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The Persian Wars
Greece’s Finest Hours
Background to the Conflict
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Main source for Greco-Persian Wars is Herodotus. Thucydides built on this.
Plutarch claimed Herodotus was "Philobarbaros“. No Persian records.
After collapse of Mycenaean civ, many Greeks fled to Ionia. These Greek
“colonies” were more or less united under Lydian rule.
On the eve of the Greco-Persian wars, Ionian population had become
discontented and rebellious
…Meanwhile in Athens, Cleisthenic democracy insecure. Fear of treason, tyranny,
Spartans, and neighbors. So Cleisthenes asks for alliance with Persia. Persians
ask for “earth and water” in return.
Ionian Revolt, 499-493
• Cyrus sent messages to the Ionians demanding
revolt against Lydian rule. Ionians refused. Cyrus
invades—Phocea 1st.
• Ionian Greeks hard to rule. So Persia est. a tyrant
in each Ionian city. But tyranny declining in
Greece.
• Darius the Great more invasive than Cyrus.
• Ionians captured, and burnt Sardis. On their return
home, they were followed by Persian troops, and
crushed at the Battle of Ephesus
Ionian Revolt, 499-493
• Miletus rebels. Athens supports them w/ 20 ships. Persians
defeat them at Battle of Lade (494) Besieged, captured, and
enslaved Miletians. Why does Athens get involved?
– They are Ionians
– Persia has been unfriendly
– Athens dependent on trade (esp. grain trade)
– Glory…
• Asia Minor returned to Persian control. But Darius vowed to
punish Athens for supporting revolts
• In 492, Darius sent ambassadors to major Greek cities,
demanding their submission. Does not go to Athens or Sparta.
First Invasion of Greece: Motivations
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Punish the rebels
Restore Hippeas (he would be a Persian satrap)
Conquer and tax Greece
Control Athenian trade
Glory
Persians
VS
Greeks
The Persian Wars
500 B.C. – 479 B.C.
Where is Persia?
The Beginning
• Darius, king of the Persians, came to power and continued
to extend the Persian Empire across Asia Minor.
• The Persians had already taken control of most Greek
colonies, and Darius would conquer Ionia (ī-ō'nē-ə), a
Greek sister state.
• Feeling threatened, the
two strongest Greek city
states, Sparta and Athens,
encouraged the Ionians to
revolt. Darius would
eventually crush the
Ionian revolt in 495 B.C.
He would then turn his
attention to the Greek
mainland to seek revenge
on Athens and Sparta.
Why Fight?
• Greeks had been settling on the west coast
of Asia Minor (Persia)
• Persia conquered these colonies
• In 499 B.C. Greeks in these colonies
revolted against Persian rule (they were
used to ruling themselves—democracy)
• Athens sent troops to support the revolt
Crushing the Revolt
• Emperor Darius of Persia crushed the revolt
rather quickly
• He decided to punish Athens for helping the
colonies
• After training for a few years Darius sent
troops to invade Greece
• Sailed on to the Bay of Marathon
The Battle of Marathon
• Athens asked Sparta to help, but Spartan
troops would not arrive for 9 days (they
were in the middle of religious festivals)
• Other jealous city-states decided not to help
Athens against the Persian Empire
• So Athens took on the mighty Persian
Empire by themselves
The Battle of Marathon
• Darius sent a great army,
with an estimated size of
100,000 soldiers, over the
sea to the Bay of Marathon,
intending to land there,
march to Athens and then
on to Sparta.
• Miltiades (mil-tahy-uhdeez), the Athenian
general, marched an army
of 10,000 men out of
Athens, hoping to delay
the Persians until
reinforcements were sent
from Sparta.
A Serious Mismatch
• Persian troops—100,000
• Athenian troops—20,000
• Did Athens really have any hope against
these odds?
Victory
• The Athenian army was well-trained and
did not break formation as they charged the
Persian lines
• The organized charge surprised the large
but scattered (and poorly organized) Persian
army
• The Persian soldiers turned and ran from the
oncoming Athenians
Phalanx Formation
• The strategy: The Persians put their best troops in the centre, the
Athenians put their best troops on the side.
• The battle: The Persians broke through the weak Athenian centre
but were pushed back on the wings by the superior Athenian
troops. The Persians were surrounded and defeated.
• The remaining Persians returned to their ships and
attempted to reach Athens. Miltiades (mil-tahy-uh-deez),
however, marched his army overland to meet them and the
Persians dared not come ashore. The Persian invasion thus
failed.
A Slaughter
• The Athenian army almost drove the
Persians back to the sea
• Final tally
– Persians—6, 400 dead
– Athens—192 dead
– Darius returned to Persia never to return
• Professional runner,
Pheidippides (fahy-dip-ideez), ran 250 km in two
days to Sparta and back to
ask the Spartans for their
support against the
Persians.
• The Spartans said they
could not help until after
the next full moon for
religious reasons
• Greatly outnumbered, the
Athenians took advantage
of the Persians’
overconfidence and their
knowledge of the terrain.
• Legend has it that
Pheidippides (fahy-dip-ideez) ran the 42 km
back to Athens to
announce their great
victory and died on the
spot. Today’s
marathon is based on
this last run by
Pheidippides.
Connection to the Past
• The modern marathon has its roots in the Battle of
Marathon
• A Greek soldier, Phidippides, ran from Marathon
to Athens (26 miles) to tell the Athenians of the
Greek victory and to warn them that the Persians
may try to attack
• Phidippides died from exhaustion after delivering
his message
• Today’s 26 mile marathon races remember his
heroic act of martyrdom
First Invasion of Greece: Battle of Marathon
• Persian fleet headed down coast of Attica, landing at bay of Marathon, 26
miles from Athens (Phydippedes runs to Athens to ask for help…3hrs.
Then died.)
• Sparta amidst a religious ceremony. Promised help later…
• Herodotus records that 6,400 Persian bodies were counted on the
battlefield; Athenians lost only 192 men. Spartans show up the next day!
• Significance
– Persians CAN be beaten
– Victory for democracy and freedom
– Pride and glory
– No victory at Marathon, no Socrates, Sophocles, Eurpides…
– The Marathonomachai saved Western Civ (?)
– War accomplishes great things (?)
Rise of Themistocles
• General (strategos) of his tribe
in 490 BCE; commanded
center of Athenian army at
Marathon
• Elected archon in 493/92 BCE
• Rival politicians ostracized:
Miltiades, Hipparchus,
Megacles the Alcmaeonid,
Xanthippus (father of Pericles),
Aristides
Rise of Themistocles: Athenian Navy Debate
• Debate in Athenian Assembly
– New wealth from Larium mines…
– Aristides: strengthen hoplite army (zeugitai)
– Themistocles: strengthen navy (thetes)
• Build port of Piraeus
• Overture to Thetes
– Aristides ostracized in 482 BCE
– New political importance of thetes as rowers…
Themistocles and Athenian Naval Power
Before this, Themistocles’ judgment had proved the best at an important
moment; it was when the commonality of Athens had received great sums
that came to them from the mines at Laurium, and they were disposed to
share them out, with each citizen getting ten drachmas apiece. It was then
that Themistocles persuaded the Athenians to abandon this distribution
and make instead, with this money, two hundred ships “for the war,” he
said, naming the war against the Aeginetans. It was indeed their
engagement in this war, just then, that saved Greece, for it compelled the
Athenians to become men of the sea. These ships were not used for the
purpose for which they were built, but they were there for Greece at the
moment of need.
-Herodotus, 7.144
Back for Revenge
• The Persian Emperor Darius never returned,
but his son Emperor Xerxes did
• In 480 B.C. the Persians returned to Greece
• They brought even more men this time
around
The Battle of Thermopylae
(ther-mop-uh-lee)
• There was fear the
Persians might return.
Under Themistocles
(thuh-mis-tuh-kleez),
the Athenians developed a
strong navy of 200
triremes (boats).
• In 485 B.C., Xerxes (zurkseez) succeeded his father,
Darius, as king of the
Persians. He vowed
revenge on the Greeks.
