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Ancient Greece
Fiercely Independent
Major Wars Fought by Greeks
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The Trojan War
The Persian Wars
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Marathon
Thermopylae
Salamis
The Peloponnesian War
Organization Chart
Battle
Marathon
Leaders
Persian:
Greek:
Numbers
Army:
Ships:
Thermopylae Persian:
Greek:
Army:
Ships:
Salamis
Army:
Ships:
Peloponnese
Persian:
Greek:
Winner
The Persian Wars
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Persia was a powerful eastern empire
(Afghanistan to shores of the
Mediterranean)
Ruled by Cyrus the Great
In contrast, Greece was actually a bunch
of small, scattered city-states
Greeks LOVED their independence
Leading up to the Battle of
Marathon
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499 BCE, Miletus led other Ionian citystates in a revolt again Persia.
Persians won, destroying Miletus
The Battle
of Marathon
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Darius I of Persia was
determined to punish
the Athenians for
supporting the Ionian
revolt.
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Heralds were sent by
Darius to Sparta and
Athens to get to submit
to Persian power.
Heralds would ask for
“sand and water”
Sparta threw the Herald
down a well, where
there was plenty of both.
Athens threw the Herald
over the cliffs and killed
the translator.
War was inevitable.
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The Athenians had sent to Sparta for help but
Sparta was unwilling to leave until the moon
was full.
The Spartans eventually arrived after the
battle was over.
But the Athenians had a most welcome
surprise when they arrived at Marathon for
they were joined by a force of 1000 Plataians
(their entire army) to fight against the
common enemy.
Together they would face the Medes and their
conquerors, the Persians. No one had been
able to stand up against them in the past.
Numbers
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Persians brought 600 ships and over
20,000 soldiers.
Athenians and Plataians numbered less
than 10,000.
The name, “Marathon”
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The Athenian general
dispatched a professional
runner to seek help from
Sparta.
Pheidippides ran over 42
km in two days, and then
ran back to Marathon with
the Spartans’ response.
Pheidippides collapsed and
died after giving this
message.
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Miltiades, the
Athenian general
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The Athenians (and Plataians) were
outnumbered 3 to 1.
Miltiades knew the Persians put their
strongest soldiers in the middle rows.
Miltiades had his army stretch out to
match the Persian length. He then put his
best soldiers on the front ends.
Persians broke through the middle, but
Athenians won on the ends and
surrounded the Persians.
The trapped soldiers in the middle ran
back to their ships.
192 Athenians died. 6,400 Persians died.
Persian Army
Greek Army
Their position in war is called a
“phalanx” (close, tight line)
Battle at Thermopylae
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The Persians planned on a comeback.
Despite Marathon, Persia still owned Asia
Minor, Lydia, Judah, Mesopotamia, and
Egypt.
Darius I was killed in a battle, so his son,
Xerxes took control of the Persian empire.
By 480 BC, Xerxes had built up an
enormous army of 180,000 men and a
navy of 1200 ships.
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Xerxes, King of Persia
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But Greece had not been slack after
Marathon.
The Athenians, under Themistocles,
developed a strong navy of 200 ships and
7000 troops.
By 481 BCE, all the Greek states that were
prepared to fight the Persians held a
congress.
Sparta and Athens agreed to take the
leadership.
■ The Greek army was led by King
Leonidas of Sparta who brought with him
300 Spartans.
■ The small turnout of Sparta resulted
from a disagreement as to where best to
meet the Persians.
■ Sparta wanted to fight at the Isthmus
of Corinth
■ others wanted to fight further north
■ Athens still insisted that the war would
be won or lost at sea.
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The Greeks realized that Xerxes had to be
delayed as long as possible so that the
Athenians could desperately build up their
navy.
They decided to send an expeditionary
force north to meet Xerxes, to fight the
Persians at hopeless odds, and to sacrifice
themselves in order to improve the
chances of ultimate victory.
They decided to take this stand at
Thermopylae.
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The fight was in a
narrow pass.
After 3 days of
fighting, the Greek
had to back away.
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A Greek traitor led the
Persian forces along a
mountain path to the
far end of the pass at
Thermopylae.
King Leonidas knew
they were trapped.
He told the other
Greeks to leave.
He and the 300
Spartans stayed,
fought bravely, and all
were killed.
The Battle at Salamis
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Athens was left vulnerable after Thermopylae
and the city was evacuated.
Most of the people escaped to Salamis.
The Persians went after them.
Themistocles sent a messenger to Xerxes with
lies:
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The Greek Fleet was sailing away
An attack the next day by the Persians would result in
Athenians joining them because they were disgusted
by the other week Greek states.
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Xerxes believed the messenger and sent
his ships into the strait.
The Greeks attacked the Persian boats.
The Persians lost 200 ships
The Greeks lost only 40 ships.
Xerxes had been so confident he would win, that
he sat watching the battle on a throne placed on a
hill overlooking the strait.
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Xerxes went home
without his army.
The remaining Persian
army fought the Greeks
near the town of
Plataea.
A Spartan unit held off
their attack.
In a war in Ionia, the
Greeks destroyed the
rest of the army.
The Peloponnesian War
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In 478 BCE, Athens and other states (150
altogether) formed a league to protect
themselves from anymore attacks by the
Persians.
Being in the league meant you gave
money or resources. Most states gave
money, and Athens created a huge
amount of ships.
From 480 BCE to 380 BCE, Athens
developed in the arts and sciences, in
literature and trade.
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Sparta rivaled Athens.
It was the only unwalled city in Greece.
By the middle of 500 BCE, Sparta
controlled most of the Peloponnese.
Athens versus Sparta
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Athens tried to expand its control by
entering central Greece, Sparta’s domain.
Athens prevented some states from
trading and they went to Sparta for help.
Sparta declared war in 431 BCE.
Competition
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Athens
 Strong navy
 A lot of money
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Sparta
 Professional
soldiers
The Plague
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To protect its people, the Athenian leader,
Pericles, had all his citizens live within the
city walls.
With the enormous population, poor
ventilation, and a lack of hygiene, a
plague broke out.
1/3 of the population died, including the
general.
Athenian Attack
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Athens attacked the neutral state of
Melos.
All men of military age were killed.
Women and children were sold into
slavery.
Then Athens invaded Syracuse (Sicily)
Syracuse won.
Sparta’s Strength
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Sparta formed an alliance with Sicily.
Sparta formed an alliance with Persia.
Sparta defeated Athens by 405 BCE.
Athens had to give up all the ships but 12.
Athens’ walls were torn down.
Athens was not destroyed because of the
service it had provided during the Persian
wars.