THE PERSIAN WARS PART IV: THE 300 AVENGED
Intro: With the loss of Thermopylae the Greeks fell back upon the Isthmus of Corinth, leaving central
Greece to the advancing Persians. In the coming weeks both sides squared off for a decisive battle, one
that would determine the future course of Western Civilization. Here we'll examine the great naval Battle
of Salamis, the following year as both sides licked their wounds, and then the final battle for Greece at
Plataea.
The Battle of Salamis: As the Persian army marched south, most of central Greece medized rather than
face Xerxes wrath, while Plataea and Thespiae were burned. The Greek fleet meanwhile had based itself
at the island of Salamis, just off the coast of Athens, while the army fell back to defend the narrow neck
of the Isthmus of Corinth. Realizing the inability of the Hellenic League to defend Attica, Themistocles
convinced the people of Athens to heed the Oracle of Delphi's prophecy and retire behind their 'wooden
wall', which he took to mean the wooden hulls of their ships. Every military aged citizen was embarked
onto the fleet, while the Athenian navy evacuated the rest of the population to the islands of the Saronic
Gulf and the Peloponnese. Soon the Persian army arrived at Athens, storming and then burning the
Acropolis and killing the few holdouts that remained. While Xerxes was most pleased by this, he also
worried about the military situation. Already it was September, and foul weather might make naval
operations impossible and cut off the army from its vital lines of supply and communications. Action was
needed, and he decided that a naval battle would probably yield results more quickly than an assault on
the Isthmus. His Admirals agreed while the lone dissenting voice was that of the only female to
accompany the expedition, Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus, who led her state's military contingent.
But the Persian fleet needed time to refit and replenish its numbers from the subject states in the Aegean.
In this time the Greeks themselves were busy planning: while many wished to flee to the Isthmus,
Themistocles convinced the Spartan admiral in command, Eurybiades, to maintain their position at
Salamis. When during the debates he was mocked by a Corinthian as a man with no city, he threatened to
order the entire Athenian fleet to load up all its civilians and set out to establish a colony in the far west of
the Mediterranean, leaving the rest to their fate. In the face of this, the other Greeks grudgingly remained
at Salamis. Themistocles was still afraid that the Greeks would eventually flee, so he concocted a clever
ruse. He sent a slave of his to Xerxes camp, claiming that Themistocles would gladly join him and that
the Greek fleet was planning to flee. Xerxes jumped at this possible breakthrough, and ordered a squadron
to block the western exit from the gulf of Salamis, while the rest of his fleet moved in from the east to
crush the Greek fleet before it could escape. When a defecting Greek trireme from the Persian fleet
confirmed the Persian's dispositions, the Greeks knew the plan had worked. Their fleet was prepared for
action, 310 of their ships against almost 1,000 Persians. However, the confined space of the channel
nullified the Persian numbers, and allowed the Greeks to practice their superior naval training. As the
Persian ships crashed into one another, they were set upon by the Greeks, who rammed and smashed their
vessels, while Greek marines boarded and butchered the Persian's crews. In the end the Persian fleet
hoisted its sails and made for open water. The Greeks had won the Battle of Salamis, but prepared for an
immediate counterattack. None however was forthcoming, as Xerxes, fearing that the Greeks would sail
to and destroy his bridge across the Hellespont, ordered his fleet to sail back to defend it. He likewise left
a sizeable force in central Greece, and then marched the majority of his army back to Asia, many dying in
the poor weather of hunger, disease, or exposure. It was hoped that the army still in Greece under the
command of General Mardonius would, after wintering in Thessaly, complete the conquest in the
coming year.
