Greco-Persian Wars: Difference between revisions

| date = 499–449 BC{{cref|i}}

| result = Greek victory<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Greco-Persian-Wars|title=Greco-Persian Wars &#124; Definition, Summary, Facts, Effects, & History|website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref>

| place = Southeast Europe ([[Ancient Greece|Greece]], [[Thrace]], [[Aegean Islands]], and [[Ancient history of Cyprus|Cyprus]]), West Asia ([[Anatolia]]), and Northeast Africa ([[Ancient Egypt|Egypt]])

| campaignbox = {{Campaignbox Greco-Persian Wars}}

{{Campaignbox Greek wars of the 5th century BC}}

In 499 BC, the tyrant of [[Miletus]], [[Aristagoras]], embarked on an [[Siege of Naxos (499 BC)|expedition]] to conquer the island of [[Naxos Island|Naxos]], with Persian support;<ref>{{cite book|last=Ehrenberg|first=Victor|author-link=Victor Ehrenberg (historian)|title=From Solon to Socrates: Greek History and Civilization During the 6th and 5th Centuries BC|url=https://archive.org/details/fromsolontosocra00ehre|url-access=limited|edition=3|year=2011|publisher=Routledge|location=Abingdon, England|isbn=978-0-41558487-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fromsolontosocra00ehre/page/n127 99]–100}}</ref> however, the expedition was a debacle and, preempting his dismissal, Aristagoras incited all of Hellenic [[Asia Minor]] into rebellion against the Persians. This was the beginning of the [[Ionian Revolt]], which would last until 493 BC, progressively drawing more regions of Asia Minor into the conflict. Aristagoras secured military support from [[Classical Athens|Athens]] and [[Eretria]], and in 498 BC these forces helped to capture and burn the Persian regional capital of [[Sardis]]. The Persian king [[Darius the Great]] vowed to have revenge on Athens and Eretria for this act. The revolt continued, with the two sides effectively stalemated throughout 497–495 BC. In 494 BC, the Persians regrouped and attacked the epicenter of the revolt in Miletus. At the [[Battle of Lade]], the Ionians suffered a decisive defeat, and the rebellion collapsed, with the final embers being stamped out the following year.

 

 

Darius then began to plan to completely conquer Greece but died in 486 BC and responsibility for the conquest passed to his son [[Xerxes I|Xerxes]]. In 480 BC, Xerxes personally led the [[second Persian invasion of Greece]] with one of the largest ancient armies ever assembled. Victory over the allied Greek states at the famous [[Battle of Thermopylae]] allowed the Persians to torch an evacuated Athens and overrun most of Greece. However, while seeking to destroy the combined Greek fleet, the Persians suffered a severe defeat at the [[Battle of Salamis]]. The following year, the confederated Greeks went on the offensive, decisively defeating the Persian army at the [[Battle of Plataea]], and ending the invasion of Greece by the Achaemenid Empire.

 

 

==Sources==

All the surviving primary sources for the Greco-Persian Wars are Greek; no contemporary accounts survive in other languages. By far the most important source is the fifth-century Greek historian [[Herodotus]]. Herodotus, who has been called the "Father of History",<ref>Cicero, On the Laws, I, 5</ref> was born in 484 BC in [[Halicarnassus]], Asia Minor (then part of the Persian empire). He wrote his 'Enquiries' (Greek ''Historia'', English ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|(The) Histories]]'') around 440–430 BC, trying to trace the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars, which would still have been recent history.<ref name="hxvi" /> Herodotus's approach was novel and, at least in Western society, he invented 'history' as a discipline.<ref name="hxvi" /> As historian [[Tom Holland (author)|Tom Holland]] has it, "For the first time, a chronicler set himself to trace the origins of a conflict not to a past so remote so as to be utterly fabulous, nor to the whims and wishes of some god, nor to a people's claim to manifest destiny, but rather explanations he could verify personally."<ref name="hxvi">Holland, pp. ''xvi''–''xvii''.</ref>

