Chapter 6
East versus West: The Persian Wars
In This Chapter
Expanding the Persian Empire
Joining the multi-faceted Persian army
Fighting the big battles: Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea
People in the ancient world experienced many and varied wars. Usually the fighting was more of a local thing, with neighbours acting on long-term grievances. Occasionally one city or region attempted to bring another city under its rule. Some wars, however, were massive, international events. The Persian Wars certainly come under this category.
Struggles between the west and the east are a big feature of history. The Persian Wars were followed by Alexander the Great’s invasion of Asia Minor in the fourth century BC, the struggles of Alexander’s successors afterwards, and eventually ongoing trouble between the Roman Empire and the Persians’ successors, the Parthians.
Today, because the differences between east and west continue to cause friction and often escalate into confrontation, the Persian Wars of the fifth century BC have never seemed so relevant. This chapter introduces the ancient Persians and examines the problems they had with the Greeks.
Powering Up the Persians
The Persian Empire came into being in the sixth century BC, around the same time that Athens was going through the changes that eventually resulted in the beginnings of democracy (refer to Chapter 4). Much of the empire’s early success can be attributed to King Cyrus and his progeny.
Taking charge with Cyrus
Within a period of about 40 years, the hugely successful Persian king Cyrus the Great took control of all the territory between Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) and the Asian Steppe (modern Russia to the east of the Black Sea). A people called the Medes previously held most of this territory, but Cyrus effectively defeated them when he occupied their capital of Ecbatana in 549 BC.
Cyrus established this new Persian empire based around the city of Susa on what became known as the Persian Gulf (modern-day Iraq). As Figure 6-1 shows, this empire was absolutely vast, covering a huge geographical area of almost three million square miles.
|
Figure 6-1: The Persian Empire circa 500 BC. |
|
Having gained control of such a vast area, Cyrus began to look to the west to further consolidate his territory and gain control of all the trade routes that passed through his empire to the Mediterranean Sea.
In fact, trade was what first brought the Persian Empire into contact with the Greek world. In 546 BC Cyrus fought and defeated Croesus of Lydia. During the Dark Ages, Greeks had established many new towns and settlements in Lydia (refer to Chapter 3 for more on Greek movements in the Dark Ages).
With Cyrus’s victory over Croesus, the mighty new Persian power was less than a week away by sea from the Greek mainland. Furthermore, Cyrus divided Asia Minor and the newly conquered Greek mainland into provinces that were each run by a satrap – a local lord who controlled the area and its people and collected revenues, which he sent back to the king. The Ionian Greeks were now under foreign control.
The Greeks of the mainland were shocked to become subjects of the Persian Empire. The Ionian Greeks pondered how to respond to their new rulers, and eventually the Spartans acted. They sent an embassy to Cyrus and ordered him to leave the Ionian Greek cities alone. Cyrus’s puzzled reply was, ‘Who are the Spartans?’ Cyrus did nothing and ignored them but confrontation with mainland Greece was inevitable.
Cyrus continued to expand the empire by attacking and conquering the fabulous ancient city of Babylon, which had remained independent of his rule to this point. After he was killed during a war in the north of the territory, Cyrus’s successors continued to expand and refine the empire, and in 512 BC the Persian king Darius extended the empire’s reach as far as Thrace and Macedonia.
.jpg)
Alas! It was a glorious and good life of social order that we enjoyed, while our aged, all-powerful, guileless, unconquerable King god-like Darius ruled the land. Firstly, we displayed glorious armies, which everywhere administered tower-like cities.
Rebelling with the mainland: The Ionian revolt
Greece and Persia eventually came to blows. The Persian army was much larger and more cosmopolitan than the mainland Greeks (see the nearby sidebar ‘Assembling a league of nations: The Persian army’), but the main difference between the two armies was that the Greeks generally wore heavier armour and fought in a closely regulated formation (refer to Chapter 5) and the Persian troops donned light armour and were armed in a variety of ways.
The Persian army’s mix of troops was one of its strengths, but it also inspired rebellion. During Darius’s campaign in Thrace at the end of the sixth century, the contingent from Ionian Greece saved the Persian forces from defeat. The Greeks took their success in the Thrace campaign as a sign of Persian weakness and saw an opportunity to revolt.
A Greek called Aristagoras, who Darius had appointed to rule all of Ionia from Miletus, travelled to the Greek mainland to canvas support from the Ionian Greeks. The Spartans – surprisingly turning down an opportunity to be difficult and to fight – refused to join Aristagoras. The Spartan king Kleomenes apparently felt that the Persian Gulf was too far to travel for the cause of Greek liberation.