The Greek Victories at Plataea and Mycale: While the Greeks had gained a large victory at Salamis, it
was far from decisive. The Persian army remaining in Greece consisted of the best Persian troops and
cavalry, and without its horde of low quality troops was more easily manoeuvred and supplied. With the
arrival of spring 479 B.C. Mardonius offered a separate peace to Athens, hoping to sow dissension in the
Hellenic League. However, when he was refused and later learned that the Greek army was moving out
from behind its defensive line on the Isthmus, he burned Athens to the ground and ravaged Attica, before
moving north to Boeotia where the land favoured his cavalry and the population was more assuredly proPersian. When the Greeks marched to meet him there they fielded almost 40,000 hoplites (and by some
accounts 70,000 light troops, though this has been debated, and at any rate the hoplites would be the
decisive arm). The Persians on the other hand had somewhere between 80,000 and 120,000 troops, which
included a number of Greek allies as well as excellent cavalry. For some 3 weeks the two sides squared
off, the Greeks being constantly harassed by Persian cavalry. Finally the commander of the Greek army,
the Spartan Regent Pausanias, decided to move the army to a better position, but his insolent subordinate
Amompharetus refused to retreat, and as a result some of the Greek army had moved off the field while
much remained there. Mardonius decided to strike at this moment, and soon the isolated Greek units were
engaged by enemy forces, while those off the field rushed back to help. The Spartans, despite being
isolated from the rest of the Greeks, smashed their way through the Persian infantry. The Persians fought
with great bravery, but could not hold the line, and were pushed back. The Athenians likewise crushed the
Boeotian troops they faced, and a general route of the Persian army followed. Mardonius was slain in the
thick of the fighting, and when the Greeks overran the Persian camp, they killed everyone they could lay
hands upon to avenge the massacres of Greek civilians in the previous months. When the slaughter ended,
the Persian army was no more, and the Spartans it was agreed had proven themselves the finest
infantrymen of the entire civilized world. After this, great celebrations were held, and every year
sacrifices and festivities would be marked by the Greeks at Plataea, where for centuries to come these
events would conclude with the Plataeans chief magistrate toasting: "I drink to the men who died for the
freedom of the Greeks". Much of Greece remained under Persian rule, and provisions were made to
continue campaigning to liberate it, one of the first acts of which being to besiege and punish Thebes for
its craven betrayal of the Greek cause. Meanwhile, on the very same day as the Battle of Plataea, the
fleet of the Hellenic League under the leadership of the Spartan King Leotychidas and the Athenian
General Xanthippus engaged in the Battle of Mycale. Realizing that Greece would never be safe with
Persia controlling the Aegean, the fleet had set out to annihilate the Persian navy. When they found the
Persian fleet, it had beached itself at Mycale and built fortifications around the ships. The Greeks
proceeded to land up the coast, marched down to the Persian camp, and promptly overran it, burning the
fleet and slaughtering some 40,000 Imperial troops. This secured the Aegean for Greece, and many of the
island states entered into the Hellenic League (but not so on the mainland, as Sparta was unwilling to
commit to a land war in Asia). Shortly thereafter most of the fleet sailed home, while the Athenians
headed north to besiege Persian positions in Europe. They returned home in the spring, with vast sums of
loot and the bridge cables of Xerxes vaunted Hellespont bridge. Here the historian Herodotus ended his
history of the Persian Wars, but more conflict was yet to come, as Persia was far from defeated.
Nonetheless, the immediate threat to Greece had passed. The Greeks had stood against the might of an
Empire that ruled the world, and won. As the world today is overwhelmingly indebted to the Greeks for
so much of our modern civilization, their victory and its importance to the rest of human history are
nearly without parallel. Perhaps the war is best commemorated by the Epitaph of Simonides, which
though variously translated, has in its simplicity reached down through the ages:
Friend, tell the Spartans that on this hill, we lie obedient to them still
Why after winning the Battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium was Xerxes so desperate to
conclude the war as quickly as possible? How did the Greeks maximize their advantages while
nullifying those of the Persian's to win the battle?
How did the victories at Plataea and Mycale contribute to the Greek victory in the Persian Wars?
With Greece safe, why were the Spartans unwilling to bring the Asiatic Greek cities into the
Hellenic League?