- War between ancient Greek city-states and Persia
- Based from a big part on writings from Herodotus
- 492 β 449 BC
Ionian revolt
- Greek city-states in Anatolia were under Persian control
- They revolted in 499 β 494 BC
- A map showing main events
- Led by Aristagoras, the tyrant of Miletus
- He asks Sparta and Athens to help him Spartans declined, but Athens came to help
- Probably because former Athenian tyrant Hippias was exiled in Persia and seemed to be planning his return to power
- Athens mustered a fleet of 20 ships supplemented by 4 additional ships from from another polis called Eretria
- The revolt spread after the battle of Sardis (498 BC) (important persian outpost)
- He asks Sparta and Athens to help him Spartans declined, but Athens came to help
- In 494 BC, the revolt was finally crushed
- Miletus was sacked and burned as a revenge for the destruction of Sardis
- A map showing main events
- Greek city-states in Anatolia were under Persian control
- After the revolt, Persians went demanding earth and water as a symbol of surrendering
- Sacrilige in Athens and Sparta
- When the convoy came to Athens, they were killed
- When the convoy came to Sparta, the Spartans threw them into a well and told them to get their own earth and water
- Sacrilige in Athens and Sparta
- Persians invade mainland Greece
- Their first target is Eritrea, they land there and destroy it
Battle of Marathon
- 490 BC
- Athenians and Persians (under their king Darius) meet north of Athens
- Surprising decisive Greek victory
- Mostly because of the hoplite tactics and much more effective and heavy armor
- Athenian general in charge, Miltiades, puts the best troops off to the side, where they can attack Persian flanks
- It worked great and Herodotus tells us the final causulties were 192 Greeks over 6,000 Persians
- There’s the story of the famous runner Pheidippides, who ran from Athens to Sparta to deliver the news
- Miltiades dedicated a helmet after this battle at the temple of Zeus in Olympia
- Greeks have mitigated the Persian threat for a while
- Xerxes (Darius' son) decides to finish what his father has begun
- He builds a bridge over the Hellenspont
- But a storm comes and breaks it
- Xerxes gets so furious that he has the body of water flogged with whips, branded with irons, and he tosses chains into it to fetter the Hellenspont
- But a storm comes and breaks it
- The bridge is built and the Persians undertake parallel progress towards Greece
- Land forces making their way along the coast parallel to the naval forces (see map below)
Battle of Thermopylae
- 480 BC
- Took place at a narrow coastal pass
- Thermopylae means hot gates (there were hot springs)
- Greeks were lead by the Spartan king Leonidas
- Only 7,000 (300 of which were Spartans) Greeks (against 70,000β300,000 Persians)
- Persian victory
- Spartans held off wave after wave until a Greek trader led the Persians around the other sids
- Greeks, especially Spartans, fought to the death
- Around 4,000 greek casualties compared to 10,000β20,000 persian casualties
- Leonidas is killed
- He builds a bridge over the Hellenspont
Evacuation of Attica
- Decree of Themistocles orders Athenians to evacuate
- Persians eventually come to Athens
- They kill the few remaining defenders
- The sack and burn the city
Battle of Salamis
- Delphi said the Athenians could trust their wooden walls
- Athenians interpreted that to mean their ships
- Later that year of 480 BC, the two fleets confront each other
- The Greek fleet (led by Athenians under Themistocles) and the Persian fleet
- Themistocles lures Persians into the narrow waters of the straits near the island of Salamis
- Aristedes the Just was recalled from his ostracism and commanded a small troop the little island
- The smaller, faster, more maneuverable Greek fleet had the upper hand here
- Greek victory
- 371β378 ships (Greeks, 40 causulties) vs. ~600-1200 ships (Persian, 200β300 causulties)
- Xerxes flees back overland
- Delphi said the Athenians could trust their wooden walls
Battle of Plataea
- 479 BC
- The Persian army under the command of Mardonius stays in Greece
- On land with the Spartans in command under their king Pausania
- Total Greek victory
- Around 80,000 (modern consensus) to 110,000 (Herodous) Greeks vs 70,000β120,000 (modern consensus) or 350,000 (Herodotus) Persians
- Persians, as per usual, had about 10 times more casualties
- After this war Sparta and Athens have definitley risen to a position of hegemony in Greece
- Formation of the Delian League
Peace of Callias
- Pericles oficially ended the war between Athens and Persia