The Persian Wars - Article 1

The Persian Wars refer to the conflict between Greece and Persia in the 5th century BCE which involved two invasions by the latter in 490 and 480 BCE. Several of the most famous and significant battles in history were fought during the Persian Wars, these battles were at Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea, all of which would become legendary. The Greeks were, ultimately, victorious and their civilization preserved. If they had been defeated then the western world may not have inherited from them such lasting cultural contributions as democracy, classical architecture and sculpture, theatre, and the Olympic Games.

Origins of the Wars

Persia, under the rule of Darius (r. 522-486 BCE), was already expanding into mainland Europe and had subjugated Ionia, Thrace, and Macedonia by the beginning of the 5th century BCE. Next in King Darius' sights were Athens and the rest of Greece. Just why Greece was coveted by Persia is unclear. Wealth and resources seem an unlikely motive; other more plausible suggestions include the need to increase the prestige of the king at home or to quell once and for all a collection of potentially troublesome rebel states on the western border of the empire. The Ionian rebellion, the offering of earth and water in submission to the Persian satrap in 508 BCE, and the attack by Athens and Eretria on the city of Sardis in 499 BCE had not been forgotten either.

Whatever the exact motives, in 491 BCE Darius once again sent envoys to call for the Greeks' submission to Persian rule. The Greeks sent a no-nonsense reply by executing the envoys, and Athens and Sparta promised to form an alliance for the defense of Greece. Darius' response to this diplomatic outrage was to launch a naval force of 600 ships and 25,000 men to attack the Cyclades and Euboea, leaving the Persians just one step away from the rest of Greece.

Marathon

Darius did not lead the invasion of mainland Greece in person but put his general Datis in charge of his cosmopolitan army. Second-in-command was Artaphernes, Darius' nephew, who perhaps led the 2,000-strong Persian cavalry. The total strength of the Persian army was perhaps 90,000 men. The Greeks were led by either Miltiades or Callimachus and they commanded a total force of only between 10,000 and 20,000, probably nearer the lower figure. The long-range assault tactics of the Persian archers were to come up against the heavy infantry of Greek hoplites with their large round shields, spears, and swords, and organized in a solid line or phalanx where each man's shield protected both himself and his neighbor in a wall of bronze.

WITH THEIR LONGER SPEARS, HEAVIER SWORDS, BETTER ARMOUR, AND RIGID DISCIPLINE OF THE PHALANX FORMATION THE GREEK HOPLITES WON A GREAT VICTORY AGAINST THE ODDS.

When the two armies clashed on the plain of Marathon in September 490 BCE, the Persian tactic of rapidly firing vast numbers of arrows into the enemy must have been an awesome sight but the lightness of the arrows meant that they were largely ineffective against the bronze-armored hoplites. At close quarters the Greeks thinned their center and extended their flanks to envelop the enemy lines. This and their longer spears, heavier swords, better armor, and rigid discipline of the phalanx formation meant that the Greek hoplites won a great victory against the odds. According to tradition 6,400 Persians were dead and only 192 Greeks were killed. Victory dedications and statues were erected and, for the Greeks, the Battle of Marathon quickly became the stuff of legend. Meanwhile, the Persian fleet fled back to Asia but they would be back, and next time, in even bigger numbers.

Thermopylae

Within a decade, King Xerxes continued his predecessor Darius' vision, and in 480 BCE he gathered a huge invasion force to attack Greece again, this time via the pass at Thermopylae on the east coast. In 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 steel themselves for the bigger challenges yet to come.

Salamis

The defeat at Thermopylae, though glorious, allowed the Persians to make in-roads into Greece. Consequently, many states now turned over to the Persians and Athens itself was sacked. In response, a Greek army led by Leonidas' brother Kleombrotos began to build a defensive wall near Corinth but winter halted the land campaign. The next vital engagement was going to be at sea.

