Timeline of the Graeco- Persian Wars

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Timeline of the Graeco- Persian Wars

Postby Quintus Aurelius Orcus on Sat Jun 14, 2003 6:40 pm

Khairete

During the next couple of months, i will keep myself busy with writing a essay of the Graeco- Persian Wars. Any help is appreciated. Questions and remarks are appreciated. My conclusion that i wrote on these wars is open for discussion.
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Graeco- Persian Wars

Between 492 en 449 B.C. there were several Graeco- Persian Wars. This is the timeline of those wars.
When Greek colonists set out from mainland Greece, evicted by the Dorians and the Herakleidae, perhaps, many wound up in Ionia, in Asia Minor. Eventually the Ionian Greeks came under the rule of the Lydians, and particularly King Croesus (560-546 B.C.). In 546, the Persians took over Ionia. Condensing, and oversimplifying, the Ionian Greeks found the Persian rule oppressive and attempted to revolt with the aid of the mainland Greeks. Mainland Greece then came to the attention of the Persians, and war between them ensued.
Summary of each event to follow soon.

500 B.C. - Ionian Revolt in Asia minor:
where the Greeks were involved because they were asked to assist the rebels in their revolt.

492 B.C. - Battle of Marathon:

25,000 Persians landed under the command of the king Darius on the plain of Marathon. With the help of 1,000 Plataeans, Athens, under Miltiades, won. Greeks prevented a surprise attack on Athens by a quick march back to the city.

481 B.C. - Greek League:

Greek league against Persia, with Sparta in charge of the army, and Athens, the navy. Eventually Athens became the dominant member of the League.

480 B.C. - Battle of Thermopylae:

Persians, under Xerxes, invaded Greece. In August 480 B.C., they attacked the Greeks at the narrow pass at Thermopylae. After two days, a traitor led the Persians around the pass behind the Greek army. The Spartan general, Leonidas, fought to the death. Meanwhile, Persians attacked the Greek fleet, with both sides suffering heavy losses. In September, aided by northern Greeks, the Persians marched on Athens and burned it to the ground. It had been evacuated

479 B.C. - Battle of Salamis

The Athenian statesman Themistokles (c. 514-449 B.C.) stationed the Athenian fleet at Salamis in 479 B.C., feigned retreat, and lured the Persians into the strait. The Persians were beaten in the naval battle and retreated.

479 B.C. - Battle of Plataea

Spartans, Tegeans, and Athenians fought the Persian army that remained in Greece at the final Battle at Plataea in 479 B.C.
Xerxes and his fleet had returned to Persia, but his troops remained in Greece under Mardonios. They stationed themselves for battle in a place suitable for their horsemen -- the plain. Under the Spartan Pausanias, the Greeks stationed themselves advantageously in the foothills of Mt. Kithaeron.
Mardonios eventually tried to draw the Greeks out, using his cavalry. He failed, so retreated. He changed his tactic and used his cavalry to separate the Greeks from their provisions.
Eventually Pausanias took his troops down into the plains where it was still separated from the Persians, but only by a row of hills. The Greeks managed to cut off some of the Persian supplies, too. Eventually skirmishes broke out and the Persians poisoned the Greek water supply. Pausanias tried to move his troops to another water supply by sending the less experienced first. The result was that the Greek troops looked to the Persians as though they had split up for political reasons. When Mardonios attacked, the various groups rushed in to help each other and defeat the Persians.
Athens grew in power and continued to pursue the Persians, so even though this Battle at Plataea was the final main battle of Greeks against Persians on Greek soil, it wasn't until 449 that Athens and Persia put an end to the Persian Wars.

477 B.C. - the Delian League

Athens, in charge of the Delian League, went on the offensive to free the Ionian cities. Following the victory at the Battle of Salamis, during the Persian Wars, the Ionian cities joined together in the Delian League for mutual protection. They placed Athens at the head because of her naval supremacy and because many of the Greek cities were annoyed with the tyrannical behavior of the Spartan commander Pausanias, who had been leader of the Greeks during the Persian War. This free confederation of autonomous cities, founded in 478 B.C., consisted of representatives, an admiral, and treasurers appointed by Athens. It was called the Delian League because its treasury was located at Delos. An Athenian leader, Aristides, initially assessed the allies in the Delian League 460 talents a year to be paid to the treasury, either in cash or ships. After the Graeco- Persian Wars, the Delian League began fighting against piracy. In 454 B.C. the treasury that was at Delos was moved into Athens. Athens become more dominant. It was ended in 404 B.C. when Athens was taken by the Spartans during the Peloponessian Wars. It was later revived in 378-7 to protect against Spartan aggression, and survived until Philip II of Macedon's victory at Chaeronea.

449 B.C. - Peace of Callias

Persia and Athens sign peace treaty.

