Why did the Persians decide to attack Greece. Greco-Persian Wars

In today's lesson, you will learn how the Greeks, despite the numerical superiority of the enemy, were able to defend their independence.

After the death of Darius, his son Xerxes became the ruler of the Persian state. In 480 BC. e. King Xerxes led his hordes to Hellas. Most of the soldiers of Xerxes were recruited from the conquered peoples. They were alien to the interests of the Persian king and nobility.

A narrow strait separated Europe from Asia. By order of Xerxes, bridges were built that connected both banks, but a storm broke out and demolished these bridges. Enraged, Xerxes ordered the heads of the builders to be cut off, and he appointed the sea an unprecedented punishment. Weeping whipped him with whips, saying: “Oh, you bitter sea moisture! Here's to you from our master! Remember well, the king will cross you, whether you like it or not!” (Fig. 2) Other craftsmen built a new bridge. The crossing to the European coast lasted seven days.

Rice. 2. Crossing the Hellespont ()

A huge army invaded Northern Greece. He was followed by a convoy with food, herds of bulls were driven. Along the coast was the Persian fleet. This happened 10 years later, in 480 BC. e., after the Battle of Marathon. Having crossed the Hellespont to the European coast, the army moved along the European coast, and having invaded Northern Greece, began to occupy region after region. The Greeks did not dare to open battle.

The only way that led from Northern to Central Greece was the Thermopylae Pass, which 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians under the command of Leonidas decided to defend, blocking the Persians. The detachment led by Leonidas heroically defended Thermopylae, but could not resist because of the betrayal of one Greek, who led the Persians to the rear of the troops of King Leonidas. Wanting to save the army from defeat, Leonid ordered the immediate retreat of the Greek troops, and he himself fell on the battlefield with a detachment of selected infantry from 300 Spartans. A monument in the form of a stone lion was erected at the site of the battle with the inscription: “Wanderer, take the message to all the citizens of Lacedaemon: having honestly fulfilled the law, here we lie in the grave” (Fig. 3).

Rice. 3. Monument to Leonid and 300 Spartans ()

Having taken possession of Thermopylae, the hordes of Xerxes poured into Central Greece. Robbing its regions, trampling down fields, cutting down vineyards and olive trees, the invaders approached Athens.

By decision of the National Assembly, the inhabitants of Attica hastily left their homes. Many women, old people and children moved to the island of Salamis under the protection of the fleet. Able to bear arms, men boarded the ships. All of Attica was deserted. The Persians entered Athens, set them on fire, destroyed the temples. Persian warships anchored in a bay near Athens. Nearby, in the narrow strait between Salamis and Attica, was the fleet of the Greeks, numbering about four hundred ships. From here one could see how the most beautiful of the cities of Hellas burned.

At a general council of military commanders, many commanders insisted on withdrawing the fleet to the Isthmus of Corinth to protect southern Greece. Only the Athenian strategist Themistocles urged to fight in the Salamis Strait, where the Hellenes are familiar with every pitfall, all wind directions. He begged to think about the fate of the Athenian women and children. The Greeks argued for a long time, not knowing what to do. But at dawn they saw that the exits from the strait were blocked by the Persian fleet. The battle became inevitable.

Xerxes watched his progress, seated on a golden throne, from the high bank of Attica. The superiority in the number of ships created confidence in victory. Meanwhile, a strong wind picked up. He rocked the high-deck ships of the Persians, but was not dangerous to low triremes. The Greeks dealt the first blows to the enemies.

The battle was described by its participant, the poet Aeschylus. “A loud cry was heard: “Forward, sons of Hellas! Save your homeland, save your wives, your children, the temples of your father's gods, the tombs of your ancestors: now the battle is for everything! ... First, the army of the Persians stood firm; when the ships crowded in the strait, they could not give help to each other and hit their own with their copper noses - then they all died. And under the wreckage of the broken ships, under the blood of the dead, the expanse of the sea hid” (Fig. 4).

Rice. 4. Battle of Salamis ()

The Salamis victory was decisive in the course of the Greco-Persian wars. After the defeat, Xerxes left Greece, leaving part of the land army in it. And a year later, in the battle of Plataea, it was also defeated. The Greeks defended their independence in a hard and long struggle.

Bibliography

A.A. Vigasin, G.I. Goder, I.S. Sventsitskaya. Ancient world history. Grade 5 - M .: Education, 2006.
Nemirovsky A.I. A book to read on the history of the ancient world. - M.: Enlightenment, 1991.

historylib.org()
ancienthistory.spb.ru ()
Home-edu.ru ()

Homework

How did the Greeks prepare for the Persian invasion?
Why was the command of the Greek army entrusted to the Spartans?
Why did the Greeks defeat the outnumbered Persian army?

Test yourself.

1. Remember the ancient Greek myths. Specify what the artist depicted in the drawings.

The figure depicts a scene from the myth of Achilles. His mother, the sea goddess Thetis, in an effort to protect her son, dipped him into the waters of the river of the dead Styx. Achilles became invulnerable. However, the heel, by which Thetis held him, remained unprotected. It was in the heel that Paris hit Achilles with an arrow and killed him.

The figure shows the scene of the horse statue being brought into Troy. The Greek army unsuccessfully besieged the city for 10 years. Odysseus came up with a trick that helped the Greeks take Troy. The Greeks made a wooden figure of a horse, sheltered a shock detachment inside it, boarded ships and retreated from Troy. The Trojans considered the statue a sign of reconciliation and dragged it into the city. At night, Greek soldiers climbed out of the statue and opened the gates of the city, into which the Greek army broke into.