In September 480 BCE at Salamis in the Saronic Gulf, the Greeks once more faced a larger enemy force. The exact numbers are much disputed but a figure of 500 Persian ships against a Greek fleet of 300 seems the most likely estimate. The hoplites had won at Marathon, now it was the turn of the trireme to take center stage, the fast and maneuverable Greek warship powered by three banks of oars and armed with a bronze ram. The Persians also had triremes but the Greeks had an ace up their sleeve, the great Athenian general Themistocles. He, with 20 years of experience and the confidence from his leadership at Artemision, employed a bold plan to entice the Persian fleet into the narrow straits of Salamis and hit the enemy fleet so hard it had nowhere to retreat.

Themistocles won a great victory and the remaining Persian ships retreated to Asia Minor. The cryptic oracle of Apollo at Delphi had been proved right: 'only a wooden wall will keep you safe' and the wooden triremes of the Greeks had done their job. But still, this was not the end. There would be one more battle, the largest ever yet seen in Greece, and it would decide her fate for centuries to follow.

Plataea

After Salamis, Xerxes returned home to his palace at Sousa but he left the gifted general Mardonius in charge of the invasion which was still very much on. The Persian position remained strong despite the naval defeat - they still controlled much of Greece and their large land army was intact. After a series of political negotiations, it became clear that the Persians would not gain victory on land through diplomacy and the two opposing armies met at Plataea in Boeotia in August 479 BCE.

The Greeks fielded the largest hoplite army ever seen which came from some 30 city-states and numbered around 110,000. The Persians possessed a similar number of troops, perhaps slightly more but, again, there are no exact figures agreed upon by scholars. Although cavalry and archers played their part, it was, once again, the superiority of the hoplite and phalanx which won the Greeks the battle. Finally, they had ended Xerxes' ambitions in Greece.

Aftermath

In addition to victory at Plataea, at the roughly contemporary Battle of Mycale in Ionia, the Greek fleet led by Leotychides landed an army that wiped out the Persian garrison there and killed the commander Tigranes. The Ionian states were sworn back into the Hellenic Alliance and the Delian League established to ward off any future Persian attacks. Further, the Chersonese controlling the Black Sea and Byzantium controlling the Bosphorus were both retaken. Persia would remain a threat with odd skirmishes and battles occurring across the Aegean over the next 30 years but mainland Greece had survived its greatest danger. In c. 449 BCE a peace was finally signed, sometimes referred to as the Peace of Callias, between the two opposing civilizations.

While the Greeks were euphoric in victory, the Persian Empire was not dealt a death blow by its defeat. Indeed, Xerxes' sacking of Athens was probably enough to allow him to present himself as a returning hero but, as with other wars, there are no written records by the Persians and so their view of the conflict can only be speculated. Whatever, the Persian Empire continued to thrive for another 100 years. For Greece, however, the victory not only guaranteed her freedom from foreign rule but also permitted, soon after, an astonishingly rich period of artistic and cultural endeavor which would lay the cultural foundations of all future Western civilizations.

Cartwright, Mark. "Persian Wars." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 06 Apr 2016. Web. 03 Feb 2021.

Athens & Her Allies

Following the Persian Wars of the early 5th century BCE, the Greek city-states or poleis began to align themselves in protective alliances. Many states sided with Athens, notably those from Ionia, and together they formed the Delian League sometime around 478 BCE. The League, at its greatest size, was composed of over 300 members who paid tribute to Athens, the strongest naval power in Greece, in the form of either ships or money in return for Athenian protection against a perceived threat from Persian and perhaps also Mediterranean pirates. The treasury of the League was placed on the sacred island of Delos in the Cyclades.

THE PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCE OF THE DELIAN LEAGUE WAS THAT ATHENS' NAVY COULD NOW STRIKE ANYWHERE.

Starting with the repression of Naxos, however, the League swiftly came to resemble an Athenian empire rather than a collection of equal allies, a process confirmed by the moving of the treasury to Athens in 454 BCE. Whatever the politics, the practical consequences of the League was that Athens' navy could strike anywhere, especially after rival sea-power Aegina was taken, and it caused significant supply problems to several cities throughout the war, notably Corinth.

