Persian Wars

Persian Wars
INTRODUCTION

Persian Wars, series of military conflicts between Greek city-states and the Persian Empire in the 5th century bc. The outcome of the wars shifted the balance of power in the eastern Mediterranean from the Persians to the Greeks and ushered in a new era of Greek civilization.

BACKGROUND

Between 560 and 500 bc the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East underwent great political changes. Under Cyrus the Great Persia grew into the largest empire the Near East had ever seen. Centered on the Persian homeland on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf, it stretched from present-day Pakistan in the east to the Balkan Peninsula in the west and from the Persian Gulf in the south to Central Asia in the north.

In the same period, a number of small city-states consisting of an urban center and its surrounding territory had developed over a large part of the Greek mainland and the islands of the Aegean Sea. For the most part they were governed by local aristocracies, but the city-state of Athens had already begun a series of changes that would lead to the emergence of democratic government. Politically, the most important was Sparta, on the Peloponnesian peninsula. It had become the strongest land power in Greece and controlled an alliance of other city-states that extended over much of southern Greece. However, in terms of population, resources, and organization, the Greek states were no match for the immense empire they were to fight.

The wars between them had important consequences. Politically, they ended Persia’s expansion to the west and led to its loss of control of the western coast of Asia Minor (present-day Asian Turkey). The struggles deeply affected the Greeks. Sparta and Athens emerged as the leading powers, eventually dominating the Greek world. Athens became the dominant Greek sea power and created an empire that extended over the eastern and northern coasts of the Aegean. Culturally, the wars made the Greeks much more conscious of their identity as a separate, and in their minds, superior people.

THE FIRST PHASE OF THE PERSIAN WARS

In 521 bc the Persian king Darius I crushed all resistance to his accession to the throne after a brief but bloody civil war. While playing a central role in reorganizing the empire, he also worked to secure and expand its outer borders. In 513 bc the Persians captured the major Greek islands of Kh?os, S?mos, and Lésvos. Also in 513 bc Darius himself crossed over to Europe and conquered the area between the Danube and the Aegean coast to the borders of Macedonia. Many historians believe that these gains were part of the normal process of imperial expansion and that Darius eventually intended the conquest of Greece and the Aegean.

In 499 bc his forces attempted to capture the island of N?xos as a first step towards dominating the central Aegean. This attempt failed and it helped to precipitate a revolt of the Ionian Greeks living along the coast of Asia Minor. This revolt, caused by dissatisfaction with economic and political conditions under the Persians, lasted from 499 to 494 bc. The revolt was at first successful but the Ionians were eventually thwarted by a crucial defeat at sea and the immense superiority of Persian numbers and organization.

Athens and the lesser mainland state of Eretria had provided naval help to the Ionian rebels during the revolt. This intervention convinced Darius that Greece itself must be subdued to guarantee Persian security in the west. In 492 bc the Persians launched an expedition to gain control of the central Aegean and to punish Athens and Eretria for assisting the Ionian rebels. After initial successes in northern Greece the Persians moved against Athens but were turned back when most of the ships were lost in a storm. In the summer of 490 bc a second Persian expedition sacked Eretria and then landed at Marathon less than 40 km (25 mi) northeast of Athens. The Athenians had appealed for help to other Greek states and especially to Sparta, but in the deciding battle faced the Persian force almost alone. Due to the strategy of Athenian general Miltiades, the force of about 10,000 Greek infantrymen defeated a much more numerous enemy. The battle showed the decisive superiority of the heavier armored Greek infantry over their Persian opponents in close combat.