The figure depicts a scene from the myth of the titan Prometheus, who stole the sacred fire from the forge of Hephaestus and brought it to people, teaching them how to make and keep fire. For this, Zeus severely punished Prometheus. He was chained to a rock, and an eagle flew every day and pecked out the liver of Prometheus.

2. Solve the crossword "From the history of ancient Greece."

Horizontally:

1. Sister-goddesses, patrons of poetry, arts and sciences. - Muses
2. The word that the Greeks called their country. - Hellas
5. One of the most educated women of Hellas, the wife of Pericles. - Aspasia
7. King of Macedonia, father of Alexander. - Philip
9. Participants of the theatrical performance, united in a group; they depicted either friends of the main character, or townspeople, or warriors, and sometimes animals. - choir
10. Goddess, considered the patroness of Attica. - Athena
12. The city near which Alexander defeated Darius and took his family prisoner. - Iss
14. A hill in Athens - a place of public meetings (find its name on the city plan on p. 173 of the textbook). - Pnyx
15. The sculptor who created the statue of the discus thrower. - Myron
16. The passage between the mountains and the sea, where three hundred Spartans accomplished a feat. - Thermopylae
18. Ruler of Athens who abolished debt slavery. - Solon
19. One of the two main policies of Hellas. - Sparta
20. A friend of Alexander who saved his life at the Battle of Granik. - clitus
22. Competitor in running, fisticuffs, etc. - Athlete
23. Greek colony near the Black Sea coast, which Herodotus visited. - Olbia
24. People whom the Greeks called "animate property and the most perfect of tools." - Slaves
25. The famous leader of the demos, whom the Athenians chose for many years to be the first strategist. - Pericles
27. Spartan king, under whose command the Greeks defended Thermopylae from the Persians. - Leonid
29. Comedy-fairy tale, in which the chorus and actors depict the construction of a city between heaven and earth. - Birds
30. A place in Hellas where pan-Greek games were held every four years. - Olympia
31. Temple of Athena the Virgin in the city of her name. - Parthenon
32. Goddess of victory, whose temple was erected on the Acropolis. - Nika
34. Poet, author of tragedies ("Antigone" and others). - Sophocles
36. Athenian strategist who commanded the Greeks at the battle of Marathon. - Miltiades
42. Phoenician city, which showed fierce resistance to the troops of Alexander the Great. - Tyr
43. The king who led the Persian invasion of Greece. - Xerxes
44. A bronze or stone object intended for throwing in competitions. - Disk
45. An evergreen tree that produces oily fruits. - Olive
47. Main square in Athens. - Agora
48. Writer, nicknamed "the father of history." - Herodotus
49. Alexandrian scientist who created a textbook on geometry. - Euclid
50. One of the main regions of Central Greece. - Attica
51. A person who knows how to make speeches. - Speaker

Vertically:

1. The city near which the Greeks first defeated the Persians. - Marathon
3. A city in Greece, famous, according to Socrates, "for its wisdom and power." - Athens
4. Macedonian king, an outstanding commander. - Alexander
5. Poet, author of comedies ("Birds", etc.). - Aristophanes
6. The heroine of the tragedy of the same name by Sophocles. - Antigone
8. The main port of the Athenian state. - Piraeus
9. City in Greece, near which the Greeks were defeated and lost their independence. - Chaeronea
11. Athenian strategist, who ensured that the naval battle with the Persians was given in the narrow Strait of Salamis. - Themistocles
13. The famous sage, sentenced to death by the Athenian court. - Socrates
14. A city in Greece, near which the land army of Xerxes was defeated. - Plataea
17. Enslaved by the Spartans, the inhabitants of Laconia and Messenia. - Helots
18. Island (the Persian fleet was defeated in the strait between it and Attica). - Salamis
21. A metal or bone stick, which was used to squeeze out letters on boards rubbed with wax. - stilo
25. The people whose kings were Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes. - Persians
26. Places in Athens where adult citizens did gymnastics, met with friends, listened to speeches by scientists. - gymnasium
28. Greek word, translated meaning "people." - Demos
29. Greek word, translated meaning "city". - Policy
33. A hill with steep and steep slopes in the center of Athens. - Acropolis
35. Formation of infantry in tight close ranks, usually in the shape of a rectangle. - Phalanx
37. Greek word, translated meaning "a place for spectacles." - Theatre
38. The name of the Persian king, whose troops were defeated by Alexander the Great. - Darius
39. Sculptor, creator of the statue of Athena in the Parthenon. - Phidias
40. Warship with three rows of oars. - Trier
41. Part of the theater, building adjoining the orchestra. - Skena
46. An island near Alexandria, on which a huge lighthouse was erected. - Faros

3. List the sources with which scientists have recreated the history of Ancient Greece.

Scientists have recreated the history of ancient Greece, based on various historical sources left over from those times: written sources, including works of art; the results of archaeological research and the remains of the material culture of the ancient era (the ruins of temples, copies of statues, etc.), the study of myths and folklore of the peoples of Ancient Greece and numerous colonies of the Mediterranean.

4. Was there a relationship between the natural and climatic conditions of Ancient Greece and the occupations of its inhabitants?

There was a strong dependence of the traditional occupations of the inhabitants of ancient Greece on natural and climatic conditions. The climate of Greece was dry and hot. Rain fell infrequently. There were no large rivers in rocky and mountainous Greece. Mountain ranges divide Greece into many narrow and isolated valleys with access to the sea. There are few vast fertile plains here. In the ancient Greek period, three-quarters of the territory was pasture and only one-eighth was arable land.

The nature of Greece in the first place favored such activities as navigation, metalworking, handicrafts. The Greeks were actively engaged in fishing, were good sailors and mastered the sea routes for trade with the peoples and countries of the Mediterranean. The Greeks were engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture. Cattle breeding prevailed in the mountainous regions, and agriculture prevailed in the plains. The ancient Greeks also planted fruit trees, planted stony mountain slopes with vines, from which they made wine. They also cultivated olive trees and squeezed oil from its fruits.

