The Persian Wars: Birth of Western Civilization

The story of how the Greeks won independence from the Persian Empire.

Darius the Great

By the end of the Archaic period, the mighty Persian Empire was the Mediterranean’s dominant power. Their borders stretched from India to Egypt, and even into Central Asia. The Greek world was at its northern frontier, and the Persians attempted to conquer Greece. 

Thanks to the Histories of Herodotus, a Greek historian, the Persian Wars are some of the best-known conflicts in ancient history. The defeat of Persia, which secured the independence of mainland Greece, marked the very beginning of the much-acclaimed Classical period. 

The Persian Wars, fought from 499 to 479 BC, left an indelible mark on the history of Western civilization.

The Persian Empire

The Eastern Greeks were well-accustomed to being ruled by foreign monarchies. They had been conquered by Lydia, and later by the Persians in 546 BC. These conquerors were not particularly harsh, and the Eastern Greeks of Asia Minor enjoyed cultural and economic prosperity. It became the hotbed of Greek intellectualism. Nearly all of the earliest Greek philosophers came from Asia Minor, especially from Ionia.

The Persians typically ruled their foreign colonies through satraps. Satraps were Persians or Medes who exerted authority through local magistrates. They tended to favor one-man tyrannies, rather than democracies or oligarchies. Darius I entrusted the western part of Persia’s empire to the autocratic control of his brother. This arrangement brought great peace to the region. 

Ionian Revolt

The Eastern Greeks tended to despise their foreign domination at the hands of the Persians. 

In 499, the Ionians rose up against their Persian occupiers, in what became known as the Ionian Revolt. It was the brainchild of two specific individuals, Histaios and Aristagoras. 

Histaios was the tyrant ruler of Miletus. He worked with Darius on a military campaign, gaining the Persian ruler’s respect. Fearing the ambitions of Histaios, Darius sent him to Susa, leaving Miletus in the hands of Histaios’ second-in-command, a man named Aristagoras.

Aristagoras used the opportunity to annex Naxos. He expanded Persia’s sovereignty into the Aegean, with the support of Darius’ brother Artaphernes. The Naxian campaign turned into a disaster. At the behest of his mentor, Aristagoras decided to revolt on behalf of the Greeks. To defeat the seemingly invincible Persian Empire, he knew he needed all the help he could get. He toured mainland Greece, seeking assistance from the various city-states. 

Sparta was Greece’s strongest military power, but they rebuffed his request. Although he failed to bribe King Kleomenes of Sparta, he did manage to secure support from Athens. Aristagoras and his men burned down Sardis, but they were defeated near Ephesus. Around 497 BC, Aristagoras was killed as he attempted to reorganize his men in Thrace. The revolt was over, with Persia as the victor. 

The Athenian contingent returned home around 498 BC. Histaios returned to Ionia, claiming he would end the Greek revolt. Instead, he began to actually lead the rebels. The Persians prevailed by 494 BC. 

Darius’ revenge

The Persians were outraged by Athens’ assistance of the Ionian Revolt. According to Herodotus, Darius swore revenge to punish the Greeks. Darius authorized his nephew Artaphernes and his satrap Datis to invade Greece. 

The Persians arrived at Marathon, in northern Attica. To defeat the imperial forces, the Greeks responded by leading an ambitious charge at the Persian archers and calvary. The hoplites were well-armored. The Persians, on the other hand, wore wooden armor and shields. The Persians tried to land in the south, but this was anticipated and beaten back by the Greeks. 

The Athenians, aided by their allies in Plataea, won an unexpected, stunning victory against the Persians. This prompted a messenger, a man named Philippides, to ran 26.2 miles to Athens to announce this glorious Greek victory at the Athenian Agora. He then promptly died, according to legend. This is the mythological source of the modern-day marathon race. 

The famous Battle of Marathon became a decisive moment in Western history. Even at the time, the Athenians understood the significance of this battle. Aeschylus, the famous playwright, fought in this battle. 

Xerxes returns

Darius died, and was succeeded by Xerxes in 486 BC. Xerxes, aged 32, wanted to have at least one major conquest in his reign. He set his eyes on Greece. This was a way of bolstering his political legitimacy, and living up to his father’s legacy. He raised thousands of men and ships. News of this came to the Greeks, who made their own preparations for another invasion. 

