Greco-Persian Wars, 499-479 BCE

1. Greco-Persian Wars, 499-479 BCE • Background • Ionian Revolts • First Persian Invasion & Marathon • Rise of Themistocles & the Athenian Navy • Second Persian Invasion: Thermopylae & Salamis • Legacies

2. Background to the Conflict • Main source for Greco-Persian Wars is Herodotus. Thucydides built on this. Plutarch claimed Herodotus was "Philobarbaros“. No Persian records. • After collapse of Mycenaean civ, many Greeks fled to Ionia. These Greek “colonies” were more or less united under Lydian rule. • On the eve of the Greco-Persian wars, Ionian population had become discontented and rebellious …Meanwhile in Athens, Cleisthenic democracy insecure. Fear of treason, tyranny, Spartans, and neighbors. So Cleisthenes asks for alliance with Persia. Persians ask for “earth and water” in return.

3. Ionian Revolt, 499-493 • Cyrus sent messages to the Ionians demanding revolt against Lydian rule. Ionians refused. Cyrus invades—Phocea 1st. • Ionian Greeks hard to rule. So Persia est. a tyrant in each Ionian city. But tyranny declining in Greece. • Darius the Great more invasive than Cyrus. • Ionians captured, and burnt Sardis. On their return home, they were followed by Persian troops, and crushed at the Battle of Ephesus

4. Ionian Revolt, 499-493 • Miletus rebels. Athens supports them w/ 20 ships. Persians defeat them at Battle of Lade (494) Besieged, captured, and enslaved Miletians. Why does Athens get involved? • They are Ionians • Persia has been unfriendly • Athens dependent on trade (esp. grain trade) • Glory… • Asia Minor returned to Persian control. But Darius vowed to punish Athens for supporting revolts • In 492, Darius sent ambassadors to major Greek cities, demanding their submission. Does not go to Athens or Sparta.

5. First Invasion of Greece: Motivations • Punish the rebels • Restore Hippeas (he would be a Persian satrap) • Conquer and tax Greece • Control Athenian trade • Glory

6. First Invasion of Greece: Battle of Marathon • Persian fleet headed down coast of Attica, landing at bay of Marathon, 26 miles from Athens (Phydippedes runs to Athens to ask for help…3hrs. Then died.) • Sparta amidst a religious ceremony. Promised help later… • Herodotus records that 6,400 Persian bodies were counted on the battlefield; Athenians lost only 192 men. Spartans show up the next day! • Significance • Persians CAN be beaten • Victory for democracy and freedom • Pride and glory • No victory at Marathon, no Socrates, Sophocles, Eurpides… • The Marathonomachai saved Western Civ (?) • War accomplishes great things (?)

7. Rise of Themistocles • General (strategos) of his tribe in 490 BCE; commanded center of Athenian army at Marathon • Elected archon in 493/92 BCE • Rival politicians ostracized: Miltiades, Hipparchus, Megacles the Alcmaeonid, Xanthippus (father of Pericles), Aristides

8. Rise of Themistocles: Athenian Navy Debate • Debate in Athenian Assembly • New wealth from Larium mines… • Aristides: strengthen hoplite army (zeugitai) • Themistocles: strengthen navy (thetes) • Build port of Piraeus • Overture to Thetes • Aristides ostracized in 482 BCE • New political importance of thetes as rowers…

9. Themistocles and Athenian Naval Power Before this, Themistocles’ judgment had proved the best at an important moment; it was when the commonality of Athens had received great sums that came to them from the mines at Laurium, and they were disposed to share them out, with each citizen getting ten drachmas apiece. It was then that Themistocles persuaded the Athenians to abandon this distribution and make instead, with this money, two hundred ships “for the war,” he said, naming the war against the Aeginetans. It was indeed their engagement in this war, just then, that saved Greece, for it compelled the Athenians to become men of the sea. These ships were not used for the purpose for which they were built, but they were there for Greece at the moment of need. -Herodotus, 7.144

10. Athenian Trireme • 120 ft. x 15 ft. • 170 rowers • Fast and agile • Ramming tactics

11. Rise of Themistocles: Foresight Now the rest of his countrymen thought that the defeat of the barbarians at Marathon was the end of the war; but Themistocles thought it to be only the beginning of greater contests, and for these he anointed himself, as it were, to be the champion of all Greece, and put his polis into training, because, while it was yet far off, he expected the evil that was to come. - Plutarch, Life of Themistocles, 3.4

12. Second Persian Invasion (480-479 BCE) • Darius dies in 486 • Xerxes constructs an armada– a “boat-bridge” spanning Hellespont • 481, Greek League (Hellenic League) • Defensive Alliance • 31 Greek states • Led by Sparta and Athens

13. Battle of Thermopylae, 480 • Xerxes's arrived during Olympic Games. For Spartans, warfare during Olympics was sacrilegious. But Spartans considered the threat so grave that they dispatched King Leonidas I with his personal bodyguards (The Hippeis) of 300 men + Allied forces. • Persian contingents forced to attack Greek phalanx head on • Pass at Thermopylae was opened to the Persian army according to Herodotus, at the cost to the Persians of up to 20,000 fatalities • Xerxes beheads and impales corpse of Leonidas!