Sparta & Her Allies

The tough military training in Sparta, which started from the age of seven and was known as the agōgē, resulted in a professional hoplite army capable of great discipline and relatively sophisticated battle maneuvers which made them feared throughout Greece, a fact perhaps evidenced by Sparta's notable lack of fortifications for most of its history.

The regional instability in Greece in the late 6th century BCE brought about the Peloponnesian League (c. 505 to 365 BCE) which was a grouping of Corinth, Elis, Tegea, and other states (but never Argos) where each member swore to have the same enemies and allies as Sparta. Membership of the League did not necessitate the paying of tribute to Sparta but rather the provision of troops under Spartan command. The League would allow Sparta to establish hegemony over and dominate the Peloponnese until the 4th century BCE.

Innovations in Warfare

Like all great conflicts, the Peloponnesian War brought about changes and developments in warfare. The heavily armed hoplite in the phalanx formation (lines of closely packed hoplites protecting each other with their shields) still dominated the Greek battlefield but the phalanx did become deeper (more rows of men) and wider (a longer front of men) during the Peloponnesian War. The dominance of the hoplite on the battlefield was also threatened by the deployment of combined arms using mixed troops - hoplites, light infantry, and cavalry - a tactic that became ever more widespread.

Other developments in warfare included an increase in the use of slaves, mercenaries, and foreigners in Greek armies, better logistics which allowed armies to stay longer in the field, and greater attention paid to skills and experience when selecting military leaders. Weapons generally did not develop in respect to earlier conflicts although there were exceptions such as the primitive flame throwers which were used against the wooden fortifications of Delon in 424 BCE.

Sparta's Invasions of Attica

With one side predominantly a land-based army and the other a great maritime power it is not perhaps surprising that the war dragged on for decades with indecisive victories and ineffectual raids. The principal Spartan strategy was to annually attack Athenian lands, starting in 431 BCE, creating as much destruction as possible such as burning farms, chopping down olive trees and vineyards. However, the actual effect of this on the Athenian economy is unclear, especially when considering that the city could always be resupplied by sea via the city's port of Piraeus protected by the Long Walls. It may have been a Spartan strategy to entice the Athenians out from behind their fortifications into open battle, a temptation that Athens, and particularly Pericles, always resisted. Athens could also and did retaliate by landing troops by sea into Spartan territory and inflict similar damage.

Athens was hit by a devastating plague (arriving from Egypt via Persia) in 430 BCE and Sparta even postponed her annual invasion to avoid it. In the same year, Pericles was ousted and Athens sued for peace only to be rejected by Sparta. However, under Kleon and Nikias, the Athenians enjoyed a successful campaign in the Corinthian Gulf in 429 BCE and hopes for an early Spartan victory now seemed hopelessly ambitious.

IF A CITY DID FINALLY FALL AFTER A SIEGE THEN DEATH OR SLAVERY WAS THE USUAL RESULT FOR THE DEFEATED.

Sieges

Sieges were another common feature of the Peloponnesian War. They were already a feature of Greek warfare but they increased dramatically in number during the Peloponnesian Wars, reaching around 100, 58 of which were successful (for the attackers). Siegecraft involved two main strategies - repeatedly attacking the city directly (until the defenders capitulated or the walls were breached) and circumvallation or surrounding the city with a wall (and starving the city into surrender). In the latter strategy, there was also the hope that betrayal and in-fighting might also compromise the defenders. The second strategy was much more costly and time-consuming as it often took years to achieve success. If a city did finally fall then death or slavery was the usual result for the defeated.

The next action in the war was the siege of Plataea between c. 429-427 BCE which had elements of both siege strategies. First, the Peloponnesian forces used more aggressive tactics by blockading the town with a wooden palisade and building an earth ramp to compromise the walls. However, the Plataeans responded to this threat by building even higher walls. The Peloponnesians then used battering rams (embole) against the walls but the defenders once again thwarted the attackers by dropping large beams on chains to break the rams. The attackers then decided to dig in for a long siege and play the waiting game, a strategy that was ultimately successful as they starved the Plataeans into surrendering but only after two years.

