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Ancient Wars
The Ancient period is generally accepted as being 600 BCE to 500 CE, before which was the Archaic period, and after which began the Medieval period. However as there is not an Archaic Wars category, it is acceptable to post pre-500 BCE military questions in this area.
1,657 Questions
What was the Persian strategy during the battle of marathon?
To fight desperately with its inferior infantry, as its cavalry had been embarked to make a raid on the city of Athens.
What was defeated by the Greeks at the bay of salamis?
The Persian navy comprising Phoenician, Asian-Greek and Egyptian fleets.
How did the athenians win the battle of marathon if they where so outnumbered?
Their armoured infantry were superior to the Persian infantry but were wary of the Persian cavalry on open ground on the plain of Marathon.
The Athenians with their ally Plataia lurked in the hills waiting for the Spartans to arrive, but when they saw the Persian cavalry being embarked on the Persian fleet, they took the opportunity to run down and defeat the unprotected Persian infantry.
Was there any other spartan vs Persian battles other than the battle of thermopylae?
Thermopylai was not a Spartan-Persian battle. It was part of the Persian invasion of peninsular Greece lasting two years involving many Greek cities. The Spartan force at Thermopylai was 300 warriors out of a Greek force of about 8,000.
The two-year invasion included several sea and land battles in which Sparta provided some of the Greek naval forces and land forces totalling a couple of hundred thousand. Those battles were Artemesion, Salamis, Plataia and Mykale.
What was the armor for the battle of thermopylae?
The Greek warriors had metal-reinforced shields, metal helmets and body armour. The Persians had wicker shields, quilted body armour, and varying quality helmets.
Why was the battle of artemisium so important?
The southern Greek city-states facing the Persian invasion in 480 BCE were faced with the prospect of amphibious attacks by the Persian fleet on their cities. They kept their armies at home to protect themselves, so giving the Persian army a walkover, able to pick them off one at a time.
The Greek strategy was to destroy the Persian fleet to both lift this threat to allow their armies to come out and combine to defeat the Persian army, and also to expose the Persian sea supply line on which the Persian army depended, as Greece was too poor a country to support them.
They at first sent a land blocking force and fleet from Sparta and Athens to the pass at Tempe in northern Greece, but withdrew it when they found that the inland route would easily bypass it. They then sent a small force to the narrow pass at Thermopylai with the fleet positioned in the strait of Artemesion beside it to force the Persian fleet to try to turn the land block by sea, so precipitating a sea battle in narrow waters which would favour the Greek fleet tactically.
The fleets engaged for three days and the Greek fleet had the worst of it and withdrew to Salamis to try again. The Thermopylai land force was therefore withdrawn, the Spartans sacrificing themselves to hold the pass as long as possible to let them get away.
A good plan which failed because the odds at sea were too great in both ship size and numbers. They had to try again with a better strategy required - one which split the Persian fleet to even the odds.
Aftermath:
The Greeks then ran a this-time successful re-run battle at Salamis, splitting the Persian fleet and catching it spread out thinly in the narrow waters around Psyttaleia Island. This loss of sea dominance left the Persians undersupplied for the winter as their supply ships could not now be protected by the defeated navy which withdrew to Asia Minor, and they had to send half of their army home.
This levelled up the odds and the following spring the Greek cities sent out their forces to combine, the armies defeating the weakened Persian army and its Greek allies at Plataia in central Greece, and the Greek fleet destroying the residue of the Persian fleet holed up at Mycale in Asia Minor.
What does the battle of marathon describe?
The Athenian militia defeated the the Persian forces of Darius I.
Plataia was a battle in the 50 year Persian War.
A coalition of Greek city-states defeated a Persian expeditionary force in the battle.
How many soldiers fought in the the battle of Salamis?
well, there wasn't any soldiers really, it was mostly a naval battle. The soldiers though would stand on the shore waiting for the persians to swim to shore.
Why was the Peloponnesian War a particularly hopeless struggle?