 

 

[[File:Thucydides-bust-cutout ROM.jpg|left|thumb|upright|[[Thucydides]] continued Herodotus's narrative]]

The military history of Greece between the end of the [[second Persian invasion of Greece]] and the [[Peloponnesian War]] (479–431 BC) is not well supported by surviving ancient sources. This period, sometimes referred to as the ''[[pentekontaetia]]'' (''πεντηκονταετία'', ''the Fifty Years'') by ancient writers, was a period of relative peace and prosperity within Greece.<ref name="Fin16">Finley, p. 16.</ref><ref name="Kag77">Kagan, p. 77.</ref> The richest source for the period, and also the most contemporaneous, is Thucydides' ''[[History of the Peloponnesian War]]'', which is generally considered by modern historians to be a reliable primary account.<ref name="Sea264">Sealey, p. 264.</ref><ref name="Fine336">Fine, p. 336.</ref><ref name="Fin29">Finley, pp. 29–30.</ref> Thucydides only mentions this period in a digression on the growth of Athenian power in the run up to the Peloponnesian War, and the account is brief, probably selective and lacks any dates.<ref name="Sea248*">Sealey, p. 248.</ref><ref name="Fine343">Fine, p. 343</ref> Nevertheless, Thucydides's account can be, and is, used by historians to draw up a skeleton chronology for the period, on to which details from archaeological records and other writers can be superimposed.<ref name="Sea248*" />

 

 

Further scattered details can be found in [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]]'s ''Description of Greece'', while the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] [[Suda]] dictionary of the 10th century AD preserves some anecdotes found nowhere else. Minor sources for the period include the works of [[Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus|Pompeius Trogus]] (epitomized by [[Justin (historian)|Justinus]]), [[Cornelius Nepos]] and [[Ctesias|Ctesias of Cnidus]] (epitomized by [[Photios I of Constantinople|Photius]]), which are not in their original textual form. These works are not considered reliable (especially Ctesias), and are not particularly useful for reconstructing the history of this period.<ref>Roebuck, p. 2</ref><ref>Traver, p. 115–116.</ref>

 

==Origins of the conflict==

 

 

 

[[File:Achaemenid_Empire_under_different_kings_(flat_map).svg|thumb|300px|The Achaemenid Empire at its greatest extent under [[Darius the Great]]]]

 

 

In the years following their conquest, the Persians found the Ionians difficult to rule. Elsewhere in the empire, Cyrus identified elite native groups such as the priesthood of Judea – to help him rule his new subjects. No such group existed in Greek cities at this time; while there was usually an aristocracy, this was inevitably divided into feuding factions. The Persians thus settled for sponsoring a tyrant in each Ionian city, even though this drew them into the Ionians' internal conflicts. Furthermore, certain tyrants might develop an independent streak and have to be replaced. The tyrants themselves faced a difficult task; they had to deflect the worst of their fellow citizens' hatred, while staying in the favour of the Persians.<ref name="h147">Holland, pp. 147–151.</ref> In the past, Greek states had often been ruled by tyrants, but that form of government was on the decline. Past tyrants had also tended and needed to be strong and able leaders, whereas the rulers appointed by the Persians were simply place-men. Backed by Persian military might, these tyrants did not need the support of the population, and could thus rule absolutely.<ref name="fine">Fine, [https://archive.org/details/ancientgreeks00john/page/269 <!-- quote=Ionian revolt. --> pp. 269–277.]</ref> On the eve of the Greco-Persian wars, it is probable that the Ionian population had become discontented and was ready for rebellion.<ref name="h155">Holland, pp. 155–157.</ref>

[[File:Persépolis. La Garde.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Persian and Median [[Immortals (Achaemenid Empire)|Immortals]] in ceremonial dress, bas-relief in [[Persepolis]]]]

 

 

====Greece====

 

