Preview

Reasons for the Defeat of the Persians in 490 B.C and 480 - 479 B.C

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2837 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Reasons for the Defeat of the Persians in 490 B.C and 480 - 479 B.C
“Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object” – Abraham Lincoln.

The Persian Wars were a series of destructive and malevolent battles which occurred in the time frame of 490B.C and 480 – 479B.C. The Greek victory over the Persians in the Persian Wars cannot be attributed to only one factor, more it was a commixture of factors. Such factors include unity, leadership, strategy, tactics and the pre-eminence of the Greek soldier. Each contributing factor was to play a distinctive and pivotal role in the various battles to come, which ultimately would lead to the subsequent demise of the Persians.

The Conflict among the Greeks and the Persians all began when Athens and Eretria made the fatal mistake of embroiling themselves in the ‘Ionian Revolt’. Consequently, the help given by the Athenians to the Ionians, according to Pamela Bradley – “drew upon them the vengeance of Darius, who now set in motion his first expedition against Greece”. This first expedition was to be known as the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. According to the Modern Historians Bengtson and Paul K. Davis, a Persian force of 20,000 led by the tyrant Hippias, landed at the Bay of Marathon, about 25.5 miles from Athens. A council was held in Athens to decide whether to march out and meet the Persians, or stay and defend the city. Miltiades, one of the ten Generals, persuaded the Athenians to ‘take food and March’. Miltiades, who had inside knowledge of Persian warfare, played a crucial role in the outcome of the Battle of Marathon in that it was his initiative that produced the success of the Greeks. “Miltiades’ words prevailed, and by the vote of Callimachus (the polemarch, or commander in chief)…the decision to fight was made” – Herodotus. In response, the Athenians marched out from Athens with a force of approximately 11,000 Greek hoplites (10,000 Athenian and 1,000 Plataean) to meet the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Battle of Thermopylae started out in the late summer of 480 B.C, the Spartan King Leonidas 1 held out for three days with a mere 300 hoplites against thousands upon thousands of the best Great King’s troops. Under thirty-five Persian generals, were assembled for the invasion of Greece, five whom where sons of the royal house. On the arrival of Xerxes at Thermopylae, he saw the that place was defended by a large of number of Spartans, and about seven thousand hoplites from other states, commanded by the Spartan King Leonidas.…

    • 1358 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • 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

    The battle of Thermopylae was the first between the Persians and Greeks during the Persian invasion of 480-479 BC. The Greek force was very small but was determined to make a stand against the huge Persian army. The battle of Thermopylae resulted in a massive loss to the Greeks as the Persian army heavily defeating them.…

    • 423 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    490 B.C. Persian leader, darius I, sent 25,000 men to fight 10,000 Greeks. The Persians were light armored and lacked training, they were no match to the Greeks disciplined phalanx Athens won a crushing victory killing more than 6000 men and only losing less than 200 men The battle took place in a plain north east of Athens called marathon Ionia of the coast of Anatolia is a place where Greeks have been long settled, however around 546 B.C. the Persians conquered the area.…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory 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
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Final Study Guide

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. The great Persian invasion under Xerxes was a crucial factor in cementing the ties of Greek ethnicity and a sense of separation from other peoples. It is no accident that the great playwright Aeschylus asked that his tombstone be engraved only with a mention of participation in the war and was content to omit his dramatic victories. What were the causes of this invasion? What was the Persian strategy? How did the Greeks respond to the threat? What were the crucial battles in the war and finally why did the Persians fail?…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Greek offensive, although contributed to Miltiades as a brilliant strategic decision, is an important historiographical issue for modern historians. Herodotus tells us that opinion among the Athenian commanders was divided with some opposed to attacking with their heavily outnumbered force. Others, especially Miltiades supported an offensive strategy. Miltiades is credited with persuading the war archon Callimachus through a stirring speech to cast his deciding vote in favour of an offensive strategy. Herodotus in his narrative has Miltiades say ‘If we refuse to fight, I have little doubt that the result will be bitter”. However it has also been suggested that the Greek offensive was based on the apparent absence of the Persian cavalry which Herodotus fails to mention. This is puzzling as most modern historians acknowledge that a Persian cavalry force had already disembarked from the fleet onto land and Herodotus said the Persians chose Marathon because it was “the best ground for cavalry to manoeuvre in.”. It has also been assumed that Miltiades deployed the Greek phalanx with strong wings and a weak centre, a strategy that secured…

