Military Achievements and
Leaders: Ancient Greece
Created By:
Andrew Boyce
Hussein Rajan
Luke Siekris
SPARTA
The Spartan People
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Expert warriors
At the age of 20 named fully fledged warriors
Knew only one home and family, the barracks and their unit
Girls also given rigorous training to become mothers of healthy children
Women regarded as most beautiful in all Hellas and as tough in spirit as
men
Spartan people freest in all Greece
Mother to son “Come back with your shield or on it”
Training for Spartan Soldiers
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Training started at age 7
Physical training was a must
Training was harsh but effective
Fox Time
Each soldier learned absolute and unwavering loyalty
Also learned to swim, jump, run, wrestle, box, and most importantly dance
Thought dancing helped in the movements of battle
“Spartans do not ask how many, but where”
Hoplites
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Heavily armoured infantrymen
Wore bronze helmet, breastplate, and greaves (shin protectors)
Each carried a hoplon, meaning a weapon, and a wide, heavy
wooden shield reinforced with bronze
“Hoplites” mean “man at arms”
The main unit in a Greek army
Hoplite training was based more on working in numbers than
individuality
Forms phalanx
Phalanx
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Line up shoulder to shoulder
Held shield up with one hand and spear with other
Push spears between shields
Each rank does this
Minimum 7 ranks
Enemy sees a wall of shields and spears
Once they met enemy, the men in the back would push forward
If a man died on a spear, his body would be flung around until the battle is
over
Leonidas and Heroic Stand at
Thermopylae
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A Spartan king
Made a last stand at Thermopylae to give Greek cities time to prepare
defences
Had 300 Spartans and 7000 other allies against an army 20 times that size
Chose to fight in a mountain pass so the Persians couldn’t use their
numbers
First day, the Persian leader Xerxes sent in his regular troops who got
butchered
Second day, Xerxes sent in his best troops, “Immortals”, but they were
also beaten back
On the second night, Greek traitor told Xerxes of a pass to get behind
Spartan force
Leonidas learned of this and sent his allies away
Remained with his 300 Spartan bodyguards
Fought in a tight circle so the enemy could not break their formation
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Leonidas died fighting and a fierce battle was fought over his body
Persians pushed back four times
Arrows finally killed last Spartans
Body of Leonidas beheaded and crucified
Bravery still looked back on today
British held pass against German advance in World War II at Thermopylae
but were surrounded and overwhelmed
Above:
King Leonidas
Brasidas
• 431 B.C. Repelled an Athenian sea borne attack against
Methone
• 429 B.C. Elected high official
• 425 B.C. Helped plan out assault against Athenians at
battle of Pylos, severely wounded
• 424 B.C. Thwarts an Athenian attack against Megara and
due to his diplomatic and military skills, manages a
successful expedition to Macedonia where he convinced
them to break all allegiance to Athens
• 422 B.C. Dies fighting at the battle of Amphipolis
Amphipolis
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Brasidas shows commanding genius
Athenian commander sent a force Brasidas knew he couldn’t beat
Brasidas waited until commander told his men to head back to the base,
thinking Brasidas won’t fight him
Brasidas charges out into an unorganized Athenian army, causing heavy
casualty’s and making the army flee
The Spartans lost only 9 men, 1 of whom was Brasidas
The Persian War
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What was the Persian War?
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The war was fought between Greece and Persia
Consisted of 11 major battles from 492 B.C.E to 449 B.C.E
The battles of Marathon and Salamis were considered to be the
most decisive ones in the history of the Persian/Greek war.
Battle of Marathon took place on September 12, 490 B.C.E
Militiades and Datis who led them to victory led the Greek army
Battle of Salamis took place in 480 B.C.E
Greek army led by Themistocles, which was another victory
Themistocles was one of the most influential leaders in Greek
history
There were 4 main Greek and Persian commanders during the
time of these battles.
There were 2 different Greeks fighting the Persians, the Ionians
and Athenians
The war ended in a signing of a peace treaty
Timeline of Events
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500 BCE - Ionian Greek revolt within Asia Minor (this is what
started the Persian/ Greek war)
490 BCE - Battle of Marathon (Decisive Greek victory over the
Persians)
481 BCE- Greek League (Greek league against Persia, with Sparta
in charge of the army, and Athens, the navy.)
480 BCE- Battle of Thermopylea (Persian victory)
479 BCE- Battle of Salamis and Plataea (Salamis was a naval
victory for the Greeks and Plataea was the battle that ended the
Persian invasion)
479 BCE- Battle of Mycale (Another decisive victory for the Greeks)
477 BCE- Aristides forms Delian League (Athens, in charge of the
Delian League, went on the offensive to free the Ionian cities.)
