Ten years after the defeat at Marathon, Darius’ son, Xerxes, launched a second invasion of Greece. The invasion had about 200,000 soldiers. The relatively small Greek force led by the Spartan king. ★★Leonidas numbers only 7,000 soldiers including 300 Spartans. ★
General Mardonius annexed Macedonia and two years later, Datis and Artaphernes were sent out on a naval expedition to conquer the Aegean islands. After finishing this campaign, they were supposed to bring back Hippias, the former tyrant of Athens, who would set up a pro-Persian regime. The campaign started without serious problems and soon, the islands of the Aegean Sea were subdued. To celebrate this success, the Persians sacrificed at Delos, maybe because they identified the god Apollo with their own Ahuramazda.
There were 300 Spartans commanded by their king, Leonidas and 6,000 soldiers from other city-states against the Persian army of 100,000 men. The small Greek force held their position for two days till a Greek traitor told Xerxes of another path that was used by local people. Using this pass, the Persians passed through the mountains in secret and trapped the Greeks from the front and behind. On the third day, King Leonidas chose to stay to fight to the end and told the rest of the city-states to run while they still could but the Spartan army would die till the end. Although the Battle of Thermopylae was lost it showed that the Spartans were not afraid of the Persians and brought hope to the rest of the Greek city-states.
In Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War, Athens invaded the Spartan island of Melos. The Athenian king was determined to conquer Melos, one of the weaker islands surrounding them rather than let them be neutral. The citizens of Athens perceived neutrality as a sign of weakness, which could later cause his subjects to rise against him. Athens presents the Melians with a choice of becoming their vassals or for the Athenians to decimate Melian territory. After rejecting the cruel offer, Athens considered Melos an enemy of war, besieging the small island.
The Greeks were fighting on their own land. Fighting for their home. This made the war mean a tremendous amount more to the Greeks than it did to the Persians. Many of the Persian soldiers had been forced to fight at Marathons while the Greeks were ready to die to defend their homeland. On the other hand, One of the major disadvantages for the Greeks during the Battle of Marathon was that the Spartans were not around to fight the battle.
Ancient battles have existed throughtout ancient history. Historically these battles were due to gaining total power of an empire or fighting for the resources these ancient lands provided the people. They were both located near the Mediterranean sea, allowing both empires to have similar quantity in their empires. These two empires were great and powerful,ut Persian 's empire was stronger than Greece empire because it had a larger skillful military. One example was Cyrus the Great and the Rise of Persia during 550-522 B.C.E. Persia was founded by Cyrus the Great, one of most brillant and powerful king.
His strategy to wait out the land attacks by the Spartans by remaining inside Athens walls may have been successful had the people of Athens, including Pericles, not be subjected to a plague that took over Athens (Thucy. History of the Peloponnesian War
and the location was chosen by the Persians because they believed it gave them the upper hand. Themistocles fought in this battle and eventually “the work he did saved Athens during the Persian Wars,” (Green, pg. 26), and he was elected the “Chief Archon of Athens,” which means he was the chief of the nine magistrates in Athens. During the battle, neither the Athenians or Persians moved for several days. The Athenians were hoping the Spartans would show up to assist them in the battle and that is why they were waiting. Then Miltiades heard that the Persian cavalry was away and this is when the Athenians decided it was time to engage because it was possible that they stood a chance.
They knew that they must make an attempt to try and stop the Persian army from proceeding to invade the rest of Greece. So they Greek cities decided to come together and put their rivalries off to the side to stop the enemy. Their army consisted of 300 spartans, and 6000-7000 soldiers from other greek cities, all led by the mighty King Leonidas. Leonidas and his men settled in Central Greece on a narrow pass known as the Thermopylae Pass. Their plan was to stay in the tight area so that they would be able to avoid confronting the entire army, and squeze toward them causing the persians to run into the Greek army.
The battle of Thermopylae was between the Greeks and the Persian armies. With superior strategy the Greeks try to hold the ground of Thermopylae with only seven thousand men up against over three hundred thousand of the Persian army. This battle shows using terrain, discipline and armor can play a huge part of a battle. Xerxes the leader of Persia wanted to take over Athens either to expand his rule more western of the fact that Athens backed out of their alliance more than 25 years ago.
Alexander known as one of the best military leaders in history. 2. After the Persian War, Athens and Sparta had agreed to a Thirty Year Peace. They didn't want to fight each other while they were trying to recover from the Persian War. During this time, Athens became powerful and wealthy and the Athenian empire grew under the leadership of Pericles.
The second war is the war of Samos. “In 440 BC Samos was at war with Miletus about Priene, an ancient city of Ionia on the foot-hills of Mycale, which lay between them.” (Battle of Samos) The war of Samos was a very heavy militarized war. It has been considered a very important event in Greek military history and took place before the Peloponnesian wars, which spanned almost 60 years in Greek and Spartan history.
The Persians have a vastly bigger army than the Greeks do. According to Herodotus’ estimation, there were three hundred thousand Greeks fighting the 5,283,220 soldiers brought by Xerxes. (7.184&186) An army of that size can seize almost any land they want.
The Greeks ships then begun and move backwards, drawing the Persians in further (Battle of Salamis, 2016). For this strategy and the victory at Salamis, it was Themistocles, who was given the most credit (Antiquity 2, 2000, p.g 240). Before the battle even started there was a conference, as Themistocles knew that the Peloponnesians would outvote him he snuck away. He had sent a man over to the Persian fleet on a boat with instructions on what to say when he got there. He had
Not only did the Ionian lost, but a great many people were enslaved, the economy collapsed and the once flourishing culture declined. The revolt was the beginning of the Greek-Persian wars. The Ionian Revolt After the Persians conquered Ionia, the population of the trading country was forced to live under tyranny and constant difficulties with their trade due to the expansive policy of Persia. The Persians preferred the Phoenicians and thus further ruined the trade operations of the Ionians.
