Download Marathon: The first battle of the Persian

Vocabulary on the Persian Wars
Cyrus: commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Persian
Empire. He conquered the Ionian Colonies.
Darius I: King of Persia (521–486) who expanded the empire, organized a highly
efficient administrative system, and invaded Greece, only to be defeated at the Battle
of Marathon in 490. He was the first to offer protection to the Athenians for
protection against Sparta when Cleisthenes requests it.
Xerxes: (ruled 486-465 BCE), also known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth king
of the Persian Empire. Fought in the battles of Thermopylae and Salamis
Marathon: The first battle of the Persian-Greco Wars. It took place in 490 BC,
during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of
Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force.
Pheidippides: An Athenian man who was sent to Sparta to request help when the
Persians landed at Marathon, Greece. He ran about 150 mi in two days. He then ran
the 25 mi from the battlefield near Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek
victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) and then collapsed and died.
Thermopylae: a pass in the mountains in eastern Greece, between the cliffs of Mt.
Oeta and the Gulf of Lamia. It was here that the Persians defeated the Spartans 480
B.C. and made their way to Athens.
Salamis: an island off the coast of Athens in the gulf of Aegina. Here the Athenians
defeated the Persians in a naval battle in 480 BC.
Earth and water
Earth and water: symbol of surrender in the ancient Achaemenid empire.
A satrap receives visitors. Nereid Monument, Xanthus
The Persian custom to demand "earth and water" from subject people is known from
the Histories by the Greek researcher Herodotus of Halicarnassus. It is tempting to
think that those who surrendered gave up everything: their land and the liquids they
needed. In other words, surrender was unconditional, and the Persian king was able
to grant life to his new subjects. After the exchange of earth and water and the
acknowledgement of Persian superiority, negotiations could begin about obligations
and benefits.
Herodotus mentions several nations and towns that gave earth and water to
representatives of the great king: e.g., during Xerxes' campaign of 480 BCE, the
Thessalians and Boeotians. Xerxes proudly wrote in the Daiva inscription that he
ruled "the Yaunâ (=Greeks) who dwell on this side of the sea and those who dwell
across the sea".
No less interesting is the surrender of the Athenians in 507. At that moment, they
were besieged by the Spartans and their allies, and in a desperate gamble, the Athenian
leader Clisthenes surrendered to the Persian satrap of Lydia, Artaphernes. When the
envoys returned, however, the Spartans had been defeated and the Athenians started
to pretend that they had never surrendered.
The Macedonians surrendered to the Persians on two occasions (513 and 492).
King Darius I the Great could truthfully state in the inscription on his tomb at Naqši Rustam that he had conquered the Yaunâ takabarâ, the "Greeks with sun hats", a
reference to the Macedonian headwear. The Macedonians were willing participants in
Xerxes' campaign against the Greeks, and it comes as some surprise that a century and
a half later, Alexander the Great could launch a crusade against Persia as revenge for
the Persian occupation.
It must be noted that Herodotus uses the expression only in Greek and Macedonian
contexts.note It is therefore impossible to know for sure whether the demand of earth
and water was a common Persian practice, or was only a mode to deal with the Yaunâ.