Some Greeks did not take the Persian threat seriously. But Themistocles, an Athenian general, was deeply alarmed. He worked tirelessly to persuade the people of Athens of the Persian menace. He convinced the Athenians to use their silver mines to finance the creation of 200 new triemes. Ostensibly, it was done to inflict revenge against Aegina, who had recently defeated Athens. In reality, the Athens were preparing for war against Persia. 

Athens created an impressive navy, which made them among the most powerful city-states in Greece. This had economic benefits as well. Athenians gained employment through the construction of shipyards and port jobs at Piraeus. When the Persians arrived in 480 BC, Athens’ newly created fleet was only barely prepared. 

Xerxes sent messengers to Greece, who announced the king’s intention to accept the surrender of most Greek cities, except Athens and Sparta. Sparta had killed the Persian messenger, which is depicted in the famous kicking scene from the movie 300. The Persians also had bad blood with Athens, which had earlier supported the Ionian Revolt. Those were two powers that Xerxes refused to negotiate with. Sparta, with naval support from Athens, rallied the other Greek cities to wage a war of independence against the Persian foe. Many Greek cities stayed neutral. Some of them, such as Thebes, actually allied with Persia. 

Persia invades Greece

When the Persian army crossed into Europe, it appeared unstoppable. It was about 300,000 men, coming in 1,300 ships. It was an unbelievably massive number. 

The Greeks had sent a mission to slow down Persias’ advance into northern Greece, but had failed. The Persians routed the Greeks without a fight, forcing them to retreat back southward. The Hellenic League did not confront their Persian invaders until they already reached central Greece. 

Battle of Thermopylae 

As the Persians advanced southward, the Greeks decided to take a stand at Thermopylae. They were backed by Athens’ nearby navy at Artemision. 

300 Spartans, under the command of King Leonidas, fought against their Persian enemies. Hence, the film 300. In total, there were about 7,000 Greeks at this seminal battle. For three days, the Greeks brushed back the monstrous Persian army, but a local traitor revealed a secret goat path that exposed the Greeks’ vulnerable rear. Leonidas and his Spartans stayed behind to cover the retreat of the other Greeks, dying in the process. 

The Athenians fought an impressive stand of their own at the Battle of Artemision. Although it was indecisive, the battle was demoralizing for Persia because of the empire’s vastly superior numbers. 

After the Persians took over Thermopylae, the Greeks were forced to retreat to the isthmus of Corinth. It was a narrow area that could be defended easier. This meant that the Greeks had to flee Attica. Temples were all destroyed. The Athenians began to pressure their allies to resist harder. They threatened to resettle in Italy or Sicily, which would leave the other Hellenic states vulnerable to Persian predation. 

Battle of Salamis

Themistocles worked covertly with Greek spies, and delayed his retreat long enough to confront the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. 

In late September 480 BC, the Greek fleet managed to defeat the much larger forces of the Persians. The Persians had been weakened by storms, as well as by the ambivalence of the Ionians to fight their fellow Greeks. Nearly half of the Persian fleet was wiped out by those storms. In close-range fighting, the Persians’ numerical advantage became less important. Greek ships had heavier hulls, and the hoplite soldiers had better armor. 

The Greek triumph at Salamis was enough to convince Xerxes to abandon his attempted conquest. 

Plataea and Mycale 

The Greeks followed up their victory at Salamis with two more confrontations at Plataea and Mycale in August 479 BC. These were decisive battles at land and sea. The two battles happened on the same day, according to Herodotus. The Greeks won, crippling the Persian army in Europe and the Persian fleet in Asia. 

The Battle of Plataea was the more significant of the two. It was a sloppy, poorly planned brawl after a lengthy standoff. Both Athens and Sparta did well, inflicting major casualties, including Persian commander Mardonius. 

The Greek fleet struck at the Battle of Mycale, in Asia Minor, crushing the Persian fleet on the beach. 

The Greeks proceeded to liberate Thessaly and Macedon from Persian control. This was done thanks to Athens’ extensive naval operations.

Post-war Persia

With Persia defeated, Sparta and its Hellenic League allies simply disbanded. Athens, on the other hand, formed its own defensive alliance, called the Delian League. The Athenians continued to campaign against the Persians for years, inflicting losses in the Aegean and the coast of Asia Minor. Xerxes was assassinated in 465 BC. 

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