Greco-Persian Wars

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Template:Campaignbox Greco-Persian Wars The Greco-Persian Wars or Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Greek world and the Persian Empire that started about 500 BC and lasted until 448 BC. The expression "Persian Wars" usually refers to either or both of the two Persian invasions of the Greek mainland in 490 BC and in 480-479 BC; in both cases, the Greeks united successfully to defeat the invasion.

1 Origins
2 Darius' invasion
3 Xerxes' invasion
4 The Greek counterattack
5 See also
6 External links

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Origins

Image:Persian empire 490bc.gif At the end of the 6th century BC, Darius the Great ruled over an immense realm, from western India to eastern Europe. In 513 BC Darius, for the first time, conquered Thrace and Macedon. Macedonian king Amyntas I became his vassal. But the conquest of Asia Minor (546 BC) left the Ionian Greeks under Persian rule, while the other Greeks were free, a state of affairs that was going to cause trouble sooner or later. Persian satraps (governors of provinces) of Asia Minor installed tyrants in most of Ionian cities and forced Greeks to pay taxes for the "King of Kings."

In 499 BC, instigated by Aristagoras in Miletus, the Ionian Revolt broke out; Ionian cities threw out the "tyrants" that the Persians had set over them, formed a league, and applied for help from the other Greeks. Athens sent twenty ships and Eretria five, and the fleet helped spread rebellion all along the coast. In 498 BC the Greeks captured and burnt Sardis, thereby provoking a Persian response in the form of an invasion. The Greek fleet was crushed at the Battle of Lade in 494 BC, and the Ionian cities sacked, although they were permitted to have democratic governments afterwards.

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Darius' invasion

Image:Darius-Vase.jpg In 492 BC, an army commanded by Darius' son-in-law Mardonius overran Thrace and Macedon but when he attempted to make an assault on the Athenians,his fleet crashed upon the Chalcidice of Mt. Athos. Almost all the troops were destroyed and Mardonius returned home injured. In 490 BC Datis and Artaphernes led the reformed Persian troops to Attica and Eretria. During their travel across the Aegean, the islands of the Cyclades surrendered, Eretria was captured, and the expedition landed in Attica near Marathon. Phidippides got the message for help to Sparta in record time, but a religious festival (the Karneia) prevented the Spartans from leaving the city. In the end the Athenians and Plateans alone defeated the Persians in the Battle of Marathon. The Persian commanders then hoped to catch Athens undefended, and sailed with their fleet around Cape Sunion and tried to land at Phaleron. Athenian leaders anticipated the move, and when the Persian came to Phaleron they found the Athenian army waiting for them. After this, the Persians sailed back to Asia in defeat.

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Xerxes' invasion

In 480, Darius' successor Xerxes I mounted a massive expedition against Greece. The numbers regarding the force he mustered for the invasion against Greece, given by Herodotus, have been a subject of endless dispute. Herodotus speaks about 1.7 million combatants, joined by a number of subdugated nations in the southern Balkans, and including non-combatants he claims that a 5.2 million invasion force entered mainland Greece. This is, of course, outside the sphere of the possible and so a number of scholars have proposed different numbers for the invasion force, estimations based on knowledge of the Persian military systems, their logistical capabilities, the Greek countryside, and supplies available along the army's route, especially water. According to the most thorough and well-thought estimations, the Persian force was not larger than 720,000 in total, although a more modest estimation of 60,000 to 120,000 combatants plus a collection of non-combatants (especially large because of the presence of the Persian king and high-ranking nobility), seems more fitting with the available data and the structure of the Persian army. A preliminary diplomatic offensive secured the surrender of Thessaly, Delphi, Argos, and much of central Greece. Opposing Xerxes was a Greek league led by Athens and Sparta, and a fleet built by Themistocles and hastily manned and supplied. Attempts to hold back the Persians, by land at Thermopylae and by sea at Artemisium, both failed. At Thermopylae, King Leonidas of Sparta and his 300 soldiers and helot auxiliaries, as well as Demophilus and his contingent of 700 Thespians and auxiliaries, proved their bravery trying to slow the Persian advance long enough to give the rest of Greece a chance to prepare. Athens was evacuated, and the Greek fleet withdrew to Salamis. The Peloponnesians proposed a defensive line at the Isthmus of Corinth, relying on the ground forces and using the fleet to keep the Isthmus supplied. Themistocles instead forced a confrontation with the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis, destroying many of their ships. Before the battle, Xerxes had set up a throne on Mt. Aegaleo, so he could watch his great victory over the smaller Greek fleet. However, the narrow gulf provided little room for his heavy triremes to manoeuver, allowing the lighter Greek ships to flank and destroy them. Following the defeat, Xerxes, his fleet, and all but some 35,000 soldiers retired to Asia Minor, where a heavy rebellion had started in Babylon, leaving Mardonius to winter over in Thessaly with the army.

The following spring (479), Mardonius twice offered Athens a separate peace, but was rebuffed. Maneuvers in Boeotia, particularly cavalry harassment of the 38,000 Athenian and Peloponnesian hoplites, ended with the Battle of Plataea; Mardonius was killed, and his army routed. The remnants of the Persian army left Greece. Also in this year a Greek fleet commanded by the Spartan king Leotychides destroyed the remaining Persian fleet in the Battle of Mycale.

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The Greek counterattack

Encouraged by Xerxes' failures, the Greeks of Asias and the islands revolted again. In 478, a fleet under Pausanias captured Byzantium and started a rebellion in Cyprus. At this point Pausanius began capitulating with the Persians, and offered all of Greece in return for an alliance with the king and marriage with the royal household. The Spartans intercepted these messages and Pausanias was recalled, but Greek confidence in Peloponnesian leadership was shaken. The Peloponnesians withdrew from involvement and Athens carried on, forming the Delian League in 478 BC. The war against the Persians quickly became a war of Athenian imperialism, as those cities who wished to leave the League were attacked and forced to become tributary allies of the Athenians. The Athenian general Cimon destroyed a Persian army and fleet around 467 near the river Eurymedon in Asia Minor. In 459 Athens sent 200 ships in support of a revolt in Egypt, although after driving the Persians up the Nile, the fleet was lost in a counterattack at Memphis ca. 454. Another expedition in 450 failed to revive the Egyptian rebellion, and Cyprus was abandoned.

Around 449/448, with the support of Pericles, Callias negotiated the Peace of Callias with the Persians. While the exact nature of the agreement remains unclear (formal treaty or non-aggression pact), the result was independence for the Greeks of Asia, Persian rule for Cyprus, and the closure of the Aegean to Persian warships.

The Persians and Greeks continued to meddle in each others affairs. The Persians entered the Peloponnesian War in 411 BC, forming a mutual-defence pact with Sparta and combining their naval resources against Athens (see Tissaphernes). In 404 BC, under the terms of this treaty, the Spartans provided some 13,000 troops to Cyrus the Younger in an attempt to seize the Persian throne. Later, during the Corinthian War, the Persians supported Athens (see Artaxerxes II), perhaps as part of a Divide and rule strategy, though more likely after the failed coup of Cyrus in 404-403 BC, the Spartans had simply fallen out of favor with the Persians.

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