HISTORY OF PERSIAN WAR

In the 5th century, BCE Greek city-states were most often battling one another for land, resources,
prestige, and power. When threatened by King Darius the Great and the mighty Persian Empire in 490
BCE, however, they banded together to take on the most powerful army the world had ever seen, and
so began the Greco-Persian Wars, a series of battles that stretched for decades. The Persian Wars
represent one of those genuinely pivotal moments in history when the past and the future collide.
Persia was symbolic of the old ways — a world inhabited by priests and god-kings. Theirs was a world
where priests stood guard over knowledge and emperors treated even their highest subjects as slaves.
The Greeks symbolized all that was new. They had recently cast off their god-kings and were beginning
to test a limited concept of political freedom, democracy. At the same time, they were innovating in art,
literature, and religion, and their philosophies offered new ways to understand the world, unfettered by
priestly tradition. 

Suppose the underdog Greeks had not been victorious in the Greco-Persian Wars, with the rest of
Europe in its sights. In that case, Persia might have easily swept past Greece and easily dominated an
emerging Latin culture in a very young Rome. Had that happened, our cultural roots, the things we
value, indeed, the history we celebrate would be very, very different. Instead, Greek victory led to the
"classical age" in Greece, a time that saw advances in art, literature, philosophy, and technology and, for
the time, unmatched Greek prosperity. While the Greco-Persian Wars lasted decades and consisted of
dozens of battles, for this lesson, you will examine the strategies and outcomes of three of the essential
contests: Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis.

The Battle at the Marathon

Persia was a tremendous and colossal empire, led by a powerful king and controlled by a highly
organized government. In 500 BCE, the Persian Empire ruled by Darius the Great dominated Greece and
everyone else with their size, wealth, and military might. Darius' command stretched from the
Mediterranean Sea to the Indus River in Pakistan. At that time, the Greek city-states were not united,
and they were tiny compared to the size and population of the vast Persian Empire. Athens, the largest
of the Greek city-states, only had about 200,000 people living in it.

In 499 BCE, several cities on the coast of modern-day Turkey, cities that the Greeks had founded,
rebelled against their Persian rulers. Their rebellion is known as the Ionian revolt. Athens sent ships and
supplies to help the cities. Even though the Athenian aid did nothing to save the cities, the action made
the Persian emperor, Darius, furious. He decided to teach the Greeks a lesson. In anger, Darius gathered
together his army and navy and invaded Greece. He set his sights on nothing less than conquest. That
set the stage for the battle of the Marathon.

In 490 BCE, Darius the Great, the Persian Emperor pictured at left, brought 600 ships and 20,000 infantry
to invade Greece. Because it was big enough to allow his cavalry and their horses' room to maneuver,
Darius landed his army on the plain of Marathon, up the coast from Athens. At Marathon, Darius
prepared his attack. In the hills overlooking Marathon, the Greek military waited and wondered how to
handle the Persian army massing on the beaches below. The Greeks knew that if they did not defeat
Darius, the Persians would not stop fighting until they had conquered all of Greece. Badly outnumbered,
Greek commanders in the hills above Marathon sent a messenger named Phidipedes to Sparta to ask for
Spartan aid. As the Greeks gathered their army together, they received some disappointing news. The
Spartans were not coming. The Spartans were in the midst of a religious holiday that they would not
disrupt. (The gods would be angry.)

Aside from the religious festival, do you think other motives behind Sparta's refusal to aid the
Athenians?

The Greek commander, Milatides, counseled boldness. He had a plan. After waiting for days for some
hint of activity from the Greek side, the Persians started to load their cavalry and foot soldiers back onto
their ships to sail down the coast and attack Athens. Boarding the cavalry first would prove critical to the
battle's outcome. It was while the Persians were boarding their ships that Milatides attacked.

The Greeks had a couple of advantages. First, every Greek soldier wore metal armor. Most of the
Persians had leather armor. Second, the Greeks fought using a phalanx. The Phalanx was a formation in
which soldiers locked shields and formed a wall. Soldiers behind the wall held long spears to stab the
enemy.