466 BCE- Battle of the Eurymedon River (The last Greek victory in
the war)
449 B.C. - Peace of Callias (Persia and Athens sign peace treaty)
Conditions that Influenced the War
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Many Greek colonists set out from mainland Greece, evicted by the
Dorians, and ended up in Ionia in Asia Minor
The Ionian Greeks came under the rule of the Lydians and King Croesus
In 546 BCE the Persians took over Ionia, leaving the Greeks under Persian
rule
The Ionian Greeks found the Persian rule oppressive and attempted a
revolt with the help of the mainland Greeks
Mainland Greece then came to the attention of the Persians and war
between them begun
With mainland Greece invading Ionia, now under Persian rule, created a lot
of tension and anger causing both countries to fight back
Effects of the Persian War on the
Greek Empire
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Athenians felt that the Persian war was a defining moment in their
history
The victory of the war over Persia made Athens one of the
strongest city- states in Greece
Wealth followed with the power as Greece gathered lots of money
and riches from the war
Many states started looking towards Athens for help opposed to
Sparta
The alliances that Athens made after the victory as well as the
Delian league would catapult it into immense power
This power made Athens the cultural center of the Greek world
The Spartans grew increasingly frightened of Athenian power and
suspicious of their intentions
Although Athens had this great amount of power, it would also
cause their downfall
This would eventually lead to the Peloponnesian war
Themistocles
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Born in 524 BCE and died in 460 BCE
He was the son of Neocles
Athenian general and statesman
One of the Greeks best military commanders
Commanded the Athenian fleet at the battle of Salamis
Convinced the Athenians to strengthen and expand the
Greek navy, which eventually led to the victory at Salamis
• The navy grew from 70 to 200 ships
• He had the harbors fortified as well
• Funding for this came from the new silver mines and the
total money used came out to about sixty million dollars
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After the death of Militiades, Themistocles gained a sufficient amount of
power and did great things to Greece
He had Piraeus made into a harbor/fortress for Athens
Athens thus became the finest trade center in Greece
Themistocles was considered a hero
However with the passage of time he became less popular and resented
In 471 BCE, he was ousted and retired to Argos where Artaxerxes I, king of
Persia, welcomed him
The Battle of Marathon
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Took place in Marathon, Greece
Took place on September 12, 490 BCE
The first victory over the Persians
Led by Militiades and Datis
Athens army was about one third the size of the Persians
The Athenian army consisted of 10,000 Athenians and 1,000 Plataeans
The Greeks managed to win by enclosing the Persians in a circle
The Persians had nowhere to run and were taken out by the onslaught of
Greeks
The Greeks then marched back to Athens to celebrate their victory when
they came across another Persian force
The Greeks, exhausted and hungry, managed to fight off the invading
Persian force and defend the city
Peloponnesian War
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Sparta
Athens
What Was The Peloponnesian War?
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The Wars were fought between Athens and Sparta and their allies
respectively.
Athenians were lead by Pericles, but he died in the second year of
the war from the plague that killed many of Athens’s population.
There were two main Peloponnesian War
First Peloponnesian War was from 460-445 BCE and the second
war was from 431-404 BCE
The first war ended with a truce. Athens would maintain their
empire of the sea and the Spartans would maintain their empire on
land. Athenians were very strong at sea, and the Spartans were
strong on land. In the war, the Spartans out numbered the
Athenians 2-1.
In the second war, Sparta won and became the leading force in
the region. Sparta’s victory lead to the fall, and eventual end of the
great Athenian Empire.
Timeline of Events
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460-445 BC - First Peloponnesian War
445-431 BC – Peace Treaty between Athens and Sparta was made. It
dissolved after 14 years, even though it was supposed to last 30
years.
431 BC- Second Peloponnesian War begins. This was the main and
most significant of the two wars because it lead to the collapse of
Athens and might of Sparta.
430 BC- Plague in Athens which claims the life of Pericles (he died a
year later in 429 BC), the leader of the Athenians in the first two
years of the war. After he died, he was succeeded by Nicias.
421 BC- the Peace treaty of Nicias was signed. This was treaty was
signed because the sides thought they could wear each other down
but since they couldn’t, they decided a treaty would be better and
Sparta could keep the land it conquered and Athens could keep its
allies and continental territories. Alcibiades was Nicias’ enemy in
parliament and he convinced the Athenians to keep fighting.
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415-413 BC- The Athenian expedition to Syracuse, where they
lost badly. After this, the Athenian Army was slowly crumbling
because they lost a lot of their harbour and naval fleets.
