Ancient Wars

The Athenians lacked the resources in manpower to thwart the advance of the Persian Army .

They did go out to Marathon but lurked in the hills to avoid the Persian cavalry. They were awaiting the arrival of the Spartan army to help them.

However when they saw the Persian cavalry being embarked on ships they took the opportunity and ran down and defeated the inferior unarmoured Persian infantry caught without the protection of their cavalry.

After defeating the Persian infantry, the Athenian infantry realised the Persian cavalry was being shipped around the coast to Athens to take the city in their absence, with traitors to open the city gates to let them in. The 9,000 Athenoan infantry ran back the 26 miles to Athens carrying their weapons and armour, and arrived to form up in front of their city as the Persian cavalry was being disembarked. The Persians gave up and went home.

This run by the Athenian army is celebrated today in the marathon race. Today's runners get it easy, not having to run in sandals carrying weapons and armour. Much tougher lot in those days, and of course they had the incentive of saving their homes and families.

After failing in their punitive mission against Athens for its support of Greek city revolutions in Asia Minor within the Persian Empire, Persia decided to incorporate the Mainland Greek cities within its empire and appoint a Persian governor to keep them quiet.

This invasion was delayed because of a revolt by Egypt which was part of the Persian Empire. Then King Darius died and the invasion was again delayed until successor king Xerxes got control. He then sent emissaries to bribe the Greek cities to submit, which many did, and he was then faced with the cities of southern Greece holding out. So after ten years of delays, the Persian invasion got going.

Xerxes mounted a two-prong invasion - a land force and a naval force. The naval force protected his essential sea supply line and threatened the Greek cities, which therefore kept their land forces at home, allowing the Persian land forces to pick the cities off one at a time.

The Greeks decided they must first destroy the Persian navy to remove this naval threat and allow their cities to send out their armies to concentrate against the Persian army and make a real fight of it. They blocked the pass at Thermopylae with a small army force to compel the Persians to turn the position with a naval attack; the Greek fleet was lying in waiting to pounce on the Persian navy. Unfortunately the Greeks lost the naval battle and retreated to try again (this time successfully) at Salamis in the south. The holding (not delaying) force at Thermopylae, its mission now finished, was withdrawn under cover of a stay-behind contingent from Sparta and Thespia.

No , the Peloponnesian War was an ongoing conflict between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta lasting from 431 to 404 BC whereas the conflicts between Greece and Persia (known as the Greco-Persian Wars) lasted from 499-449 BC .

Xerxes was disturbed by the interference of the Greek city-states of mainland Greece who supported revolts by Greek cities within his empire.

He bribed some cities in Central Greece ti fall into line, but the Southern city-stated refused, so he set out to subdue them and install friendly governments in them, and install a Persian governor to supervise them.

This invasion was at first successful, getting as far as Athens, but his fleet was defeated by a combined Greek fleet at Salamis in 480 BCE. Elimination of the Persian fleet, which was the first strategy of the Greek alliance, took away the Persian amphibious threat to the Greek cities which had kept their armies at home to defend against this. The Persians were able to pick the cities off one by one.

So the cities were now abled to send their armies out to join up and defeat the Persian army the following spring at Plataia, while their fleet finished off the Persian fleet at Mycale in Asia Minor where the remnant was holed up.

Another effect of the naval victory at Salamis had been that the Persian fleet could no longer protect the Persian supply fleet which sustained the army, and half the Persian army had to go home, which gave the Greek army an edge against the reduced Persian army and it's Greek allies at the deciding battle at Plataia in 479 BCE.

With the Persian main forces defeated, the invasion was over, and the war moved on to isolated engagements in the eastern Mediterranean over the next 30 years, until the Persians gave up and left the Greeks to go back to their usual fighting amongst each other.

Alcibiades was framed for the destruction of the Hermae.

Macedonia actually sided with Carthage and Hannibal during the Second Punic War, providing a diversion against the Romans by taking territory in the east.

After defeating Hannibal and tying Carthage up with a paralysing treaty, the Roman leaders decided to payback Macedonia for this intervention. They called a meeting of the Centuriate Assembly to get approval for an attack on Macedonia. The Roman people were sick and tired of war after twenty yeas and refused. After a week the Assembly was reconvened and was given a long list of the wealth of Macedonia and the rich spoils to be gained. The Roman people, impoverished by the war and their absence from their farms, suddenly saw the light, and approved the invasion of Macedonia to get their hands on the loot.

