Persian Wars
490BCE- 479 BCE
Copyright © Clara Kim 2007. All rights reserved.
Who Fought?
• The Persians Fought against the Greeks
–Persia was ruled by Darius and Xerxes
–Greeks- Athenians, Spartans, Ionians
Persians
VS
Greeks
What caused the Persian
War?
• Persia controlled Ionia but Greeks
were already living there.
• in 499BCE when Persian King
Darius raised taxes, the Ionian
Greeks got mad and revolted
–Athens backed them up
• Persians crushed the revolts
Causes
• Darius wanted
revenge on
Athenians for
helping so
attacked
mainland
Greece.
Major Battles
1. Battle of Marathon: Athenian
forces fight the attacking Persians
– Persia- 25,000 soldiers
–Greeks- 10,000 soldiers
–Phalanx battle formation gave the
Greeks the victory
• 6,400 Persians died
• 192 Greeks died
Phalanx Formation
Pheidippides
• Ran to Athens from
Marathon = 26 miles
• Told them of the
victory
• Died after giving the
news
* This is why marathons
are now 26 miles!
Part 2: Persian War
• 10 years later
• Xerxes, son of Darius
vowed revenge.
• Brought between
100,000-300,000 troops
through a narrow
mountain pass
2nd major Battle:
Thermopylae
• 3,300 Greeks led by the Spartans held
them off at a narrow pass in
Thermopylae.
–A traitor told Persians of another way
around
–Many Greeks retreat but 300 Spartans
stood strong.
–They all died
3. Battle at Salamis
• Athens is evacuated and
fought at sea.
• Athenians had a powerful
navy
• Greeks fought with new
ships called Trireme.
–Triremes punched holes
in Persian ships and sink
a third of the ships.
Trireme
4. Battle of Plataea
• While Athens crushed the
Persians at Sea, Spartans
were on the plain of Plataea
and crushes the rest of the
Persian army
• Xerxes retreats
Battle Summary:
Battle
Winner
Ionia
Persia
Marathon
Greece
Thermopylae
Persia
Salamis
Greece
Plataea
Greece
Effects of the Persian
Wars
• Greece victory creates a sense of unity
• Athens had control of what was left of
Greece through leadership of the
Delian League.
• Delian League- an agreement that the
remaining Greek city states would
help each other
Pictures Cited
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Slide 1 – http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070309ho_leonidas_450.jpg
Slide 2 – http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u117/mikey_albert_photos/leonidis.jpg
Slide 3 – http://www.the-toy-soldier.com/images/romans4.jpg, http://www.the-toysoldier.com/images/romans2.jpg, http://www.markchurms.com/Merchant2/graphics/eagle-l.jpg
Slide 5 – http://tn1-2.pv.deviantart.com/fs11/150/i/2006/183/c/e/wendy__s_revenge_by_bri_chan.jpg
Slide 7 – http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Battleofissus333BC-mosaic.jpg
Slide 9 – http://joseph_berrigan.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/greekinfantry.jpg,
Slide 10 – http://www.livius.org/a/1/greece/phalanx.jpg
Slide 11 – http://www.300spartanwarriors.com/images/719_Warner_Bros._Frank_Miller_300__300SpartanWarriors.jpg
Slide 12 – http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39748000/jpg/_39748185_p_diddy_203.jpg
Slide 13 – http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k46/mooshy_01/Xerxes.jpg
Slide 14 - http://sha3teely.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/300movie02.jpg
Slide 16 – http://students.mnmsa.org/~tkosanke/Thermopylae.jpg
Slide 17 – http://www.molossia.org/milacademy/salamis.jpg
Slide 18 – http://www.sikyon.com/Athens/images/salamis_battle.jpg
Slide 19 – http://students.ou.edu/E/Ryan.C.Emrick-1/greek_trireme.JPG