The Persian

Wars
500 B.C. 479 B.C.

The Beginning
Darius, king of the Persians, came to power and continued
to extend the Persian Empire across Asia Minor. The
Persians had already taken control of most Greek colonies,
and Darius would conquer Ionia (-'n-), a Greek sister
state.

Feeling threatened,
the two strongest
Greek city states,
Sparta and Athens,
encouraged the
Ionians to revolt.
Darius would
eventually crush the
Ionian revolt in 495
B.C. He would then
turn his attention to
the Greek mainland
to seek revenge on
Athens and Sparta.

The Battle of
Marathon
Darius sent a great
army, with an
estimated size of
20,000 soldiers, over
the sea to the Bay of
Marathon, intending to
land there, march to
Athens and then on to
Sparta.

Miltiades (mil-tahy-uhdeez), the Athenian

general, marched an
army of 10,000 men
out of Athens, hoping
to delay the Persians
until reinforcements
were sent from Sparta.

Professional runner,
Pheidippides (fahy-dipi-deez), ran 250 km in
two days to Sparta and
back to ask the
Spartans for their
support against the
Persians.
The Spartans said they
could not help until
after the next full moon
for religious reasons
Greatly outnumbered,
the Athenians took
advantage of the
Persians
overconfidence and
their knowledge of the
terrain.

The strategy: The Persians put their best troops in

the centre, the Athenians put their best troops on
the side.
The battle: The Persians broke through the weak
Athenian centre but were pushed back on the wings
by the superior Athenian troops. The Persians were
surrounded and defeated.

The remaining Persians returned to their ships

and attempted to reach Athens. Miltiades (miltahy-uh-deez), however, marched his army
overland to meet them and the Persians dared
not come ashore. The Persian invasion thus
failed.

Legend has it that

Pheidippides (fahydip-i-deez) ran the
42 km back to
Athens to announce
their great victory
and died on the
spot. Todays
marathon is based
on this last run by
Pheidippides.

The Battle of
Thermopylae
(ther-mop-uh-lee)
There was fear the
Persians might return.
Under Themistocles
(thuh-mis-tuh-kleez),

the Athenians
developed a strong
navy of 200 triremes
(boats).
In 485 B.C., Xerxes
(zurk-seez) succeeded
his father, Darius, as
king of the Persians.
He vowed revenge on
the Greeks.

Xerxes (zurk-seez) sent a huge army and navy to

attack the Greek mainland once again (180,000
troops).
Xerxes army advanced along the Greek coast until
coming to Themopylae, a fifty foot wide mountain pass.
The strategy: The Spartan king, Leonidas (lee-on-iduhs), and 7000 men wanted to hold the Persians at
the pass.

The battle: The Persians attacks were repulsed until a

traitor showed the Persians a secret path. 300
Spartan elders and 1,000 men stayed behind to allow
the other Greeks time to fall back and mount
defenses. All died, but 20,000 Persians were also
killed.

The Battle of Salamis (sahlah-mees)

As the Persians advanced after their victory at

Thermopylae (ther-mop-uh-lee), Athens was evacuated.

The Athenians escaped to the island of Salamis, off the
coast of Athens.
The Persian army sacked and burned Athens.
Themistocles (thuh-mis-tuh-kleez) ordered all Greek men
onto the triremes and set sail into the Straits of Salamis.

The strategy: The

Greeks wanted to lure
the Persians into the
narrow waters of Straits
of Salamis, which they
knew better.
Themistocles sent his
servant with false
information to Xerxes,
claiming the Greeks
would attempt to escape
through the Straits.
Xerxes, eager for victory,
believed the message.

The battle: The Persians sailed into the Straits

of Salamis, and were trapped by the Greeks.
The Greeks were outnumbered, but swift and
deadly Athenian triremes defeated the Persian
navy.

The End
The remainder of the Persian army was defeated by the Spartans
at Plataea (pluh-tee-uh) and the rest of the Persian fleet was
caught beached on shores of Asia Minor and destroyed by the
Greeks. This twenty year battle had ended in an astonishing
victory for the Greeks and it filled them with pride, confidence,
and patriotism, leading to the Golden Age.