Persian Wars

Ionian revolt

• Greek city-states in Anatolia were under Persian control
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• They revolted in 499 – 494 BC
  • A map showing main events
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  • 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)
  • In 494 BC, the revolt was finally crushed
    • Miletus was sacked and burned as a revenge for the destruction of Sardis

• 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

• 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
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    • 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
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• Greeks have mitigated the Persian threat for a while

• 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
• 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)
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• 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 70,000–300,000 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 10,000–20,000 persian casualties
    • Leonidas is killed

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
  • 371–378 ships (Greeks, 40 causulties) vs. ~600-1200 ships (Persian, 200–300 causulties)
  • Xerxes flees back overland

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 70,000–120,000 (modern consensus) or 350,000 (Herodotus) Persians
  • Persians, as per usual, had about 10 times more casualties

• Formation of the Delian League

Peace of Callias

• Pericles oficially ended the war between Athens and Persia