Persian Wars
490BCE- 479 BCE
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 at Eretria– City
north of Athens was
burned by the Persians
–Angered Athens asks
Sparta for help
Major Battles
2. Battle of Marathon: Sparta and
Athens work together
– 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
Battle at 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
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
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:
Greeks 3 – Persians 3
Battle
Winner
Ionia
Persia
Eretria
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