Athenian Trireme
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120 ft. x 15 ft.
170 rowers
Fast and agile
Ramming tactics
Rise of Themistocles: Foresight
Now the rest of his countrymen thought that
the defeat of the barbarians at Marathon was
the end of the war; but Themistocles thought it
to be only the beginning of greater contests, and
for these he anointed himself, as it were, to be
the champion of all Greece, and put his polis
into training, because, while it was yet far off,
he expected the evil that was to come.
- Plutarch, Life of Themistocles, 3.4
Second Persian Invasion (480-479 BCE)
 Darius dies in 486
 Xerxes constructs an armada– a “boatbridge” spanning Hellespont
 481, Greek League (Hellenic League)
 Defensive Alliance
 31 Greek states
 Led by Sparta and Athens
Battle of Thermopylae, 480
 Xerxes's arrived during Olympic Games. For Spartans,
warfare during Olympics was sacrilegious. But Spartans
considered the threat so grave that they dispatched King
Leonidas I with his personal bodyguards (The Hippeis) of
300 men + Allied forces.
 Persian contingents forced to attack Greek phalanx head on
 Pass at Thermopylae was opened to the Persian army
according to Herodotus, at the cost to the Persians of up to
20,000 fatalities
 Xerxes beheads and impales corpse of Leonidas!
The Battle of Thermopylae
• Persians met a force of Greeks at
Thermopylae
• This was a small mountain pass that
controlled access to all of Greece
• For two days 7,000 Greeks held the
Persians back, but…
• Xerxes (zurk-seez) sent a huge army and navy to attack the Greek
mainland once again (180,000 troops).
• Xerxes’ army advanced along the Greek coast until coming to
Themopylae, a fifty foot wide mountain pass.
• The strategy: The Spartan king, Leonidas (lee-on-i-duhs), and 7000
men wanted to hold the Persians at the pass.
• The battle: The Persians attacks were repulsed until a traitor
showed the Persians a secret path. 300 Spartan elders and
1,000 men stayed behind to allow the other Greeks time to
fall back and mount defenses. All died, but 20,000 Persians
were also killed.
The Downfall
• A Greek traitor showed the Persians a secret
passageway
• This allowed the Persians to sneak up from
behind and attack the Greeks
• Most of the Greek defenders ran away
A Heroic Act
• About 300 Spartans stayed behind and
fought to their deaths
• This allowed the other Greeks to escape
capture or certain death
Battle of Thermopylae, 480
 Following Thermopylae, the Persian army burned and
sacked the Boeotian cities which had not submitted to the
Persians
 Arguably most famous battle in European ancient history.
Greeks lauded for their performance in battle.
Thermopylae as inspiration for the ages.
 Military defeat; moral victory
 Thermopylae was a Pyrrhic victory for Persians
Xerxes’ Route
Here come the Persians
• The Persians poured into Greece
• They got their revenge by wreaking havoc
• They even burned Athens to the ground
• What were the Greeks to do?
Battle at Salamis (September, 480 BCE)
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Victory at Thermopylae = Boeotia fell to Xerxes; left Attica open to invasion
Athens evacuated, with the aid of Allied fleet, to Salamis. Athens fell to Persians
The Persians had now captured much of Greece. But needed to capture navy.
Destruction of some of Persian fleet in battle and storm at Artemisium
Peloponnesians fortify Isthmus of Corinth
“Eurybiades presented the proposition that anyone who pleased should declare
where, among the territories of which the Greeks were masters, would be the most
suitable place to fight their sea battle; for Attica was at this point given up for lost; it
was about the rest that he inquired. The most of the opinions of those who spoke
agreed that they should sail to the Isthmus and fight for the Peloponnesus; the reason
they produced for this was that, if they were beaten in the sea fight and were at
Salamis, they would be beleaguered in an island where no help could show up for
their rescue; but if they fought off the Isthmus, they could put into a coastline that
was their own.” (Herodotus, 8.49)
The Battle of Salamis
• As their city-state burned the Athenian
people and the army escaped to the island of
Salamis
• The Persians were quick to follow the
retreating Greeks to Salamis
• The strategy: The Greeks
wanted to lure the Persians
into the narrow waters of
Straits of Salamis, which they
knew better. Themistocles
sent his servant with false
information to Xerxes,
claiming the Greeks would
attempt to escape through
the Straits.
