Persian Wars

In the Xerxes invasion of Greece, the battles were: Naval 480 BCE: Artemseion; Salamis. Land 479 BCE: Plataia; Mykale. The Darius I punitive expedition of 490 BCE comprised the seige of Eretria and battle of Marathon.

The wars started with a revolt by the Ionian city-states, expanded to include mainland Greece, which saw those Greek city-states suspend their usual warfare between them, and see off the Persian attempt ot gain control of them. When Persia gave up, they returned to fighting each other. Persia went back trying to control its empire.

After the Persians agreed to peace, Athens converted the Delian League, which it had led against the Persian Empire, into an empire of its own, continuing to collect the war funds by force and using them for its own benefit, with lavish buildings, arts and putting half its people on the public payroll.

It became overconfident, interfered in the affairs of other cities and brought on the devastating Peloponnesian War, which it lost and was stripped of its empire, becoming a second rate power.

There was no defined First, Second, Third etc. Some people say one war, some say two, some say three.

It is best described as a war with different phases:

Ionian Revolt 499-493 BCE

Persian punitive expedition agains Eretria and Athens 490 BCE

Persian invasion of peninsular Greece 480-479 BCE

Delian League counter-offensive 478-449 BCE.

No, it pitted the Persian Empire against varying coalitions of about 200 Greek city-states intermittently over 50 years.

Delian League, mostly Greek cities of Asia Minor and the Islands, converted to the Athenian empire after peace with Persia.

Peloponnesian League led by Sparta, mainly Dorian Greek cities of Peloponnesian peninsula of southern Greece.

In Mainland Greece, Asia Minor and the Aegean islands.

In the lands and seas around the Aegean Sea.

The Persian king Darius became convinced that the only way to ensure peace around the western part of his empire was to take control of all the Greek city-states and appoint local tyrants to keep them quiet, under overall control of a Persian provincial governor. Many of the Greek cities resisted and were led by Sparta and Athens in resisting this.

1. The people of the Greek city-states who banded together to resist the Persian attempt to keep them within the Persian Empire.

2. The people of the Persian Empire who manned the land and naval forces to prosecute the war.

The Persian war ended Persian expansion to the west. Thermopylae was a minor tactical delaying action which failed.

The wars were spread over 50 years 499 to 449 BCE.. Although some people give them numbers, this is a false division as so many different of Greek cities were involved over that time. It is better to think of it as phases - first the Ionian Revolt; then the punitive expedition against Eretria and Athens, then the Persian invasion of mainland Greece, then the Delian League maintaining the security of the Ionian cities.

King Croesus of Lydia died, and the Ionian Greeks came under the domination of the Persian Empire which they much resented, so they fought to throw out the Persians in the Ionian Revolt. Athens and Eritrea supported the Ionians with a token force (20 ships from Athens, 5 ships from Eritrea). The Ionian Revolt was successful at first, but after the Greeks sailed home it was crushed. Persian temples had been violated, and whether they did it or not the Athenians and Eritreans were blamed for it. King Darius I of Persia ordered a punitive expedition to these two cities, but a storm smashed his fleet. Another fleet was assembled, and the First Persian War began in 490 BC. Athens was saved at the Battle of Marathon, but Eritrea was destroyed.

After the Persians destroyed the walls and temples in 480 BCE, they were rebuilt and extended over a period of 50 years under various leaderships. A major effort was made during the administration of Pericles from 447 BCE, using funds diverted from the anti-Persian Delian League's war contributions.

The Greek world was comprised of over 2,000 independent city-states, which established shifting alliances with each other. Some cities agreed to ally with Persia, others refused. Those which agreed did so for briber of their leaders, self interest, and opposition to other cities.

The Persian Empire versus varying coalitions of Greek city-states. After 50 years, Persia gave up trying to enforce peace a the Greek cities returned to fighting each other.

Principally Herodotus of Halicarnassus. Others wrote inferior accounts.

Athens had not had a king for five hundred years. It was experimenting with a limited form of democracy under the ooverall guidance of the Council of the Aeropagus, and had ten magistrates as leaders.

Coalitions of Greek city-states wore down the Persian intent to incorporate them into the Persian Empire from 499 BCE. The Persians gave up in 449 BCE, and left the Greek cities to continue fighting amongst themselves.

The Greek city-states were free to go back to their endless wars against each other, weakening themselves to the extent that Macedonia was able to dominate them until Rome progressively took over two centuries later.

A peace was arranged between Persia and the Greek cities under which Persia agreed to stay away from the Greek cities in Asia Minor and left the Greek to pursue their usual wars against each other.

Athens then converted the alliance of these cities (Delian League) which it had led against the Persian Empire into an empire of its own. It used this power to interfere in the affairs of the other Greek city-states outside its empire, coming into collision with the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. The Peloponnesian War lasted 27 years and devastated the Greek world, and was decided in favour of the Peloponnesian League with the help of Persia.

Athens was stripped of its empire and became a second-rate power.

The problems began when the Greek city-states located around the littoral of western Asia Minor revolted against Persian rule. The mainland Greek cities Athens and Eretria intervened and caused the spread of the wars to mainland Greece and the Islands.

They each provided major forces for a coalition of southern Greek city-states to resist the Persian invasion. After the invasion was repelled, Sparta left the follow-up action to Athens. They remained allies until Athens converted the anti-Persian alliance into an empire of its own after the Persians gave up trying to enforce peace in the western Mediterranean. Athens over-reached itself and this led to the Peloponnesian War between a Spartan alliance and Athens and its empire.

In this war Persia gave assistance to Sparta to help it defeat Athens.

There was no 'Spartan-Persian' War. There were two main Persian invasions, in 490BC by Darius I and 480BC by Darius' son Xerxes I. Sparta arrived too late at the main battle of the First invasion which the Athenians crushed at Marathon. In the second Persian war, Sparta sacrificed their best men along with their King (Leonidas I 490-480BC) at the battle of Thermopylae. 700 Thespians and 300 Thebans also gave their lives to delay the Persian advance. The Persians marched onto Athens which they sacked while the Athenians were safe on the island of Salamis. The Athenian fleet then defeated the vastly outnumbering Persian fleet at the battle of Salamis. The enormous land army engaged with 10000 Spartans leading about 30000 other Greeks at the battle of Plataea in 479BC and defeated the Persian invasion which then returned home to Sardis.