Eventually Aristagoras gained support from Athens and the city of Eretria. The revolt initially met with success, but the rebels couldn’t sustain the uprising against Darius’s massive forces. Darius had a whole empire to call on and could routinely devote 50,000 men to the campaign (see the nearby sidebar ‘Assembling a League of Nations’). Eventually in 494 BC Darius’s army attacked Miletus and razed it to the ground. The revolt ended, and Aristagoras fled to Thrace where he was eventually captured and killed while trying to drum up support for a fresh revolt. The campaign had taken over five years and Darius blamed the Greeks for it. Although the Ionian Greeks had caused the problems, Darius felt that it was the states on the Greek mainland which had been behind the uprising. His focus would now be on extending his empire west across the Mediterranean.
Assembling a league of nations: The Persian army
The Persian Empire was huge and included many cultures; consequently its army was very diverse. Here are some of the main troops:
Persian ‘immortals’: These full-time soldiers were of Persian origin and were the king’s elite troops for ceremonial as well as battle purposes. They were known as the ‘immortals’ because of their incredible courage and fighting prowess – they fought like gods. There were always 10,000 of them and whenever their numbers dipped after a battle, more troops were brought up. The immortals’ main weapons were the bow (which wasn’t very effective against heavy Greek armour; see Chapter 5), short spear, and short sword. They also used large wicker shields called gerrons that were fairly light and quite manoeuvrable although not as strong as Greek bronze.
Mede cavalry: Lightly armed cavalry was the Persians’ other main force in battle. The cavalry’s main weapons were the bow and javelins, which the horsemen fired while riding at speed. Very impressive.
Phrygian spearmen: Recruited from Asia Minor, these were very fast spear throwers who were also highly manoeuvrable. They wore hardly any armour apart from a reinforced wicker helmet and a small round shield.
Ethiopian troops: The vast Persian Empire even drew troops from Africa. These troops were generally referred to as Ethiopians, even though they had nothing to do with the modern country. The soldiers were very simply armed with a bow and spear and wore no armour at all.
Going the Distance: The Battle of Marathon
In 490 BC, four years after the fall of Miletus, Darius’s army crossed the Aegean Sea intent on the invasion and conquest of mainland Greece. The Persians had sent agents ahead of them to scout the land and try to arrange support from some Greek states. They’d been successful and the city of Eretria on the island of Euboia allowed the Persian army to land. From Eretria, the mainland was a simple trip by boat, landing in north-east Attica at the bay of Marathon only about 40 kilometres from Athens.
With the massive Persian army perilously close to Athens, the Athenians had to decide whether to stay in the city and face a siege in the hope that the other Greek cities would come to their aid, or go outside the city walls and march out to meet the Persians in battle.
.jpg)
Even though Pheidippides delivered his message, the Spartans didn’t come to the Athenians’ defence against the Persian invasion. The Spartans were celebrating a religious festival and refused to leave, so the Athenians were on their own. Led by the general Miltiades, they advanced to attack.
The battle: First blood to Athens
In the battle between the Athenians and Persians, the Persians were overwhelming favourites. They had a force of around 25,000 men including 5,000 cavalry. By contrast the Athenians mustered only slightly less than 10,000 hoplites (see Chapter 5 for more on the hoplites) and no cavalry at all.
The Persians made camp close to the sea in the bay of Marathon with a large marsh behind them and they marched out toward the small Athenian army with the sea to their left, as Figure 6-2 illustrates.
|
Figure 6-2: Military manoeuvres at the battle of Marathon, 490 BC. |
|
Additionally the Persians sent some infantry and all their cavalry by ship to Athens. The odds were almost impossible: The Athenians had to beat the Persians near Marathon and then dash back to Athens ahead of the Persian strike forces to defend their city.
The dire situation forced a bold Athenian strategy. As the Persians advanced, the Athenians ran towards the centre of its infantry line. Despite the fact that they were in arrow range, the Athenians’ heavy armour protected them. The centre was the Persian army’s weakest point, and it began to crumple. Many Persians were shocked and began to flee – some into the marsh and others back to their ships.
Instead of pursuing the Persians, the Athenians held their discipline and set off on an amazing forced march back to Athens, despite the fact that they’d all just fought in one of the hardest and most nerve-racking battles of their lives. They made it back about an hour before the Persian strike fleet. When the Persians arrived they saw they were outnumbered, and sailed back across the Mediterranean empty handed.
In the final reckoning the Persians lost about 6,000 men to the Athenians’ 192. These few Athenian dead were buried with great ceremony in a mound that still exists. It was a magnificent victory – but the Persians would be back (see the following section ‘Having Another Go: Greece versus Persia II’).
Athens hits the jackpot
Marathon was a tremendous victory for Athens, but what followed was almost as important.
In 483 BC the discovery of silver in the mines at Laureion in Attica immediately brought fabulous wealth to Athens. This new wealth was a huge boom for the middle classes, but eventually the Athenians decided to spend their riches on something they desperately needed – a fleet.
