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The Persian Wars – a Victory and its Consequences
Around 510 B.C., the Athenians, with the help of the Spartans, toppled the
tyrannical rule of the sons of Peisistratos. The Athenian nobleman, Kleisthenes,
instituted then around 508 B.C. a new reform: the farmers became then freer in
comparison to the nobles, and could now better make their political opinions felt in
the public gatherings. So the process was introduced, which eventually led to
democracy. [Athenian democracy was based on exclusivity and inequality, and
must not be confused with the American ideal of inclusive and equal democracy.]
For this process, the Persian wars were also important. They strengthened the
power and self-confidence of Athens in the first self-preservation exercise after the
era of the tyrannical rulers. The city could, based on its military success in these
wars, attain after 477 B.C. a political and economic supremacy for a while among
the Greeks. Most of the reports about the Persian wars also come from this time. In
them, the pride of the Greeks is reflected in having conquered such a mighty power
as the Persians. And they celebrated this victory as a triumph of the love of
freedom.
The Initial Situation
Around 715 B.C., the empire of the Medes had formed in Iran, which rose to be the
leading power in the near east a century late. The Persians in southern Iran were, at
first, dependent upon the Medes, until the Persian King Cyrus II succeeded in 550
B.C. in defeating the King of the Medes, and making himself the ruler of the
Median Empire. Shortly thereafter, in 547/546 B.C., Cyrus conquered also the
empire of the Lydians in western Asia Minor. A few of the Greek cities on Asia
Minor's west coast, which until then had recognized Lydian sovereignty, resisted
the new power. The Persians secured their new possessions in Asia Minor by
means of occupying troops for this reason. Aside from this, they placed tyrants in
most of the cities. These were Greeks [who were employed by the Persians to rule
over the Greek cities].
One of the successors of King Cyrus, Darius, introduced around 521 B.C. a strict
administration: the leadership of the entire state was in the hands of the great king.
He considered everyone else, without exception, as subjects, who were duty-bound
to unconditional obedience to him. As his helpers in administration were Persian
satraps, representatives, placed into all countries, who directed the tributes
[payments] to the great king into his central treasuries in the royal palaces. The
“eyes” and “ears” of the king served as additional observers. That’s what his
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confidants were called, who were placed directly below the king, and informed
him about everything worth knowing. So that all commands and notices reached
their goals quickly, large long-distance roads were built, and post stations were set
up everywhere for exchanging horses and messengers. In this way, one could cover
three hundred kilometers per day. A message from Susa to Miletus was transmitted
in seven days; normally, ninety days were necessary for this.
In one aspect, the great king gave to all peoples of his empire complete freedom:
each was allowed to continue to practice his religion. The culture, too, of the
Ionian Greeks was hardly influenced.
In contrast to the Persian Empire, the Greek cities and states scattered over the
coasts of the Mediterranean and Black Seas did not form a unit. Their commonality
lay in their culture, in language and religion, in science and philosophy, and not the
least in the desire of each city to be independent.
The Course of the Persian Wars
The Greeks rebel against the Persians. It was mainly a coincidence that the wars
between the Persians and the Greeks broke out. As Herodotus reports, Aristagoras,
one of the tyrants installed by the Persians in Miletus, planned in 499 B.C. a revolt.
Because of a failed military action, he expected to be punished by the Persians.
Before he dared to rebel, he sought help in the motherland, and emphasized
thereby that this was a fight for freedom against the Persians. But only Athens and
Eretria promised [to send] a few ships. Among the Greeks in Asia Minor, however,
the rebellion spread very quickly. But it was suppressed by the Persians. They
destroyed Miletus, and deported its inhabitants. In the other areas, they simply
renewed the old system of rule.
The Victory at Marathon. But that didn’t satisfy the Persians. They didn’t want to
simply accept the support of a rebellion against them coming from Greek cities.
From this, the further Persian wars arose.