====Naval warfare====

At the beginning of the conflict, all naval forces in the eastern Mediterranean had switched to the [[trireme]], a warship powered by three banks of oars. The most common naval tactics during the period were [[ramming]] (Greek triremes were equipped with a cast-bronze ram at the bows), or boarding by ship-borne marines.<ref name=":0" /> More experienced naval powers had by this time also begun to use a manoeuver known as ''diekplous''. It is not clear what this was, but it probably involved sailing into gaps between enemy ships and then ramming them in the side.<ref name="L34">Lazenby, pp. 34–37</ref>

 

 

==Preliminary contacts between Persia and mainland Greece (507 BC)==

 

{{quote|The Athenians dispatched envoys to Sardis, desiring to make an alliance with the Persians; for they knew that they had provoked the [[Lacedaemonians]] and [[Cleomenes I|Cleomenes]] to war. When the envoys came to [[Sardis]] and spoke as they had been bidden, [[Artaphrenes]] son of [[Hystaspes (father of Darius I)|Hystaspes]], viceroy of Sardis, asked them, "What men are you, and where dwell you, who desire alliance with the Persians?" Being informed by the envoys, he gave them an answer whereof the substance was, that if the Athenians gave king [[Darius I|Darius]] [[earth and water]], then he would make alliance with them; but if not, his command was that they should begone. The envoys consulted together and consented to give what was asked, in their desire to make the alliance. So they returned to their own country, and were then greatly blamed for what they had done.|Herodotus 5.73.<ref name="penelope.uchicago.edu"/>}}

{{Campaignbox Ionian Revolt}}

[[File:The burning of Sardis during the Ionian Revolt.jpg|thumb|The burning of Sardis by the Greeks and the Ionians during the Ionian Revolt in 498 BC.]]

[[File:Ionian Revolt Campaign Map.png|thumb|left|200px|Map showing main events of the Ionian Revolt.]]

 

 

 

The Ionian Revolt constituted the first major conflict between Greece and the Achaemenid Empire and represents the first phase of the Greco-Persian Wars. Asia Minor had been brought back into the Persian fold, but Darius had vowed to punish Athens and Eretria for their support for the revolt. Moreover, seeing that the political situation in Greece posed a continued threat to the stability of his Empire, he decided to embark on the conquest of all Greece.<ref name="h175" />

[[File:Map Greco-Persian Wars-en.svg|thumb|right|300px|Map showing events of the first phases of the Greco-Persian Wars]]

 

 

 

===490 BC: Datis and Artaphernes' campaign===

 

 

====Battle of Marathon====

[[File:Battle of Marathon Greek Double Envelopment.png|thumb|250px|right|The Greek wings envelop the Persians]]

 

 

 

The Battle of Marathon was a watershed in the Greco-Persian wars, showing the Greeks that the Persians could be beaten. It also highlighted the superiority of the more heavily armoured Greek hoplites, and showed their potential when used wisely.<ref name="h195" />

===Achaemenid Empire===

[[File:Achaemenid king fighting hoplites, Cimmerian Bosphorus intaglio (composite).jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Achaemenid king fighting hoplites, [[cylinder seal]] and seal holder, [[Cimmerian Bosporus]].]]

 

 

 

====Size of the Persian forces====

{{further|Second Persian invasion of Greece#Size of the Persian forces}}

[[File:Xerxes all ethnicities.jpg|thumb|400px|The soldiers of [[Xerxes I]], of all ethnicities,<ref>[http://www.iranicaonline.org/uploads/files/Clothing/v5f7a014_f1_300.jpg Soldiers with names] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200917035945/https://iranicaonline.org/uploads/files/Clothing/v5f7a014_f1_300.jpg |date=2020-09-17 }}, after Walser</ref> on the tomb of Xerxes I, at [[Naqsh-e Rostam]].<ref>The Achaemenid Empire in South Asia and Recent Excavations in Akra in Northwest Pakistan Peter Magee, Cameron Petrie, Robert Knox, Farid Khan, Ken Thomas [https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1082&context=arch_pubs p.713] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523141715/https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1082&context=arch_pubs |date=2020-05-23 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=NAQŠ-E ROSTAM – Encyclopaedia Iranica |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/naqs-e-rostam |language=en}}</ref>]]

