BATTLES OF THE PERSIAN WARS
Herodotus—known as the “Father of History”
 He was the first person to record events so that people in the future would know what
happened
 He wrote the history of the Persian Wars—called The Histories
o This is where we get our detailed information about these wars
o But he didn’t always double-check his sources and he tended to attribute events to the
gods
o He believed the Persians’ biggest mistake was hubris (hubris = excessive pride or
self-confidence, which ultimately leads to a downfall)
499 BCE: Ionian Revolt
 Greeks in Ionia (west coast of Asia Minor) did not like being ruled by “barbarians” (the
Persians), so they revolted against Persia, which was ruled by Darius I
o First they asked Sparta—Sparta said “NO!” because they were afraid if they left home,
the helots would revolt while they were gone
o Athens said “Yes!” and sent 20 ships
o Eretria also said “Yes!” and sent 5 ships
 But, Darius’s army quickly crushed the revolt
 Darius swore he would get revenge on Athens and Eretria for helping the Ionians
The 1st Persian War: Darius’s attacks (492-490 BCE)
 Darius sent his army on ships across the Aegean Sea
 The Battle of Marathon (490 BCE)
o First, Darius’s army destroyed Eretria, then landed at the beach of Marathon
o Greeks had 10,000 soldiers, Persians had 20,000
o The Athenian general was Miltiades
 He used a special strategy: the “weak-center plan”
 He made the center of the phalanx very thin and concentrated his soldiers at
the edges
 Then when the Persians attacked, the men in the middle backed up and the
ones on the sides swung around, encircling the Persians
o Herodotus wrote that the Persians lost 6400 men, while the Greeks lost only 192
Battle of Marathon

The Persian ships then set sail around Attica to attack Athens
o So Miltiades sent a runner named Pheidippides to tell the Athenians that they had
won the battle and to warn them that the Persians were coming
o Pheidippides ran 26 miles to Athens and when he arrived he cried “Nike! Nike!”
(“Victory! Victory!”) “Beware, the Persians are coming!”—and then he died.
o The Athenians went inside the walls of the Acropolis where they were safe, and the
Athenians marched quickly across the 26 miles to defend Athens, and so the Persians
left
o From then on, a 26-mile run would be called a Marathon in honor of Pheidippides
Between the Wars: 490-480 BCE
o 484 BCE: Darius I died and his son Xerxes became king of Persia
o Xerxes planned a huge invasion of Greece—both sides prepared for the attack
 Persian preparations:
o Gathered an army of 3 million men (according to Herodotus)
o Built a pontoon bridge across the Hellespont so that his 3 million men could cross (It
would take to long to ferry them across in boats)
 Greek preparations:
o Athenian leader Themistocles prepared to defend Athens against another attack
o When a silver mine was discovered near Athens, Themistocles convinced the people
to use the silver to build a navy, rather than distributing the money to the citizens
 Built triremes = warships w/3 rows of oars on each side
o The Greeks made an alliance called the Greek League to defend against the attack
 They decided to send an army led by the Spartan King Leonidas to fight the
Persians off at a narrow pass in the mountains called Thermopylae
The Second Persian War—Xerxes’ Attacks: 480 BCE
o Herodotus said Persians had 2 million soldiers and 1200 ships while the Greeks had
50,000 men and 700-800 ships—exaggeration? (Probably more like 250,000 Persians)
 Battle of Thermopylae (“Thermopylae” means “hot gates”—it had natural hot springs and
was the gateway to Greece)
o King Leonidas (“Lion Man”) led the Greek army with 300 Spartans and 6700 other
Greeks
o They held off the Persians for two weeks until a Greek traitor showed the Persians a
way around the mountain
o When Leonidas realized that the Persians were coming around, he told the Greeks that
they could retreat or stay with him and fight to the death
o The 300 Spartans and 700 others stayed with him and fought to the very last man
o Now the Persians were headed for Athens
Battle of Thermopylae

Battle of Salamis
o The Athenians were worried and sent messages to the Oracle at Delphi to see what
they should do
 The oracle said: “Wide-seeing Zeus gives a wooden wall to the Triton-born
goddess [Athena], which shall preserve you and your children.”
 Most people thought this meant the wooden walls of the Acropolis
 But Themistocles thought it meant ships
o Themistocles put all the Athenian women and children on ships and evacuated them
to the island of Salamis
o Then the men waited in the triremes in the Strait of Salamis
o When the Persians got to Athens, they found no people but they burned and looted the
city
o Themistocles then sent a messenger to Xerxes, pretending to be another traitor
 He told Xerxes that the Greeks were fighting among themselves and were
planning to slip out of the Strait of Salamis the next morning to run away
 So Xerxes sent his ships into the Strait of Salamis to capture the Greek navy
o BUT the Greek triremes were much smaller and easier to maneuver in the narrow
straits than the large Persian ships
 Most of the Persian navy was destroyed
Battle of Salamis

Battle of Plataea (479 BCE)
o In 479 BCE, the Greeks joined together in the largest army they had ever assembled
o Without the supplies provided by the navy, the Persian army was starving and
demoralized and the Greeks were more heavily armed.
o The Greeks destroyed the remainder of the Persian army