In 490 B.C., a well-armed Persian army set itself into motion against Greece. It had
the task of subjugating Athens and Eretria, because these [cities] had helped the
Greeks in Asia Minor. After the Persians had enslaved the Eretrians, they landed at
the plain of Marathon. Encouraged by their military leader Miltiades, the
Athenians left their city and positioned themselves for battle against the Persians.
They were supported only by approximately one thousand men from the allied
neighboring city of Platea. Unexpectedly, the Persians were defeated and driven
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back to their ships. The Greek hoplite formation, and the ability of the military
leaders, had succeeded against the Persian superpower.
New Preparations for War. King Darius then prepared a new war. As Herodotus
writes, Asia hummed with Persian weaponry. Rebellions and revolts in Egypt and
Babylon delayed Darius, and subsequently his successor Xerxes, from further
maneuvers against Greece.
But Athens, too, strengthened its weaponry. Themistokles, a leading Athenian
politician, succeeded in building two hundred new battleships. When the Persians
sent ambassadors to demand the subjugation, around thirty city-states combined
into a federation in 481 B.C., and set their disagreements with one another aside.
But this federation included only southern Greece, with Corinth, Athens, and
Sparta, the strongest city in Greece. Therefore, Sparta took the political and
military leadership in this federation. The other Greek city-states did not join this
federation. Some were on the side of the Persians, or did not feel threatened by
them. Others, like the Greeks in Asia Minor, were forced to place their military
forces into the service of the great [Persian] king.
The military maneuvers of Xerxes. When the Persian army, in 480 B.C. moved
against Greece, Xerxes was at the height of his power. He had carefully prepared
this military expedition. His goal was the subjugation of all Greece. At Mount
Athos, where once a Persian fleet had suffered a grounding, the great king caused
his own canal to be constructed, and he crossed the Hellespont on a specially-built
pontoon bridge. The fleet and the land army proceeded together.
They encountered the first resistance in mid-Greece at Thermopyle, a narrow pass
between the mountains and the sea. There, the Greeks had blocked the path on
land. A bitter battle arose. This battle has become very famous, because a small
Greek army under the command of the Spartan Leonidas had at first successfully
defended this narrow pass against the Persian superpower. Only after a betrayal
was it encircled; almost all the Greek – around one thousand – died.
The decisive battle took place at sea in the straights between Athens and [the island
called] Salamis. As the leader of the Athenian fleet, Themistokles, had foreseen,
the big Persian ships hindered each other in the narrowness of the sound, and were
beaten by the more maneuverable Greek fleet. Xerxes fled in great haste, but left
his army behind. It saw action once again in the next year in Attica, and was finally
conquered in 479 B.C. at Plataea.
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Greece after the Persian Wars
In 478/477 B.C., Athens made a federation with many Aegean cities, the DelianAttic League, in which it assumed a leadership role. [This is often simply called
the “Delian League”.] But it exploited its hegemony in order to dictate laws to its
fellow league-members, and to help itself to the federation fees collected by them.
Sparta and its Peloponnesian federation feared that Athens would expand its power
still farther. So the two most powerful states in Greece, Athens and Sparta,
struggled for dominance. In 431 B.C., the Peloponnesian War began, which ended
in 404 B.C. with Sparta’s victory.
By means of victories in the Persian wars, the Athenian people had discovered
what they could do. This experience was important for the rise of democracy.
[Athenian democracy was based on two ideas: exclusivity and inequality. People
were not equal, and only the best could fully participate as citizens. In this way, it
was a very different kind of democracy than the American ideal.] After the defeat
against Sparta, the aristocratic classes tried to get rid of democracy. The attempt
did not succeed. Democracy had become, in the meantime, so firmly established
[among the citizen class], that it could survive even a defeat. [The Athenians did
not want a return to an inherited nobility, but rather looked toward a “natural
aristocracy” – as Jefferson would later call it – that determined those top few
percent of the population deemed truly worthy of participating as citizens.]
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