• Xerxes, eager for victory,
believed the message.
Those Clever Athenians
• The Greeks ships first sailed from shore like they
were fleeing the island
• They then turned quickly around and began
ramming the Persian ships
• Before the Persians knew what had happened half
of their fleet was on the ocean floor
• The Persians once again retreated back to Persia
• The battle: The Persians sailed into the Straits of Salamis,
and were trapped by the Greeks. The Greeks were
outnumbered, but swift and deadly Athenian triremes
defeated the Persian navy.
“Themistocles Decree” from Troezen
The Gods
Resolved by the Council and People
Themistocles, son of Neocles, of Phrearri, made the motion to entrust the
city to Athena the mistress of Athens and to all the other gods to guard and
defend from the Barbarian for the sake of the land. The Athenians
themselves and the foreigners who live in Athens are to send their children
and women to safety in Troezen, their protector being Pittheus, the
founding hero of the land. They are to send the old men and their movable
possessions to safety on Salamis. The treasurers and priestesses are to
remain on the acropolis guarding the property of the gods.
All the other Athenians and foreigners of military age are to embark on the
200 ships that are ready and defend against the Barbarian for the sake of
their own freedom and that of the rest of the Greeks, along with the
Spartans, the Corinthians, the Aeginetans, and all others who wish to share
in the danger.
“Themistocles Decree” from Troezen
Text of Third Century
May be copy of origina
Discovered in 1959
The Final Battle
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The Battle of Plataea
The Greeks and Persians at equal strength
Athens and Sparta fought side by side
Greek military superiority won out and
Persia retreated for good
How did the Greeks do it?
• Three reasons
– Inherent advantage of the defender
– They were better soldiers
– They used the element of surprise
The End
• The remainder of the Persian army was defeated by the Spartans at
Plataea (pluh-tee-uh) and the rest of the Persian fleet was caught
beached on shores of Asia Minor and destroyed by the Greeks. This
twenty year battle had ended in an astonishing victory for the Greeks
and it filled them with pride, confidence, and patriotism, leading to
the Golden Age.
Effects of the Persian
Wars
• Greece victory creates a sense of unity
• Athens had control of what was left of
Greece through leadership of the
Delian League.
• Delian League- an agreement that the
remaining Greek city states would
help each other
“Themistocles Decree” from Troezen
Text of Third Century
May be copy of origina
Discovered in 1959
Legacy to Greco-Persian Wars
• Greek nationalism
• 1st great Pan-Hellenic Activity
• Ionians renew rebellion against Persia.
– Persians lose control of Asia Minor coast
 Expeditions of Cimon against Persia (ca. 470-460)
• Athenian Hegemony
– Athenian naval supremacy
– Cold War ensues b/w Athens and Sparta for 20 years
• Athenian Wall
 Themistocles as Hero: Stood up to Persians and to Spartans
 Persians suffered a major blow to their prestige and morale
 We know that Persian threat was over. They didn’t.
 Philosophy, science, freedom, and democracy
Legacy to Greco-Persian Wars: Delian League est.
478
• Hegemony by invitation
• Synod – 1 state/1 vote
• All members pay taxes. Treasury at Delos…moved
• Navy is all Athenian
• Athens will lead all battles
• Like NATO
• Is this Athenian Imperialism?
– Yes
• Athens is 1st among equals
• 465 – rebellion in Thasos → Athens tightens grip
– No
• smaller states wanted protection
• Synod
Concluding Discussion
• What were the causes of the Persian Wars?
– How and why did Ionians revolt? What impacts did these revolts
have?
• Evaluate the significance of the Battles of:
– Marathon
– Thermopylae
– Salamis/Plataea
• Assess the role of Themistocles.
• Discuss the legacy of the Persian Wars. Why does this war matter?
• How did the Persian Wars shift the balance of power in Greece?
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