14. Battle of Thermopylae, 480 • Following Thermopylae, the Persian army burned and sacked the Boeotian cities which had not submitted to the Persians • Arguably most famous battle in European ancient history. Greeks lauded for their performance in battle. Thermopylae as inspiration for the ages. • Military defeat; moral victory • Thermopylae was a Pyrrhic victory for Persians

15. Xerxes’ Route

16. Thermopylae (August, 480 BCE)

17. Battle at Salamis (September, 480 BCE) • Victory at Thermopylae = Boeotia fell to Xerxes; left Attica open to invasion • Athens evacuated, with the aid of Allied fleet, to Salamis. Athens fell to Persians • The Persians had now captured much of Greece. But needed to capture navy. • Destruction of some of Persian fleet in battle and storm at Artemisium • Peloponnesians fortify Isthmus of Corinth • “Eurybiades presented the proposition that anyone who pleased should declare where, among the territories of which the Greeks were masters, would be the most suitable place to fight their sea battle; for Attica was at this point given up for lost; it was about the rest that he inquired. The most of the opinions of those who spoke agreed that they should sail to the Isthmus and fight for the Peloponnesus; the reason they produced for this was that, if they were beaten in the sea fight and were at Salamis, they would be beleaguered in an island where no help could show up for their rescue; but if they fought off the Isthmus, they could put into a coastline that was their own.” (Herodotus, 8.49)

18. Aftermath of Salamis: Battle of Plataea, 479 • Persian army under Mardonius winters in Greece • Plataea on border between Attica and Boeotia • Spartan king, Pausanias, in high command • Spartans & Athenians cooperate • Greek army won a decisive victory, destroying much of the Persian army and ending the invasion of Greece • Perceived as Spartan victory

20. “Themistocles Decree” from Troezen The Gods Resolved by the Council and People Themistocles, son of Neocles, of Phrearri, made the motion to entrust the city to Athena the mistress of Athens and to all the other gods to guard and defend from the Barbarian for the sake of the land. The Athenians themselves and the foreigners who live in Athens are to send their children and women to safety in Troezen, their protector being Pittheus, the founding hero of the land. They are to send the old men and their movable possessions to safety on Salamis. The treasurers and priestesses are to remain on the acropolis guarding the property of the gods. All the other Athenians and foreigners of military age are to embark on the 200 ships that are ready and defend against the Barbarian for the sake of their own freedom and that of the rest of the Greeks, along with the Spartans, the Corinthians, the Aeginetans, and all others who wish to share in the danger.

21. “Themistocles Decree” from Troezen Text of Third Century BCE May be copy of original of 480 BCE Discovered in 1959

22. Legacy to Greco-Persian Wars • Greek nationalism • 1st great Pan-Hellenic Activity • Ionians renew rebellion against Persia. • Persians lose control of Asia Minor coast • Expeditions of Cimon against Persia (ca. 470-460) • Athenian Hegemony • Athenian naval supremacy • Cold War ensues b/w Athens and Sparta for 20 years • Athenian Wall • Themistocles as Hero: Stood up to Persians and to Spartans • Persians suffered a major blow to their prestige and morale • We know that Persian threat was over. They didn’t. • Philosophy, science, freedom, and democracy

23. Legacy to Greco-Persian Wars: Delian League est. 478 • Hegemony by invitation • Synod – 1 state/1 vote • All members pay taxes. Treasury at Delos…moved • Navy is all Athenian • Athens will lead all battles • Like NATO • Is this Athenian Imperialism? • Yes • Athens is 1st among equals • 465 – rebellion in Thasos → Athens tightens grip • No • smaller states wanted protection • Synod

24. Concluding Discussion • What were the causes of the Persian Wars? • How and why did Ionians revolt? What impacts did these revolts have? • Evaluate the significance of the Battles of: • Marathon • Thermopylae • Salamis/Plataea • Assess the role of Themistocles. • Discuss the legacy of the Persian Wars. Why does this war matter? • How did the Persian Wars shift the balance of power in Greece?