Download the persian wars

"Lord, don't forget the Athenians"
1. Persia had conquered all of the Fertile Crescent and Asia Minor by
500 BC.
2. A conflict arose over control of the Persian city-state of Miletus on
the western coast of Asia Minor.
3. Miletus revolted from Persian rule and voted to join a grown
Greek colonial empire.
4. A small Persian fleet challenged the Greek navy and was defeated.
5. Darius, the Persian emperor, declared war on Athens and its allies.
1. Persian navy embarked along Hellespont (Dardenelles Strait) and
headed toward Athens.
2.Persian navy and marines conquered several Greek city-states along
Macedonian coast.
3.Fleet was destroyed by a severe storm in Aegean sea.
4.Darius was forced to abandon the campaign and return to Persia.
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Darius sends emissaries requesting earth and water.
Persians send navy and land off the coast of Marathon.
Greeks defeat Persians. Persians sail on to Athens.
Greeks sent a famous runner, Pheidippides, to Athens to warn them.
Darius returns to Persia.
 “Remember
the Athenians”
 Xerxes, son of Darius, was determined to
avenge his fathers humiliating defeat.
• raised the greatest army in ancient history up
until that time.
• built a boat-bridge across to Hellespont.
 Spartan
king, Leonidas, and a small band
of 300 Spartans held the pass at
Thermopylae.
 “Come
and take them”
• Leonidas’ response to Persian demand to give up
their arms.
A
Spartan, who was told about the great
number of Persian soldiers, who with
their arrows will conceal the sun, he
answered: "so much the better, we will
fight in the shade".

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
Athens, under the leadership of Themistocles,
abandoned Athens and retreated to the small island of
Salamis.
The Greek navy, made up of smaller and quicker boats
called Triremes, easily defeated the larger and
awkward Persian warships.
Xerxes, with the remainder of his army, then retreated
back across Greece.
 The
Athenians, and their allies, finally
caught up with them and soundly
defeated them at the Battle of Plataea in
479 BC.

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

The Persians remained a viable force in Asia Minor for
150 years but never again invaded Greece or its
colonies.
A government of a free people, the Athenians, was able
to defeat a professional army from an Eastern despot.
The Persian Wars gave the Greeks a point of unity.
The Persian Wars produced the first extensive history;
"The History of the Persian Wars" by Herodotus.