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SKIT – THE PERSIAN WARS-Part 1
NARRATOR1: This is the story of the great war between Greece and Persia, according to Herodotus, the Greek
historian who is called the “Father of History”.
NARRATOR2: It started like this: Long ago, there were Greeks who lived in cities on the coast of Asia Minor. They
lived in Greek colonies, cities that had been founded by Greeks who left the mainland to establish colonies in other
lands. These Greek cities on the coast of Asia Minor had been conquered by Persia and were under the control of the
Persian Empire. This is how it began:
PERSIAN MESSENGER1: Oh King Darius, I regret to tell you that the Greek cities on the coast of Asia Minor have
rebelled against you! Furthermore, there is strong evidence that the city of Athens helped them rebel by sending
them military aid.
KING DARIUS: I am furious! I will deal first with the cities of Asia Minor! I will immediately send my best troops,
the “Immortals”, to defeat the rebels! Then I will take revenge on Athens for helping them! I will attack and conquer
Athens and the other city-states of Greece. The city states of Greece would make a good addition to my vast empire.
NARRATOR2: King Darius, the King of the mighty Persian Empire, quickly put down the rebellion of the Asia Minor
cities. Then he turned his thoughts to punishing Athens, and to extending his power over Greece.
KING DARIUS: Now I will punish those meddling Athenians, as well as the rest of those arrogant Greeks. Come here,
messengers. You must go to the cities of Athens and Sparta and demand that they send me earth and water, the
traditional symbols of submission!
PERSIAN MESSENGER2: Your will is our command, Great King!
NARRATOR1: So a messenger was sent from King Darius of Persia to Sparta. This is what happened:
PERSIAN MESSENGER 1: Men of Sparta, hear this message from King Darius of Persia! King Darius demands that
you send him earth and water as symbols of your submission to him!
Spartan 1: Spartan brothers, what shall we do with this ridiculous barbarian messenger?
Spartan 2: Does he really think that we Spartans will submit? Is this some kind of joke?
Spartan 1: I don’t like the joke, if that’s what it is. Let’s dump him in this hole!
Spartan 2: Good idea. That’s all the earth and water of Sparta he’ll get!
NARRATOR2: A messenger also went from King Darius to Athens, the city he was primarily mad at.
PERSIAN MESSENGER 2: Men of Athens, hear this message from King Darius, Ruler of Persia: King Darius demands
that you send him earth and water as symbols of your submission to him!
Athenian 1: Is he serious? This barbarian says he wants the earth and water of Athens! What shall we do?
Athenian 2: Let’s dump him in this ravine!
Athenian 1: Good idea! That’s all the earth and water of Athens he’ll get!
NARRATOR1: King Darius was very angry when he heard what happened to his messengers. This is what happened:
KING DARIUS: Come here, Hippias, you sniveling rat! You have been here with me since you were thrown out of
Athens by those democratic Athenians! Now you can be of use to me. I am going to send ships with soldiers to attack
Athens. Tell me the best place near Athens for my ships to land, in order to march towards Athens and destroy it!
HIPPIAS: Oh King Darius, the best place for your ships to land is on the flat beach called Marathon! It is only about
26 miles from the city of Athens!
KING DARIUS: Let it be done!
NARRATOR2: So King Darius sent a Persian fleet carrying about 50,000 men across the Aegean Sea, and they landed
on the beach called Marathon, near Athens. This is what happened:
Athenian 1: How can we defend our polis against the Persian barbarians? They outnumber us 5 to 1!
Athenian 2: Let us send our best runner, Pheidippides, to Sparta, to ask for help!
PHEIDIPPIDES: I’ll go! (He starts running)
NARRATOR1: Pheidippides covered 150 miles on foot, in 48 hours. The Spartans, however, were not eager to help.
PHEIDIPPIDES: Please Spartans, help us fight the Persians!
SPARTAN1: We’d like to help, but we are having a sacred festival. We will come when it is over.
PHEIDIPPIDES: But by then it may be too late!
SPARTAN2: Sorry, we’ll come when our festival is over.
NARRATOR2: So Pheidippides returned to Athens. Now the Athenians knew they were standing almost alone against
Persia. The small town of Plataea sent their 1000 citizen hoplites to help Athens. The Athenian general Miltiades
encouraged the Athenian men.
ATHENIAN GENERAL-MILTIADES1: We Athenians are free men, whereas the Persians are merely slaves of the
Persian King. We know how to fight together in a phalanx! We can defend our polis!
NARRATOR1: On Sept. 17, 490BC, about 10,000 Athenians plus 1000 Plataeans gathered on the plain of Marathon.
For several days there was a standoff with the Persians. Finally Miltiades decided to attack. Miltiades decided to
strengthen the wings (flanks) of the Greek line, and leave the center weaker. Miltiades gave the order to attack. The
Athenians rushed at the Persians crying
ATHENIANs 1&2: “Eleleu, Eleleu”!
PERSIANS 1&2: Those Athenians are about to surround us! We better run back to our ships while we can!
NARRATOR2: The Persians were initially victorious in the center, but the Athenians were victorious on the right and
left wings, and then closed in on the Persians. The Persians were trapped and defeated. While some escaped to their
ships, many were slaughtered. It seemed like a miracle! A much smaller Athenian force had managed to defeat the
mighty Persians!
NARRATOR1; But then the danger was that the retreating Persians would sail to Athens and attack it directly, since
it was temporarily undefended. It was necessary to send a runner immediately to Athens to announce the victory, and
let them know not to surrender.
MILTIADES: We must send a runner to Athens to announce victory! The Persians may be heading to Athens, and if
our people there do not know we have won this victory, they may surrender before our army can get there.
PHEIDIPPIDES: I’ve been fighting all day, but I think I can make it. I’ll go! (He starts to run)
NARRATOR1: Pheidippides ran all the way to Athens, about 26 miles, to announce victory. He had been fighting all
morning before he began to run. He reached Athens and ran into the agora, and cried:
PHEIDIPPIDES: “NIKE! (victory)”,
NARRATOR2: . . . and he dropped dead. In honor of this run from Marathon to Athens, a race of this type is called a
“Marathon”.
NARRATOR1: Naturally, Darius was furious about this defeat, but he was unable to launch another attack on Greece
right away, because he was having trouble at home.
NARRATOR2: In the years following Marathon, the Athenian statesman Themistocles kept urging the Athenians:
THEMISTOCLES: The Persians will try to conquer us again. Our greatest strength is our sea power. We are expert
sailors. We must build a fleet of warships, and be ready to fight the Persians at sea.
Ch5, Sec4
1. Who wrote the account of the war between Persia and Greece?
2. Answer the following about how the Persian Wars started:
a) Who was the King of Persia at the beginning of the Persian War?
b) What did Athens do that angered this king of Persia?
c) What demand did Persia send to the city-states of Athens and Sparta/
d) What was their response to Persia’s demand?
3. Where did Persia launch its 1st attack, in 490BC?
4. Who was Pheidippides? He made 2 famous runs. Tell about each. Which was longer, & which became more famous? Why?
a)
b)
5.
What was the name of the major battle in Sept. 490BC? What was its outcome?
6.
Who was Themistocles? What did he advise the Athenians to do after the first part of the Persian Wars (490BC)
PART 2:
NARRATOR1. Themistocles had been right, and luckily for the Athenians, they took his advice. They began to build a
fleet of warships. Ten years passed, and during that time, Darius died, and Xerxes became King of Persia. In 480BC,
Xerxes decided to launch another attack on Greece. This time the Persians sent a huge land force, about 200,000
men, as well as ships.
XERXES: This time nothing will stop us! We will defeat those Greeks!
NARRATOR: 2: The Persian land force crossed the Hellespont by building a pontoon bridge, and marched south into
Greece. All of Greece trembled in fear. The cities of northern Greece were falling quickly.
NARRATOR 1: The biggest problem the Greeks had was that they were divided among themselves. Different citystates had different ideas about what they should do. Some wanted to surrender, and some only wanted to defend
themselves. This time, the Spartans took the initiative.
SPARTAN KING LEONIDAS: The Persians are marching south. We will march north and try to delay the Persians in
order to give the Greeks time to unite and come up with a plan to defend Greece. We will head for the narrow
mountain pass called Thermopylae, where their greater numbers will not be such a great advantage.
NARRATOR 2: So 300 Spartans under King Leonidas, along with about 7000 other Greek hoplites from other citystates, marched north to try to hold off the Persians at Thermopylae. Thermopylae means “the hot gates”, because of
hot springs nearby.
NARRATOR 1: The Spartans and other Greeks made a stand at Thermopylae, and for a while they were successful at
holding off the Persians. The pass was so narrow that the far greater number of Persians was less of an advantage.
NARRATOR 2: Thus began the famous battle of Thermopylae. Herodotus records some interesting details. For
example, the night before the battle began, a Persian was talking to a Spartan:
PERSIAN 1 Tomorrow, when the battle begins, we will fire so many arrows that they will block the light of the sun!
