1. Timeline of the Persian Wars

2. Persian Expansion & the Ionian Revolt
559 BCE – King Cyrus the Great takes the throne of Persia and continues to expand the Persian empire (Afghanistan to the Mediteranean)
546 BCE – Lydia (central Asia Minor) conquers Ionian cities (which have excellent navies); they are then taken over by Persia
499 BCE - Ionian Revolt – led by Miletus (from a coastal town) against the Persians; asked other Greeks for help; Athens & Eritria responded with 25 warships
494 BCE – Ionian revolt crushed Persia

3. Persian Revenge & Athenian Victory
490 BCE – King Darius (Persia) took revenge on Athens & Eretria and led first invasion on Greek soil (Eretria, then Attica on plain of Marathon)- Athenians sent runner to Sparta for help; Spartans responded they could only send help in a week or so
Miliades (Athenian general) convinced Athenian commanders they needed to attack, even though a loss would leave the road to Athens unprotected
Even with a 2:1 disadvantage in infantry, the Greeks defeated the Persians
The victory at Marathon gave the Athenians:
Sense of patriotism
Showed Sparta that Athens was strong & could defeat Persia
United the Greeks to resist further Persian invasion
year grace period from further Persian attacks----

4. Thermopylae
480 BCE – Xerxes – crosses at Hellespont with approx 200,000 men
Meanwhile, Athens & Sparta met at Corinth to plan their defence
Agreed to defend the narrow pass in central Greece called Thermopylae (the hot gates) because the Persians would have to pass there
Led by Spartan King Leonidas, the Greeks held off the Persians for a short period of time
A shepherd, turned traitor, informed the Spartans of a mountain path around the pass, allowing the Persians to defeat the Spartans
Persians routed the Spartans at Thermopylae; 300 died and their epitaph reads:
“Go tell at Sparta, thou that passest by,
That here obedient to her word, we lie”

5. Struggle for Control
Persians took revenge on Athens for their defeat at Marathon
September that year, the Greeks fleet of over 300 triremes remained at Salamis (large island off the coast of Attica, west of Athens); Persians finally enticed into the straits by false information that the Greeks were going to escape by night
Persians, with about 600 ships divided themselves to enter both ends of the straits around the island, but this weakened their numbers;
as they attacked the agile Greek triremes easily defeated the Persians as they were overcrowded by the invading ship pushing forward from behind, in a state of mass confusion
Xerxes watched in despair from a hill overlooking the battle

6. Struggle for Control & Spartan Victory
The final victory over the Persians was by a Spartan-lead army
Mardonius, the Persian, and his forces were severely defeated in battle and the Greek army followed this up by attacking the Persians in Asia Minor and freeing the eastern Greeks from their Persian hold

7. Results of the Persian Wars
Brought Greeks together as a unified force
Athens emerged a power in politics AND military
Freedom from the east allowed Greece to develop on their own, uninfluenced by eastern peoples
New Age Greece (artists, writers, philosophers, scientists…explored the world in new ways and new dimensions)
Greece was only ready for this leap after absorbing ideas and influences from the east in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE (‘orientalizing period’)
Refocused Sparta and Athens on one another

8. Delian & Peloponnesian Leagues
Athens, with the lead of Aristides, organized the Delian League in order to defend the Greek states in the case of further Persian invasion
Was originally a voluntary association, but later became a forced union, controlled by Athens
Sparta led the Peloponnesian League (similar purpose)
445 BCE – Sparta & Athens sign a peace treaty to stay out of the internal affairs of each other’s federations; treaty postponed but did not prevent war over their rivalry

9. Athens vs. Sparta
The differences between the two states caused suspicion
Athens
Sparta
Sea power
Radical democracy
Forefront of advances in culture
Land power
Conservative government
Backward in trade, wealth and culture

10. Athens vs. Sparta (cont’d)
Athens & Sparta battled each other for power of Greece; it was not until 346 BCE that peace was made
The Peloponnesian War – longest, most bitter and costly war for the Greeks
involved every city state aligned with one another
Athens lost to Sparta and was forced to be ruled by thirty tyrants
exiles revolted and restored democracy in 403 BCE, but Athens was never again the power she once was