Greece and Persia & Sparta and Athens Ch. 9 Sections 1 & 2

Greece & Persia While the Greeks were busy building democracies and city-states, the Persian Empire was growing in the east. The Persians would one day attack Greece…

Persia The Persian Empire grew larger while Cyrus was their leader. Cyrus conquered a very large area of land including several Greek cities. Cyrus let the people he conquered keep their own customs because he thought they would be less likely to rebel that way…he was right Because he was so successful in making a huge empire, he is called Cyrus the Great

Persia Persia’s army was very strong, powerful, and loyal to their leaders Persia’s army had a strong cavalry called the Immortals. A cavalry is a group of soldiers who ride horses In today’s army, the cavalry is the soldiers in the tanks

Persia Persia had a new leader named Darius Darius was angry at the Greeks because they tried to rebel against the Persians, and Darius wanted revenge… Nine years after the Greek rebelled, Darius ordered the Persian army to invade Greece

The Battle of Marathon Darius and his army sailed to Marathon near Athens and invaded. This invasion began several wars between Persia and Greece that are called the Persian Wars The Greek army only had about 11,000 soldiers and the Persians had about 15,000, but the Greeks won the battle at Marathon because they had better weapons and smart leaders. According to a legend, a Greek messenger ran to Athens from Marathon (26 miles) to tell the good news that they had won the battle. After the messenger yelled out the good news of the win, he collapsed and died of exhaustion. This is why a marathon is 26 miles---because it was 26 miles from Marathon to Athens….

Persia Ten years after the battle of Marathon, Darius’s son Xerxes wanted to finish what his father started, and he tried to conquer Greece again. This time the soldiers from Athens got the soldiers from Sparta to help them protect Greece from the Persians The Spartans went to fight the Persian army and the Athenians went to fight the Persian navy

Thermopylae The Spartans waited for the Persians at a mountain pass called Thermopylae. Crossing Thermopylae was the only way for the Persians to get to Athens, and the Spartans had it blocked For three days, the huge Persian army fought about 1,400 Spartans at Thermopylae Finally, the Persians asked a traitor Greek soldier to lead them around another way and attack the Spartans. All of the Spartans fought to their deaths, and the Persians were able to invade and burn down Athens. Even though the Persians invaded Athens, the Greek leaders were very smart and ended up winning the war and running the Persians off….

Ch. 9 Section 2 Read pg Be prepared to talk about the differences between males in Sparta and males in Athens and females in Sparta and females in Athens.

Males in Sparta Boy babies were either left to die if they weren’t healthy or kept to be a soldier if they were healthy Trained to be soldiers from age 7 Joined the army at age 20 Stayed in the army until age 60

Females in Sparta Had more rights than other Greek women because the men were often gone away to war Didn’t do housework Trained to be athletes

Males in Athens Soldier training was not as hard as the training in Sparta They only had to be a soldier for two years Got an education in reading, writing, and history

Females in Athens Had hardly any rights at all Did not receive an education, especially if they were poor Their place was in the house, weaving and sewing They could NOT disobey their husbands or fathers or leave their homes