The Persian War: The Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian war was fought between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta, from 431 B.C. through 404 B.C.The Persian war was a series of battles between the Greek city states and the Persians. Both of these wars were significant to the unity and disunity of the Greeks during the fourth century. Throughout these wars, it at times brought city states together and other times created turmoil within Greek society. Between 490 and 479 B.C.E the Persians wanted to place their own tyrants to rule over Athens. Athenians did not want their city to be taken over so Athens and many other neighboring city states united and fought side by side against the Persians in battles during the Persian war. The first battle was on the beach of Marathon. The Persians planned to invade Athens, but Athens defeated the Persians.
This later turned out to be a great decision for the people of Athens. Not only did the navy unify the rich and poor men in the city of Athens as an army, it strengthened the city as a whole and placed Athens at the “top of the totem pole”. When the Persians decided to invade again the Athenians would be even stronger than before. It was a decade later when Xerxes, the new great king of Persia Attacked Athens. Though many of the poleis decided not to join in this second battle it still is amazing to see the Greek city states unite for the greater good .Spartans led the army and defeated the Persians again. This war unified the Greek city states and showed them that they could defeat the strongest of opposing empires when they worked together. These victories boosted Greeks Self-confidence and “self-image” (Levack, The West, 2014). These two instances are some of the first steps of Greek city states acting as a country rather than small independent