SPARTAN 2: So much the better. We will fight in the shade!
NARRATOR2: Finally, a Greek traitor named Ephialtes showed the Persians a secret mountain path around the cliffs.
Soon the Greeks realized that the Persians were coming through the mountains and that they were about to be
surrounded. Leonidas, the leader of the Spartans said:
LEONIDAS: The rest of you Greeks must escape while you can. Go back to your polis! Tell them to unite and prepare
to fight the Persians. We will hold the Persians off as long as we can while you escape.
NARRATOR2: So the rest of the Greeks escaped, while the Spartans stayed to fight. The next day, the Persian
commander yelled at the Spartans:
PERSIAN COMMANDER: You know you have no chance, Spartans! You are 300 against many thousands! Lay down your
weapons!
LEONIDAS: If you want our weapons, come and get them! . . . . . . . . (He turns to his men) Get ready, men of Sparta;
tonight we dine in Hades!
NARRATOR1: So the final phase of the battle of Thermopylae began. Herodotus tells us that the Spartans fought
first with their weapons, and when those broke, they fought with their hands and their teeth. Finally, Leonidas and all
the Spartans lay dead. The Persians continued their march south into Greece.
NARRATOR2: The last stand of the 300 Spartans was not in vain, however. After the battle, Greeks came to the site
and saw for themselves the incredible courage of the Spartans. It inspired them to unite and fight together to repel
the Persians.
NARRATOR1: The Greeks buried the Spartans, and on their monument was carved: “Oh stranger passing here, go tell
the people of Sparta, that we lie here, obedient to their laws.”
7.
Who was the Persian king in 480BC, during the second part of the Persian Wars?
8.
How was the military force sent by Persia against Greece in 480BC different from the military force they had sent in
490BC?
9.
Who faced the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae?
10. What happened that caused most of the Greek defenders at Thermopylae to flee?
11. Who remained to face the Persians? Who was their leader?
12. What was the immediate outcome of the Battle of Thermopylae? What was the long term effect of the Battle of
Thermopylae?
PART 3:
NARRATOR 2: The huge Persian army continued marching south, heading for Athens. The Athenians said:
ATHENIAN1: Oh no, what shall we do?
THEMISTOCLES, ATHENIAN ADMIRAL: We must send a messenger to the oracle of Delphi.
NARRATOR1: So the Athenians sent a messenger to the oracle of Delphi. The messenger asked:
ATHENIAN MESSENGER: Oh oracle of Delphi, what should we the people of Athens do?
ORACLE OF DELPHI: Run for your lives!
ATHENIAN MESSENGER: Please, oracle, tell us something else! Isn’t there anything we can do?
ORACLE OF DELPHI: You will find safety behind your wooden walls.
ATHENIAN MESSENGER: What can that mean? We don’t have any wooden walls . . .
NARRATOR2: So the messenger returned to Athens, and announced what the Oracle had said. The men of Athens met
in the Assembly and debated about what to do. No one knew what the Oracle meant. Then Themistocles said:
THEMISTOCLES: We Athenians are excellent sailors! Our wooden walls are our ships, which are made of wood! We
must evacuate the city, and we must fight the Persians at sea!
NARRATOR1: So the Athenians made a very difficult decision. They evacuated the women and children from their
beloved city, and hid them in the countryside and villages. A few priests remained on the acropolis. The Athenians
abandoned their city and let the Persians have it. When the Persians got to Athens, they found the city almost
deserted, and burned it to the ground, including the Acropolis.
NARRATOR2: Meanwhile, the men of Athens boarded their ships. Greeks from some other cities were also there.
Themistocles said:
THEMISTOCLES: If we can defeat the Persian navy, then the Persian army will have no way to get supplies. This is
our only hope. We will position our navy in the narrow channel near the island of Salamis, a few miles southwest of
Athens. We know the currents of this channel, and the Persians do not. It is here that we have our greatest chance of
victory. Hmm. .. .I wonder how we can trick the Persians into attacking us in the Bay of Salamis. I have an idea . . .
NARRATOR2: Themistocles thought up a trick. He sent one of his servants, who happened to be a great actor, to the
Persian King Xerxes who was there with the Persian fleet. This man pretended to be a deserter and traitor. He said:
ATHENIAN SERVANT: Oh King Xerxes, I have escaped from those arrogant Athenians and I seek refuge with you! I
can help you with secret information! The Greeks cannot agree among themselves about where to fight. Their ships
are going to retreat tonight and try to slip away! However, the bay of Salamis is the perfect place for you to defeat
them! If you keep them from slipping away and fight them tomorrow right here in this bay, you will certainly win!
