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Herodotus: The Ionian War

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During the greco-persian wars a very decisive battle took place on the plains of marathon in northeastern Attica. This battle was the first Persian invasion of Greece in september of 490 B.C. Most information we have on the battle is a historian named Herodotus who was a primary source of the event. It all started during the Ionian revolt where Athens and Eretria sent forces to help the Ionians. Athens succeeded in capturing and burning Sardis which is one of the important cities in the Persian empire. Darius the king of the Persian empire swore to burn Athens and Eretria so he charged one of his servants to say ‘master remember the Athenians’ three times before dinner. In 490 bc Darius sent a naval task force under the command of Datis and …show more content…

For the Athenian Military it was a Huge Success not only for winning the battle but it also show that there is potential in the hoplite phalanx. Since each city-state fought the same way there was no way of telling the strengths and weaknesses of the hoplite phalanx. The battle showed that the hoplite was very effective against lightly armed troops but was still very vulnerable to cavalry which would be a problem later on in the battle of platea but now shown if used in the correct circumstances the hoplite phalanx would be a very devastating weapon. The Athenians had a backup plan for both if they lost or won the battle. If the Athenians lost the battle word would get back to Athens quickly so the citizens would be able to flee to peloponnesus. However if they won the battle they knew that the persians would try to sail around attica and attempt to take the city while it was undefended. The battle of marathon was the invention for the marathon runs today due to a myth that Pheidippides ran from marathon to Athens to deliver the news of victory so he ran 26 miles in the summers heat back to Athens and after giving the news he fell over dead from exhaustion. When the first modern day olympics was finally a reality they needed a great and popularizing event recalling the ancient glory of Greece they came up with the marathon run which was inspired by the myth of

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The historian Thucydides described himself as a wealthy Athenian general whose exile to the Peloponnese allowed him to personally observe, from both the sides of the conflict, a comprehensive account of the Peloponnesian War. Book 1 in Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War” is dedicated to explaining over fifty years of the events and proceedings that led to the abandonment of the Thirty Year’s Peace and subsequent war. In Book 1 he identifies four main incidents, which I shall refer to as ‘grievances’, regarding the conduct of Athens towards both their Delian members and the Peloponnesian allies. Yet he also mentions what he deems to be a more ‘real’ truth than these four grievances that led to Sparta and the Peloponnese going to

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Sparta was not going to let itself being conquered or their freedom being taken away. Some battles that Spartans were known for were Thermopylae and Plataea in the 5th century BC. The battle of Thermopylae was the first battle between the Persians and the Greeks; the Persian army was vast compared to the small Greek and Spartan armies. Persian King Xerxes had already the Thessalains in the Persian side but the rest of the Greek city-states banded together and put Sparta in charge of the Greek army. The Greeks had to defend a narrow pass that could lead the Persians into Greece from the North, this pass was called Thermopylae.

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There have been countless battles and wars in the ancient world that have astonished historians. Thousands of bloody, inhuman battles that were fought by opposing sides. None of which have astonished historians like the battle of Marathon between the Greeks and Persians. “The battle of Marathon is one of history's most famous military engagements”(Stern, 11) according to William Stearns based off of Herodotus account. The war between the Persians and the Greeks was an extremely unique war for its time period.

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Being alive to witness the events that occurred in and around fifth century B. C. E. Greece meant that Thucydides could not help but write down his experiences. The Athenians of Greece and the people of the Persian Empire were constantly at odds with each other, and these differences eventually led to the Peloponnesian war. This war lasted from 431-404 B.C.E. and began an era of conflict between the two peoples (Bulliet). This power struggle not only inflated the ego of the Athenians, but created many negative viewpoints of the Persians. Thucydides, being an Athenian, was therefore extremely biased against the Persians.

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In the Battle of Thermopylae, The Greeks put together a small force, led by the Spartan King Leonidas I and 300 Spartans. They decided to meet the Persians at a narrow pass in the mountains called Thermopylae. The Greeks held off the Persians killing

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The ancient historian, Thucydides, a realist and aristocrat by birth, gave the world The History of the Peloponnesian War, but with a questionably biased view of the happenings of the 5th century BC, specifically the causes of the Peloponnesian War and the key personality(s) that played an influential role to the end result, a deep understanding of his writing style and attitude towards history must be learnt to allow for his work to be viewed as a credible source. The writing itself was the most scientifically accurate piece of work at the time but readers are misled by the downplaying and ignoring of events that negatively portray the role Athens had in the war. This deliberate action has been the foundation for countless scholars’ analysis of the reliability of Thucydides as a historian. Even though Thucydides was significantly more advanced and accurate than other historians to date, his pro-Athenian attitude, specifically surrounding the causes of the war, resulted in a History that has proven difficult to view wholly as a credible source. The causes of the Peloponnesian War described by Thucydides as “the truest” are accurate but intentionally ignore the motives behind them that would insinuate that the true aggressor of the Peloponnesian War was in fact Athens.

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