The encounter with Persia showed the Athenians that mainland Greece was truly at the mercy of the Persian navy. By 480 BC the Athenians constructed a fleet of nearly 200 ships (Chapter 5 has more on Greek naval warfare). The motivator for this was the arkhon (elected official) Themistocles who famously told the Athenians to ‘Lay hold of the sea’.
The people took him at his word as further fighting with Persian forces demonstrated.
Having Another Go: Greece versus Persia II
Darius wasn’t around long enough to hold a grudge against the Athenians; he died in 486 BC. However, he was succeeded by his son Xerxes who was absolutely determined to gain revenge for his father’s defeat and began to assemble a massive army and fleet.
Regrouping in Greece
The Greeks knew Xerxes would return to Athens and realised that a combined effort was required if the Greek mainland was ever to defeat the Persian forces.
In 481 and 480 BC, representatives of the major Greek cities held two big conferences at which 31 Greek states pledged to put aside their differences and join together against Persia. They erected a monument at the sacred site of Delphi as a visual symbol of their new unity. The conference also voted that the Spartans would have overall command of the joint army. For the fractious Greeks, this level of agreement was amazing.
Heating up at Thermopylae and Artemision
As the Greek troops made their way south, they had to choose a strategic location to make a stand against the Persians. Eventually the leaders chose a small pass in the southern Greek mainland near the mountains and the sea. The location was the famous natural sulphur springs – Thermopylae, literally meaning the ‘hot gates’. It was a good choice because if they wanted to avoid going through the narrow pass, the Persians would have to take a massive diversion. Either way, they’d be held up until the Greek forces further south were fully organised.
Having chosen Thermopylae as the point at which to stand the Greeks sent their new fleet, which was mostly composed of the new Athenian ships (see the earlier section ‘Athens hits the jackpot’), to Artemision, a promontory sticking out of the north-east corner of the Euboean peninsular where they hoped to stop the Persian fleet from joining up with its army.
The famous 300
Barely 7,000 Greek troops fought at Thermopylae, all under the command of the Spartan king Leonidas. The fact that only 300 of the troops were Spartan made the Greeks doubt the level of the Spartans’ commitment. However, Leonidas chose the narrowest point of the pass to defend and, incredibly, he and his troops held on for two days against wave after wave of Persian attacks. Although other Greeks took part in this battle, the 300 Spartans were at the forefront, thus the famous ‘300’ of the film!
After several attacks were rebuffed with high Persian casualties, Xerxes paid a local goatherd for information about an alternative route. This was another, even narrower track that took a longer way around the mountains. Xerxes sent a large group of his army’s 10,000 immortals (see the sidebar ‘Assembling a league of nations: The Persian army’) on this alternate route in an effort to get behind the Greeks.
Historians don’t know why, but Leonidas dismissed the vast majority of the Greek troops, leaving only his 300 Spartans and a few others. After a heroic defence that slowed up the Persian advance, Leonidas and his men were eventually overwhelmed. The Persians advanced swiftly further south but the hold up had been vital.
Stranger, go tell the Spartans that we lie here
Obedient to their laws.
Simonides’s lines were probably the ultimate expression of the Spartan ideals of bravery (refer to Chapter 5). Leonidas and his men had taken on a fight that they knew they could never win but had stayed and fought to the last man ‘obedient to their laws’.
Meanwhile, at Artemision
While the battle at Thermopylae raged, the weather along the coast at Artemison was stormy, causing the Persians to lose large numbers of ships on the rocks. The Persians were further surprised by the Greek fleet, which captured several more of its ships. What remained of the Persian fleet sailed on south with the intention of meeting up with Xerxes and the land force before launching an attack on Athens.
Seeking safety in Salamis
The Greeks did exceptionally well at Thermopylae and Artemision to hold up such a massive army but it was nothing like a victory. The city of Athens was in a tricky position after these battles because it was left very exposed. The huge Persian army was moving south and looking to attack the city. The arkhon Themistocles realised that the city could never hold out against such vast numbers, so he persuaded the citizens to put their faith in the Athenian fleet.
The citizens of Athens abandoned their city and fled to the island of Salamis, and the Athenian fleet positioned itself near the island. The Persians took their chance and sacked (looted and vandalised) the empty city as the fleet travelled south. The Persian fleet then moved around the peninsular of Attica and approached the island of Salamis, but to get any farther they had to get past the Athenian fleet.
The Persians still had the advantage of numbers, but the Greeks countered with stealth and deception. The Greeks used a brilliant five-step plan:
1. They sent a false message to Xerxes the Persian king, telling him that the Greek fleet intended to flee north-east to the Isthmus of Corinth. Xerxes fell for the message and sent the Egyptian section of his fleet off to block the fake move.
