Greco- Persian Wars
Causes ,Consequences , Results
The
Persian War!
Hoplites
How Do We Know?
Remember, history is what is remembered and
written down, along with the bias of the writer.
•Herodotus - primary source
•“Father of History”
•Ionian Greek
•Eye-witness & interviewed Eye-witnesses
•Wrote The Persian Wars
How Do We Know?
“These are the inquiries (the Greek word is
‘histories’) of Herodotus of Halikarnassos,
which he sets down so that he can preserve the
memory of what these men have done, and
ensure that the wondrous achievements of the
Greeks and barbarians (the Persians) do not
lose their deserved fame, and also to record why
we went to war with each other.”
-Herodotus
Persian Empire Expands
And the Persians?
•Conquered the Babylonians…
•“Freed” the Jews and allowed them to return to
Jerusalem and rebuild the temple to Yahweh
•Cyrus the Great ---> Jews called him the
“Messiah” or God’s “anointed one”
•Empire ---> largest to date under Darius, from
Egypt, Asia Minor to India
•Satraps & Satrapies
Persian Empire Expands
Persian War - the Greeks vs. the Persians
People to know…
GREEKS
-Leonidas
-Pericles
-Themistocles
PERSIANS
-Cyrus the Great
-Darius*
-Xerxes*
Key Battles to Know … (there’s 4)
B. of Marathon
B. of Thermopylae
B. of Salamis
B. of Plataea
Mycale
2
Platai
Thermopylae
1
4
3
5
Marathon
Salamis
http://historien.unblog.fr/tag/periodes/
The Persian War
SO WHAT? Who cares?
What’s at stake?
JUST THE FUTURE OF WESTERN
CIVILIZATION!
Background to the Conflict
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No Persian records.
After collapse of Mycenaean civilization , many Greeks fled to Ionia.
These Greek “colonies” were more or less united under Lydian rule.
On the eve of the Greco-Persian wars, Ionian population had become
discontented and rebellious
 …Meanwhile in Athens, Cleisthenic democracy insecure.
 Fear of treason, tyranny, Spartans, and neighbors.
 So Cleisthenes asks for alliance with Persia. Persians ask for “earth
and water” in return.
Ionia & the Ionian Greeks
Northern Greece - Thrace & Macedonia
SARDIS
*
•
ATHENS
•
SPARTA
2nd Invasion - 490 B.C.
Cyrus II and the Foundation
• Between 550 and 530 BC Cyrus
II, establishes a vast empire
• First he incorporates Media and
Persia, then the Assyrian
Empire, and then many lands on
the east of Iran
• He establishes a rule based on
local diversity, respects local
religions and customs
• His son and heir Cambyses II
conquered Egypt.
The Rise of Achaemenid Persia
Ionian Revolt, 499-493
• Cyrus sent messages to the Ionians demanding revolt against
Lydian rule.
• Ionians refused.
• Cyrus invades—Phocea 1st.
• Ionian Greeks hard to rule.
• So Persia establishes a tyrant in each Ionian city.
• The tyranny declining in Greece.
• Darius the Great more invasive than Cyrus.
• Ionians captured, and burnt Sardis.
• On their return home, they were followed by Persian troops, and
crushed at the Battle of Ephesus
Ionian Revolt, 499-493
• Miletus rebels. Athens supports them with 20 ships.
• Persians defeat them at Battle of Lade (494)
• Besieged, captured, and enslaved Miletians. Why does Athens get
involved?
– They are Ionians
– Persia has been unfriendly
– Athens dependent on trade (especially , grain trade)
– Glory…
• Asia Minor returned to Persian control. But Darius vowed to punish
Athens for supporting revolts
• In 492, Darius sent ambassadors to major Greek cities, demanding
their submission. Does not go to Athens or Sparta.
Darius I (the housekeeper)
• Darius was a pretender, who
prevailed after a bloody
succession war.
• He expanded the empire to the
East, and tried to incorporate
Europe, including Greece
• His European campaigns were
mostly a failure
• He organized the Empire, cut
new coins (darics), and
introduced new laws.
• His generals were defeated by
the Athenians at Marathon.
