Greco-Persian Wars Essay

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The Greco-Persian wars were a series of battles fought between the empire of Persia and an alliance of Greek city-states. At the time, King Darius who had successfully conquered Thrace and Macedonia for the first time led the Persians on a path to control all of Greece. Eventually this led to the Persians gaining control of Ionia, which prompted the Ionian Revolt. Ionian cities threw out the Persians that had set over them, formed a league, and applied for help from the other Greeks. The Ionians gain support from the Athenians that eventually helped them stand their ground. This, however, put a target on Athens. The Persians now see them as their main opponent in this battle. In 490 BCE, King Darius leads his attack with one main objective, …show more content…

This was a scare tactic, they thought that maybe the Greeks would see the size of their fleet and just give up. Adding to that tactic, the Persians also kept their best soldiers in the front middle because they knew if the middle collapses, this would cause the surrounding army to collapse from the inside out. The Athenians did not get scared, and also seemed to have the geographical advantage (top of the mountain). The battle of marathon did not turn out how the Persians expected, they lost about 6,000 men, a significantly less amount than the Athenians. This gave the Athenians confidence and support from surrounding …show more content…

Xerxes, driven by anger, wants no part of surrender. Like I mentioned before, the goal is to completely conquer and overthrow Greece. The Greek expected this, so they prepared for the Persians to be coming as soon as they mentioned surrender. The Persians have been tricked into a narrow straight, called the straight of Salamis. This sparked another battle of its own, the Battle of Salamis. Athens had played this out just right and knew that the Persian ships could not fight well in the narrow straight, and as a result most of the Persians’ ships were

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