XERXES’ INVASION

This failure led Darius to begin preparing a much larger force for a second and final invasion. But rebellion in Egypt and other events delayed matters. In 486 bc Darius died and was succeeded by his son Xerxes I. After reconquering Egypt Xerxes was ready to take up his father’s plans for Greece. The army he assembled was far larger than any the Greeks had seen before. Estimated in the millions by Greek historian Herodotus, it probably actually consisted of between 200,000 and 300,000 infantry and cavalry and more than 700 warships. The size of this force, the need for steady supplies, and the rugged nature of the Greek landscape led the Persians to develop a strategy that depended on cooperation between the army and the fleet. The army would provide bases for the fleet while the fleet would allow the army to bypass obstacles on land. In the spring of 480 bc the immense expedition set out from Sardis in western Asia Minor.

The Greeks were not united in their attitude toward the Persian invasion. Many of the states saw their position as helpless and were ready to surrender. Those determined to resist met in the fall of 481 bc and made an alliance to fight the invasion. In May 480 bc Sparta was given command on land and sea despite the fact that the Athenians provided the majority of ships. After an initial failure to hold the Persians the Greeks decided to meet the invader on land at Thermopylae and at sea at Artemisium in central Greece. This was the strategic point to meet a combined sea and land attack by much larger forces, as the approaches to it by both land and sea were narrow and difficult and would favor Greek infantry and the heavier and slower Greek ships. The Persian army far outnumbered the Greek force of between 6000 and 7000 infantrymen. After several days of battle by both land and sea the Persians surrounded the Greek position at Thermopylae. Though most of the Greeks escaped, the commander, Spartan king Leonidas I, and most of his fellow Spartans died. The Greek navy was now in a helpless position and withdrew south.

The road to central Greece now lay open and Xerxes advanced south, sacking Athens and occupying its territory. The Greek fleet had withdrawn and lay at anchor at Salam?s, an island close to Athens. The Greek leaders were divided on what to do as the Persian fleet took up a position just outside the narrows that separate Salam?s from the Athenian coast. The Spartans and other southern Greeks advocated withdrawing but the Athenians under the command of their general Themistocles successfully opposed a retreat and prepared to face the Persians. The Greek fleet numbered about 378 warships and faced a Persian force of about the same size. In late September 480 bc, as the Persian fleet attacked through the narrow straits, the Greek ships pretended to scatter at its approach. The Persians, with their ranks thrown into confusion by the narrowness of the straits and the feigned Greek retreat, were decisively defeated by the ramming of the heavier Greek ships.

This battle proved decisive for the outcome of the war, destroying any hope that the Persians could continue their combined strategy of attack by land and sea. Their navy had suffered heavily and its morale was broken. Xerxes, afraid that his defeat might be followed by another rebellion of the Ionian Greeks, returned home but left his army behind under his general Mardonius. Mardonius spent the following winter trying to split the Greek coalition by offering the Athenians amnesty if they allied with Persia against Sparta. After this attempt failed Mardonius decided to bring the Greeks to battle in the early spring of 479 bc.

He first recaptured Athens to draw out the Athenians, who pressured the Spartans into helping them fight back. Mardonius then moved his forces north to southern Boeotia (in present-day central Greece) near the town of Plataea. The sides were evenly matched with about 110,000 men. After maneuvers on both sides lasting more than a week the battle was fought and the Persian force was destroyed. This defeat marked the complete failure of the invasion, and the surviving Persians withdrew suffering further heavy losses. By the next year the Greeks were successfully attacking the Persians on their own territory in Asia Minor.

VICTORIOUS GREECE

The Persians were never again able to threaten another invasion. The Greeks moved to the offensive and over the next decades liberated the islands of the Aegean and large areas along the western and northern coasts from Persian control. The most important direct result of the wars was to establish Athens as the dominant Greek naval power. This gave Athens the opportunity to create an extensive empire over the newly won territories that had no parallel in earlier Greek history. A new political order emerged among the Greek states centered on the two great powers of Athens and Sparta that was to have a profound effect on later Greek history. Another effect of the wars was to produce the first large scale Greek historical work, the History of Herodotus, written in the second half of the 5th century bc. It serves as the most important source for the events of the wars and for evidence of the wars’ effect on the Greek intellect and culture.