Persian Wars

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.

Both were in a coalition of southern Greek city-states which defeated a Persian invasion 480-479 BCE. Sparta led the alliance at the start, but it left it to Athens in the second half of the 50-year war in which there were dozens of sea and land battles. After too many losses, the Persians agreed to peace and left the Greek cities to go back to their usual fighting each other.

The slowing of the Persia advance was to force a sea battle in the nearby strait at Artemesia in an attempt to destroy the Persian fleet. As this sea battle failed, the three day delay at Thermopylae had no overall significance.

The invasion was turned back at the subsequent battles of Salamis, Plataia and Mycale.

Initially Operation Iraqi Freedom was conducted to over throw the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain, which was accomplished in 2003. This paralleled Operation Just Cause in 1989 when the Panamanian dictator General Noriega was over thrown by US forces and imprisoned in the US. Later, in both cases law, order, and stability had to be restored to both nations (countries) (Law Enforcement Operations).

The Vietnam War was fought against the nation of North Vietnam backed by the communist super powers of the USSR & Red China. The war against North Vietnam and the communist guerrillas in South Vietnam (Viet Cong) paralleled the traditional wars of the past...wars fought between countries (nations) for any number of reasons...US Civil War (1861), Spanish-American War (1898), Franco-Prussian War (1871), Russo-Japanese War (1905), WWI (1914-1918), etc.

He brought stability, established internal security and external security against attack, introduced Aramaic as a common language, and promoted agriculture and trade to improve prosperity. The empire was governed through 20 provincial governors to promote these advances.

The Persian Wars were the defining moment in Greek history.

Watch this link that I've posted, there's two parts. Sorry I would type it here but I'm going to end up writing you an essay. The links clearly explain why Persian's were very important.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHvUkJ5fwRE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv5BsOWu3qY

They were rallying calls for the Greeks.

The Athenian success at Marathon demonstrated to the other Greek cities that the Persians could be beaten.

Thermopylae became another symbol for Greek steadfastness which was used by the Greeks for propaganda on the superiority of the Greek warrior.

Giving numbers to the Persian conflict wit the Greek world is dubious. Warfare ra from 499 to 449 BCE in different phases. The first phase was suppression of the Ionian revolt 499-493 BCE. The second phase was the Persian punitive expedition against Eretria and Athens 490 BCE. The third phase was the Persian invasion of mainland Greece 480-479 BCE. Then followed the fourth phase - a series of clashes and battles between the Delian League led by Athens and the Persian Empire 478-449 BCE.

After the Persian invasion of Greece was turned back in 479 BCE under the leadership of Sparta, Athens took over leadership of the city-states in Asia Minor which had been liberated from Persian rule and formed them into the Delian League as a defensive alliance. After 30 years of failed attempts to reclaim the cities, Persia gave up and left the League to its own devices. Even with the threat gone, Athens continued to collect the annual tax which funded the League, by force where necessary, and spent the money on itself and on maintaining the navy which enforced the tax.

Athenian inscriptions show heavy casualties of its army each year, including years in which Athens was not fighting any war with its neighbours or Persia, so these arose from its annual tax enforcement. This enforcement went as far as assaulting, capturing and looting recalcitrant cities of the League, which Athens had converted to an empire. One city Mytilene had its people sold into slavery as an example to the others; the citizens of Samos were branded in the forehead to remind them not to revolt again.

The proceeds - originally to pay for the navy which protected them from Persia - were spent by Athens on beautifying its city (Parthenon etc) and putting half of Athens' citizens on its public payroll. And not satisfied with this empire, Athens started standing over cities of the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta, culminating with trying to bankrupt Megara, a member of that league. At the behest of the League, Sparta demanded that Athens back off, it refused, and all out war ensued.

Darius the Great.

The Persian Empire recruited Greek city-states. A third of its navy at the sea battle of Salamis was from Greek city-states in Asia Minor. A third of its army at the land battle of Plataea was Greek.

Salamis (sea) 480 BCE

Plataia (land) 479 BCE

Mycale (sea-land) 479 BCE

Eurymedon (sea) 466 BCE

Cyprus (land-sea) 450 BCE

Athens converted the Delian League which it had led in the later phase of the war with the Persian Empire into an empire of its own, and after peace with the Persians it used this power to interfere in the rest of the Greek world, resulting in the devastating 27-year Peloponnesian War.

They had the money - they turned the Delian League cities which they led against the Persian Empire into an empire of their own and spent the money they looted from them on beuatifying Athens.

Athens led 180 eastern Greek city-states against the Persians in the last 30 years of the 50-year Persian War.

Persia attempted to bring the Greek city-states under its control to stop wars spilling over into its empire. Some of the cities united to stop this, resulting in 50 years of warfare until the Persians gave up and left the cities to go back to fighting each other.

The Persian aim was to impose peace on the Greek city-states to stop their internal wars spillng over and disrupting the Persian Empire. When they failed to achieve this, they set about protecting their borders and promoting peace and prosperity within them.

The Greek city-states, with the Persian threat gone, went back to their usual fighting each other with increasing ferocity.

Ancient Greece did not expand into the Persian Empire. Greece was comprised of over 2,000 independent city-states, the ones in Asia Minor being inside the Persian Empire. It was the Macedonians under Alexander the Great who expanded into and took over the Persian Empire. Alexander's successors divided the Empire into kingdoms of their own (Egypt, Syria-Mesopotamia etc , and these lasted a couple of hundred years until the expanding Roman Empire absorbed them.

1 Persian War

2 Peloponnesian War

3 Alexander invaded Persia

4 Alexandria developed.

Athens formed and empire out of the cities it had led against the Persians, and used this to try to oppress its neighbours, resulting in the devastating 27-year Peloponnesian War, which it lost and was reduced to a second rate power.

It was not the Greeks, it was the Greek city-state of Athens with its allty Plataia.

As their infantry army could not face the Persian cavalry, they waited in the hills until they saw the cavalry being embarked on ships and departing. They ran down to the plain and defeated the infrior Persian infantry.

Realising then where the Persian cavalry was going - to land near Athens and gallop up to the city where traitors would open the gates for them with the Athenian army at Marathon - they ran back over the hills in time to form up in front of the city just as the cavalry disembarked. Frustrated, the Persians reembarked and went home.

The 26 miles the Athenian warriors ran became the basis for today's Marathon run. The Athenian soldiers did it much tougher, having to carry their weapons and armour as well.

The Persians had part of the Greek world within its empire, and these cites were restive and called in their mother-cities in peninsular Greece to intervene. Persia decided to incorporate these mainland cities within its empire under friendly local tyrants to restore peace.

Some of the mainland cities came to terms with Persia, the southern ones resisted. Persia invaded.

The Persians were repelled, and sporadic warfare ensued. After fifty years, peace was arranged and the Persians agreed to stay out of Greek affairs. They went back to controlling their previous territories and promoting peace and prosperity within them.

The Greek cities were then able to go back to their usual occupation of fighting each other.

Athens led the Delian League coalition which it led in the last phase o the war against the Persian Empire into an empire of its own, continuing to enforce collection of the war contributions after the war was over, and spending the money on itself.

When Athens fell out with other city-states led by Sparta resulting in the Peloponnesian War, Persia bankrolled the fleet of the Spartan alliance which defeated Athens.

Who really benefited - the Greek world was devastated by the endless wars.

The main weapon used by the Persians in 490 BC was the bow and arrow. Arrows were accurate weapons, however, they could not penetrate heavy armor or battle shields. They could, however, inflict bad wounds on unprotected parts of a soldiers body.