5. Many myths and legends of ancient Greece have survived to this day. How do you think you can tell fact from fiction? How do you understand the phrase "historical research"?

Indeed, in ancient Greece there are many myths and legends. However, not all of them are confirmed by historical sources - written documents, results of archaeological excavations, etc. For example, the fact of the Trojan War would have remained a myth if Ancient Troy had not been discovered during the excavations.

Historical research is a type of research in which, from the totality of historical events and sources that have come down to us, select those that matter, use them to draw up a historical picture and explain the cause-and-effect relationships between events.

6. Compare the education system in Sparta and Athens. If you had to choose where would you like to study and why?

I believe that any system of education should serve certain social goals. Therefore, if we compare the systems of raising children in Sparta and in Athens, then we need to understand what purpose these systems pursued. When raising boys in Athens, they sought to create a harmonious, spiritually developed personality with a physically perfect body. The education system in Sparta produced professional warriors whose only job was to fight, kill and be killed. Each system of education was very effective for its tasks. But since the life of a city or state cannot be one-sided and built solely to solve military problems, I believe that the system of education in Athens was more correct in terms of the effective and comprehensive development of society in the state.

7. Why did the Greeks establish colonies? List the names of the Greek colonies in the Black Sea region.

The population of Greece grew, and due to the lack of a large amount of fertile land, there was not enough bread for everyone. The Greeks went to live in overseas countries in search of happiness in a foreign land. Also, the Greeks left their homes for other reasons. The constant struggle between the demos and the nobility made itself felt, if somewhere the nobility lost, then it left the country, if the demos lost, then the leaders, fearing the revenge of their opponents, left the city. However, there were also planned expeditions with equipped ships, food supplies and military guards. Such expeditions were arranged precisely for the purpose of colonizing lands and developing trade. So, in the Black Sea region, the Greeks founded a number of colonies: Olbia, Chersonesus, Tyra, Kerkinitida, Kalos-Limen, Theodosia, Panticapaeum, Istria, Phasis, Trebizond, Heraclea, etc.

8. When and where did the Olympic Games appear? Discuss why these competitions have survived the centuries and today representatives of different countries and continents take part in them.

The first documented Olympic Games were held in 776 BC. in the city of Olympia. These competitions are a religious and sports festival that glorifies the gods of the Olympic gods and the cult of the body that existed in ancient Greece. The winners of the games were revered as heroes. During the games, a sacred truce was declared. The Olympic Games essentially lost their importance with the advent of the Romans. After Christianity became the official religion, the games began to be seen as a manifestation of paganism, and in 393 A.D. e. they were banned by Emperor Theodosius I. The Olympic Games were revived in 1896 with the aim of developing international understanding and improving the physical culture of mankind. The French Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the initiator of the modern Olympic Games, said that the youth of the world should measure their strength in sports, and not on the battlefield. The revival of the Olympic Games seemed in his eyes the best solution to achieve both goals.

9. Calculate (in writing) how many years ago the Battle of Marathon took place (if you have any difficulty, refer to Chapter 3 of the textbook "Counting Years in History").

The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC, that is, 2508 years ago (2018 + 490 BC = 2508 years).

10. What contribution did the philosophers, sculptors, architects of Ancient Greece make to world science and art?

Philosophers, sculptors, architects of ancient Greece made a huge contribution to world science and art. Their activities formed the canons that are still applied today. For example, Euclid's elementary geometry is still taught in schools; the anatomy of human muscles in the dynamics of Myron's sculptures and the canon of the image of the human body at rest in the sculptures of Polikleitos became a model for many generations of sculptors; Aristarchus of Samos, long before Galileo, proposed the heliocentric system of the world and developed a scientific method for determining the distances to the Sun and Moon and their sizes; Eratosthenes of Cyrene was the first to calculate the size of the Earth and suggested the possibility of traveling around the world; the ancient Greek playwrights Aeschylus and Aristophanes are considered the fathers of modern tragedy and comedy, and the influence of Homer's poems is generally compared with the influence of the Bible.

eleven*. Explain the meaning of the word "democracy". Which form of government was, in your opinion, more progressive: Athenian democracy or the power of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt? Justify your answer.

Forms of government in ancient Egypt and Athens can be viewed from different points of view: justice, efficiency. Each will have its own advantages and disadvantages. Was the tyranny (rule of one) of Ancient Egypt effective? Rather, yes, since all decisions were made by one person, whom the subjects considered almost a god. No one has the opportunity to object, argue, evade the execution of an order. All solutions are implemented quite easily. Is such a government fair? From the point of view of an ordinary man in the street - no, it is not fair. Almost all subjects are essentially servants. But if you ask an ancient Egyptian, is it fair that one pharaoh rules Egypt. Surely they would have heard the answer, of course, fairly, he is the son of God.

Was the democratic government in Athens effective? Most likely not very much. Imagine what you need to overcome in order to realize this or that idea. Endless disputes in the Council of Five Hundred and at the National Assembly, opposition from ill-wishers and envious people, subsequent accusations of inefficiency, investigations, search for evidence, etc. However, is such a rule fair? Of course, since all citizens have the same rights in governing the state, and the power is clearly limited in its actions. And any ancient inhabitant of Athens will say that this is the best form of government.

But if we consider tyranny and democracy from the point of view of progressiveness, i.e. evolutionary development, then of course the democracy of Athens is a consequence or a so-called response to Egyptian tyranny. The development of society, social and economic relations predetermined the development of the management system from the power of one to the power of many. Democracy is associated with a number of values that are considered the pinnacle of the achievements of modern mankind: legality, political and social equality, freedom, the right to self-determination, human rights. Naturally, these values are not particularly revered in the conditions of tyranny. The Greeks believed that with the introduction of a democratic form of government, they would limit the arbitrariness and abuse of power, which are almost the norm for a tyrannical regime of government. Therefore, the democracy of Athens is a more progressive form of government than the tyranny of Egypt.

12*. Do historical research: compare the religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks and the ancient Egyptians. Write down their similarities and differences.

Both in ancient Egypt and in ancient Greece there were pagan traditions with a whole pantheon of gods responsible for various natural phenomena. In ancient Egypt, the gods had mostly zoomorphic appearances, and in ancient Greece they had a completely human appearance. The gods of the Greeks had a more pronounced human essence: they thought, quarreled, loved, reconciled, fought, argued, wandered around the world of people. The difference from people was that the ancient Greeks endowed the gods with supernatural powers that were beyond the power of mere mortals. The gods are immortal, the gods command the fate of people. The gods of the Egyptians are more detached from the world - they are unattainable for an ordinary person, they rule the world of people and judge them for certain actions. Beliefs in the Olympic gods implied a person's desire for self-development and improvement of his body. The gods of the Greeks were a role model, the highest standard. The ordinary Egyptian could not even dream of standing on the same level with the gods.

thirteen*. Start working on the project "History in faces". We advise you to collect information about people whose names are still remembered today (to choose from: Herodotus, Homer, Socrates, Diogenes, Themistocles, Pericles, Alexander the Great, etc.). At the end of the school year, it is desirable to prepare a message (accompanied by an electronic presentation) about your hero.

You can use the following text for your presentation:

Themistocles - military genius and victim of democracy

Everyone knows the deeds of the great heroes of Hellas, they composed songs about them, revered them in temples - they remained forever in world history. However, most of them are just a myth that has not received historical confirmation. We do not know how real the heroes of Greek poems and myths Achilles, Odysseus, Perseus, Theseus, etc. were. Maybe the Greeks only dreamed of being heroes and invented great ancestors for themselves, representing nothing in themselves? I'm sure it's not. Hellas brought up real heroes, without whom the existence of this freedom-loving country would have been in question as early as the 5th century BC.

So, the enemy stands at the threshold of Greece. The invasion of the great army of the Persian king Xerxes has already begun. King Leonid bravely fights with his three hundred Spartans in the Thermopylae Gorge, covering the retreat of the Greek army. It was at this time that the star of another son of Greece, Themistocles, rises.

Themistocles was born in 524 BC. Despite the fact that his mother was a native of Halicarnassus and in Athens he was considered illegitimate, he managed to obtain civil rights. By the time of the invasion of the army of Xerxes, Themistocles had already managed to be in the position of archon, in 490 to take part in the Battle of Marathon as a strategist. He was actively involved in politics and joined the democratic group, which reflected the interests of the trade and crafts and the Athenian poor. Themistocles rose to the pinnacle of power solely due to his abilities. The Athenian aristocrats, who previously reigned supreme in the city, always resisted his influence. If not for the crisis caused by the invasion of the Persians, the highest positions in Athens, perhaps, would continue to be occupied not by merit, but by birthright. In 487, on his initiative, the archons in Athens began to be elected by lot, which allowed people who were not very wealthy to be nominated for this position. In 483, at his suggestion, the Athenians expelled the leader of the aristocratic party, Aristides; in the same year Themistocles was re-elected to the post of strategist.

Themistocles was the first political figure who realized that the future of Athens depended largely on the navy. He invited the Athenians to use the income from the Lavrian silver mines for the construction of warships - triremes. Rather, Themistocles had to break through all democratic barriers and defeat all his ill-wishers, who opposed the huge spending on building a fleet. In fact, he forced the Athenians to make a decision that subsequently saved Hellas. By 480, the Athenians had completed Themistocles' plan by building two hundred triremes.

Themistocles was one of the few Greeks who understood the power of a united Greece. It was at the call of Themistocles that the Hellenic Union of thirteen policies was created to repel the Persian invasion. And Themistocles was right. The land army was unable to keep the Persians in the Thermopylae Gorge. Hope remained for the fleet. In July 480, Themistocles led a Greek fleet of 271 ships at the Battle of Cape Artemisium, where the Persians were defeated. Themistocles attack prevented the Persian fleet from approaching the coast and hitting the Greek army in the Thermopylae Gorge. It turns out that the heroes of Thermopylae were not only the Spartans of King Leonidas who gave their lives. Without the help of the fleet, the feat of the Spartans could not have saved the retreating Greek army.

Realizing that the only chance of the Greeks was to defeat the Persians at sea, Themistocles persuaded the Athenians to leave their hometown, and transferred the combat-ready citizens to the ships. One can imagine the fury of the Athenians, who had to surrender the city to the Persians for destruction. There is also such an example in Russian history - the withdrawal of Kutuzov's army in order to preserve the army and the surrender of Moscow to Napoleon. But Themistocles could not know Kutuzov's maneuvers, but Kutuzov could know Themistocles' tactics.

When the population from Athens was evacuated, Themistocles again had to persuade the freedom-loving Greeks to stay at Salamis and meet the Persian fleet here, and not flee to the Peloponnese. While the Greeks hesitated, fearing that the Persian fleet would block them in the strait, Themistocles informed Xerxes that the Greeks were planning to flee, and advised them to immediately attack them. Betrayal? Not at all. It was a cunning strategic move. As a result, the Persians entered a narrow and dangerous strait, where they could not take advantage of their superiority in the number of ships, as well as their seaworthiness, which brought the Greeks the famous victory at Salamis. Themistocles himself in the Battle of Salamis commanded 180 Athenian triremes, which played a decisive role in the defeat of the Persian fleet. After the expulsion of the Persian hordes from Hellas, the Greeks began to call Themistocles "the hero of Salamis", even Sparta gave him unprecedented honors.