 

The size of the Persian fleet is also disputed, although perhaps less so. Other ancient authors agree with Herodotus' number of 1,207. These numbers are by ancient standards consistent, and this could be interpreted that a number around 1,200 is correct. Among modern scholars, some have accepted this number, although suggesting the number must have been lower by the [[Battle of Salamis]].<ref>Köster (1934)</ref><ref>Holland, p. 320.</ref><ref name="L93">Lazenby, pp. 93–94.</ref> Other recent works on the Persian Wars reject this number, viewing 1,207 as more of a reference to the combined Greek fleet in the [[Iliad]]. These works generally claim that the Persians could have launched no more than around 600 warships into the Aegean.<ref name="L93" /><ref>Green, p. 61.</ref><ref>Burn, p. 331.</ref>

===Greek city states===

====Athens====

A year after Marathon, Miltiades, the hero of Marathon, was injured in a military campaign to [[Paros]]. Taking advantage of his incapacitation, the powerful [[Alcmaeonid]] family arranged for him to be prosecuted for the failure of the campaign. A huge fine was imposed on Miltiades for the crime of 'deceiving the Athenian people', but he died weeks later from his wound.<ref name="h214">Holland, pp. 214–217.</ref>

 

 

In 483&nbsp;BC, a vast new seam of silver was found in the Athenian mines at [[Laurium]].<ref name="PT4">Plutarch, Themistocles, 4</ref> Themistocles proposed that the silver should be used to build a new fleet of triremes, ostensibly to assist in a long running war with [[Aegina]].<ref name="h219">Holland, pp. 219–222.</ref> Plutarch suggests that Themistocles deliberately avoided mentioning Persia, believing that it was too distant a threat for the Athenians to act on, but that countering Persia was the fleet's aim.<ref name="PT4" /> Fine suggests that many Athenians must have admitted that such a fleet would be needed to resist the Persians, whose preparations for the coming campaign were known. Themistocles's motion was passed easily, despite strong opposition from Aristides. Its passage was probably due to the desire of many of the poorer Athenians for paid employment as rowers in the fleet.<ref name="fine292">Fine, p. 292</ref> It is unclear from the ancient sources whether 100 or 200 ships were initially authorised; both Fine and Holland suggest that at first 100 ships were authorised and that a second vote increased this number to the levels seen during the second invasion.<ref name="h219" /><ref name="fine292" /> Aristides continued to oppose Themistocles's policy, and tension between the two camps built over the winter, so the [[ostracism]] of 482&nbsp;BC became a direct contest between Themistocles and Aristides. In what Holland characterises as, in essence, the world's first referendum, Aristides was ostracised, and Themistocles's policies were endorsed. Indeed, becoming aware of the Persian preparations for the coming invasion, the Athenians voted to build more ships than those for which Themistocles had asked.<ref name="h219" /> Thus, during the preparations for the Persian invasion, Themistocles had become the leading politician in Athens.<ref name="PT5">Plutarch, Themistocles, 5</ref>

====Sparta====

[[File:Vix crater hoplite circa 500 BCE.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Probable [[Spartan]] hoplite ([[Vix crater]], c. 500 BC).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Freeman |first1=Charles |title=Egypt, Greece, and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199651917 |page=154 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kXIVDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT172 |language=en}}</ref>]]

 

====Hellenic alliance====

 

==Second invasion of Greece (480–479 BC)==

 

===Early 480 BC: Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly===

 

[[File:Battle of Thermopylae and movements to Salamis, 480 BC.gif|300px|thumb|right|Major events in the second invasion of Greece]]

 

 

===August 480 BC: Battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium===

[[File:Thermopylae ancient coastline large.jpg|left|thumb|The pass of Thermopylae]]

 

 

 

{{Clear}}

===September 480 BC: Battle of Salamis===

{{Main|Destruction of Athens|Battle of Salamis}}

 

[[File:Battle of salamis.png|thumb|left|300px|Schematic diagram illustrating events during the Battle of Salamis]]

 

 

 

===June 479 BC: Battles of Plataea and Mycale===

{{Main|Battle of Plataea|Battle of Mycale}}

[[File:Spartans at Plataea.jpg|thumb|Spartans fighting against Persian forces at the [[Battle of Plataea]]. 19th century illustration.]]

