Persian Wars (499-479 BCE ): Ionian Revolt to Erymedon

1. Persian Wars (499-479 BCE): Ionian Revolt to Erymedon “So, as it stands now, a man who declares that the Athenians were the saviors of Greece would hit the very truth.” ~ Herodotus, 7.139

2. Persepolis--Aerial View

3. Apadana Staircase--Persepolis

4. Xerxes’ Gate Persepolis

5. Achaemenid Persian Empire

6. Persian Monarchs and the Achaemenid Empire • Rise of Persia • Cyrus the Great (559-530 BCE) • Cambyses (529-522 BCE) • Darius (521-486 BCE): centralized authority (Susa/Ecbatana); road network; satrapies (20); canal linking Nile and Red Sea

7. Ionian Revolt (499/8-494 BCE) • Asia Minor Greeks as part of Yauana Satrapy • Burning of Sardis and Athenian Naval Support (Herodotus 5.105)

8. Ionian Revolt (499/8-494 BCE) • Causes of the Revolt • disruption of established trade routes • Egypt conquered 525 BCE (Naucratis in decline) • Scythian expedition of 513/512 BCE and Black Sea trade • destruction of Sybaris in 511/510 BCE (Milesian trading post in west) • Persian rule comparatively harsher than (Hellenized) Lydian rule • Personal motives? Histiaeus and Aristagoras (Herodotus 5.35)

9. Darius and the Burning of SardisHerodotus, 5.105 • “When King Darius was informed that Sardis had been captured and burned by the Athenians and the Ionians…he first (so the story goes), when he heard the news, made no account of the Ionians--for he knew well that they would surely not get off scot-free for their rebellion--but he put the question, “Who are the Athenians?” and, having his answer, asked for a bow. He took it, fitted an arrow to it, and shot it into the sky, and as he sent it up he prayed, ‘Zeus, grant me the chance of punishing the Athenians.’ Having said that, he ordered one of his servants that, as often as a meal was set before him, the man should says three times, ‘Master, remember the Athenians’.”

10. Darius’ Empire

11. First Persian ExpeditionBattle at Marathon (490 BCE) • Modern estimations of the size of the Persian expedition around 20,000 troops • Darius attempts to form “fifth columns” among the aristocracies in the Greek poleis (cf. Herodotus 6.48)--medizing • Objectives: Eretria on Euboea and Athens • September 490: Battle at Marathon (Attica)--Herodotus 6.112; casualties = 6,400 Persians; 192 Athenians (Herodotus 6.117)

12. Battle of Marathon (490 BCE)

13. Marathon--Phases of Battle

14. Herodotus on Marathon “The lines were drawn up, and the sacrifices were favorable; so the Athenians were permitted to charge, and they advanced on the Persians at a run. There was not less than three quarters of a mile in the no-man’s land between the two armies. The Persians, seeing them come at a run, made ready to receive them; but they believed that the Athenians were possessed by some very desperate madness, seeing their small numbers and their running to meet their enemies without the support of cavalry or archers. That was what the barbarians thought; but the Athenians, when they came to hand-to-hand fighting, fought right worthily. They were the first Greeks we know of to charge the enemy at a run and the first to face the sight of the Median dress and the men who wore it. For till then the Greeks were terrified even to hear the name of the Medes.” (6.112)

15. Xerxes (486-465/4 BCE) and Second Persian Invasion (480-479 BCE) • Interim: Egyptian revolt (486/5-484 BCE); Laurium silver mines discovered (482 BCE); Themistocles and construction of Athenian naval fleet • Athenian Fleet, thetes, and Development of Athenian Democracy • June, 480 BCE: Second Persian Expedition (50,000-175,000 troops); Autumn, 481 BCE = Defensive Alliance of Greek states headed by Sparta and Athens • King Leonidas, 300 Spartans, and Thermopylae • September, 480 BCE: Sack of Athens, 9/20/480 BCE: Salamis and Athenian trireme

17. Xerxes’ Route

18. Bust of Themistocles

19. Athenian Trireme Reproduced

21. Greek Offensive • Battles at Plataea and Mycale (479 BCE) • Ionians stage rebellion against Persia • Athenians capture Sestos (end of winter 479/8 BCE) • Foundation of Delian Confederacy (477 BCE) • Cimon captures Eion on Strymon river (Persian stronghold)--476/475 BCE • Cimon’s victory at Eurymedon river (466 BCE?)

22. Creation of the Persian Wars Myth “Indeed upon the Asian land no longer are they subject to the Persians nor do they yet pay tribute through the master’s crushing necessity nor are they ruled falling prostrate before the king. For the kingly strength has perished.” ~Aeschylus, Persians, lines 584-97 produced 472 BCE

23. Creation of the Persian Wars Myth “Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by that here obedient to their words we lie.” Inscription at Thermopylae reported by Herodotus, 7.228

24. Henry Miller on Greek Character “Everywhere you go in Greece the atmosphere is pregnant with heroic deeds….For stubbornness, courage, recklessness, daring, there are no greater examples anywhere. No wonder Durrell wanted to fight with the Greeks. Who wouldn’t prefer to fight beside a Bouboulina, for example, than with a gang of sickly, effeminate recruits from Oxford or Cambridge?” ~ The Colossus of Maroussi (1941) pg. 37

25. Perpetuation of the Persian Wars Myth “In terms of world history, the ramifications of the Greek triumph over the Persians are almost incalculable. By repulsing the assault of the East the Hellenes charted the political and cultural development of the West for an entire century. With the triumphant struggle for liberty by the Greeks, Europe was first born, both as a concept and as a reality….The freedom which permitted Greek culture to rise to the classical models in art, drama, philosophy and historiography, this Europe owes to those who fought at Salamis and Plataea….If we regard ourselves today as free thinking people, it is the Greeks who created the condition for this.” ~H. Bengtson, History of Greece (Ottawa 1988) pg. 106