Conclusion:
It might be possible that if the Greeks never intervened during the Ionian revolt, they probably never had to deal with the Persian Empire. But than again, the Persian imperialism would have made sure that Greece and Persia crossed paths. So these wars were the Greek version of the world wars. The Roman versions of the world wars were the Punic- Roman wars. To my knowledge, this was the first time democracy was ever challenged and survived the challenge. Which is something that can not be said of most European countries after the First World War. Than again the scale of these wars was different. The fighting during the Graeco- Persian wars was only contained in Greece and Persian kingdom of Empire. The fighting of the First World War was all over Europe. Greece survived and flourished again until the Peloponessian wars. The difference between the world wars and the Graeco Persian wars was that the most of the country was untouched by these wars unlike the countries of the world wars where the damage was total.

Recomended reading:

The Graeco-Persian Wars by Peter Green
Thermopylae: battle for the west by Ernle Bradford
The year of Salamis, 480-479 B.C.: the Graeco- Persian Wars by Peter Green
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the Battle of Thermopylae

Postby Quintus Aurelius Orcus on Sat Jul 26, 2003 11:43 pm

The Battle of Thermopylae,
The 2nd Persian invasion


The Battle of Thermopylae is one of the important battles in the history of Hellas. There were more than 4000 soldiers stationed there. Hundreds of Boeotians and Thespians and 300 Spartans, the personal guards of king Leonidas fought to the death for the freedom of whole of Hellas. They had go up against a force of more than 100.000 Persian soldiers. It was decided to hold off the Persians long enough so that the Hellenes could build more ships and proper prepare for war. The key roles were for the Spartans and Athenes who co-ruled the entire army of Hellas, or at least the army of the Hellenic/ Greek League, which was formed in 481 BC as a response to the Persian threat. In the end Athens would become the dominant member in the Delian/ Hellenic League. It was decided that Athens would be in charge of the Navy and Sparta of its ground troops. This would lead eventually to the Peloponessian Wars. In 480 BC Xerxes had formed an formidable army to invade Hellas. His plan was to impress the Hellenic city-states with his army that they would capitulate, which most of them did. But 31 states didn't do this, but standed along with Sparta and Athens against the Persian threat.
The men who died at Thermopylae were seen as heroes who died for their country, which is in this context their city-state. Nationalisme was only confined to the city-states. They identified themselves first as Athenians, Spartans, Thebans, etc.. Than as Boeotian, Attican, etc.. And than as Hellene/ Greek. The same can be seen with modern Europeans. They would more identify with their city, province and than probably with their country, but there are some who identify themselves as European rather than with their country.

The Persian forces:

The Persian army was of grand. It contained soldiers from Nubia, Egypt, Babylonia, Media, Lydia, etc… The Persian Empire during the reign of king Xerxes stretched from Lydia to the borders of India, from Armenia to Egypt and the entire Middle East.
This invasion was unfair to begin with. With more than 400.000 soldiers, 750 warships and around the 450 transportships (1207 is the exact nr.), manned by 360.000 men and 22.000 men were used to protect the communication lines. The Persians had more resources, material resources they could use for this war from precious metals to soldiers and ships. Plus that they had the advantage of playing out the disunity among the Hellenes to their advantage.
They had archers, cavalry, chariots, slingers, etc… but they didn't have hoplites.

The Hellenic army:

The Hellenic fleet exists out of sluggish, clumsy ships in comparesment with the Persian ships. To compensate for this, the transformed their ships to fighting platforms. The ships were filled with soldiers who could fight with other ships. The ground troops existed out of soldiers who not only came from the 31st city- states who were members of the Hellenic League, but there were mercenaries among them as well. Sparta had the lead over the ground forces while Athens was in control of the Hellenic Navy. Before this invasion, Sparta was already the dominant power in the Peloponessos since 550 BC. When the Hellenic League was formed, Themistokles was already preparing Athens for another invasion from Persia. He was able to convince Athens to start building warships from the profits of a newly discovered mine. This money was used for military purposes.
The Hellenic army (without the Navy) under control of the Spartan king Leonidas had 10.000 soldiers with the option of increasing it to 50.000. Above all, most of their troops were citizens, not professional soldiers like the Spartans had. This lack kind of explains the reason why so many Hellenes were afraid of the Persian army. They knew that the Persian soldiers were professional soldiers. The citizens were paid for their service in the army. The backbone of the Hellenic army was the Hoplite or armored spearman in a phalanx. This is made out of a square of 8-10 ranks deep. Their army had slingers, archers, chariots, cavalry, Hoplites, light infantry, etc… Over time, the armies of the Hellenes would become more professional.
But even the Hoplites showed flaws. They were restrained in maneuverability so they weren't that powerful. They couldn't deny that the Phalanx was irresistible to other armies. Since it was first used by the Spartans, it quickly became a standard for Hellenic armies. Alexander the Great would improve the Hellenic armies, as he would conquer the entire Persian Empire.
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Preparations

