The Persian wars (also known as the four wars) were conflicts between the Greek city-states and the Persian Empire. The wars lasted for a gruesome 43 years. The reason why Greece was coveted by Persia is unclear; wealth and resources seem like an unlikely motive, but a more plausible suggestion is the need for more land, the increase of the king at home or the rebel states at the western border of the empire. Ranging from the Ionian Revolt (499-494 B.C.E.) through Darius’s punitive expedition that failed at Marathon (490 B.C.E.) and the defeat of Xerxes’ massive invasion of Greece by the Spartan-led Hellenic League (480-479 B.C.E.). The first major setback for Persian arms launched the Greeks into their period of greatest cultural productivity. …show more content…
The city-states began to form their own parties. The Delian League was formed in 478 B.C.E. The members numbered from 150-173. Under the leadership of Athens, its purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Platea at the end of the Second Persian invasion of Greece. Shortly after its inception, Athens began to use the League's navy for its own purposes. This behavior would frequently lead to conflict between Athens and the less powerful members of the League. By 431 BCE Athens' heavy-handed control of the Delian League would prompt the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War; the League was dissolved upon the war's conclusion in 404 BCE. The Peloponnesian War was a product of the …show more content…
The four battles that served as crucial turning points for both armies were Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plateau. Marathon, which took place in 490 BCE, was the first attack ordered by the Persian King Darius II. A Persian army of an estimated 90,000 men made their way towards Athens. An Athenian general ,by the name of Milades, gathered an army of an estimated 10,000 Athenian soldiers and led them up against a much stronger and more numerous Persian army. Milades was the underdog of this battle, but he had a plan. He weakened the center of his troops and strengthened the outer flanks, and by doing this he was able to surround the Persians. The outnumbered Greeks were able to defeat the Persians, and according to Greek legend 6,400 Persians were killed and only 194 Greeks were dead. After this battle Darius ordered his remaining troops back to
Investigating Athens' Treatment of Her Allies During the period of 478-431, Athens’ treatment of her allies changed dramatically as she rose to become the leader of an empire. The establishment of the Delian League marked the beginning of a significant series of events, which lead to Athens’ rise to extreme power. From the evidence of Thucydides and the inscriptions, it is possible to track the progress of these events and the rapidly changing treatment that Athens enforced upon her allies. The Delian League was an establishment formed in 478 BC. A large number of Greek cities formed an alliance under this league and together aimed to provide a strong defence against Persia, under the leadership of Athens.
The Persian invasions of 470 – 479BC saw the Battle of Thermopylae, The Battle of Artemisium, The Battle of Salamis, The Battle of Plataea and The Battle of Mycale. These battles also saw the contributions of many key individuals, which lead to the victory of the Greeks in the ends as well as the rise of the Greek navy.
Xerxes and his army landed on the Greek shores of Thermopylae sometime in the summer of 480 BC. The Persian army numbered somewhere around 100,000 to 150,000 soldiers from across the Persian Empire, most of which were slaves forced to join after they had been conquered (Robinson). Their plan was to march into the heart of Greece through the Thermopylae pass, the only path through the mountains. It was here that King Leonidas thought he had the best chance to stop the Persian advance into Greece. The pass was a narrow path between the mountains, which the massive Persian force would be funneled into and have to face the Greeks one-on-one.
In 480 BC the Persian Empire was once again trying to invade ancient Greece. Under the reign of King Xerxes, an invincible army of a recorded 2 million was marching downwards to enslave all Greeks. An elite force of three hundred Spartans tackled the suicide mission of stalling the Persian wave of doom.
During the Persian War, Sparta and Athens worked together to defeat the Persians. The discipline and strength of Spartan Army helped saved Greece from invasion. Afterwards Sparta and Athens alliances were formed. Athenians had superior naval force and enforced the democratic rule in states allied to Athens. Neighboring allied states depended on the trade provided by Athens navy. In the same time Athens had established themselves as the head of the empire. (Lecture 7 notes). Sparta had superior land army and they destroyed Athens crops in order to have a hold on Athens and force them to surrender. The war lasted 10 years with neither side winning the war. At the end they agreed to a truce. A few years later, Athens tried to conquer Sicily, but the Sicilians defeated Athens. Athens lost much of its army and navy. The Spartans took advantage of this weakness and attacked Athens and cut of their trade routes and food supplies. Spartans won and Sparta became the most powerful city in
Athens took over leadership of Greece in 487BC with the Delian League.With Sparta caught up in internal problems in the Peloponnese, and the war with the helots further stretching them, Athenian democracy was continuing to move up.
The Peloponnesian War could easily be considered one of the most life changing and significant wars that occurred in classical Greece. It was fought between two empires which originally stood together against a common enemy, the Persians. However, once this common enemy was defeated, Sparta and Athens began to become great rivals vying for control of Greece. This resulted in the First and Second Peloponnesian Wars, which saw the rise and fall of the Athenian Empire. Sparta eventually rose to be the victor with the assistance of their former enemy Persia, but the era city-states would not live on for very much longer. The Peloponnesian Wars should be studied, because it details the rise and fall of one of the greatest city-states in Greek history.