Subsequently, Themistocles did a lot to restore and strengthen Athens, trying to turn them into the most powerful policy of Hellas. He is credited with the plan for the construction of the Long Walls, which were supposed to connect Athens with Piraeus and thereby guarantee the safety of the city. Themistocles laid the foundation for the formation of the Delian Maritime Union, which included the coastal and island Greek policies; Athens played a decisive role in this alliance.

Everything is fine, Themistocles became the universal favorite of Hellas and ... a victim of democracy. The unprecedented fame and authority of Themistocles caused the Athenians to suspect that they were striving for tyranny. In 471, at the suggestion of the leader of the Athenian aristocrats Kimon Themistocles, they were expelled from Athens. After long wanderings, he and his family retired to Persia to King Artaxerxes I, who granted him political asylum and gave him control over three cities in Asia Minor: Magnesia, Lampsak and Munt. In 459, the hero of Hellas Themistocles died of an illness or, according to a number of accounts, took poison and committed suicide after learning that the Persian king was going to send him to fight the Greeks. This is how democratic Greece repaid the man who saved her from Persian slavery. Friends secretly buried him in Attica, on one of the capes of Piraeus.

Subsequently, there were many rumors about Themistocles. He was accused of betrayal, and theft, and bribery, and debauchery. Today it is already impossible to determine which of this is true and which is the intrigues of spiteful critics. Here is what Thucydides, the largest ancient Greek historian, the founder of historical science, the author of The History of the Peloponnesian War, wrote about Themistocles:

“Themistocles was extremely gifted by nature and deserves in this regard, like no other, the greatest surprise ... Distinguished by outstanding sharpness of mind, he was the greatest master of quickly understanding and making decisions in the unforeseen circumstances of the current moment and, in addition, had an exceptional ability to foresee events even distant future. Whatever he undertook, he always found suitable words and expressions to explain his actions to others, and even in that area with which he did not directly come into contact, he was able to immediately find a sound judgment. By insignificant signs, Themistocles could see whether they foreshadowed something good or bad. In short, he was a man to whom his genius and quickness of thought immediately suggested the best course of action.

In this article, we will briefly review the Greco-Persian wars. The table will help you understand the most important nuances. What were the reasons for the victory of one of the parties? What are the results and how did the battles end? What were the heroes? We also consider the main events of each period.

The Greco-Persian Wars (495 - 449 BC) is a period of active hostilities between the Persian Empire and the Greek allied city-states. Among the latter, Sparta and Athens were the largest.

How the events of the wars developed is displayed in Greek sources, it is from them that we can judge the course of the battles. One of the most famous works is the "History" of Herodotus.

How it all started

In 500 BC Greeks Miletus* rebelled against the Persians. Athens came to the aid of Miletus with Eretria, who gave 25 of their ships. The Milesian uprising was crushed in 496 BC, but the Persian king Darius I took advantage of the situation to declare war on the policies from Balkan Greece (where Athens was located).

Start of hostilities and Marathon

Although the uprising itself began in 500 BC and ended in 496 BC, active hostilities that marked the period of the Greco-Persian wars did not begin until 490 BC.

The first attempt of the Persians to start a war was made by the son-in-law of Darius I - Mardonius. He moved into the Balkans in 492 BC, but his fleet was quickly overwhelmed.

Herodotus claims that there were about 1 million people in the army of Darius, while on the peninsula. Attica landed 100 thousand soldiers. At the same time, the Athenian army numbered only 10 thousand hoplites* headed by Miltiades*. Modern historians claim that the Persians had a small detachment at their disposal, the main task of which was to lure the Athenian army out of their territory. Later, troops led by Darius I should have already approached.

Chronology of events at the Marathon:

The Persian commander Datis saw that the Athenian army approached the town of Marathon on the Attica peninsula and considered that his mission had been completed - he began to take the Persians to the ships so that they were loaded home.
While the Persians were retreating, Miltiades attacked the enemy rearguard*. The main forces of the Persians - the cavalry - did not participate in the battle, as they had already been loaded onto the ship. Only foot archers fought in the rearguard, and from the side of the Greeks there was phalanx hoplites.
When only 200 steps remained to the Persians (this is just the distance that a fired arrow will fly), Miltiades ordered his people to start running. Thus, the Persians were unable to effectively bombard the enemy.
Due to the fast run of the Greeks, the Persians could not withstand the onslaught and did not give a corresponding rebuff, which is why they began to retreat to the harbor. The Athenian army had to rest while running (hoplite armor in weight reached 30 kg), besides, the phalanx itself was broken during the run, and this gave the Persians the opportunity to disperse and get to the ships alive.
When the Athenians continued their run, the Persians were already able to board the ships and escape, but at the same time they abandoned their property and their camp. Thus, the Greeks got trophies in the form of camp property, but they did not take prisoners and horses.

Despite the fact that the leading role in this battle was historically given to Miltiades, modern historians believe that in reality the Greek army at Marathon was commanded by Callimachus, a Greek strategist who fell in this battle.

When the battle of Marathon was won, a messenger was sent to Athens. He ran without stopping all the way (42 km 195 m), managed to shout in the market square in Athens that the Persians were defeated, and died on the spot.

Since then, the distance of 42 km and 195 m has been considered a marathon distance in athletics.

After the battle with the Persians at Marathon, the Greek army immediately returned to Athens, and the opposition did not have time to revolt. Meanwhile, Darius, who, according to the idea, was supposed to arrive in Athens deprived of support with his fleet, sailed to Asia Minor, since bad weather did not allow him to quickly reach Athens.