Spartans took advantage of the Athenian weaknesses and
attacked.
404 BC- Athens finally surrendered which marked the end of the
great Empire of Athens.
Conditions That Influenced
The War
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Spartans were getting suspicious and fearful of Athens’s economic power
and wealth and were not happy with the thirty year peace that was agreed
to between them and Athens
Several Greek states formed a Delian league in 478 BC in order to create
and fund a strong navy with could be used against the Persians. Over the
years, Athens converted the Delian league into an Athenian Empire and
used the navy as their own. This increase in the Athenian military
challenged the Spartans, as they were the sole military strength in Greece
until then.
Athens placed economic sanctions against Megara, an ally of Sparta.
The Athenians had become power hungry and very arrogant and were
ready to capture the Greek mainland which was home to Sparta’s allies
and was their “turf”
The growing hostility turned into a war when there was a insignificant
event in the distant part of the Greek mainland which finally triggered the
Peloponnesian War
Effects of The War
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The Athenians slowly lost power and strength after the battle at Syracuse
in 415 BC, and by 404 BC, the Athenian Empire had collapsed
Spartans were the new strength and they restored democracy in 403 BC
The main effect of the War was the collapse of Athens but the
reinstatement of Democracy under the Spartan rule.
Alcibiades
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Alcibiades was one of the most powerful and influential leaders of
the Peloponnesian war.
He was born in Athens in 450 BC
He was a close relative of Pericles and after his death from the
Plague, Alcibiades succeeded Pericles and ruled under the same
principles and as Pericles
He lead the Athenians in to battle at Syracuse, but had to leave
because he had to stand trail for an act of vandalism.
Ironic because he fled to Sparta when he was convicted for
vandalism but disagreed with the King and moved back to Athens
where he became a general
his constant failure with the army and his losses for Athens in
battles lead to his dismissal from the Army and his move back to
Sparta for refuge.
He was killed when exiting his burning home by a shower of
arrows by the Spartan Army
The Battle of Syracuse
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Took place in Syracuse, near Sicily in the fall of 415 BC.
The goal of the Athenians was to expand the Athenian empire and
deprive Sparta of a supply source by taking over Syracuse.
Athenians laid a siege on Syracuse and built a wall around them
Syracuse was about to surrender and give Athens their land when
Spartans arrived with 2,000 men and counter attacked the
Athenian armies.
In the spring of 413 BC, the Athenians had lost their ships and
tried to flee, but were forced to surrender
Both Nicias and Demosthenes (the Athenian leaders of the battle),
were executed
This was the beginning of the fall of Athens
Bibliography
BOOKS
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Roberts, Timothy R. Ancient Civilizations. New York: Michael Friedman
Publishing Group, 1997.
Bibliography
Internet Sites
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Largent, Kimberly J. Leaders and Battle Database. 2005. 6 Nov. 2005
<http://www.lbdb.com/TMDisplayLeader.cfm?PID=5399&WID=55>.
Racial Nationalist Library. Leonidas the Spartan.. 6 Nov. 2005
<http://library.flawlesslogic.com/leonidas.htm>.
TMP TM. "Spartan Organization?" Topic. 15 Aug. 2005. 6 Nov. 2005
<http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=50922>.
Wikipedia Encyclopedia. The Peloponnesian War. 04 Nov. 2005. 04
Nov. 2005 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloponnesian_war>.
Gill, N S. Peloponnesian War. 2005. 3 Nov. 2005
<http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/peloponnesianwar/a/timepelopwar.h
tm>.
Gormley, Larry. Leaders and Battles of the Peloponnesian War. 2005. 3
Nov. 2005 <http://www.lbdb.com/TMDisplayWar.cfm?WID=55>.
QUESTIONS
Who fought in the Peloponnesian War?
Athens and Sparta
What was Sparta’s strength?
Their army
Who was the main leader of the Greeks in the Persian war?
Themistocles
What started the Persian war?
Ionian Greeks revolted against Persian rule
What was the purpose of the last stand at Thermopylea?
To give Greek cities time to prepare defences. Do you think the last stand
worked? Why?
Your Mission
• You are King Leonidas, you have decided to make a last stand
against the invading Persians to give the Greek cities time to
prepare the defences. Using “soldiers” provided, You will have 5
minutes to figure out the best strategy to defend the given area
with the troops provided. After we review everyone's strategy,
we will tell you whose was the best and why.
• REMEMBER: The Persian Armies attack in two waves. So be
prepared for a double attack. They also have the use of Archers
so be prepared for attack from the air.
•You have 5 minutes starting….NOW