Greece and Persia Chapter 7, Lesson 3

Persia’s Empire While Athens was going through Political changes, the Persians were building a powerful empire in Southwest Asia. Persia is located in what is now southwestern Iran. Early Persians were warriors and cattle herders from grasslands in central Asia. Once they settled in the highlands of Persia, they were ruled by other people. Eventually, a dynasty of kings brought the Persians together into a powerful kingdom. In the 500s B.C., a talented king known as Cyrus the Great built a strong Persian army. Using this army he created an empire that would be the largest of the ancient world.

Creating An Empire During the 540s B.C., the Persians swept through nearby lands. The Persians took control of Mesopotamia, Syria, Judah, and the Greek city-states around Anatolia and began to rule them. Cyrus held his empire together by treating his conquered peoples fairly. They were allowed to keep their languages, religions and law. He even let the exiled Jews in Babylon return to their homeland.

Creating An Empire After Cyrus, other Persians rulers continued to expand the empire. They took Egypt, western India, and lands to the northwest of Greece. Their land stretched almost 3,000 miles from east to west. (roughly the size of the U.S. today) They worked on improving the roads begun by the Assyrians to link the entire empire. The most important road was known as the Royal Road and was 1,500 miles from Persia to Anatolia.

Creating An Empire Travelers could attain necessary supplies such as food, water, and fresh horses at roadside stations along the route. Using this road messengers could travel from Persia to Anatolia in just seven days. The same journey before the road’s construction would take 3 months.

Persian Government As the empire expanded it made it more difficult to manage. Darius I, who ruled from 522 to 486 B.C., reorganized the government in order to make it more efficient. He divided the empire into provinces called satrapies (the territory governed by an official known as a satrap [meaning: Defender of the Kingdom]) who collected taxes, judged legal cases, managed the police, and recruited soldiers for the army.

Persian Government Persia maintained a full-time, paid, professional army. Greek only had citizens serve during times of war. The best fighters in the Persian army were the 10,000 soldiers who were trained to guard the king. They were known as the immortals because when one died. Another took his place quickly.

Who Was Zoroaster? At first the Persians worshipped many gods. (polytheistic). Sometime around 600 B.C., a religious teacher names Zoroaster preached for a monotheistic religion. Most Persians accepted his religion known as Zoroastrianism. Zoroaster taught that their was only one supreme god known as Ahura Mazda, or “Wise Lord.”

Who Was Zoroaster? Ahura Mazda was the creator of all things and the leader of the forces of good. Zoroaster believed that evil existed in the world. People were free to choose between good and evil, but at the end of time good would prevail. Zoroastrian teachings, prayers, and hymns (sacred songs) were written down in a holy book.

Who Was Zoroaster? Due to Zoroastrianism, the Persians began to view their monarchy as a sacred institution or role. Persian kings believed that they ruled by the power of Ahura Mazda and were responsible to him alone. After Darius’s rule ended, the Persians continued to practice zoroastrianism for centuries, The religion has about 200,000 followers today. Most live in South Asia.

The Persian Wars As the 400s B.C. entered, the Persians were ready to expand into Europe. They ended up clashing with the Greeks who had colonies in the Mediterranean area. They were both very different civilizations. The Persians obeyed an all-powerful king. Greeks believed they should choose their rulers and government.

The Persian Wars As a result of Cyrus’s earlier conquest Anatolia belonged to the Persians. In 499 B.C., these Greek revolted against their Persian rulers. Athenians sent warships to help the rebels, but the Persians crushed the uprising. Darius was angry that the Athenians interfered. He decided to punish the mainland Greeks for meddling in his empire.

How did the Greeks Win at Marathon? In 490 B.C., Darius sent a fleet of 600 ships and an army to invade Greece. The arrived at Marathon, a plain 25 miles northeast at Athens. They waited for several days expecting the Greeks to arrive and fight them. The Athenians never came, only having 10,000 troops compared to the Persians’ 20,000 soldiers. When their enemy refused to fight, the Persians decided to sail directly to Athens and attack by sea.

How did the Greeks Win at Marathon? When their enemy refused to fight, the Persians decided to sail directly to Athens and attack by sea. They loaded their ships with their strongest units – the cavalry. As soon as the horsemen were on the ships, the Athenians charged down the hills onto the plains of Marathon. They caught the soldiers standing in the water out of formation. They could not receive assistance from the cavalry because they were already on the ships.

How did the Greeks Win at Marathon? The Persians suffered a terrible defeat. According to their legends, a young messenger ran across the 25 miles to Athens to inform them of the victory only to collapse and die from exhaustion. Marathon’s today are celebrated thanks to that famous run and are just over 26 miles long.

Land and Sea Battles After the defeat at Marathon, the Persians wanted revenge. In 480 B.C., a new Persian king named Xerxes invaded Greece with about 200,000 troops and thousands of warships and supply vessels. The Greek city-states banded together to fight the Persians. King Leonidas of Sparta provided most of the soldiers while Themistocles of Athens led the naval forces and came up with a battle plan.

Land and Sea Battles Persian ships supplied the invaders with food. Themistocles’ plan was to cut off the army’s supply. In order to do this, they needed to prevent the Persians from getting to Athens. King Leonidas led 7,000 men into battle that lasted three days and their bravery at Thermopylae (thur-MAH-puh-lee) was much celebrated.

Land and Sea Battles The Greeks could not stop them at Thermopylae. A traitor showed a route around the Greek forces allowing them to attack from behind. When Leonidas realized what was to happen he dismissed most of his troops. He and 300 Spartans remained and fought to the death.

Land and Sea Battles The Greek Historian Herodotus game this description… “The [the Spartans] defended themselves to the last, those who still had swords used them, and the others resisting with their hands and teeth; till the barbarians [Persians] who in part… had gone round and now encircled them upon every side, overwhelmed and buried the remnant [remainder] which was left beneath showers of missile weapons.”

Land and Sea Battles The Spartan’s stand gave Themistocles time to carry out his plan to attack the ships. The Athenian fleet lured the Persian ships into the strait of Salamis near Athens hoping it would give the Greeks an advantage in battle. A strait is a narrow channel of water between two pieces of land. Themistocles believed the Persian ships would be forced to crowd against one another, making it difficult to move around. He was right to believe this.

Land and Sea Battles The two navies faced off fiercely. The Greeks had fewer ships but were smaller and faster and the plan was continuing to work. The sunk 300 Persian ships (almost the entire fleet) and only lost 40 of their own. The Persian’s foot soldier continued onto Athens only to find it almost deserted. They then proceeded to set it on fire.

Land and Sea Battles The combined forces of the Greek city-states created the largest of their armies yet in 479 B.C. Improved their forces with better armor and weapons. At Plataea, northwest of Athens, the Greeks and the Romans faced off again. In numbers, they were evenly matched with each side having about 100,000 men. This time the Greeks won. The fighting continued as the Greeks went on the defensive to free the city-states in Anatolia. Peace would not arrive until 449 B.C.

Decline of Persia After the losses faced against the Greece, Persia had many challenges. The army was no longer strong enough to protect the entire empire. The Persian people grew unhappy with their government. The king taxed the people heavily to pay for magnificent palaces and other luxuries. Members of the royal family disagreed about who should rule.

Decline of Persia As it continued to weaken it made it easy to be attacked further. It could not resist the invasion by a young and powerful ruler named Alexander. The Persian Empire ended and a new Greek empire was born that extended way past Persia’s boundaries.