Greco-Persian Wars, 499-479 BCE

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Greco-Persian Wars, 499-479 BCE

1. Background
2. Ionian Revolts
3. First Persian Invasion Marathon
4. Rise of Themistocles the Athenian Navy
5. Second Persian Invasion Thermopylae Salamis
6. Legacies

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Background to the Conflict

• 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.

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Ionian Revolt, 499-493

• Cyrus sent messages to the Ionians demanding
  revolt against Lydian rule. Ionians refused.
  Cyrus invadesPhocea 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

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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.

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First Invasion of Greece Motivations

• Punish the rebels
• Restore Hippeas (he would be a Persian satrap)
• Conquer and tax Greece
• Control Athenian trade
• Glory

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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 help3hrs.
  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 (?)

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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

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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

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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
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Athenian Trireme

• 120 ft. x 15 ft.
• 170 rowers
• Fast and agile
• Ramming tactics

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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
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Second Persian Invasion (480-479 BCE)

• Darius dies in 486
• Xerxes constructs an armada a boat-bridge
  spanning Hellespont
• 481, Greek League (Hellenic League)
• Defensive Alliance
• 31 Greek states
• Led by Sparta and Athens

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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!

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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

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Xerxes Route
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Thermopylae (August, 480 BCE)
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Battle at Salamis (September, 480 BCE)

• 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)

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Aftermath of Salamis Battle of Plataea, 479

• Persian army under Mardonius winters in Greece
• Plataea on border between Attica and Boeotia
• Spartan king, Pausanias, in high command
• Spartans Athenians cooperate
• Greek army won a decisive victory, destroying
  much of the Persian army and ending the invasion
  of Greece
• Perceived as Spartan victory

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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.
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Themistocles Decree from Troezen
Text of Third Century BCE May be copy of original
of 480 BCE Discovered in 1959
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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
  didnt.
• Philosophy, science, freedom, and democracy

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Legacy to Greco-Persian Wars Delian League est.
478

• Hegemony by invitation
• Synod 1 state/1 vote
• All members pay taxes. Treasury at Delosmoved
• 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

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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?