Overall :First Invasion of Greece:
Motivations
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Punish the rebels
Restore Hippeas (he would be a Persian satrap)
Conquer and tax Greece
Control Athenian trade
Glory
The Battle of Marathon (490 BC)
• The first Persian invasion
primarily targeted Athens.
• Spartan help was asked and
promised but delayed, due to
religious observance.
• The Athenians alone defeated
the invading force with the
brilliant tactics of general
Miltiades.
• When the Spartans arrived, they
inspected the monument,
praised the Athenians and left.
First Invasion of Greece: Battle of Marathon
• Persian fleet headed down coast of Attica, landing at bay of Marathon, 26
miles from Athens (Phydippedes runs to Athens to ask for help…3hrs. Then
died.)
• Sparta amidst a religious ceremony. Promised help later…
• Herodotus records that 6,400 Persian bodies were counted on the
battlefield; Athenians lost only 192 men. Spartans show up the next day!
• Significance
– Persians CAN be beaten
– Victory for democracy and freedom
– Pride and glory
– No victory at Marathon, no Socrates, Sophocles, Eurpides…
– The Marathonomachai saved Western Civ (?)
– War accomplishes great things (?)
Marathon
Persians
http://www.sgibson.k12.in.us/gshs_new/ms_socstud/marathon_dwmpnl/greek_strategy_gif.gif
Greeks
Phydippedes
-Who is Victorious?
Who has “NIKE”?
Rise of Themistocles
• General (strategos) of his tribe
in 490 BCE; commanded
center of Athenian army at
Marathon
• Elected archon in 493/92 BCE
• Rival politicians ostracized:
Miltiades, Hipparchus,
Megacles the Alcmaeonid,
Xanthippus (father of Pericles),
Aristides
Rise of Themistocles: Athenian Navy Debate
• Debate in Athenian Assembly
– New wealth from Larium mines…
– Aristides: strengthen hoplite army (zeugitai)
– Themistocles: strengthen navy (thetes)
• Build port of Piraeus
• Overture to Thetes
– Aristides ostracized in 482 BCE
– New political importance of thetes as rowers…
Themistocles and Athenian Naval Power
Before this, Themistocles’ judgment had proved the best at an important
moment; it was when the commonality of Athens had received great sums
that came to them from the mines at Laurium, and they were disposed to
share them out, with each citizen getting ten drachmas apiece. It was then
that Themistocles persuaded the Athenians to abandon this distribution
and make instead, with this money, two hundred ships “for the war,” he
said, naming the war against the Aeginetans. It was indeed their
engagement in this war, just then, that saved Greece, for it compelled the
Athenians to become men of the sea. These ships were not used for the
purpose for which they were built, but they were there for Greece at the
moment of need.
-Herodotus, 7.144
Rise of Themistocles: Foresight
Now the rest of his countrymen thought that
the defeat of the barbarians at Marathon was
the end of the war; but Themistocles thought it
to be only the beginning of greater contests, and
for these he anointed himself, as it were, to be
the champion of all Greece, and put his polis
into training, because, while it was yet far off,
he expected the evil that was to come.
- Plutarch, Life of Themistocles, 3.4
Athenian Trireme
•
•
•
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120 ft. x 15 ft.
170 rowers
Fast and agile
Ramming tactics
Xerxes
• 486: Darius dies: Xerxes
becomes king
• 484: Egypt revolts
• After the suppression of
the revolt Xerxes prepares
for a campaign against
Greece.
• 480: Xerxes personally
leads an invasion of
Greece
Second Persian Invasion (480-479 BCE)
 Xerxes constructs an armada– a “boatbridge” spanning Hellespont
 481, Greek League (Hellenic League)
 Defensive Alliance
 31 Greek states
 Led by Sparta and Athens
The Fictional Xerxes
The real Xerxes
• A sophisticated, funloving womanizer, better
suited for the luxuries of
the court than the
battlefield.
• Xerxes inherited the
Greek campaign from his
father.
• During his reign, a new
imperial capital was built,
inteded to glorify Persian
might
Persepolis: The Great Palace of Xerxes
The Invasion of Xerxes
The Battlefield of Thermopylae
Battle of Thermopylae, 480
 Xerxes's arrived during Olympic Games. For Spartans,
warfare during Olympics was sacrilegious. But Spartans
considered the threat so grave that they dispatched King
Leonidas I with his personal bodyguards (The Hippeis) of
300 men + Allied forces.
