In Sparta their whole existence was their state and their family, each boy at the age of seven was taken into the agoge, a military training system, where they were taught to fight to the death and develop superior military fighting techniques. When a boy became a man donning his helmet and breastplate he was known as a hoplite warrior. An armoured hoplite would fight against the enemy in the formation of the phalanx, using his hoplon to cover his own left side and the right side of the man to his left. This use of advanced armour and military combat technique was a system used throughout Greece. Sparta however was the only true professional army with no protective wall around their city, using only the men of the agoge to protect it and act as its wall. The rest of Greece although interested in overthrowing tyranny was not as dedicated to the army as the Spartans and perhaps distracted by their art, philosophy and economics, this however did bode them well in their naval skills as they were accomplished seamen having navigated the seas on their advanced triremes for their trading expeditions.
After almost fifty years of tyrant ruling in Ionia, a political movement began to ascend causing a revolt in 502BC. The banished leaders of Naxos sought help from the Ionian tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras. Aristagoras’ greed to gain more power led him to the Persian tyrant of Sardis, Artaphernes brother of King Darius. Artaphernes agreed to supply a fleet of two hundred ships, believing that Naxos could be captured under Persian ruling. In an unforeseen move the, Persian army was met by a Naxian defence. This manoeuvre stemmed from Persian Commander Megabates being made a fool of by Aristagoras, thus betraying him by warning the Naxians and allowing them to prepare for a defence. This first battle between East and West lasted four months and Aristagoras’ Persian army was forced to retreat.
Aristagoras now ousted from his tyrant post of Miletus went to Ionia declaring to be a true believer in democracy and received support from the Greeks whom were seeking independence. Aristagoras marched to gain troops to stand against Darius’ Persian rule and was joined by Athens and Euboea as true believers in democracy and thus sent twenty ships. The Ionian forces led by Aristagoras besieged Sardis, which was accidentally burnt to the ground in 498BC, although the citadel was not captured as Artaphrenes had defended it. After a number of battles the Ionians could not stand against the larger Persian army and after Aristagoras died the Ionians were defeated.
When Darius learned that the Athenians had taken part in the attack on Sardis he swore revenge that he would see the end of Greece. The Greek city states already having formidable land and sea forces in Athens and Sparta made the message loud and clear that Persia would be coming to threaten their independent societies with a life bound to slavery, something worth fighting for in the eyes of the Greeks.
Darius’ first attack on Greece was to be commanded by his brother in law Mardonius, to avenge the burning of Sardis. However, in 492BC the Persian army encountered Thracian tribes and their fleet was destroyed by a storm at Mount Athos. With the fatalities of the army and the losses of three hundred ships, Mardonius was forced to return to Persia to bear the bad news upon his King. Darius now full of rage in the spring of 491BC sent envoys demanding Earth and Water from all city states of Greece. ‘There is nothing in the whole world so unjust, nothing so bloody, as a tyranny’, (Herodotus. 1997. p290). Most northern Greek cities submitted, many with the aid of Persian bribes, yet in the eyes of the Athenians and Spartans there was no choice, but to refuse and both chose to dispel the envoys thus declaring war on Persia.
In 490BC a second attack was sent to Greece, this time across the , under the command of and . Bribes were given to the Greek people of Euboea to join their forces. Treachery was now becoming a common theme amongst the Greeks, all the time enlarging the Persian army and yet enthusing the Athenians and Spartans to fight for their freedom. An attack was now imminent upon Athens and so the Athenian General Miltiades went to the polemarch and said “Thou hast only to add thy vote to my side and thy country will be free, and not free only, but the first state in Greece”. (Herodotus. 1997. p344). Miltiades gained permission to lead the Greek army of ten thousand hoplites to defend its ground at Marathon where a former Athenian tyrant Hippias led the Persian troops. The Spartans were not able to assist at this battle until it was a full moon. (Herodotus. 1997).
The Persians were confident that their army of twenty five thousand would overwhelm the Greek resistance. When Militates laid his eyes on the enormous multi ethnic troops they faced, he had to devise an acute approach to offset their deficit in numbers. Using his excellent military logic he decided to strengthen the wings and leave the centre weaker, with only a few ranks, so on impact the Greek hoplites and lightly armoured Persian centre became a bloody brawl, this allowed the Greek wings to run around the Persians, capturing them in a pincer movement leading to a Persian retreat. Miltiades and his army then marched on to Athens to find their city gates had been opened, they had been betrayed. The Athenians were able to close their city gates and defeat the attacking Persians. The Persian army had been disorganised and thus lost a mighty number of their men compared to the Athenian numbers, which had been protected heavily by their incisive military tactics. This was a defeat that changed the psychology of the Greeks giving them confidence that the mighty Persians could be defeated yet it enraged King Darius.
Darius, angered and ashamed by what happened, began to plan a complete conquest of Greece, however at the age of sixty four the King of Kings died in 486BC. Xerxes the Persian heir ascended to become more fearsome than his father. He then took to establishing his power as a godlike King, suppressing the revolt in Egypt and Babylon, thus his Persian army grew. Preparations for an invasion were taking place in Greece where Themistocles, a mighty hoplite that fought at Marathon knew that a strong naval fleet was imperative to defend against the Persians. And in 483BC a massive stroke of luck occurred as the Athenians struck silver at the Laurium mines. Themistocles convinced the democratic counsel of Athens that the funds should be invested into building two hundred triremes, something that would be crucial to the triumph of the Greeks.