XERXES: Excellent! We will block both ends of the channel and prevent the Greeks from escaping! Tomorrow we will
fight and defeat them!
NARRATOR 2: So that is what the Persians did. The Persians ships blocked both ends of the channel to prevent the
Athenian fleet from escaping. Of course, that is exactly what the Athenians wanted them to do! At dawn the Persian
fleet attacked the Athenian fleet.
NARRATOR1: The Persian ships were too big to maneuver well in the narrow channel, while the smaller Athenian ships
maneuvered easily. Moreover, the Athenians knew the currents. The Athenians drove their battering rams straight
into the sides of the Persian warships, punching holes in them. The Athenians also sent fire-ships, old boats set on
fire, at the Persian ships.
NARRATOR2: Xerxes was with his navy, and actually watched this battle. He watched in horror as more than onethird of his fleet was destroyed. The rest was heavily damaged and so the Persian navy went back home in defeat.
NARRATOR1: With no way to get supplies, the Persian army was now stuck in Greece. Winter came, and both Persians
and Greeks went into winter camp.
NARRATOR 2: During the winter, the Persians ran very low on food. Many Persian soldiers, who were from lands
conquered by Persia, had little real allegiance to Persia, and they deserted. By the time spring came, the Persian army
was much smaller and weaker.
NARRATOR1: A final battle was fought in the spring of 479BC at Plataea. There, an army of Greeks, united in their
common cause, fought and defeated the Persian army. Thus the Greeks were victorious over a much, much larger
force. They had preserved their freedom and independence. The Greeks had an incredible feeling of self confidence!
The Greek Golden Age began.
13. What did the Persians do after the won the battle of Thermopylae?
14. From whom did the Athenians seek advice when they realized the Persians were heading for Athens>
15. What advice did they get? Who persuaded Athens about how to interpret this advice? What was his interpretation of this
advice?
16. What decision did the Athenians make in regard to their city? What did the Persians do to the city of Athens?
17. Why did the Athenians think it would be advantageous to them to fight & defeat the Persian Navy at Sea?
18. Why did the Athenians want to fight the Persian Navy in the Bay of Salamis? How did the Athenians manage to provoke a
battle in the Bay of Salamis? What was its outcome?
19. What happened during the winter, after the Battle of Salamis in 480BC? What was the result for the Persian Army?
20. How did the Greeks feel about themselves after the Persian Wars? What period began for Greece after the Persian
Wars?
ANSWER FROM THE POWER POINT:
21. How did the Greeks feel about themselves after the Persian Wars? What period began for Greece after the
Persian Wars?
22. What was the Delian League? What was its original purpose? How did it change?
23. Explain, step by step, how the nature of the Delian League changed over time.
1) At first, all members contributed ______, and the treasury was kept on the neutral, sacred island
of _____
2) Then Athen said that since the Athenians built the best ships, Athens should build all the ships, and
the other members of the Delian league should contribute ___________.
3) Next, Athens said that since Athens was building all the ships, the Delian League treasury should be
moved from _______ to _________, and the money should be sent straight to __________
4) Next, Athens began using the Delian League money for ___________, such as building fine building
in Athens, including the ____________
5) Finally, Athens said other members could not __________________________, even if they wanted
to. The other members had to remain in the Delian League, and had to keep sending Athens money.
In effect, the Delian League was now an ___________ ____________
24. Who was Pericles?
25. What was greatest building project undertaken by Athens at this time? What was the most magnificent
building? How was it funded?
26. What are some of the things Pericles did for Athens?
27. Read the quotation from the historian Thucydides about how other city states felt about Athens. Explain it in
your own words.
28. What did Sparta do, to counter the growing power of Athens and the Delian League? What was the result?
29. What incident sparked the PeloponnesianWar?
30. What did Thucydides say about the causes of the Peloponnesian War?
31. Who fought whom in the Peloponnesian War, and how long did it last?
32. What advantages and disadvantages did Sparta have? What advantages and disadvantages did Athens have?
33. What was the response of Athens when Sparta attacked it by land?
34. What tragedy resulted in 429BC, as a result of overcrowding in Athens?
35. What disastrous decision did Athens make 415BC? What was the result?
36. What finally brought the Peloponnesian War to an end?
37. What did Sparta do to Athens after it defeated Athens?
38. What was the result of the war for Sparta and Athens?