The roots of the Peloponnesian war can be traced long before 431 BCE, when it officially started. It can be traced back to as early as the Persian Wars, where the Athenians had found their home burned by the hands of the Persians. That disaster left the Athenians with no home and no sanctuary. Even though that was a defeated battle amidst a victorious war, they still had reason to believe that the Persians will come back for more. Apprehensive at the thought of having their city burned yet another time, the Athenians knew they had to do something. Naturally, they chose to get help. Gathering up the neighboring city-states around them, the Athenians formed the Delian League; an alliance working directly to defend the whole of Greece from Persian attacks (Kagan 8). In the beginning, this worked out well; everybody got their say on what went on in the league, and everybody was satisfied. However, the Athenians saw that if they were to take more power, the members of the league would not be strong enough to resist. Therefore, that was exactly what they did; they took more and more power until what was the Delian League became the Athenian Empire (Kagan 8). As they grew even more powerful and wealthy, their neighbors of Sparta and the Peloponnesian League, Sparta's alliance, could not help but notice (Kagan 13). In 431 BCE, lighted b...
The Peloponnesian War was between the Greek cities of Athens and Sparta due to the growing tensions that continued to grow between the two cities that eventually came to a breaking point. The Peloponnesian War, which can be divided into three phases known as: The Archidamian War, The Sicilian Expedition and The Decelean War, is one of the greatest event in Greek history and an analysis of the causes and effects of this war will give us a better understanding for how the cities of Athens and Sparta came to war and the impact it left behind.
The Peloponnesian War is the conflict between the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta, and the Delian League, led by Athens. Much of our knowledge on the causes and events of the Peloponnesian War, depends on the Athenian Thucydides 460-400 BC, writer of the History of the Peloponnesian War. He served as an Athenian commander in Northern Greece during the early years of the war until the assembly exiled him as he lost an outpost to the enemy. During this exile, he was able to interview witnesses on both sides of the conflict. Unlike Heredotus, he concentrated on contemporary history and presented his account of the war in an annalistic framework that only occasionally diverts from chronological order.
After the Greeks defeated the Persians in the Persian war the Greek city-states created, the Delian league, which was founded in 478 B.C, and Athens and nicknamed “Athens and their allies” ran it. The purpose was to be able to maintain the freedom of the city-states while keeping independent from the Persians. The Athenians soon took control of the Delian league. The original purpose of the league was to keep the Persians away but it morphed into an alliance among city-states. Many of the city-states were fearful to join think one city state would gain more power then the other, which ended up happening. There were 150 to 173 members of the league and they met on the island of Delos. Also, they used the League to prevent future wars from happening and to keep their enemies away. The league served as many purposes.
There are times in history that something will happen and it will defy all logic. It was one of those times when a few Greek city/states joined together and defeated the invasion force of the massive Persian Empire. The Greeks were able to win the Greco-Persian War because of their naval victories over the Persians, a few key strategic victories on land, as well as the cause for which they were fighting. The naval victories were the most important contribution to the overall success against the Persians. The Persian fleet was protecting the land forces from being outflanked and after they were defeated the longer had that protection. While the Greeks had very few overall victories in battle they did have some strategic victories. The Battle of Thermopylae is an example of a strategic success for the Greeks. The morale of the Persian army was extremely affected by the stout resistance put up by King Leonidas and his fellow Spartans. The Greeks fought so hard against overwhelming odds because of what they were fighting for. They were fighting for their country and their freedom. They fought so hard because they did not want to let down the man next to them in the formation. Several things contributed to the Greeks success against the Persian invasion that happened during the Second Greco-Persian War.
The image of the Persians that is described is different to what they are normally described as being, words such as ‘chivalry’ would normally be attached to the Greeks rather than the Persians. The whole image created by Aeschylus of the Persians seems to paint them as weaker but not in obvious terms, rather presenting them as stronger with a plan that fails them works better than presenting them as generally weaker than the Greeks. But this mirrors the real life events, the Persians seemed to the stronger out of the two, but their plan failed to that of the
While Persian financial support undeniably contributed to the Spartan’s victory over Athens in the Peloponnesian War, modern historians have over-emphasized the importance of that assistance to their eventual victory. Persian money allowed the Peloponnesian forces to stay in the fight, which had quickly dissolved into a war of attrition after the Athenian’s defeat at Syracuse. However, there were several negative aspects of the Persian/Peloponnesian alliance which detrimentally affected Sparta’s ability to effectively wage war against Athens. Included in this was the tendency for Persian Satraps to withhold pay and reinforcements, or to provide that pay irregularly. Additionally, Persia’s insistence that Sparta recognize their control over all Ionian cities prior to any treaty being completed led
It turns out that the Persians were retreating for good, and the battle had concluded. The late September seas were too rough, the sailing season was coming to an end, and Xerxes did not want to take the risk of losing any more triremes, and, or, troops. The Greek underdogs had done it. Although they did not understand the significance of that day at the time, it was one of the most important days in history, and significantly changed the course of the world we live in today.