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Victory and Defeat in the
Greek World
Early Western Civilization
Chapter 5, Section 3
The Persian Wars
by Mario Sánchez i Candela
• Ionian Greeks in Asia
Minor rebelled against
Persians, Athens sent
ships to help them in
499 B.C.
• Rebel cities are
crushed; King Darius
wants to punish
Athens
Outbreak of War
• King Darius sent
messengers to Greek
city-states,
demanding gifts
• Spartans and
Athenians refuse,
throw messengers
down a well and a pit
Run Pheidippides Run…
• King Darius was furious
and sent ships to attack
the city of Marathon,
which was just north of
Athens
• Greeks outnumbered 2 to
1, but won anyway
• Pheidippides ran 26.2
miles to Athens to tell
Athens, died upon
arriving
Turning Point in European History
• Darius’s son Xerxes sent an even bigger army to
conquer Greece
• Greece wins war because of three critical battles
Athenians at Marathon
Spartans at Thermopylae
Naval Battle at Salamis
The Spartans at Thermopylae
• Sparta fought until
every last man was
dead
• Persians marched to
Athens and burned it,
but had lost far more
men
The Battle at Salamis
Postwar Athens
• Athens becomes most powerful city-state
• It organized the Delian League, an alliance
of city-states
• Used its influence to create an Athenian
Empire
The Age of Pericles
• Pericles hired the
best architects, had
the Acropolis rebuilt
• He turned Athens into
the cultural center of
Greece
Greek vs. Greek
• To counter Athens, Sparta forms the
Peloponnesian League
• A 27 year war, the Peloponnesian War,
breaks out
• With the help of Persia, Sparta defeats
Athens
Consequences
• War ends Athenian greatness
• Democracy suffers
• Both city states were extremely weakened