 

 

 

==Greek counterattack (479–478 BC)==

 

===Mycale and Ionia===

 

===Sestos===

 

 

===Cyprus===

 

===Byzantium===

The Greek fleet then sailed to [[Byzantium]], which they [[Siegecraft in Ancient Greece|besieged]] and eventually captured.<ref name="TI94" /> Control of both Sestos and Byzantium gave the allies command of the straits between Europe and Asia (over which the Persians had crossed), and allowed them access to the merchant trade of the Black Sea.<ref name="Fine331">Fine, p. 331.</ref>

 

 

Pausanias returned to Byzantium as a private citizen in 477 BC, and took command of the city until he was expelled by the Athenians. He then crossed the [[Bosporus]] and settled in [[Kolonai]] in the [[Troad]], until he was again accused of collaborating with the Persians and was recalled by the Spartans for a trial after which he starved himself to death.<ref name="Fine338*">Fine, pp. 338–339.</ref> The timescale is unclear, but Pausanias may have remained in possession of Byzantium until 470 BC.<ref name="Fine338*" />

 

The loose alliance of city-states that had fought against Xerxes's invasion had been dominated by Sparta and the Peloponnesian league. With the withdrawal of these states, a congress was called on the holy island of [[Delos]] to institute a new alliance to continue the fight against the Persians. This alliance, now including many of the Aegean islands, was formally constituted as the

 

===Campaigns against Persia===

Throughout the 470s BC, the Delian League campaigned in Thrace and the Aegean to remove the remaining Persian garrisons from the region, primarily under the command of the Athenian politician [[Cimon]].<ref name="Sea250">Sealey, p. 250.</ref> In the early part of the next decade, Cimon began campaigning in [[Asia Minor]], seeking to strengthen the Greek position there.<ref name="PC12">Plutarch, Cimon, 12</ref> At the [[Battle of the Eurymedon]] in [[Pamphylia]], the Athenians and allied fleet achieved a stunning double victory, destroying a Persian fleet and then landing the ships' marines to attack and rout the Persian army. After this battle, the Persians took an essentially passive role in the conflict, anxious not to risk battle if possible.<ref name="PC13">Plutarch, Cimon, 13</ref>

 

 

==Peace with Persia==

 

 

 

The ancient sources that give details of the treaty are reasonably consistent in their description of the terms:<ref name="Fine360" /><ref name="DSXII4" /><ref name="Sea280" />

* If the terms were observed by the king and his generals, then the Athenians were not to send troops to lands ruled by Persia.

 

 

==Aftermath and later conflicts==

* [[History of Iran]]

* [[List of wars extended by diplomatic irregularity]]

 

==Notes==

 

===Modern sources===

*{{cite book | last=Burn | first=A.R. | chapter=Persia and the Greeks| title=The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 2: The Median and Achaemenid Periods The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 5 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | editor = Ilya Gershevitch| year=1985 | isbn=0-521-22804-2}}

* {{cite book | last=Dandamaev | first=M. A. | title=A political history of the Achaemenid empire (translated by [[Willem Vogelsang]])| publisher=Brill| year=1989 | isbn=90-04-09172-6}}

{{Authority control}}

{{good article}}

 

[[Category:Greco-Persian Wars| ]]

[[Category:Wars involving ancient Egypt]]

[[Category:Wars involving Sparta]]

[[Category:5th century BC]]

[[Category:History of Europe]]