BC, and Histria among the Getae in 657 BC.

### 683 BC - Battle of Carn Conluain

In Eriu in 683 BC, Eochu (Eochaid) Apthach killed Bres Ri of the party of Eber Finn at Carn Connluain. Eochu traced his descent not from Eber Finn nor Erimon, but to a different line from Breoghan. He ruled for only one year, when there was said to be a plague every month. In 682 BC, he fell by Finn mac Blatha, who usurped the throne, restoring the house of Eber Finn to the High Kingship, for 20 years. In 662 BC, Finn in turn fell by Setna Innaraid, son of Bres Ri, and also of the House of Eber Finn.

In Britannia, Gorust was succeeded by his brother Saisylt I in 679 BC. In Pictish Alba, Wurgest succeeded Gest Gurcich in 677 BC.

### 682 BC - Lesbos controls the Sea

In 682 BC, control of the Sea, the Thalassocracy, and part of Hispania passed from Caria to Lesbos, a Hellenic island state.

In 673 BC, Tullus Hostilius succeeded Numa Pompilius as king of Rome; he annexed Alba Longa, the neighboring city state in Latium.

### 681 BC - Esarhaddon in Assyria and Babylonia

Sennacherib was assassinated in 681 BC and his son and heir Asshur-ahha-iddina (Esarhaddon) had to defeat his brothers to take the throne of Assyria and Babylonia.

In 679 BC, the Cimmerians led by Teushpa attacked Cilicia, an Assyrian province, but Esarhaddon defeated them and slew Teushpa.

### 678 BC - Phraortes of Media allies with Scythia

In 678 BC, Phraortes (Kashtariti) became king of the Medes after his father Deioces. He threw off Assyrian rule and allied with the Cimmerians and the Scythian chief Ishpaka against Assyria.

In 675 BC the Assyrians defeated and killed Ishpaka, and Bartatua (Protothyes) succeeded him as chief of the Scythians. Also that year the Parsuash tribe who were subject to Phraortes, under Teispes, migrated to Anshan, the Elamite kingdom, and took it over, calling it Persis (Fars). Esarhaddon continued to fight the Medes, Scythians and Cimmerians until 673 BC; in that year Bartatua was given an Assyrian princess in exchange for peace.

### 671 BC - Assyrians invade Egypt

While Taharqa continued to rule Ethiopia and Egypt, in 688 or 678 BC Nekauba (Nechepsos) followed Tefnakht II as local semi-independent pharaoh of Sais. Taharqa repelled the first Assyrian invasion attempt in 674 BC. Nekauba was followed in Sais in 672 BC by Necho I.

In 671 BC Esarhaddon and his Assyrian armies invaded Egypt as far as Memphis, and recognized Necho I as a vassal over Lower Egypt. The Kushites began to encroach again once Esarhaddon had left, but in 669 BC Esarhaddon preparing to return died suddenly, and was succeeded by his son Ashurbanipal (Asshur-bani-apli, Asenapper) in Assyria, and by another son Shamash-shum-ukin in Babylonia as his vassal.

Ashurbanipal sent an army to Egypt in 667 BC that defeated Taharqa near Memphis. In 664 BC Taharqa was succeeded by Tantamani (Ammeres the Ethiopian) in Thebes, and by Ardamen Awsya in Napata. Tantamani managed to slay Necho I, who was succeeded in Lower Egypt by his son Psamtik I (Psammetichus), but the Assyrians again intervened, in support of Psamtik, and sacked Thebes, driving Tantamani back to Napata.

Tantamani of NapataPsamtik I of Tawy
### 665 BC - Mader in Madersland

In Sicambria, Agrippa followed Theuton as king in 670 BC.

In ca. 665 BC, Venno and Helto were followed in Madersland by Mader (Madyes, Madius). Aventinus does not state his parentage, but makes it clear enough Mader is the same as the Madius known from multiple historical sources to have been king of Scythia and Media from 656 BC, and son of Protothyes (Bartatua).

Aventinus relates that Mader raised a vast force of, at times, up to 300 thousand male and female warriors, from among the Teutons and Wends. With these he was able to bring Gallia and Celtiberia, and later even Britannia, into submission, and set them under a vassal king, his son in law Ambigot. Here the German and French accounts synchronize perfectly in stating this Ambigot ruled most of Gallia (except Sicambria) from a capital at Bourges, during this time.

Mader thus became lord of a vast empire stretching from Britannia and Celtiberia to Iran, called 'Madersland'. He did not, however, control the Cimmerians, who from 660 BC were under an independent chieftain Tugdamme, remembered by Greek accounts as Lygdammis, who harassed the Hellenic colonies on his coast.

### 664 BC - Ard'amen Awsya in Napata and De'amat

In 664 BC, a year before the Assyrians sacked Thebes, Pharaoh Taharqa was succeeded in Upper Egypt by Tantamani, but according to Ethiopian histories, he was succeeded in Napata at first by Ard'amen Awsya.

The state known as De'amat (D'MT) is archaeologically attested from this time in Eritrea, and of the few kings attested there, between ca. 700 and 650 BC, one was called RD'M, no doubt the same as this Ard'amen. Ard'amen ruled Ethiopia 6 years and is said to have been followed by Gesyo in 658 BC for only 6 hours, though it is not known why his reign was only 6 hours; and then Tantamani, who had been driven from Thebes, succeeded Ard'amen at Napata.

### 656 BC - Psamtik I reunifies Egypt

In 656 BC, Psamtik I, who started out as an Assyrian vassal in Lower Egypt, is said to have peacefully effected the reunification of Egypt under his rule by causing his daughter Nitocris to be adopted by the Kushite High Priestess of Thebes, much as the Kushites had come into power in Egypt in the first place. Modern Western historians herald this as the downfall of Kush in Egypt, and profess ignorance as to how Psamtik's allies, the Assyrians, were expelled from Egypt at this time, calling it a mystery.