9-6 - Blogs - History 360

New technology
- During the Dorian age, only the rich cold really afford to buy the bronze weaponry and armor
- Iron later replaced bronze, allowed common man to arm himself and fight in battles
- New formation called the phalanx
  - Spear in one hand
  - Shield in other
  - Had to work together
Persian war
- War between Greece (Sparta, Athens) and Persians
- It began in Ionia on the coast of Anatolia
- Greeks settled there and Persians conquered it around 546 b.c.e
- Ionian Greeks revolted
  - Athens sent soldiers to help in the revolt
  - Darius the great defeated the revolt and then vowed to destroy Athens
- In 490 bc the Persian fleet of 25,000 landed in marathon
- 10,000 Athenians
- Several hours of fighting
- Persians fled
- 6000 Persians died
- 200 or less Athenians lives were lost
- Athenians were using the phalanx
- Persians were not well trained in this type of land fighting
- Persians wore light armor compared to Athenians
- Persians were wearing cloth
- Athenians were wearing metal, bronze and iron armor
- Athenians knew the land
- Short supply lines
- 26 miles from Athens
- Athens took all of the army to marathon
- According to the tradition, army leaders sent a runner to alert Athens of the battle
- Pheidippides was the runner
- He ran 26 miles from marathon to Athens
- Persians tried to quickly attack Athens after the defeat, but Athens had already returned and the Persians fled once again
- 10 years later
- Xerxes, darius the greats son had become the successor of the Persian army
- Brought an enormous army with him to conquer Athens
Greek issues with the Persians
- Some city states thought that they should fight them and defend the city
- Some city states thought it wasn’t worth it
- Some even fought with the Persians
Battle of Thermopylae
- A narrow mountain pass
- 7,000 Greeks and 300 Spartans stood in the way of xerxes and his he army on this push to get to Athens
- Held for three days
- A traitor told xerxes about the secret path
- Fearing defeat, the Spartans fought the Persians so that the Greeks could fight another day
- All 300 were killed including Leonidas
  - Lasting effects of the sacrifice
    - Made a great impression on the Greeks
    - Allowed the remaining Greeks to retreat to fight another day
Final battle of salamis
- Greeks abandoned Athens because they thought the sea was the best chance
- They were right
- Took out a third of xerxes army
Lasting effects of the war as a whole
- The delian league was created, allegiance of Greek city states
- Athenians was the head of the league and moved the headquarters to Athens
- This gave the Athenians a lot of power and helped to push them into their golden age

Comments