According to Herodotus, the Athenians lost 195 people during the hostilities, and the Persians - 6400 killed. But in fact, there was hardly such a predominant number. Modern historians are of the opinion that the numbers were relatively equal. After the battle, the Athenians had to bury the dead, both their own and their enemies. If the Persian army had been so much larger, their burial would also have been much larger than the Athenian, but archaeological excavations have not confirmed this.

After the battle of Marathon, the Persians did not risk advancing for a long time. First, there was an uprising in Egypt from 486 to 484. BC. and there it was necessary to direct all forces. Secondly, the death of Darius I prevented.

New stage

When the Persians had a new king, Xerxes (son of Darius I), he resumed military campaigns, but only in 480 BC, when he was able to strengthen his position within the country. Gathered troops and moved to the Balkans through a large bridge built by him, passing through Hellespont*.

Battle of Thermopylae

From the Persians acted:

land army;
large navy.

On the Greek side, the fleet was unable to prevent the enemy from landing on their lands. The Greek army consisted of:

detachment of the Thebans;
detachment of the Thespians;
detachment of Spartans (300 people led by King Leonidas).

The Persians dealt with the defenders of the Thermopylae Pass, which connected Northern and Central Greece. Leonid sent half of his hoplites (4.5 thousand out of 6 thousand) to meet them, but 10 thousand Persian guards coped with them. The Thebans surrendered, and only 300 Spartans fought to the last, until they all fell.

The Greek ground forces retreated to the Isthmus of Corinth, where they waited for the Spartan army.

Battle of Salamis

Thermopylae was now the reclaimed territory of Xerxes. He was on his way to Central Greece - to Athens. The inhabitants of Athens hastily left the policy, going to the island of Salamis, located in the neighborhood. The remnants of the still combat-ready Greek fleet also went there. When the Persians came to Athens, they saw an empty city. From afar, the Athenians could see how their houses and temples were burning and destroyed.

The next battle (at Salamis) was decisive for the entire Greco-Persian period of the wars. From the side of the Greeks, Themistocles, the strategist and commander of the Athenian fleet, spoke. It was he who sent Xerxes a letter informing him that his fleet was ready to surrender. Xerxes had no reason not to believe the enemy - he knew that there was no unity in the Greek army and it was now easier than ever to defeat them.

Themistocles understood that the army of the Persian enemy was larger, their ships were heavier, but the advantage of the Greeks was in the strategic location of a potential battle. The fact is that the strait near Salamis is narrow, shallow, with large pitfalls. Heavy Persian ships could not fit there, and those that sailed could easily run aground. This place was much more familiar to the Greeks - they could get around the shallows, and their ships - triremes - are much lighter than Persian ones.

This tactic worked: fast triremes, supposedly ready to retreat, easily maneuvered between the shallow places of the strait and sank the clumsy enemy ships. Trying to escape, the Persians swam to the shore, but there the Athenian hoplites were waiting for them.

Among the Persian commanders, there were also disagreements, albeit not sharp, but still: Artemisia, an ally of Xerxes, insisted on withdrawing the ships from Salamis in order to move towards the Peloponnese, but the rest of the commanders unanimously agreed to go to Salamis, where Themistocles' trap awaited them.

In that battle, the Greeks lost 40 ships out of a total of 350 triremes. Persians - 250 of the 500 ships that participated in the battle.

Themistocles insisted, after a victorious battle, send a fleet to the Hellespont to destroy the bridge built by the Persians. Thus, the Persians could not supply their supplies. But others strategists* decided that first you need to destroy the remaining Persians and free Greece from them.

End of the Greco-Persian Wars

Having suffered a defeat at Salamis, Xerxes lost most of his fleet and hastily set off for Persia. In Greece, he left a rather powerful army, and entrusted his leadership to his relative Mardonius. The latter placed people in Thessaly - in the allied lands.

The still predominant Persians and Greek forces converged again in 479 BC. near the city of Plataea. The key force of the Greeks was the army of the Spartans. The Athenians had 16,000 men, among whom 8,000 were hoplites. The Spartans have almost the same number.

After destroying most of the Persians, the Greeks put the rest to flight. The battle was decided almost from the very beginning, when Mardonius was killed and his army left disoriented.

After the battle of Plataea, which was successful for the Greeks, the Athenian and Spartan troops moved to Thebes, a policy that sided with the Persians during the war. Thebes - the largest Greek city - was also eventually recaptured by the Greeks.

Despite the obvious outcome at Salamis and the city of Plataea, the Greco-Persian wars went on for another 30 years, but mostly at sea. The Persian fleet was strong, but the Greek policies entered into an Athenian naval alliance, which allowed them to create a stronger fleet than their enemies.

The Athenian Maritime Union is also known as the Delian Union, named after the island of Delos, where the allied fleet gathered.

As a result, the Greeks defeated the enemy troops and in 449 BC. forced Xerxes to conclude the Callian Peace (named after the delegate from the Greeks), by agreement of which the Persians were not allowed to appear in the Aegean Sea, and independence was secured for the Greek cities in Asia Minor.

Historiography of the Greco-Persian Wars

The main chronological events of the Greco-Persian wars.

Main stages	Description	Dates
Rebellion of Miletus	Miletus and other cities of Ionia rebelled against Persian despotism.	500 - 494 BC.
Battle of Marathon	Darius I invades the Balkan Peninsula and fights the Greeks at Marathon.	492 - 490 years. BC.
Campaign of Xerxes	Decisive battles at Salamis and Plataea.	480 - 479 years. BC.
Delian (Athenian) military alliance	Greek policies are united in an alliance to confront the Persians at sea.	478 - 449 years. BC.
End of the Greco-Persian Wars	The conclusion of a truce and the demands of the Greeks.	459 - 449 BC.

