Persian war
new technology
- during the dorian age, only the rich could really afford to buy the bronze weaponry and armor
- iron later replaced the bronce and allowed the common man to be able to arm himself and fight battles
- also a new formation was formed in battle called the phalanx
Phalanx
- spear in one hand, shield in the other
start of the persian war
- war between greece and persian empire
- it first in ionia on the coast of anatolia
- greeks were settled there but persians conquered it around 546 B.C.
- The 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 B.C., the Persian fleet of 25,000 men landed in an area called Marathon
- 10,000 Athenisans meet them there
- After several hours of fighting
- Persians fled the battle field
- 6,00 persian lives were lost
- 200 or less Athenians lives were lost
such a great victory
- Athenians were using this new fighting formation called the phalanx
- the persians wre not well trained in this type of land fighting
- the persians also wore very light armor compared to that of the Thaninans
- Athenians were fighting on ther homeland
Marathon
- even though athenians ha won, they left their city without much of an army
- according to tradtion, army leaders would send a runner to alert thens of the battle
- Pheidippides was that runner
- he ran 26 mile from marathon to athens
- persians tried to quickly attack athens after their defeat at marathon, but the athenians had already returned so the fled once again
ten years later
- xerxes, darius the great's son, had become the successor of the persian army
- he brought an enormous army with him to complet the job that his father once vowed
greek issues
- greeks were very divided on how to handle the persian stiuation
- some city-states thought that they should fight them and defend their city of athens
- some city-states thought it wasn't worth it, and they should just allow them to burn it
- some even fought with the persians
famous battle of thermopylae
- a narrow mountain pass was the setting of this battle
- 7000 greeks and 300 spartans stood in the way of xerxes and his huge army on this push to get to athens
- xerxes underesetimated the greeks and spartans, however they stood up for three days to them
300
- a traitor went to xerxes and informed him of a secret path around the pass
- fearin defeat, the spartans fough the persians so that the greeks could flee to fight another day
- all 300 were killed including leonidas
lasting effects of spartan sacrifice
- made a great impressin on the greeks
- allowed the remainin greeks to retreat and figh the persians again
- showed xerxes what he was up against
battle fo salamis
- greeks abandoned athens, becuase they thought that fighting at sea was their best chance
- they were right xerxex wathced as a 1/3 if this fleet was sunk. truly diminishing his army, changing point of war
lasting effect of persian war
- the delian league was created (an alliance of greek city states to continue to push the persians out of all greece)
- thenians was the head of the league and moved the headquarteers to athens
-This gave the Athenians a lot of pwer and helped push them into their golden age.
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