The Persians had never seen a formation like a phalanx before. The Greeks were well outfitted, and the
Phalanx confused the Persian army. Should they continue boarding their ships or stop and fight? The
Greeks gave them no choice. Attacking at a run, the Greek Phalanx smashed into the Persian army.
Shooting at close quarters rendered the Persian archers useless. Aboard their ships, the Persian cavalry
was also meaningless. After a long hard fight, the Greeks drove the Persians back onto their boats.
Outnumbered 4 to 1, the Greeks lost 192 soldiers on the beaches of the Marathon. By the day's end,
however, 6400 Persian forces lay dead. The Greeks were unfinished yet, however. Knowing that the
Persians were heading for Athens in retreat, Milatides gathered his army and marched quickly back to
the city, a distance of over 26 miles. 

What happened when Persia invaded Greece?

When Darius sailed with his army to attack what he thought was an undefended Athens, he was shocked
to see the Greek army waiting for him on the beach. Despondent, he sailed with his army back to Persia.
The Greeks had done the unbelievable, the impossible. They had defeated the Persian Empire. The
victory at Marathon was a moral victory for democracy. It shocked Darius that people would fight for an
ideal.

Phidippedes, the same messenger who had previously crossed the 140 miles of the Peloponnesus to ask
for Spartan help, ran the 26 miles from Marathon to Athens to bring the news that the Greeks had
beaten the Persians and that the Persians were on their way. In honor of these beautiful
accomplishments – victory on the battlefield at Marathon and the successful run from Marathon to
Athens to bring the news – today, we use the word "marathon" to describe a long-distance race.

Battle at the Thermopylae

In 480 BCE, ten years had passed since the Persian defeat at Marathon and the Persian Army, led by
Darius' son, Xerxes, returned to Greece. Determined to conquer Athens and to teach those upstart
Greeks a lesson they would never forget, Xerxes had spent four years gathering 150,000 fighters from all
corners of his empire. Transporting them by both land and sea, The Persians were ready to attack
Athens once again. The Persian army had to go through the mountains.
Who is Leonidas?

The Greeks knew that the Persians were coming. You couldn't hide such a large moving army. The
Greeks knew that they had to stop the Persians in a place where their massive number of troops would
be a disadvantage - in the mountains. King Leonidas, a Spartan general, was in charge of the Greeks. He
knew that he could not defeat the entire Persian army. This time, there were just too many of them.
But, he had a plan.

Leonidas figured that the pass at Thermopylae was so narrow that only a few Persian soldiers at a time
could get through. Fighting at over a 20 to 1 disadvantage in the number of troops he had, Leonidas sent
most of the Greek army away and kept only a couple of thousand men to guard the pass. The most
famous of these were the 300 Spartans of his army.

Every day, every hour was precious. It allowed the Greeks defending Athens to gather their army
together. It allowed them to build more ships for the Athenian navy to use for battle. Leonidas knew he
had to stop the Persians at the pass at Thermopylae for as long as possible. And stop them, he did.

One day, two days, how long could the Greeks hold out? It seemed as if no one could defeat the
Spartans. The Persians sent in their elite troops, "the immortals." The immortals had earned their name
for their skill and their bravery in combat. The number of "immortals" was so significant that when they
swarmed the battlefield, and one "immortal" fell, another immediately took his place. Even with his
fighting elites engaged in battle, however, Xerxes' troops made little progress against the Greeks. How
could the Persian army ever get through the pass? The answer appeared in their midst. A traitor from
the Greek military named Ephialtes showed the Persians a little-known path through the mountains and
around the Greeks. So great was the betrayal that, in common usage today, the word ephialtes means
"nightmare."

