Preview

Herodotus Greek Invasion Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
777 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Herodotus Greek Invasion Analysis
Herodotus was a Greek historian whose work encompassed Western civilization involving conflicts between Greece and the Persian Empire. There were many differences between the Greeks and the Persians. For instance, the Greeks struggled to find freedom during 480 B.C – 400 B.C. They were determined to train their soldiers, especially Spartan warriors, to be brave, courageous, and strong for defensive purposes from Persian invasion. On the other hand, the Persians differed from the Greeks because they believed their Empire needed more power. The Persians exercised gaining absolute power under their leader, Xerxes, by invading civilization west of Asia to strengthen their Empire. Xerxes’ intentions for invasion were also based on vengeance from previous battles for expansion of their Empire. Xerxes motives for invading Greece were tyrannical, and the events that lead the Persian Empire western invasion were based on reckless intentions from a ruthless leader.
The Persian motive for gaining power began with
…show more content…
Xerxes wanted his people to follow his beliefs for expansion, and he allowed others to speak their mind after his proposition. Herodotus explained in history that not every Persian member of the Empire agreed with Xerxes proposition. Some Persians believed the Greeks did not deserve a free escape from their aid to the Ionians, and some believed the invasion would cause more Persian deaths from battle or disasters during the march to Greece. Xerxes heard all of his Persian’s opinions on his plan for invasion, and he ignored the opinions who opposed the march through Europe into Greece. This evidence from Herodotus story shows how Xerxes final decision was leadership through tyranny. His decision to invade was already determined before he allowed his people to speak their mind. This leadership is oppressive and unjust which was much different from the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The pass was about 330 feet in width. Leonities tactics helped him defend the large Persian fleet by creating a battle formation called Phalanx formation in which the men formed a wall of overlapping shields and protruded their spears out from the sides of the shields. This war tactic helped defend the persian attack because since the pass was only 330 feet wide Xerxes couldn't call his army to all attack at once they had to attack in waves so that made it easier for the spartans to hold off the massive persian army. Xerxes attacked greece because Darius originally attacked Greece because the Athenians gave support to the "Ionian Revolt" against Persian rule in Asia Minor. Darius's army was decisively defeated at the Battle of Marathon in the first attempt to invade Greece. After Darius died his son, Xerxes, vowed revenge for his father's defeat at the Battle of…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to Herodotus, the Greek army did not have enough troops to maintain the Persians troops so they were heavily outnumbered this lead to the Persians surround the Greek Force. A major factor on the defeat of the defeat of the Greeks was of the disunity of the Greek states.…

    • 423 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There were a number of factors that played into the allied greek victory over the Persian forces led by king Xerxes. The first was the Spartans' superior fighting ability and military training from childhood into early adulthood. Spartans, beginning late in the sixth century used a new system governing all of it's citizens from birth.…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The reasons for the Greek victory against the Persians in 490 to 480/479 BC was a mixture of exceptional leadership, skilful tactics and strategy, superior weapons and soldiers, and Greek unity. Strong leadership was the most important aspect of the Greek defence, as without the intelligence and bravery of the leaders, the Greeks would have been easily defeated. As a result of the excellent leadership; Greek tactics, strategy, and unity were greatly strengthened. Combined with their better weapons and soldiers, the Greeks held the advantage and seized opportunities at the perfect moment. Also, with each victory the Greeks grew more confident of success and defiant of the Persian attempts to invade. The poor organisation and disarray of their enemy led to an undermining of the Persian might and further improved Greece's chances of success.…

    • 2672 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Persians were a brutish people, who wanted nothing more than to conquer and ruin the Greek way of life. The Persians played the Greek city-states against one another in order to inhibit success against their attacks. The Ionian Greeks were conquered by these barbarians, and their way of life was threatened. The Greek's freedom was perishing, while the power of the Persian's continued to expand. The Persians were a tolerant empire with strong leaders and some autonomy though they restricted the Ionian Greek's autonomy to make their lives easier, then pitting the Greek city-states against each other in order to have influence within Greek culture once again, though the defeat of the Persians was a crucial victory for the Greeks, because…

    • 294 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Herodotus was an ancient historian born just after the reign of Xerxes. In his book The Histories, Herodotus doesn’t attack Xerxes but describes him in two ways. Firstly, a typical King whose subjects feared him and secondly, a ruler punished by the gods for his arrogant use of power. Herodotus uses the bridging of Hellespont and destroying the Greek temples as examples of Xerxes arrogance. Herodotus also writes about instances of Xerxes being short tempered. Examples of this are:…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Herodotus and Cabeza de Vaca were very influential writers in their day. They could not have been more apart in years though. Herodotus was before the birth of Christ and was one of the first writers to go into detail about events that had happened in the past. He went into great detail about wars and things like that. One of his greatest works was when he went into detail about the Egyptian culture and how they lived. Cabaza was one of the first Europeans to discover America and explore there. He and his crew were shipwrecked and taken slaves by Native Americans. Luckily Cabaza and some of his crew escaped and wandered America for eight years. He finally came in contact with his Spaniards…

    • 841 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Herodotus gives all ancient historians invaluable insights into colonisation in the archaic period, despite having his well known limitations. We must overall regard his work ‘The Histories’ as an equal to archaeological evidence and Thucydides’ work when it comes to studying colonisation in this period. Before I begin this essay, however, I must first quickly define two crucial terms. The term ‘colonisation’ (as we mean it during the during the archaic period) has for some reason been debated at great length by ancient historians, who seem determined to remove it as far away from the imperial meaning of the word as possible. I don’t see why, as both have glaring similarities and only minute differences. They both involve one kind of people moving in significant numbers to a new place (where either a different kind of people or no people were present) and establishing their way of life in said location. The only real differences being the literal translation of the word in Greek meaning ‘home away from home’ or ‘trading place’ and the imperial meaning of the word leaning more towards the subjugation of the local inhabitants rather than the replacement of them (which was more common in archaic Greece). The second term is ‘Archaic Period’ which in this essay will be defined as the period from 800 to 478BC.…