Postby Quintus Aurelius Orcus on Sat Jul 26, 2003 11:46 pm

The Battle of Thermopylae: preparations

The preparations for the 2nd Persian invasion were easier for the Persians than for the Greeks. The Hellenes had encountered numerous problems during their preparations that slowed them down. 31 statesdecided to join the Hellenic/ Greek League to fight Xerxes. These states were more southern states than northern states. Most northern states either surrendered or capitulated.An Spartan festival called Karneia slowed down the preparations of the Spartans. The Oracle of Delphi was consulted and it said to the Athenians that the wooden wall would not fall, referring to the Athenian Navy. To the Spartans it said that Sparta would fall unless a king died or something in that order since they feared this oracle.
Due bad information Athens was evacuated in September 481 BC. The Hellenes knew that they had to use their fleet in order to stop Xerxes' fleet, but for that to succeed, his marching army had to be slow down long enough for the Athenians to produce more warships. When the League came together Sparta and Athens started to worry: Aegina, Argos and Syracuse didn't want to help out. They decided to go to the pass of Tempe to hold off the Persians there until they learned that the Persians could pass them, the turned to Thermopylae, a narrow pass of 8-10 feet where they could throw or push soldiers off into the sea. By this time Xerxes had gathered his forces near Hellespont and was starting to move towards Athens.
Persian ships didn't knew the Aegean Sea, and because of this they had suffered many losses while Themistokles held the fleet in the harbor. Themistokles knew that the Aegean Sea could be a violent place if you didn't knew anything about it.
The Hellenes prepared themselves for a ground- and sea-battle that could determine the future of Hellas. In the mean time, Leonidas was given the task to hold off the Persians long enough for the Athenians to prepare their warships which he did with his life.
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Postby Quintus Aurelius Orcus on Sun Jul 27, 2003 9:57 am

Battle of Thermopylae

By September 13, Xerxes has made it to the pass and the Hellenes have 271 warships at Artemisium. The fire signals alert them that the navy is approaching. Xerxes waits for 4 days before attacking the Hellenes (hoping they will just run away) which number only about 4200. On September 17 the Median and Elimite divisions are sent forward. The Hellenes make short work of them but do this all day long. Many are simply driven off the cliffs. Xerxes sends his bodyguard, called the " Companions". The Persian name of the royal guard is Anûšya ("Companions"), but Herodotos had written Anauša ("Immortals"). 3 times Xerxes panics when the Hellenes drive them off. The main reason is that the Hellenes use longer spears so the Persians can't reach them. On the 18th the Persian do no better. Each Hellenic City's contingent take a turn leading the defense to give the other guys a break. But the Phocian division guards a mountain path that will be of use later. But the Persians get what they need. A Hellene named Ephialtes informs Xerxes that he can outflank the Hellenes by using the mountain path that cuts around the pass to the south. Xerxes already knows the Hellenes have only 4200 men. They use the path on the night of the 18th. On the morning of September 19, 480 BC a Persian contingent walks too loudly on the dry oak leaves (obviously late August or later) and wakes the Phocians. They think the whole Persian army is coming toward them and retreat a little and stand to fight to the death. But the Persians don't have time to mess with them and hurry down the mountain. They must get behind the pass of Thermopylae before sunup. Leonidas learned that the Persians have outflanked him. He tells his men to eat well since they won't survive the day. He sends 2600 men back south and remains with his 300 Spartan personal guard and the 1100 Boeotians (700 Thespians and 400 Thebans) stay to stall for time. Leonidas remembers the oracle about Sparta and stands firm. This can only explain such a decision to stay here instead of retreating to the Corinthian Isthmus. Even though he knew he was going to die for his "country", Leonidas decided to die Sparta so that his city could survive as the rest of Hellas. Although the Hellenes now number only 1400 or so, the Persians are scared to death of them. Their infantry has to be whipped forward by the officers and pure numbers eventually overwhelmed the Spartans. Leonides falls in the fight and the remaining Hellenes use all their power to drive the enemy back to get his body (it took 4 attempts of non-hoplite style fighting). The Hellenes ran to a hill for a last stand at the entry to the narrows of the pass. Now the Thebans under the command of Leontiades surrender and the Thespians and the Spartans are left to their fate. There are only 900-1000 men left! They stand in close ranks and the Persians completely circle them and fire thousands of arrows and spears to kill them. The battle site was discovered in modern times by finding the Persian arrowheads. Xerxes found the body of king Leonidas and had it beheaded and the body crucified.
Thus ended the Battle of Thermopylae, the ultimate stand against impossible odds! A Golden lion was erected on the hill where the Thespians and Spartans made their last stand in honor of King Leonidas. It is said the Persians lost 20,000 men. But now the road to Athens and central Hellas is wide open. Athens is just 85 miles away, no more than 2 days distance for the Persian cavalry! But the Hellenes had some luck at this time. The Navy at Artemisium had better luck!
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