When Leonidas discovered the betrayal, he knew the Persians would soon surround his troops. With the
fate of the Greeks at Thermopylae sealed, the Persians sent a commander to ask if the Spartans would
like to surrender. The Spartans replied, "Never!" In disbelief, the Persian commander pointed to his
archers and told Leonidas that arrows would be launched in such great quantity that they would black
out the sun if he did not submit. The Spartan commander is famously said to have replied, "Then we
shall fight in the shade."

What advantages did the Greeks have at the Marathon?

The Persians attacked, the Spartans defended. Again, the Spartans were victorious. The Persians were
tired of this, so, as promised, they called in all their archers and started firing arrows at the Spartans.
One by one, the Spartans were dying from the thousands of needles raining down upon them. There
was only one thing to do. Attack! They formed a phalanx and attacked.

The Persians continued firing arrows until, finally, all 300 Spartans lay dead on the ground. Spartans held
the pass for as long as they did; their sacrifice allowed Greeks in Athens to prepare for the arrival of the
Persians. By the time the Persian troops entered Athens, Who had evacuated the city. Xerxes discovered
a ghost town filled with only the echoes of his own troops' boots on the ground. Because of their act of
heroism at Thermopylae Pass, Sparta is still honored today.
The Battle at the Salamis

When the Persian king, Xerxes, invaded Greece in 480 BCE, he did so at the head of a vast army. Once
who had defeated the Spartan force at Thermopylae, his route by land to Athens was virtually
undefended.

In a near panic over what to do, the Athenians sought the wisdom of the Oracle of Delphi. The Greeks
used the word "oracle" to describe the person through whom the gods could speak, the place or temple
where the gods could say, and the answer the gods would give. So, when speaking to the gods, the word
"oracle" describes the person, the place, and the answer.

Who is Themistocles?

When asked what Athens should do, the Oracle responded, "Though who shall take all else, Zeus, the
all-seeing, grants that the wooden wall only shall not fail." Athens had a stone wall. Arguments in Athens
raged as to what this "wooden wall" could mean. Many believed it to be the thorn bushes surrounding
the Acropolis. 

The Athenian general, Themistocles, had an answer of his own. He argued that the wooden wall was the
fleet of naval ships, including the speedy triremes like the one pictured at left, that Athenians had
spent the last few years hurriedly building. Themistocles' interpretation won the day, and he
immediately gave the order for Athens itself to be abandoned. 

The Persians had lost two major battles to the upstart Greeks. On their march toward Athens, they were
not about to lose a third. They were determined to win and to win big. In addition to his land forces,
Xerxes, the leader of the Persian Army, packed 1200 ships with well-equipped fighting men and set sail
for Athens. 1200 ships! Can you imagine? What a sight that must have been!

What advantages did the Greeks at the Salamis?

Rather than commanding his men personally, Xerxes ordered a comfortable chair to put on a hilltop
where he could watch the battle in the far distance as if it were entertainment to perform for his
amusement.

The ancient Greeks did not need spies to tell them that the Persians would be back in great numbers.
They knew the Persians would be back. But the ancient Greeks were fighters. They would rather die
than lose. They would rather win than break. They knew they had some advantages, so they planned on
how best to use those advantages.

Athletic Ability

For one thing, the Greeks could swim. The Persians had already demonstrated that if they fell in the
water, they drowned. Most could not swim to shore or swim to another Persian boat to save their own
lives if they fell into the water.

Using this advantage, the Greeks practiced a new maneuver. The plan was to move quickly alongside an
enemy ship. Once there, at the last second, they practiced raising their oars vertically, fast and hard, to
break the enemy's oars. If they broke them, the ship would be stuck. The men could not row away until
they are given new paddlers. The men could not swim away because they could not swim. They would
be sitting ducks. It was a brilliant plan.

Knowledge

The Greeks had the advantage of fighting on their home turf. They knew the waterways. They knew the
currents. They decided that if they had smaller ships that were faster and easier to maneuver, being
outnumbered might not matter as much, especially if the enemy ship was stuck and they were free to
move around.

