Persian War
- New Technology
-during the Dorian age, only the rich could really afford to buy the bronze weaponry and armor
-iron later replaced bronze 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 (and Sparta)
-first began in Ionia on the coast of Anatolia
-Greeks were settled there but Persians conquered it around 546 BC
-the Lonian Greeks revolted
-Athens sent soldiers to help in the revolt
-Darius the Great defeated the revolt and the vowed to destroy Athens.
-In 490 BC the Persian fleet of 25,000 men landed in an area called Marathon
-10,000 Athenians meet them there
-After several hours of fighting
-persians fled the battlefield
-6,000 Persian lives were lost
-200 Athenians died
- Why such a victory?
-THE Athenians were using this new fighting formation called the phalanx
-the Persians were not well trained in this type of land fighting
-the Persians also wore very light armor compared to that of the Athenians
-Athenians would fight on their homeland
- Marathon
-even though Athenians had won, they left their city without much of an army
-according to tradition, army leaders would send a runner to alert Athens of the battle
-Pheidippides was that runner
-he ran 26 miles from Marathon to Athens
-Persians tried to quickly attack Athens after their defeat at Marathon but the Athenians ad already returned, so they fled once again
- 10 years later
-Xerxes, Darius the Great’s son, had become the successor of the Persian army
-he brought an enormous army with him to complete the job that his father had vowed
- Greece
-the Greeks were very divided on how to handle the Persian situation
-some city-states thought that they should fight them and defended 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 the battle
-7,000 Greeks and 300 Spartans stood in the way of Xerxes and his huge ary on this push to get to Athens
-Xerxes underestimated 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
-fearing defeat, the Spartans fought 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 impression of the Greeks
-allowed the remaining Greeks to retreat and fight the Persians again
-showed Xerxes what he was up against
- Battle of Salamis
-Greeks abandoned Athens, because they thought that fighting at sea was their best chance
-they were right, Xerxes watched as 1/3 of this fleet was sunk. Truly diminishing his army
- Lasting effects of Persian war
-the Delian League was created (an alliance of Greek city-states to continue to push the Persians out of all Greece)
-Athenians was the head of the league and moved the headquarters to Athens
-this gave the Athenians a lot of power and helped push them into their golden age
Comments