The meaning and outcome of the Greco-Persian wars

The Greco-Persian wars have always been cited as an illustration of the victory of the democratic system of Greek cities over despotic Persia. Indeed, the Greeks had a democratic structure of society, but the same Sparta was an aristocratic state, so one cannot speak of these wars as a symbol of the absolute confrontation between the two foundations.

Despite the fact that during the war the Greeks had to unite in alliances, the strife between the policies did not end, and the agreements formed after the signing of the peace did not last too long.

Looking back at the course of hostilities and their outcome, it is safe to say that the Greeks won:

policies in Asia Minor received autonomy;
the Persians no longer organized campaigns to the shores of the Aegean Sea, which allowed the Athenians to become full-fledged rulers of this region.

Athens became the strongest and richest policy in all of ancient Greece, although this served as the basis for conflicts with Sparta, which did not want to give up its leadership.

Contemporary thinkers were well aware that Hellas won thanks to unity, albeit very shaky, but this did not lead to the strengthening of common positions - in a century Ancient Greece would become even easier prey, now for Macedonia.

We have left a legacy in the form of an example of the incredible courage and courage of three hundred Spartans led by Leonid and in the form of a marathon distance, which to this day is run by participants in sports games.

These were the main events in such a historical episode as the Greco-Persian wars (briefly the table, the results and the reasons for the victory of Greece). Now you know how the battles ended and what the heroes were like. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments.

Meanwhile, the son of Darius, Xerxes, himself became the head of a large army gathered in Asia Minor. He ferried the soldiers across the strait on a temporary bridge laid on the ships, and moved to Greece from the north. A large train trailed behind the army; the Persians did not like to deny themselves comfort during the campaign, and the king carried his court with him. In front of the royal wagon rode a large chariot drawn by eight horses; it carried the image of a supreme deity. A large fleet was moving along the coast in a roundabout line next to the army, which was supposed to deliver supplies to land; in order to avoid a detour at the dangerous Cape Athos, the Persians had previously dug a canal through the isthmus connecting the mountain range with the mainland.

The priests of the temple at Delphi, who gave advice to the Greeks on behalf of the god Apollo, persuaded everyone to submit to a terrible force. Cities ruled by noble families were waiting for the Persians to join them. Only Athens and Sparta with the Peloponnesians decided to resist.

The Persians were invincible on the Asian plains, but in Greece they met for the second time with the inconveniences of mountain nature: they had to slowly make their way through mountain gorges and paths and take apart every small area protected by mountains, like a fortress wall. In addition, production in meager Greece was small.

Yet the position of those Greeks who decided to defend themselves was very dangerous. A small detachment of Spartans defended the passage of Thermopylae between northern and central Greece for several days against the Persians, but was outflanked and perished. The Persians reached the middle of Greece and devastated the country everywhere. The inhabitants of Attica and Athens had to flee. The families of citizens and what could be seized from the property were transported on ships to the neighboring islet of Salamis and to nearby cities in the south; and all the Athenians, capable of arms and work, boarded ships and connected with other Greek squadrons.

But the Greeks converged from various independent cities; they had neither a general plan how to act, nor even an agreement. I had to give the main bosses to the Spartan leaders, because the Spartans were considered the most powerful Greek people. Meanwhile, the Spartans just did not know the maritime business, and they had almost no ships at all. The Athenians under the command of Themistocles wanted to fight at sea near their own homeland; the Spartans wanted to retreat south to their shores and strengthen the isthmus near the city of Corinth, so as not to let the Persians go further along the dry path.

Against the wishes of the Spartans, the Greeks had to fight involuntarily in a narrow strait near the island of Salamina: the Persian fleet went around the middle of Greece and locked the Greek ships on both sides of this strait. The Greeks took the upper hand with their art in maritime affairs: they put the ships in a circle with their noses forward and then quickly dispersed in rays in all directions: the heavy ships of the Persians got confused near unfamiliar rocks. The bad weather also helped the Greeks, breaking many enemy ships. The remnants of the upset fleet of the Persians drove off to Asia Minor, and the king, dissatisfied with the prolongation of the war, returned home. He was also worried about the dangerous uprising in Babylon. The land army of the Persians still continued to stand in the middle of Greece. Only a year later, in a stubborn battle near the town of Plataea, it was defeated by the Greek militia of the Spartans and Athenians. On the same day, the Greek fleet, pursuing the Persian, defeated them at Cape Mycale against the island of Samos.