Athens used money from their brand new silver mines to build as many ships as possible before the
Persians arrived at Salamis. They designed a new ship called a trireme. A trireme is a ship with three
levels of rowers. This gave speed to their ships and strength to their battle plan of enemy oar breaking.
Athens built about 200 triremes. Together, the other Greek city-states supplied another 200 triremes for
the battle of Salamis.

Cleverness

Four hundred ships were a lot, but the Greeks knew that it would not be enough in an open fight since
their Greek spies had reported that the Persians planned to bring 1200 ships loaded with soldiers. The
Greeks needed more. The clever Athenians added a couple of things to help get the odds a bit more into
their favor.

The Greeks increased the strength of their boats. They added a ram (a built-up, strengthened point) to
the bow (to the front) of their ships to help them ram and sink the enemy ships. The Greeks used the
technique of misinformation. The Greeks sent someone who was pretending to be a traitor into the
Persian army. This "traitor" told the Persians that the Greeks would pretend to retreat through the Gulf
of Salamis, but the Greek fleet would be hidden on the other side, ready for a surprise attack.

Since the Persian General thought he knew the Greek plan, he created a goal of his own. Based on
misinformation he received from the Greek "traitor," he planned to send in all his ships at once and
overwhelm the Greeks through sheer numbers, putting 3 or 4 of his ships against every Greek ship
before the Greeks could retreat through the Gulf of Salamis, to join the rest of their fleet. Unfortunately
for the Persians, that's really what the Greeks wanted them to do. For the Greek battle plan to work,
they needed the Persian ships to be close together.

Courage

The ancient Greeks had the incredible ability to stick to a plan. It took great courage to stick to this plan.
But they did. When the battle started, Greeks pretended to retreat in front of the Persians as planned,
and the "traitor" had said they would. However, the rest of the Greek fleet was not hidden on the other
side of the Gulf of Salamis. The rest of the fleet has hidden this side, behind islands and in the many
small rivers and channels that lined the Straits of Salamis.

As the Persian fleet entered the Straits of Salamis, Xerxes' naval commanders turned to face the Greeks,
forming three impressive Persian ships. The Greek fleet stood firm for a minute.  Then, using the speed
of their three levels of rowers, they exploded toward the Persian fleet. Panicked, the front line of
Persian boats flinched and backed into the line of ships behind them. In their confusion, the Persian
ships created a tangled web of oars that made many boats easy targets for the fast, agile Greek fleet. It
was then that Greek ships poured in from all sides, from the channels, and from behind the islands.

The Persians were surrounded. The Greek fleet slammed against the sides of the Persian ships, as they
had practiced. At the last second, they slapped their oars straight up with great strength and speed,
cracking Persian oars into bits. Many of the Persian ships had so many cracked oars that the men could
not row away. They could not swim away. They were stuck. 

Once the ships were stuck, the Greek fleet began ramming ships, sinking the Persians, but remaining
afloat themselves, thanks to the build-up front end of their boats. Accounts say what fell about 200 of
the Persian ships at Salamis. The Greeks boarded other ships, killing the men aboard. Only about 200
ships of the original 1200 ships sent by the Persians escaped.

The Persian emperor, Xerxes, had placed his throne on top of the hill to watch the great victory of his
men. Instead, he wept at the loss of so many men and ships. The Persians took their remaining ships and
their army and retreated to Northern Greece. Xerxes left an army of about 80,000 men in Northern
Greece and took the rest of his men home to Persia.

Teamwork

The Spartans gathered together an army from the rest of the Greek city-states and met the Persians at
Platea for one of the last Persian War battles. The Persian army was defeated there and destroyed.
Meanwhile, the Athenians had gathered together the Greek fleet and set off for the coast of Asia-minor.
In 477 BCE, they destroyed what was left of the Persian navy at Mycale.

The incredible had happened. The tiny city-states of Greece had beaten the vast Persian Empire. The
ancient Greeks' pride over winning this war started a new age – the Golden Age of Greece.