2. At dawn the Greek fleet put to sea and headed north into the narrow channel between Salamis Island and the mainland. A small section of ships from Corinth went south to defend against the Egyptians who were soon to find out that they’d been conned.
3. Another small section of Greek ships hid in the small bay called Ambelaki to the south of the narrow channel.
4. The massive Persian fleet, thinking that the Greeks were fleeing, followed the Greeks into the narrow channel. The Athenians turned to face them, and the Persians were stuck. The Greeks rammed the Persian ships, and the Persian commander was one of the first casualties. Chaos ensued.
5. The small fleet hidden to the south caught the Persians as they tried to flee back down the channel, and the Corinthians (remember them from Step 2?) stopped the Egyptians from coming back to help.
The Persian fleet was routed (utterly devastated and incapable of recovery). They lost about 200 ships to the Greeks’ 40.
Entering the endgame: The battle of Plataea
After the events near Salamis, the Persian fleet was in pieces, which meant its army was cut off from supplies. As September came – and with it the end of the sailing season – Xerxes decided to head north for the winter to rest his army and spend time organising supplies. In the event, Xerxes decided he’d had enough and headed back to Asia Minor. (He was probably worried that the Ionians may revolt again; see the earlier section ‘Taking charge with Cyrus’.) Xerxes left the army under the control of his son-in-law Mardonios, who led the army south in the spring of 479 BC.
This battle really was the endgame – the Greeks faced the Persians on land in open battle. All or nothing.
The Athenians evacuated their city once more, and the Persians sacked it again. However, this second attack convinced the Spartans to finally commit to the fight (since Thermopylae their support had been in doubt). In command of the joint force was a young Spartan named Pausanias who was acting as regent for the young son of Leonidas (Leonidas was killed at Thermopylae). Pausanias led the army north into the lands around the town of Plataea.
The Persian recruitment drive
Although the Spartans had joined up again, many other Greek states refused to rally to the Athenian cause. As the Persians moved south, they were joined by contingents from Thebes, Thessaly, Phocris, and Locris, amongst others. None of the new recruits thought that the southern Greeks could possibly win. They figured they should throw in their lot with the Persians because it was odds on that the Persians would soon be their new overlords.
The battle of Plataea: A time for heroes
For a period of about two weeks, the Greeks manoeuvred around the countryside, avoiding the attacks of the strong Persian cavalry. Pausanias grew very frustrated and tried to work the Greek army into a position to attack. He attempted to make the move at night, but the plan ended in total confusion. As dawn broke the Greeks were halfway to their destination of Plataea. Mardonios, the Persian commander, sensed that this was the Persians’ moment and he led an attack.
But Mardonios got it wrong. Although the Greeks had become a little split up, their hoplite training (refer to Chapter 5) kicked in as soon as they saw the Persians begin to attack. The Greeks assumed a defensive formation, which limited the effectiveness of the Persian archers’ onslaught.
When the two lines of infantry came together, the Persians – despite their superior numbers – couldn’t cope with the heavily armed hoplites. Slowly but surely the Greeks forced the Persians back. Mardonios was killed and soon afterwards the Persians broke, fleeing the field. As the Persians fled, the Spartans hunted and killed them by the thousands.
If dying nobly is the greatest part of valour, to us above all others Fortune has granted this. For after striving to crown Greece with freedom, we lie here enjoying praise that will never age.
Fighting the forgotten battle – Mykale
What happened next often gets a little bit lost in history. Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea are always thought of as the biggest battles of the Persian Wars whereas it was actually at Mykale that the last act was played out.
As what remained of the Persian fleet made its way home across the Mediterranean the Greeks followed in hot pursuit and they quickly caught up. After what had happened at Salamis (see the preceding section ‘Seeking safety in Salamis’), the Persians weren’t keen to fight at sea, so they beached their fleet at the promontory of Mykale opposite the island of Samos, where they were joined by some Persian forces that had stayed behind in Asia Minor.
The Greeks, commanded by the other Spartan king Leotykhidas (each year Sparta had two kings), stormed the beach and burned the Persian fleet. As the Persians desperately tried to defend themselves, the Ionians who were part of Persian army swapped sides and helped the Greeks.
After Mykale, the Persian defeat was total, and the Persian Wars were at an end.
Heralding the Real Winner: Athens
Although victory in the Persian Wars benefited all of Greece, one city-state emerged particularly strong. Yes, the Spartans fought heroically to defend Greece, but the historian Herodotus gives credit for defeating the Persians to Athens:
And so anyone who said the Athenians were the saviours of Greece would be perfectly correct . . . they chose that Greece remain free and they roused all of Greece that hadn’t medised [become a Persian ally] and played the main part, after the gods, in driving off the King.
Athens’ new fleet was without equal anywhere in the Greek world and its role at the head of the resistance made the Athenians very influential in all political and economic decisions to come. Athens’ position ushered in a new era of empire building.