Athens and Sparta were the two most powerful city-states in ancient Greece.
Athens for its culture, wisdom and beauty.
Sparta for its military strength and brave soldiers.
Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis mark a special moment in history.
The Greco-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire (First Persian Empire founded by Cyrus the Great) and the Greek city-states.
The Greeks were victorious against the enormous Persian invading force both on land and at sea.
Asia Minor
Biblical Asia Minor was the birthplace of many famous saints which included Saint Paul (a Jew born in Tarsus, Asia Minor), Saint Nicholas, Saint George, Saint Luke the Evangelist, Saint Timothy, and Saint Basil, to name just a few.
Anatolia Asia Minor had historical cities such as Ephesus, Miletus, Harlicarnassus, Priene, Pergamum, Phocaea, Nicaea, Smyrna, and Byzantium (later made famous as Constantinople) that were centers of Greek and Christian cultures, as well as important commercial centers.
Constantinople was the capital of the first Christian Byzantine Empire.
Ionic uprising
Ionia was an ancient region on the western coast of Anatolia that was colonized by the Greeks during the 11th century BC.
The Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great conquered the region in 547-BC.
The Greek regions of Aeolis, Doris, Cyprus and Caria rebelled against the tyrannical Persian rule from 499 to 493 BC. Athens and Eretria, with the support of the Ionians, captured and burned Sardis in 498 BC. C., which had now become a province of the Persian Empire.
Darius I sent a naval task force to subjugate the cities of Ionia and punish Athens and Eretria for supporting the uprisings.
The Ionian revolt represents the first phase of the Greco-Persian wars.
Sparta
With the Persians heading for a confrontation on Greek soil, the Athenians sent a message to the Spartans asking for support. The Spartans, however, were involved in religious festivals and, although they promised to send military aid to the Athenians, their laws stated that they could only do so after the full moon had passed.
Marathon battle
The Battle of Marathon was Persia’s first attempt to conquer Greece on September 9, 490-BC.
Athens, allied with Plataea, engaged the Persian invaders on the coastal plain of Marathon, 26 miles northeast of Athens.
A Persian armada of 600 ships under the command of Admiral Datis and around 30,000 infantry and Calvary led by Generals Hippias and Artaphernes reached Euboea in mid-summer and besieged Eretria, then sailed to Attica (around Athens), landing in the bay near the city of Marathon.
Led by Miltiades (550 – 489-BC), the Athenians mobilized 10,000 Hoplite soldiers and a force of 1,000 Plataians to defend their territory.
Greek battle weapons were the long spear and heavy weaponry included helmets, shields, and breastplates. Because they lacked both cavalry and bows, they favored close combat battle formations.
Miltiades ordered the Greek hoplites to form a line equal in length to that of the Persians and then ordered his soldiers to attack the Persians at full speed.
In the middle of the battle, the center of the outnumbered Greek line gave way to draw the Persians to the center so that the flanks could encircle the trapped Persians. The strategy proved victorious and the Persians panicked when the Greek army inflicted a crushing defeat.
The story of the messenger, Pheidippides, running 26 miles (42 km) to Athens to break the news of the Persian defeat inspired the creation of the modern marathon.
The Persians lost 6,400, the Greeks only 192 Greeks.
The 300 Spartans – Battle of Thermopylae
After the death of Darius I in 486-a. C., his son Jerjes I began the preparations for a second invasion of Greece.
The Battle of Thermopylae in 480-a. During the Persian Wars, it has resonated throughout history as a symbol of courage through thick and thin.
Xerxes I led a massive army and navy in the second Persian invasion to conquer all of Greece.
Before invading, Xerxes sent a message to the Spartan king Leonidas to deliver his weapons. Leonidas replied: “Come and take them” (“Molon labe”).
Themistocles, the Athenian general, greatly outnumbered, proposed that the allied Greeks block the advance of the Persian army at the Thermopylae pass.
An alliance of Greek city-states led by King Leonidas and his elite unit of 300 Spartans, vastly outnumbered, fought in the second Persian invasion of Greece in August or September 480-BC.
The Greeks fought valiantly to hold the narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae for three days against the vast force of Persian infantry and cavalry.
Ephialtes of Trachis, betrayed the Greeks by revealing a hidden goat path that allowed the Persians to outflank them.
Leonidas sent the main army to retreat while a small contingent stayed behind to resist the Persian invaders.
This last heroic resistance at Thermopylae has become a symbol of courage against the overwhelming odds of a patriotic army defending its native soil that has inspired the legend of the 300 Spartans.
Although the Greeks lost this battle, the fierce resistance offered Athens valuable time to prepare for the decisive naval battle of Salamis.
From these iron-hearted warriors the adjective has arisen: Spartan.
Battle of Salamis
The Battle of Salamis was a naval battle fought between an alliance of Greek city-states in September 480-BC.
The Delphic oracle on Mount Parnassus, near the Gulf of Corinth (ancient Greek religious sanctuary of the god Apollo), prophesied that the Greeks would be saved by a “wooden wall” at Salamis.
The “wooden wall” was the Greek naval victory at Salamis.
Themistocles (524 – 460-BC), the Athenian general and naval strategist who had fought during the first Persian invasion of Greece at the Battle of Marathon (490-BC)
advocated a strong Athenian navy as the cornerstone of an Athenian empire in 483-BC. C.
He persuaded the Athenians to build a fleet of 200 triremes, which proved crucial in the upcoming conflict with Persia.
The battle was fought in the strait between the Athenian port city of Piraeus and the island of Salamis in the Saronic Gulf near Athens.
The Greek navy had 371 triremes and slokonters (boats smaller than fifty oars).
The Persians had 1207 ships.
The enormous size of Xerxes’ fleet gave him the confidence of victory, as he installed a golden throne on the slopes of Mount Aegaleus to witness the battle.
The Greek strategy was to lure the Persian fleet into the narrow waters around Salamis to nullify their numerical advantage.
The larger and heavier Persian triremes crowded into the gulf and struggled to maneuver quickly, while the smaller and lighter Greek triremes were more maneuverable.
The Greek triremes attacked first by ramming, sinking, and boarding by the Greeks on many Persian ships.
In twelve hours, the Greek fleet achieved a decisive victory and forced the Persian naval forces to flee.
The Greeks lost around 40 ships.
The Persians lost around 300.
With the naval battle won, Aristides (530 – 468 BC) and an elite Athenian infantry landed in Psyttaleia. an island in the Saronic Gulf and annihilated the Persians stationed there.
Xerxes withdrew to Asia leaving Mardonius to complete the conquest of Greece.
However, the following year, the rest of the Persian army was decisively defeated on land at the Battle of Plataea and at sea at the Battle of Mycale.
Greek victories in the Greco-Persian wars liberated the cities of Ionia from Persian control.
Importance of the Greco-Persian wars
The Greco-Persian Wars were three of the greatest military victories of antiquity. If the Persians had won, they would have invaded the rest of the Greek city-states and the European continent, which almost certainly has had serious effects on the course of the history of Western civilization.