Invasion of Xerxes. The Persian invasion of Greece was not long in coming. In the spring of 480, Xerxes, at the head of an army of several hundred thousand1, moved to the Hellespont, where the Persian fleet also appeared, also containing many hundreds of ships. Here, along the bridges built across the strait, the crossing of the royal hordes from Asia to Europe took place. The army moved further along the coast, and the fleet accompanied it and supplied it with supplies as needed. The best way of war for the Greeks was to delay the movement of enemy forces in narrow gorges and narrow straits, where the Persians could not operate with the mass of their troops and all the ships of their fleet at once. Therefore, the first resistance was offered by the Greeks to the Persians at Thermopylae, where the Spartan king Leonidas successfully fought off the onslaught of a huge army. When the Persians, thanks to one traitor, found a mountain path bypassing the Greek position and appeared in the rear of Leonidas, he released the troops of the allied cities and fell on the spot with three hundred Spartans remaining with him. The Persians could now freely enter Central Greece.
The Boeotians obeyed, the population of Attica fled, Athens itself was destroyed by the enemy, and Xerxes was preparing to break through a new defensive line of the Greeks, who decided to fortify themselves on Isthma. The position of the Greeks was, however, precarious. The Persian fleet, in which there were a lot of Phoenician ships with experienced sailors, could always land an army in the rear of the Greeks, and they would be in the same position as at Thermopylae. Therefore, it was also necessary to act against the enemy fleet. Even at the time when the battle of Thermopylae was taking place, the Greek fleet had already given battle to the naval forces of the Persians at Cape Artemisia in the strait between the northern tip of Euboea and Thessaly, but the outcome of this battle was uncertain. Now, after the Persian fleet, having rounded Attica, was already a short distance from Isthmus, Themistocles, who was at the head of the Athenian detachment, began to convince other Greek leaders of the need to again give the Persians a naval battle in the narrow strait that separated the island of Solomon from Attica. The comrades did not obey Themistocles, and then, pretending to be a friend of the Persians, he sent Xerxes to tell him to attack the Greeks, who were about to leave. Xerxes succumbed to Themistocles' tricks and ordered his fleet to attack the Greeks, while he himself watched from the shore how the battle was going on, being quite sure of a brilliant victory. The Battle of Salamis was, on the contrary, a complete defeat for the Persians. In a narrow strait, among the rocks and shallows, it was difficult for the Persians to turn around, their ships interfered with each other, and between the Phoenicians and the Greeks of Asia Minor, who constituted the main force of the royal fleet, there could not be much agreement in common actions. After the defeat at Salamin, Xerxes retired to Asia, leaving, however, three hundred thousand troops under the command of Mardonius in Boeotia. In the next (479) year, the Greeks went on the offensive. The land army of the Greeks went to Boeotia under the command of the Spartan commander Pausanias (guardian of the infant king) and here defeated the Persians and the Thessalians and Boeotians who joined them at Plataea. At the same time, another Spartan king (Leotichid) and the Athenian Xanthippus sailed with a fleet to the shores of Asia Minor and at Cape Mycale (between Samos and Miletus) won a brilliant victory over the Persians. The consequence of this double defeat of the Persians was not only their expulsion from European Greece, but also the liberation of the Greek colonies in Asia Minor from their power.
127. End of the war with the Persians. Persia was not soon able to recover from three costly and unsuccessful conquest campaigns in European Greece. Not daring to undertake any more conquests in Europe, Xerxes thought only of subjugating the Greeks of Asia Minor again, and to this end he prepared for a new war, concentrating large forces on the southern coast of Asia Minor, which remained in his power. Cimon, the son of Miltiades, who at that time was the most prominent statesman in Athens, decided to resume the fight against the Persians and set off with a large fleet to the southern coast of Asia Minor, where in 466 he won a double (sea and land) victory over the Persians at the mouth of the river Eurymedon. In addition, Cimon also made a brilliant campaign against the island of Cyprus in order to take it away from the Persians, while acting in concert with the rebellious Egyptians. (The Athenians even helped their army to the leader of the Egyptian uprising Inar, but it was crushed by the Persians). The end of the Greco-Persian wars is considered to be 449, and at the same time, apparently, a peace (“Kal-liev”) was concluded, according to which the Persian fleet lost the right to appear in Greek waters.
128. Significance of the Greco-Persian wars. The wars with the Persians, filling the history of the first half of the 5th century, were of great importance in the life of the Greek people. The victories over the powerful monarchy of the “great king” inspired the Greeks with a proud consciousness that they were the first people in the world called to freedom and even to rule over the barbarians. This upsurge of national patriotism was accompanied by a brilliant development of spiritual culture, making the 5th century B.C. one of the most important eras in world history. And in fact, the Hellenes defeated the Persians because culturally they were immeasurably higher than the barbarians: the material quantity had to recede before the spiritual quality. Further, before the Persian wars, the leading role in the Greek world belonged to Asiatic Ionia, now the primacy has passed to the European Greeks and among them to the Ionians of Attica. The suppression of the Asia Minor uprising at the beginning of the 5th century. and the ensuing period of wars dealt a blow to the former prosperity of Ionia, and when times of peace came, the former favorable relations of the coastal cities of Asia Minor to its interior regions could no longer be restored. But even among European Greeks there was a great change. At the beginning of the Persian wars, Sparta was the strongest state in Greece, and therefore she initially had hegemony in the struggle against Persia. Since the Persians saw that it was possible to conquer Greece only with the help of the fleet, the war took on a maritime character, and Athens, which just at that time themselves turned into a maritime state, was to play the main role in it. In addition, the defeat inflicted by the Greeks on the Persian naval force was, in essence, the defeat of the Phoenicians, who participated with their fleet in the campaigns of the Persian kings. Finally, along with Persian rule, tyranny fell, which enjoyed the patronage of the “great king” and, in turn, maintained a foreign yoke over part of the Greek nation.
129*. The struggle of the Greeks with Carthage. At the same time that the Greeks were fighting the Persians in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, in its western part the Greeks were also fighting very hard against Carthage. The inhabitants of this trading Phoenician colony, which reached at the end of the 7th and beginning of the 6th century. of great importance, they found allies in the person of the Etruscan people who inhabited part of Italy, since both of them equally sought to prevent the Greeks from spreading their colonies. This forced the Western Greeks to unite to fight against Carthage. Sicily became its main theater, where both Phoenician and Greek colonies existed at the same time. When the tyrant Gelon rose in Sicily, the Carthaginians, incited, as they thought, by Persia, decided to attack the Greeks. The war began in 480, i.e. at the same time as the invasion of Xerxes into Hellas, but Gelon repulsed the Carthaginian army, which was under the command of Hamilcar, and his victory at Himera received the same significance in this part of the Greek world as the battle of Solomin had for another part of it.