    • 1132 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Explain the preparations of the Greeks and the Persians in the intervening war period of 490 BC – 480 BC.…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 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

    The Greeks during the Greco-Persian War manipulated terrain as a force multiplier in many battles; at the Battle of Marathon, Miltiades used the Vrana Valley to prevent a Persian march on Athens, at the Battle of Thermopylae, Leonidas used the narrow, Thermopylae pass to invalidate the Persian numbers, and at the Battle of Artemisium, Themistocles used the Artemisium Strait to aid in his battle against the Persian fleets.…

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Can you imagine four-thousand spartans charging down a hill while three-thousand Athenians ready their bows and release them all simultaneously while the string whips in the hard rain? The Peloponnesian War was one of the most fierce wars in Greece because many people fell in battle. From the South were the Spartans. Their forces had never been stronger with a reformed, military-based government. From the North was the Athenians who had just been through a war that had been won, and were still armed and battle ready, holding fortresses across Greece. The interactions that these two city states made against, with, and without them were so intense that even the fierce kings, Leonidas of Sparta and King Pericles Cleon Nicias of Athens, fell to each other's armies.…

    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The scary, confusing, and traumatic face of war brings about pain and heartache, but also justice and security for a nation. Sadly, wars have been fought ever since civilization emerged, bt today wars are fought to protect the innocent civilians from harsh rulers and to keep a sense of peace and justice in the world. Over time many wars have been fought by different people and for different reason; however, during ancient times battles were mainly fought to protect an empire or to help spread an empire across the land. The Persian Empire was the first largest empire ever seen and this was due to Cyrus the Great’s many conquests. Many of the Persian kings helped the Persian Empire to grow and flourish and they took their role as the Great King seriously, such as King Darius who helped establish a strong government.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Gert

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Have you ever thought about the ancient wars that occurred in the history of the ancient world? Some of the most important wars were the battles of ancient Greece and the Persian Empire. Ancient Greece and Persia were enemies at war, and they both fought many great battles to expand their empires in the ancient years of 1000-30 B.C.E. These two great nations differed in their political systems and their ability to be unified. Although these great nations differed greatly, they still had various similarities; of the similarities the two empires shared were their very strong and powerful military forces. The Persians and Greeks built two of the most successful and prosperous nations in history. The Persians and Greeks built two of the most successful and prosperous nations the world has ever known.…

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Of all the notable figures of the ancient world, Themistocles stands paramount as the Athenian general, whose abilities as a tactician and strategist thwarted the Persian invasion force, effectively saving the entire Greek culture from the armies led by Xerxes. Described by ancient writer Thucydides as ‘a man who showed an unmistakable natural genius… and deserves our admiration’, Themistocles was the most influential leader of the Athenian war effort against the Persians. It was he who realized that the Persian threat was imminent and catastrophic, and it was his radical advancement of Athenian sea power which allowed the Greeks to achieve victory over the Persians.…

    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I watched the movie “300” directed by Zack Snyder, which was based off of the battle of Thermopylae, between the Greeks and the Persians in 480 B.C. In the movie, Persians threaten to enslave and change the ways of the Spartan people. The leader of Sparta is King Leonidas which has 300 Spartan soldiers behind him in the battle against the Persians which is lead by Xerxes who thought of himself as a god in the movie. The 300 Spartan soldiers had to defend a thin path called Thermopylae also called the hot gates which they slaughtered 10,000 + men (Gills, 1).…

    • 857 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays