Greco-Persian Wars: Causes, Battles, and Outcomes
Herodotus and the Greco-Persian Wars
Herodotus was a Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus in the Persian Empire and lived in the 5th century BC. He is widely referred to as “The Father of History” (first conferred by Cicero). He was the first historian known to have broken from Homeric tradition to treat historical subjects as a method of investigation. The Histories is the only work which he is known to have produced, a record of his “inquiry” on the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars, including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information. Some of his stories were fanciful and others inaccurate; yet he states that he was reporting only what was told to him and was often correct in his information. Despite Herodotus’ historical significance, little is known of his personal history. The Persian Wars is a term applied to the two Persian attempts to conquer Greece in 490 BC and 480/479 BC.
Causes of the War
There was an economic reason because Continental Greece was not very fertile and the Greeks needed a fertile area to put in practice agriculture.
Persian rulers had different policies. Cyrus thought that they had to stay in Persia, but he attacked central Asia and he lost his army. Cambyses invaded Egypt with bad results. Greece and the Aegean Sea seemed very attractive to Persians.
They had colonies in the western Mediterranean and they were rivals in trade with the Greeks. The Phoenicians supported the Persians.
Specific Cause: Ionian Revolt
The origins of the conflict go back to mainland Greek involvement in the rebellion of the Asiatic Greeks against Persian rule, earlier in the 5th century.
We have to take into account the Green migrations after the collapse of Mycenaean civilization to Asia Minor. The Ionians set in cities like Miletus, Priene and Samos. The cities of Ionia remained independent until they were conquered by the Lydians of western Asia Minor. Aristagoras established a tyranny in the Ionian colonies. They rebelled against the Persian tyrants. Miletus was sacked.
Marathon Campaign
In 492, Mardonius crossed across the Aegean and occupied Macedonia. Things were looking very bad.
Marathon was a very important place because it is very close to Athens and the Marathon campaign took place in 490. The results were very bad for Persia because 2/3 of the 10,000 men that they sent there were killed for only 192 Athenians. The Spartans didn’t arrive at the beginning.
The battle was decisive. It made Greece alive. The Spartans realized that only united they could face the Persians.
Expedition of Xerxes
Xerxes was determined to teach the Greeks a lesson. This was meant to crush the Greeks forever. Xerxes sent an army of 100,000 soldiers with more than 1,000 ships to the Greeks in 480 BC. Persians wanted that both navy and army cooperated in the expedition.
Xerxes could control Thessaly and Argolis and he managed to control Delphos. The pristine Delphos was the most informed about Greece.
Thanks to Themistocles, the Greeks acquired an enormous navy. Sparta and Athens created a united league but they realized that they weren’t going to make any progress. The Persian fleet came down in Thessaly but after three days fighting they withdrew in Thermopylae.
Thermopylae: the Spartan commander was Leonidas and the Greeks had Persians on both sides. All central Greece was lost and Athens was evacuated. Themistocles planned trying the battle by sea with the support of Eurybiades. The battle which took place was the battle of Salamis.
The Persian army had an enormous victory but the navy crashed. As a result, they were stuck. The Greeks had them at their mercy.
Campaign of 479
A Greek fleet destroyed the rests of the Persian navy. As a result, Greek colonies in Asia Minor revolted again.
In 448-449, an agreement was negotiated between the Greeks and Persians to get the independence of the Ionian Greeks except for Cyprus.
Greek Counterattack
The Greeks were small in comparison to Persia but they knew how to fight. The Persians avoided direct conflict as they wanted diplomacy. However, by use of diplomacy they wanted to avoid a Greek counterattack. It was not until Alexander the Great when Persia was destroyed.
Results
We come to the Golden Age of Greece. The peace has left rests for European modern civilizations in literature, architecture…
The Persian Wars ended with the Battle of Plataea when the nephew of Xerxes was killed in 479.
The Persian War ended in 479. The Great Age of Athens is about to start.