Iraq

Armed conflict beginning with the United States-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and followed by occupation, insurgency and sectarian violence, with major U.S. military withdrawal in 2011.

Period of the Greek city-states encompassing the Persian Wars, the ascendancy of Athens, the Peloponnesian War and the rise of Macedon before the death of Alexander the Great.

The early imperial period of the Achaemenid Persian state under Cyrus II, including its eastern and northeastern expansion.

Cyrus II, commonly known as Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire and ruler of Persia from approximately 559 to 530 BCE.

Queen of the Massagetae, known primarily from Herodotus’s account of the war with Cyrus II around 530 BCE.

The major Babylonian city and an important center of Cyrus II’s empire, depicted in the film as the setting for the diplomatic deception preceding the campaign.

The broad Central Asian steppe associated with the Massagetae and other Saka groups.

Baghdad was the political and military center of occupied Iraq and a major site of insurgent and sectarian violence.

Fallujah was a major center of insurgent resistance and the site of two major battles involving U.S. forces in 2004.

The Roman province containing Alexandria and the wider administrative and cultural setting of the story.

Ramadi, in Anbar Province, was a major arena of fighting between U.S. forces and insurgents during the Iraq War.