The War Rumbles On

In 428 BCE Athens ruthlessly crushed a revolt on Lesbos involving Mytilene and in 427 the fall of Plataea was followed by a civil war on Kerkyra (Corfu) and a failed Athenian attempt to support Leontinoi in Sicily. In 426 BCE Demosthenes led 40 triremes in a campaign against Pylos (they were in fact on their way to Sicily) where they defeated the Spartans occupying Sphakteria. In 424 BCE the Athenians launched an expedition against Megara and Boeotia but this was another failure and involved a heavy defeat near Delion. Athens did, however, take the Spartan island of Kythera. The Spartans too had successes, now commanded by Brasidas and using non-Spartan hoplites for the first time, they captured several poleis in Attica, notably Amphipolis - although both Kleon and Brasidas were killed in the battle.

In 423/421 BCE a truce was called and a 50-year peace was agreed upon. There were some territorial concessions on both sides but principally the situation returned to the pre-war status quo. However, individual commanders in the field refused to hand over cities and an alliance was formed between Mantineia, Argos, Elis, Corinth, and the Chalkidians. In 420 BCE Sparta formed an alliance with Boeotia. Also in 420 BCE, the new Athenian leader Alcibiades brokered an alliance between Athens, Argos, Elis, and Mantineia. It looked very much like both sides were maneuvering for a re-start.

In 418 BCE there was the major battle at Mantineia where Sparta, led by Agis II, defeated Argos and her allies. The war now took on a more brutal aspect with Sparta killing all the citizens of Hysiai (417/16 BCE) and Athens, in the same period, executing the citizens of Melos.

The Sicilian Expedition

In 415 BCE Athenian general Alcibiades was the mastermind behind the invasion of Sicily, the largest operation of the entire war. Athens wanted Sicilian timber for her fleet and the pretext for the attack was a request for help from the small polis of Segesta which sought protection from Syracuse. However, on the eve of departure, Alcibiades was implicated in serious accusations of impiety and was stripped of command. Not wishing to face what he felt would be a biased trial, Alcibiades fled to Sparta. The military operation continued under Nikias but was a complete disaster, an ineffectual siege was broken by a Spartan army led by Glypus, the Athenian fleet was routed in the harbor of Syracuse and both Nikias and Demosthenes were executed in 413 BCE.

THE WAR WAS FINALLY WON BY SPARTA, THEN, & PERHAPS IRONICALLY, IN A NAVAL BATTLE.

Aegospotami & Victory

Athens was not beaten yet though and she continued to raid the Peloponnese from the sea. Sparta, following the advice of Alcibiades, built a fort at Dekeleia to more easily disrupt Attic agriculture with their annual attacks on Attic farmland. Agis made his headquarters at Dekeleia and received envoys from various poleis wishing to leave the Delian League, notably Chios and Miletos. Persia also made overtures to Sparta, offering 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, then, and perhaps ironically, in a naval battle. After a long series of naval defeats to the Athenians and even an unsuccessful sue for peace after the naval defeat to Alcibiades at Kyzikos in 410 BCE, Sparta was able to build a massive fleet of 200 triremes using Persian money and timber. With this formidable weapon, Lysander was able to inflict a final and total defeat on the Athenians at Aegospotami near the Hellespont in 405 BCE where 170 Athenian ships were captured on the beach and at least 3,000 Athenian captives were executed. Now 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. Conditions of surrender were the dismantling of the Long Walls, the prohibition of rebuilding a fleet bigger than 12 ships, and the payment of tribute to Sparta, which was now, finally, recognized by all as the dominant power in Greece.

Aftermath

Sparta's position as the number one city-state in Greece, though, was to be short-lived. Continued Spartan ambitions in central and northern Greece, Asia Minor, and Sicily once again dragged the city into another protracted conflict, the Corinthian Wars with Athens, Thebes, Corinth, and Persia from 396 to 387 BCE. The result of the conflict was the 'King's Peace' where 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 winner of the Peloponnesian Wars was actually, then, 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.

Cartwright, Mark. "Peloponnesian War." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 02 May 2018. Web. 30 Jan 2021.