    • 2008 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The strive to become the great, powerful ancient Greek empire we came to know reflected in the choice of their heroes. Take Odysseus for example, he fought hard during the war of Troy, ultimately coming up with the master plan to win the war. But that wasn’t it, Odysseus faced even greater dangers and…

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In my thesis statement, I mentioned that Herodotus was famous and good about both the Greek military history and the Greek cultural history. I analyzed and interpreted what I read on the articles and books that I used while preparing the paper. So, I declared that Herodotus is valuable for both the Greek military history and the Greek cultural history. Do I have to choose only one of them to compare it with another one, and make one of them win at the end of the paper?…

    • 99 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rallying a massive army, the Persians aimed to conquer Greece and extend their empire. The Greek city-states, recognizing the imminent threat, formed an alliance led by the formidable Spartan King Leonidas I. The decision to defend Greece at Thermopylae marked a turning point in the Greco-Persian Wars, setting the stage for a historic and strategically significant confrontation.…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The beginning of the rule of Xerxes was the pivotal turning point of the Persian Empire. It is said that he was an unjust ruler, who was growing intolerant of the different people in his empire. In order to take out rebellions happening in the empire, he would destroy temples, kill religious leaders, and enslave some of his people. His rule is quite a contrast to that of those before him. He also started promoting the Persian gods above the others, something that was different to what other Persian kings did. What Amy Chua says at the end of this chapter pretty much sums up why the Persian Empire eventually…

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Spartan

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Xerxes was a Persian emperor who ruled many places such as Greece , he wanted to concur that land because the Athenian burned down the city of Sardis that was the major city in Persia. The Athenians were the people who lived in the Greek city of Athens. Xerxes was known to slaves and killing lots of innocent men and women. When xerxes tried to concur Greece, king Leonidas was very furious when a Persian messenger told him that to surrender or we will fight, the king was known to never surrender so he went to war with the Persians. They were prepared to fight to the death this was a suicide war for the Greeks but that didn’t stop them. The Spartans didn’t want Xerxes to take their people and slave them or kill them.…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Revolts had occurred in Persian Empire before, and when they occurred they were dealt with quickly and strongly. Rebellious states and individuals were punished to deter others in following their lead. The threat of military force combined with a knowledgeable and efficient ruling system, the Persian Empire was successfully held together. During Darius’ expedition into Europe in 513 – 512 BC, the Ionians played an important role by supplying ships for transportation and for the construction of boat bridges over the Bosporus and the River Danube. This expedition resulted in the extension of Persian influence into the western regions of the Black Sea, the Propontis, Thrace and Macedonia. Eventually, this extension of influence had a harmful effect on the trading activities of the Greek Ionians. After Cambyses’ invasion of Egypt in 525 BC, trade between Ionia and the Egyptian city of Naucratis stopped completely. Also, Darius’ conquest in Europe interrupted established Ionian trading centres, which had provided Ionia with grain, silver, timber and slaves. Around this time, Athenian goods began to appear in Ionian marketplaces, the Ionian Greeks lost their dominant trade position in the Aegean and Black Seas and this resulted in their economic wealth declining. However, according to Herodotus, the direct cause of the Ionian revolt was the ambitions and plots of the tyrant Aristogoras. Although, it is unlikely that the ambitions of one man caused the Ionians to take such drastic action against the Persians. A brief outline of Herodotus’ accounts follows; In approximately 500 BC a group of exile aristocrats from Naxos pleaded with Aristogoras to help them return to control, in agreement, Aristorgoras advised them to seek help from Persians also. He advised they approach Artaphernes, satrap of Sardis. Also, after consultation with Darius, Artaphernes agreed to help reinstate the exile and supplied 200 triremes from the Greek…

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Despite their huge differences, both Sparta and Athens united to fight the Persians together. In the book The Portable Greek Historians by M. I. Finley, Herodotus records, “The Greeks who at this spott awaited the coming of Xerxes were the following: from Sparta, three hundred men-at-arms; from Arcadia, a thousand Tegeans and Mantineans, five hundred of people; a hundred and twenty Orchomenians, from the Arcadian Orchomenus’ and a thousand from other cities,” (Herodotus, The Persian Wars 7.202)....Herodotus continues, “The sea was in good keeping, watched by the Athenians, the Aeginetans, and the rest of the fleet,” (Herodotus, The Persian Wars 7.203). In addition, Herodotus says, “The various nations had each captains of their own under whom they served; but the one to whom all especially looked up, and who had the command of the entire force, was the Lacedaemonian, Leonidas,” (Herodotus, The Persian Wars 7.204). Based off Herodotus’ statements, all the Greeks were waiting upon Xerxes’ arrival. They included Sparta, the strongest military, Arcadia, Tegeans, Mantineans, and more. Also, the Athenians, who had the strongest navy were also accompanied by other Greeks while awaiting the arrival of the Persian navy. These records by Herodotus show the concept of Greek unity or panhellenism as Greeks from all different poleis come together to fight the stronger Persian army who were considered barbarians or outsiders. The Persians were coming to conquer Athen but all other Greek poleis refused to let Athens battle alone. Even having significant differences the Greeks appointed Spartan king Leonidas as head of command. They recognized that Sparta had the best army at the time and Leonidas was the best choice for command. Athenians and Spartans have very significant differences but in this battle they united…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays