Unit 1: Early Civilizations (8000 BC-100 AD)
Chapter 4: The Ancient World
Lesson 3: Persia Attacks the Greeks, pp. 131-137
Miss Olson
Objectives
1. Discuss how the Persian Empire united a wide area under a single government.
2. Describe how Sparta and Athens united forces to defeat the Persians.
Vocabulary
satrapies-
satrap-
Zoroastrianism-
Reading Strategy Organizing Information Fill in the chart to list the accomplishments of the Persian rulers
Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes. We will complete this together in class after the worksheet has been graded.
Ruler
Cyrus
Accomplishments
Darius
Xerxes
The Persian Empire
Main Idea The Persian Empire united a wide area under a single government.
1. Where did the people of Persia live?
2. Who were the early Persians, and what did they do? (3)
3. Who managed to unite the Persians into a powerful kingdom? When did he rule? (3)
The Rise of the Persian Empire
4. What did Cyrus’s armies do in 539 B.C.? (2)
5. What did they take over next? (5)
6 Social Studies – Chapter 4 – Page 2 – Lesson 3– Miss Olson
6. How did Cyrus treat all his new subjects? What did he allow the captive Jews in Babylon to do? (2)
7. What did Cyrus’s merciful rule help to do?
8. What did the leaders who followed Cyrus continue to do?
9. What did they conquer? What is Thrace? (4)
10. About how large was the Persian Empire from one end to the other?
11. What did the Persians build to connect their vast holdings?
12. How far did the Royal Road stretch? What was the Persian capital?
13. What did the Persians set up along the way? What did these stations supply? (4)
14. Who needed these supplies?
What Was Persian Government Like?
15. What happened as the Persian Empire grew bigger? What did Darius do when he came to the throne?
When did this happen? (3)
16. Into what did Darius divide the empire? How many were there? What were they called? (3)
17. Who ruled each satrapy? What did the name mean? (2)
18. What did the satrap act as? (4)
19. To whom did all the satraps answer? Upon what did the king’s power depend? (2)
20. What did Persia have by the time of Darius?
21. What was true of the Persian army, instead of having citizens take up arms during times of war as they did
in Greece?
22. How many soldiers were specially trained to guard the king? What were they called? Why? (3)
6 Social Studies – Chapter 4 – Page 3 – Lesson 3– Miss Olson
The Persian Religion
23. What was the Persian religion called? Who was its founder? When was he born? (3)
24. After what event did he begin preaching?
25. What did Zoroaster believe in, like the Jews? How did he view this supreme being? (3)
26. Zoroaster recognized evil in the world, too. What did he teach? (3)
27. How long did the Persians practice Zoroastrianism? What is true today? (2)
The Persian Wars
Main Idea Both Sparta and Athens played roles in defeating the Persians
28. What happened as the Greeks set up colonies in the Mediterranean Sea?
29. What was true by the mid-500s B.C.?
30. What did the Athenian army do in 499 B.C.? (2)
31. Was the rebellion successful? What did King Darius decide after this?
Battle of Marathon
32. What happened in 490 B.C. on the plain of Marathon? How many soldiers landed there? (3)
33. What did the Persians do there for several days?
34. How many soldiers did the Athenians have compared to those of the Persians? (2)
35. What did the Athenians do rather than attack?
36. What did the Persian commander decide to do since he was tired of waiting? (2)
37. Who was the first to board the ships? What was true of this part of the army? (3)
6 Social Studies – Chapter 4 – Page 4 – Lesson 3– Miss Olson
38. What did the Greeks do as soon as the cavalry was out of fighting range?
39. What were the Persian foot soldiers doing at this time? Why were they easily defeated? (2)
40. Who was sent back to Athens with the news of the victory, according to legend?
41. How far did he run from Marathon to Athens? What was his last statement before he died of exhaustion?
(2)
42. What are named for this famous run? Over how long are they? (2)
Another Persian Strike
43. When did Darius die? Who became the Persian king? What was his relationship to Darius? (3)
44. What did Xerxes vow? What did he launch in 480 B.C.?
45. How many troops were part of the invasion? How many warships and supply vessels? (2)
46. What did the Greeks do to defend themselves? Who sent the most soldiers? (2)
47. Who was the Spartan king who served as commander? What city-state provided the navy?
48. What Athenian general came up with a plan to fight the Persians?
49. What did Themistocles argue was the best strategy for defeating the Persians? (2)
50. What did the Greeks need to do to ready their fleet for battle?
51. Where did the Greeks decide the best place was to block the Persians? What was Thermopylae? (3)
52. How many Greek soldiers held off the Persians? For how long? (2)
53. What was a comment made by a Spartan soldier concerning Persian arrows darkening the sky? [Include
quotation marks, please.] (4)
6 Social Studies – Chapter 4 – Page 5 – Lesson 3– Miss Olson
54. What happened that was unfortunate for the Greeks?
55. After sending most of his troops to safety, what did King Leonidas and several hundred others do?
56. Though the Greeks lost the battle at Thermopylae, what did their valiant stand allow Athens time to do?
Xerxes, who led the Persian army into Thermopylae, boasted that his army was so large that it drank rivers dry
after crossing. But it wasn’t numbers that settled the outcome of the war. During the siege at Thermopylae, the
Greeks had luck on their side-- a huge storm destroyed many Persian ships. At Salamis, Athenian trickery made
the difference when the Persians were duped into chasing the Athenian fleet into a trap. The superior size of the
Persian army was actually a drawback in that battle--the numerous Persian ships got in their own way in the
narrow waters off the shores of Salamis. Xerxes watched the battle from a hilltop. Seated on his throne, which
had been placed there for the spectacle, he watched his dream of defeating the Greeks literally sink into the sea.
He was so angry that he had his own surviving sailors murdered as they tried to reach land after their ships had
been sunk.
57. Where did the Greek fleet attack the Persian fleet? What is a strait? (2)
58. Why did the Greeks have the advantage in battle here?
59. What was true of Greek ships? What did the Greeks do after a ferocious battle? (4)
60. What happened, though? What happened when the Persian troops reached Athens? (2)
61. What did the Persians do to Athens?
62. What did the Greeks come together as in early 479 B.C.?
63. What qualities did this army have? (3)
64. Where did the Greek army crush the Persian army? Where is this? (2)
65. What was the battle for the Greeks? What did it convince the Persians to do?
66. How had the Greeks saved their homeland from invasion?
6 Social Studies – Chapter 4 – Page 6 – Lesson 3– Miss Olson
Around the time of the Persian Wars, the Persian Empire was the largest in the world. Persia had defeated
every ancient center of civilization except the Greek city-states, including Egypt, Mesopotamia to the west, and
India to the east. By the time the Persian Wars began, the Greek city-states dominated the entire eastern
Mediterranean Sea, which Persia needed for trade and communication with the far-western areas of its empire.
Because the Persians viewed the Greek city-states as tiny, separated groups, they believed overcoming them
would be easier than it was. The result was a war against an enemy that was much braver and more intelligent
than they had believed.
What Caused the Persian Empire to Fall?
67. What did the Greeks help do when they defeated the Persian army?
68. What was the empire facing already?
69. How long did the empire remain intact after its defeat by the Greeks?
70. What did Persian rulers after Darius and Xerxes do? Upon what was the money spent? (2)
71. What did the high taxes do? (2)
72. What did the Persian royal family fight over? Who killed many of the later Persian kings? Why? (3)
73. What was true of Persian kings? What did sons, who had little power, constantly plot to do?
74. How many of the nine rulers after Darius were murdered?
75. Who invaded the empire in 334 B.C.?
76. What was true by 330 B.C.? Who ruled over all of the Persian lands by this time?
Who Were the Scythians? The Persians used many different peoples to bolster their army. The Scythians
lived in the grasslands north of the Black Sea and used hit-and-run tactics to keep the Persians from seizing
their homeland. Darius so admired their skills with bows and arrows and their lightning strikes on horseback
that he hired them to help invade Greece. Later kings used Scythian teachers to train Persian archers.