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Persian Wars to Peloponnesian Wars. Persian Wars. What were the Persian Wars?. The Persian Wars refers to the conflict between Greece and Persia in the 5th century BCE which involved two invasions by the Persia in 490 and 480 BCE.
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What were the Persian Wars? • The Persian Wars refers to the conflict between Greece and Persia in the 5th century BCE which involved two invasions by the Persia in 490 and 480 BCE. • Several of the most famous and significant battles in history were fought during the Wars, these were at Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea, all of which would become legendary. • The Greeks were, ultimately, victorious and their civilization preserved.
Origins • Persia, under the rule of Darius (r. 522-486 BCE), was already expanding into mainland Europe. • Persia wanted Greece. Reasons included the need to increase the prestige of Darius at home or to put down once and for all the troublesome rebel states (Greece) on the western border of the Persian empire. • In 491 BCE Darius called for the Greeks’ surrender. The Greeks executed the envoys, and Athens and Sparta promised to form an alliance for the defense of Greece. • Darius launched a naval force of 600 ships and 25,000 men to attack the lands right next to Greece.
Battle of Marathon • Persians used long-range assault tactics of the Persian archers. • Greeks had longer spears, heavier swords, better armor, and rigid discipline of the phalanx formation • Greeks won the battle against the odds. Persians fled but would be back Hoplite: Greek Warrior
Thermopylae • New King of Persia Xerxes continued Darius’ vision. In 480 BCE he gathered a huge invasion force to attack Greece again, this time via the pass at Thermopylae on the east coast. • The Battle of Thermopylae: n August 480 BCE a small band of Greeks led by Spartan King Leonidas held the pass for three days but were killed to a man. • At the same time, the Greek fleet managed to hold off the Persians at the indecisive naval battle at Artemision. • Together, these battles bought Greece time and allowed for its cities to get ready for the bigger challenges yet to come.
Salamis • Naval Battle: The exact numbers are disputed but a figure of 500 Persian ships against a Greek fleet of 300 seems the most likely estimate. Greece is outnumbered again. • Greece lured the Persians into a narrow strait (Salamis) and ambushed them. • Greece won that battle.
Plataea • Persians remained strong despite the naval defeat - they still controlled much of Greece and their large land army was intact. • The Greeks fielded the largest hoplite army ever seen which came from some 30 city-states and numbered around 110,000. • Persians possessed a similar number of troops, perhaps slightly more but, again, there are no exact figures agreed upon by scholars. • The superiority of the hoplite and phalanx won the Greeks the battle. Finally, they had ended Xerxes’ ambitions in Greece.
Aftermath • Greeks were euphoric in victory, • the Persian Empire was not dealt a death blow by its defeat. The Persian Empire continued to thrive for another 100 years. • For Greece, guaranteed her freedom from foreign rule and allowed a rich period of artistic and cultural growth which would lay the cultural foundations of all future Western civilizations. Including us!
What were the Peloponnesian Wars? • The Peloponnesian War was fought between ancient Athens and Sparta and their respective allies. • In the 5th century BCE Sparta and Athens were the two major powers in Greece and it was perhaps inevitable that their spheres of influence would overlap and cause conflict. • Sparta was alarmed at the growing power of Athens. Athens built a bigger fleet of ships. Sparta was also suspicious of the Athenians' project to rebuild their Long Wall fortifications. Sparta was also concerned that inaction would push the other major Greek power, Corinth, to side with Athens.
First Peloponnesian War • First Peloponnesian War (c. 460-446 BCE) was less intense than the second and fought mainly between Athens and Corinth with occasional intervention by Sparta. • Ended by the Thirty Year’s Peace but the fighting never completely stopped.
Second Peloponnesian War • Started over resources that Athens wanted. They effectively imposed a trade embargo on an ally of Sparta. • In 431 BCE the Peloponnesian army led by the Spartan king Archidamos invaded and ravaged Attica (another city-state). The War was on. • Warfare in the Second Peloponnesian War became more sophisticated and deadly resulting in atrocities previously unthinkable in Greek warfare. • Civilians became much more involved in warfare and entire citizen bodies could be wiped out. • The number of casualties in the Peloponnesian Wars was, far greater than in any previous conflict in Greece’s long history
Athens and Sparta and their Allies • Athens: the Greek city-states began to align themselves in protective alliances. Many states sided with Athens, notably those from Ionia, and together they formed the Delian League. However, the League swiftly came to resemble an Athenian empire rather than a collection of equal allies. • Sparta: The Peloponnesian League was a grouping of Corinth, Elis, Tegea and other states where each member swore to have the same enemies and allies as Sparta. The League allowed Sparta to dominate the Peloponnese until the 4th century BCE.
The Fighting • Athens: Great maritime power – Big navy. Used it to land troops in Spartan lands. • Sparta: Land based power – Big Army. Used it to attack Athenian lands. • War dragged on for decades. • Sieges of cities were a common feature of the Peloponnesian War. Either attacking a city or surrounding it and starving it into surrender.
Victory for Sparta • Persia offered money with which to build a fleet that could challenge Athens in return for Sparta recognizing Persian sovereignty in Asia Minor. • The War was finally won by Sparta in a naval battle. Sparta was able to build a massive fleet of 200 triremes using Persian money and timber and inflicted a final and total defeat on the Athenians at Aegospotami. 170 Athenian ships were captured on the beach and at least 3,000 Athenian captives were executed. • Unable to man another fleet, with the Delian League disbanded and Athens itself under siege, the Athenians had no option but to sue for peace.
Aftermath • Sparta’s position as the number one city-state in Greece, though, was to be short-lived. • Spartan territorial ambitions dragged the city into another protracted conflict, the Corinthian Wars. The result of the conflict was that Sparta ceded her empire to Persian control but Sparta was left to dominate Greece. • However, trying to crush Thebes, Sparta lost the crucial battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE against the brilliant Theban general Epaminondas. • Perhaps the real winners of the Peloponnesian Wars were actually, Persia and in the long term even Macedonia which under Philip II was able to invade and crush with relative ease the weakened and mutually suspicious Greek city-states.