It concentrated the usual spasmodic warfare between the Greek city-states into a 27-year devastation of the Greek world from Sicily to Asia Minor, but did not resolve anything. After it was over the cities returned to the usual spasmodic warfare with shifting alliances, further weakening themselves and leaving the way open for the rise and dominance of Macedonia.
What was the result of pelopenesian war?
Athens lost its empire and became a second-rate power.
Sparta became temporarily dominant until displaces by Thebes.
Fighting between the Greek city states continued unabated.
The Greek world was devastated and weakened, paving the way for the rise and supremacy of Macedonia.
What happened to the Athenians who were taken as prisoners in the peloponnesian war?
Various fates - eg the ones talen prisoner at Syracuse were sold into slavery or died in a prison pen in a quarry; the wealthy were sometimes ransomed; some escaped; those taken at the final sea battle at Aigospotomai had their throats cut as they had bragged beforehand that they would cut off the hands of all the opposing sailors. No Geneva Convention then.
How many persains fought in the battle of thermopylae?
There were 180,000 Persian infantrymen and cavalrymen in the advancing force. However the narrowness of the pass at Thermopylai meant that only a few thousand infantry were committed at any stage.
Another 120,000 sailors and marines were on the ships in the neargy strait of Artemesion where the main action took place.
Who defeated Persia in the Battle of Salamis?
A fleet from an alliance of southern Greek cities led by Sparta.
How many Greeks fought in the battle of marathon?
9,000 Athenians and of their 1,000 Plataian allies.
What was the major battle in the Peloponnesian War?
The Battle of Aegospotami where the Spartan Admiral Lysander decisively defeated the Athenian navy which effectively ended the Peloponnesian War .
Why did pericles want to go to war with other city states?
He wanted Athens to exert its superior postion and resist demands by the Peloponnesian League to back off from interfering with the League cities.
What king of the Greek empire defeated the Persians and took control of Judah?
The Judeans did not defeat Persia, the Persians under their king Cyrus the Great took control of Judah which was already under control of the Babylonians whom Persia replaced as ruler. The Babylonians had already deported the entire aristocracy of Judea. Persian king Cyrus the Great allowed them to return and try to reclaim their ancestral estates.
What ships did Sparta use during the peloponnesian war?
The combined fleets of the Peloponnesian League.
The principal warship of the time was the trireme, a narrow ship with three banks of oars and a ram in front.
Why do we Still Know About Thermopylae?
Historians, especially Herodotos, wrote about it, and its importance has been exaggerated far beyond its real importance in the Persian War. It should be remembered for the self-sacrifice of the Spartan and Thespian contingents who hung on and sacrificed themselves to allow the other contingents to escape from the Persian pursuit when the force was withdrawn.
What were the consequences for both sides of the encounter between the Persian and the Greeks?
It essentially became a standoff - after the Greeks repelled the Persian attempt to incorporate them into the Persian empire, a peace was arranged and the Greeks went back to fighting each other. The Persian empire continued on until over-run by Macedonia.
What are some events that happen during the peloponnesian war?
Athens resisted seige by the superior Peloponnesian land forces as its walls down to its harbour enabled it to import food. From the walled harbour it invaded Peloponnesian cities with its superior navy, according to plan.
Athens lost a third of its manpower unexpectedly when a plague struck the overcrowded city. Pericles' steady guidance was lost when he became one of the victims.
Athens captured a Spartan contingent and a truce was declared.
Athens lost the plot by trying to capture Syracuse in Sicily, which had nothing to do with successful prosecution of the war. Its expeditionary force was totally lost, further weakening its manpower.
Persia provided funds for the Peloponnesian League to produce a fleet to match Athens'. They doubled the pay of the fleet, which attracted the best rowers away from Athenian service.
The Peloponnesian fleet defeated the Athenian fleet at Aigospotomai, and then invested Athens. They added to the pressure by sending all Athenian prisoners home to eat out the food supply the sooner.
Athens was starved into surrender.
Athens was stripped of its empire.