Late March 480BC Xerxes led his huge multicultural army towards Greece. When they reached Ilium, an offering of a thousand oxen was made to the Trojan goddess declaring that he would avenge those that were slain by the Greeks over “The face that launched a thousand ships”. Xerxes marched across the Hellespont Bridge, made by his slaves from boats bound with ropes; it took them seven days for the full might of his army to cross. With fear and bribes Xerxes capitulised the Greeks demanding Earth and Water from every city he passed, thus empowering his ego with the vast numbers of his forces. ‘what the exact number of the troops of each nation was I cannot say with certainty-for it was found to amount to one million seven hundred thousand men’. (Herodotus. 1997. p377). What Xerxes did not take into consideration for his multicultural superpower was fighting tactics, communication or armor. The Persian army was made up of many native tongues that were lightly armored with only short spears and wicker shields, inferior compared to that of the Greeks long spears and stronger hoplon shields.
Aware of the Persian expedition, the Greece's city states became united. A conference was held at Corinth in 481BC and it was decided that Sparta would lead the Greek troops in a defence against the Persians at Tempe. However Themistocles abandoned this expedition as the Northern Greek states accepted Persian bribes and therefore could not be trusted. Sparta and Athens decided to defend their southern states at the Hot Gates of Thermopylae as Xerxes and his troops had no choice but to march this way, en route to head south towards Athens.
At this narrow pass Xerxes army was met by Spartan hoplites of three hundred. The Spartans led by Leonidas were able to fight the Persians one by one as it was impossible in such a narrow pass for the full force of the Persian army to get through. This was an opportunity to show the true power of their passion for freedom and the strength of the agoge military training. The Athenian navy led by Themistocles arrived at Artemisium, the coast abreast of Thermopylae and here found that the gods had been on their side. Many of the Persian ships had been destroyed in the storms the previous night, leaving the sea littered with Persian corpses. Leonidas and his Spartan army were confident that by holding out at the narrow pass they would slowly be able to defeat the Persians by taking them on one by one. However the Persians desire to find some weakness took an opportunity when a traitorous native, Ephialtes took Xerxes elite fighters ‘The Immortals’ over a goat pass to the back of Leonidas’ army and catching the Spartans in a trap. The Spartans held for three nights until they could no longer defend against such a large force attacking now from both sides. Three hundred Spartans including King Leonidas died in honour at Thermopylae. Though the Greeks had been defeated again their confidence grew as the three hundred Spartans proved the Persian army, although mighty in numbers were weak in their form. The Greeks had their freedom to fight for and now they had faith that the mighty King Xerxes could be defeated.
Xerxes ego, now empowered by his victory against the Spartans, marched south to avenge his father’s death and to burn down Athens and the ancient Acropolis so all the independent minded Greeks could see their ancient city fall. Themistocles, at Xerxes eagerness for war was able to cleverly decide on a naval engagement at the straits of Salamis. This was a battle intelligently won by the Greeks as not only were they able to make use of their superior triremes, but again fighting on Greek territory and using a tactic taken from the enemy, Themistocles tricked the Persians into the narrow straits so they could take down the Persians one by one. It was Sicinnus, a bilingual man that was sent to tell Xerxes a lie, tricking the Persians into dividing up their fleet. Part of his fleet went to attack a believed exit of the Greeks and thus catch them off guard, others were sent to another potential exiting strait whilst the remaining ships were left in the opening of the straits, waiting the night in the choppy currents. When morning came the exhausted Persian oarsman were ordered to check if the Greek fleet had fled, once they entered the narrow straits they were caught in Themistocles trap able to use their naval supremacy to fight with order, triumphantly defeating the Persians.
Xerxes ashamed at what he had witnessed headed back to Persian land, leaving Mardonius and the remaining Persian army to finish off the Greeks. It was here at Plataea in the summer of 479BC that the final battle would end in victory for the Greeks with the Spartans sending their largest army ever, joined by the Peloponnesian allies and the remaining Athenian hoplites led by Pausanias they marched to liberate Greece. (Holland. Persian Fire. 2005). For eleven days there was a standoff with the Greeks refusing to be drawn into the open terrain as this would have given the Persian cavalry, a military advantage. Greek supplies were running low so Pausanias ordered a retreat, and with this news Mardonius sent his cavalry to attack the Greeks, the Persians were exhausted as they had to fight uphill and so were defeated. The Greeks no longer feared the Persians and with the last Persians returning home to Xerxes the invasion of Greece was over.
Although different in their social foundations, Athens and Sparta had broken away from the traditional tyranny ruling of one. The birth of Democracy had not long formed, yet people saw the worth in fighting for this society. Persian Kings believed they could use bribes, treachery and force to increase their numbers, however this became known and in the end the Greeks used this tactic to help them win the naval battle of Salamis. The Greeks had their freedom and families to fight for against succumbing to slavery and after defeating the Persians at the battle of Marathon by using their greater military tactics, this changed the psychology of the Greeks giving them confidence that their enemy could be defeated. The Persians continuous greed and belief that their numbers could beat the smaller Greek armies which led them to attack on Greek territory also gave the Greeks a massive advantage. In the end it was the Greeks superior military and naval forces, and commanders such as Miltiades and Themistocles that led them to beat the vast and almighty power of Persia. The Achaemenid greed and arrogance managed to overshadow its power and reach, thus culminating in its downfall of its empire.
“Who could foretell such anguish?
The seamen of the Hellenes
In Persia’s evil day
Brought forth their ships to battle,
And took our pride away”. (Aeschylus. 1961. The Persians. P150)
Bibliography
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