Hannibal later on, after resuscitating Carthage's economy, fled to Asia Minor to escape Roman attempts to assassinate him. He took leadership in inter-Greek wars there successfully, but the Romans tracked him down and he suicided to avoid being captured and dragged to Rome.

There were a number of events in the year 490 BC. The major event was the Battle of Marathon where the Greeks led by Athens defeated the Persians. This battle saved Greece from invasion.

The comedy Lysistrata was first produced in 411 B.C. It is a story of a woman that was trying to end The Peloponnesian War. More information can be found on the Wikipedia website in full details.

The surrender of the beseiged city of Athens to the the Peloponnesian land and naval forces led by Sparta.

Being fertile, it was attractive to the surrounding mountain and desert peoples to first raid and loot, then take over as their own possession, using the indigenous farmers to produce the goodies for them.

Greece did not fight at Marathon because Greece as a country did not exist. The Greek world comprised hundreds of independent city-states around the Mediterranean Sea from present day France to Asia Minor.

The Athenian army, aided by Plataia, was waiting near the plain of Marathon for the arrival of the Spartans, staying in the hills to avoid the superior Persian cavalry. They saw the cavalry being embarked on ships, and took the opportunity to run down and defeat the unsupported inferior Persian infantry.

Then, realising the cavalry was being rowed around to capture their city in their absence, they ran back the 26 miles to Athens and formed up just in time to turn them back.

The overall Greek strategy was to thwart the Persian advance at the narrow pass of Thermopylae using a Spartan/Thespian/Theban blocking force , while at sea the Athenian Admiral Themistocles was to prevent Persian naval forces from outflanking the Greek land contingent by making an amphibious landing behind the Spartan King Leonidas and the Greeks .

Themistocles was able to defeat the Persians at the sea battle of Salamis and the Greeks were able to withstand the Persian infantry assaults only to be outflanked on the land because the traitor Ephialtes had shown the Persians a way of outflanking the Greeks by showing the Persians a way around the pass of Thermopylae .h

They did not want to attack Thermopylai. They wanted to go through thr pass of Thermopylai from northern to southern Greece which was blocked by a small Greek force.

Superior strategy they split the Persian fleet so that a third of it was not present at the battle, so evening up the numbers of ships on either side.

Superior tactics - they engaged the Persian fleet when it was strung out coming around an island in the middle of the strait st Salamis.

The Persian army directed by their king Xerxes I.

Persia invaded peninsular Greece to incorporate it within its empire in an attempt to bring peace to the Greek world and so stop Greek wars spilling over into its empire. Its force included a powerful navy which threatened the Greek cities, most of which were located on the coast. As a result of this threat, the Greek city-states kept their armies at home to defend their cities, and the Persians were able to use their army to pick off the cities one at a time.

The southern Greek cities determined to destroy the Persian fleet to remove this threat, so that they could then concentrate their armies against the Persian army. They first tried to do this by blocking the pass at Thermopylai to force the Persians to bypass it with a naval outflanking move through the strait of Artemesion nearby, and the combined Greek fleet lay in wait to defeat the Persian fleet. The Greek fleet lost, so it retired to the strait at Salamis to regroup and try again. Here they defeated the Persian fleet.

The result was that the Persians had to send half their army home, as they could not feed it as their resupply fleet could not supply it with the naval protection gone, and the Greeks were able to send out their armies to concentrate at Plataia the following spring with the amphibious threat to their cities gone also. The Greek coalition won the battle of Plataia, and the Persians went home.

It saved the citizens of Athens from having their ex-tyrant Hippias, who they had expelled, restored by the Persians, who wanted to use him to stop Athens from interfering in support of the rebellious Greek cities within their empire.

The Greeks won over what was a numerically superior force. The Athenians and their ally Plataea .were waiting for Spartan reinforcement, lurking in the hills around the Plain of Marathon where the Persian cavalry could not get at them, when they saw the Persian cavalry being loaded onto ships. So they ran down and defeated the inferior Persian infantry, caught without their necessary cavalry support.

It took place on the Plain of Marathon.

In the bay between the island of Salamis and Athens.

No single one. It was an alliance of city-state fleets led by Sparta which incorporated ships from Aigina, Ambracia, Athens, Ceos, Chalcis, Corinth, Croton, Cythnus, Epidaurus, Eretria, Hermione, Leucas, Megara, Melos, Naxos, Serifos, Sicyon, Siphnus, Sparta, Styra, Troezen, about 378 in total.