 Persian contingents forced to attack Greek phalanx head on
 Pass at Thermopylae was opened to the Persian army
according to Herodotus, at the cost to the Persians of up to
20,000 fatalities
 Xerxes beheads and impales corpse of Leonidas!
The Battle of Thermopylae
• 480: Although strategically it was a hopeless
undertaking, the stand of king Leonidas and his
personal guard at Thermopylae, encourages the
fighting Greeks.
• The Athenians, with an equal spirit of bravery,
retreat and allow the city to be burnt to the ground.
• This is the limit of Xerxes’ successes in Greece
Battle of Thermopylae, 480
 Following Thermopylae, the Persian army burned and
sacked the Boeotian cities which had not submitted to the
Persians
 Arguably most famous battle in European ancient history.
Greeks lauded for their performance in battle.
Thermopylae as inspiration for the ages.
 Military defeat; moral victory
 Thermopylae was a Pyrrhic victory for Persians
Xerxes’ Route
Thermopylae (August, 480 BCE)
Battle at Salamis (September, 480 BCE)
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Victory at Thermopylae = Boeotia fell to Xerxes; left Attica open to invasion
Athens evacuated, with the aid of Allied fleet, to Salamis. Athens fell to Persians
The Persians had now captured much of Greece. But needed to capture navy.
Destruction of some of Persian fleet in battle and storm at Artemisium
Peloponnesians fortify Isthmus of Corinth
“Eurybiades presented the proposition that anyone who pleased should declare
where, among the territories of which the Greeks were masters, would be the most
suitable place to fight their sea battle; for Attica was at this point given up for lost; it
was about the rest that he inquired. The most of the opinions of those who spoke
agreed that they should sail to the Isthmus and fight for the Peloponnesus; the reason
they produced for this was that, if they were beaten in the sea fight and were at
Salamis, they would be beleaguered in an island where no help could show up for
their rescue; but if they fought off the Isthmus, they could put into a coastline that
was their own.” (Herodotus, 8.49)
Battle of Salamis (480)
• In the narrow waters of
Salamis the Athenian-led
Greek fleet destroys the
Persian navy.
• Xerxes, for fear of being
cut off, leaves for Asia
• His general Mardonius is
left behind with much of
the land army
“Themistocles Decree” from Troezen
Text of Third Century BCE
May be copy of original of 48
Discovered in 1959
Aftermath of Salamis: Battle of Plataea, 479
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Persian army under Mardonius winters in Greece
Plataea on border between Attica and Boeotia
Spartan king, Pausanias, in high command
Spartans & Athenians cooperate
Greek army won a decisive victory, destroying
much of the Persian army and ending the invasion
of Greece
• Perceived as Spartan victory
The battle of Plataia (479 BC)
• In the battlefield of Plataia the
Spartan army, led by Pausanias,
regent for the son of Leonidas,
wiped out the Persian land
forces.
• Spartan victory was so swift
and decisive that the more
populous Athenian army did not
even get the chance to get to the
battlefield on time.
• This ended Persian threat
against Greece. In future, the
Greeks would be the aggressors
against Persia.
Legacy to Greco-Persian Wars
 Greek nationalism
 1st great Pan-Hellenic Activity
 Ionians renew rebellion against Persia.
 Persians lose control of Asia Minor coast
 Expeditions of Cimon against Persia (ca. 470-460)
 Athenian Hegemony
 Athenian naval supremacy
 Cold War ensues b/w Athens and Sparta for 20 years
 Athenian Wall
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Themistocles as Hero: Stood up to Persians and to Spartans
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Persians suffered a major blow to their prestige and morale
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We know that Persian threat was over. They didn’t.
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Philosophy, science, freedom, and democracy
Concluding Discussion
• What were the causes of the Persian Wars?
– How and why did Ionians revolt? What impacts did these revolts
have?
• Evaluate the significance of the Battles of:
– Marathon
– Thermopylae
– Salamis/Plataea
• Assess the role of Themistocles.
• Discuss the legacy of the Persian Wars. Why does this war matter?
• How did the Persian Wars shift the balance of power in Greece?