Persian Wars

The city-states of Athens and Sparta joined forces along with the other southern Greek city-states to defeat the Persian invasion in 480-479 BCE, however they were not enemies - they were allies before and after the Persian invasion.

Sparta had offered support to Athens against the Persian attack on Athens a decade before that, and Athens supported the Spartans when Messenia revolted against Spartan rule twenty years after the Persian invasion. Not exactly enemies.

They became enemies when Athens set out to dominate the Greek world, resulting in the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League and Athens and its new empire clashed in a destructive Peloponnesian War 431-404 BCE. Athens lost, was stripped of its empire and became a second rate power.

To defeat the Persian takeover, the Greek city states stopped fighting each other and banded together to fight the common enemy. When the Persians withdrew, this temporary expedient unification dissolved, and the city-states went back to fighting each other.

They began in 499 BCE at Miletus when its tyrant initiated a revolt against Persian rule when he faced reprisals from the Persian governor. A second phase began when a Persian punitive expedition was launched against Eretria and Athens for intervening in this revolt. This expedition was turned beck at the battle Marathon north of Athens 10 years later.

The Persians wanted to impose peace on the Greek city-states to stop their endless inter-city wars spilling over into the Persian Empire. Some of the Greek city-states ware agreeable to this, but the southern cities refused, banding together to repel the Persian invasions.

They provided the impetus to form an anti-Persian alliance headed by Athens. When peace was made with Persia after 50 years of intermittent fighting, Athens converted this league into an empire of its own, and its expansionary tendencies brought it into confrontation with the Peloponnesian League, resulting in the 27-year Peloponnesian War which devastated the Greek world from Sicily to Asia Minor.

Athens opportunistically turned its allies in the Delian League into an empire, continuing to impose the monetary levy on them even though there was no longer a Persian threat to justify it.

This money allowed Athens to spend most of the money on itself, and maintain a fleet to collect the money, by force where necessary. The fleet was used to interfere in cities outside its new-found empire, leading to conflict with the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta.

This devastating 27-year war weakened the Greek world, and paved the way for the rise of Macedonia and its takeover of the Persian Empire.

Greece was dominated by Athens after the Persian wars.

Arya.

The 10,000 Immortals as its core, and, most importantly, the cavalry.

Athens supported the Ionian revolt by Greek city-states in Asia Minor against Persian rule. A reprisal raid by Persia was defeated by Athens, and the Persians decided to bring all the Greek cities under its control to stop uprisings disturbing peace and prosperity in its Empire, and invaded the Greek cities in eastern Europe.

He established an empire out of the Delian League formed to fight the Persians, and Athens lived high on the hog from the proceeds. He also brought in a radical democracy where the citizens made political decisions.

499-449 BCE.

Two leagues - one led by Athens, the other led by Sparta.

It was in their interests to join with the other Greek city-states in a coalition to defend their mutual interests and cities.

Asia Minor was the site of the first five years of the war, when the Ionian Greek city-states revolted against Persian rule.

Persia levied taxes on these states, but this was not the cause of the war breaking out. Persian taxes were so reasonable that when the cities were liberated from Persian rule, their taxes were set at the Persian rate.

Darius I

Xerxes I

Artaxerxes I.

Aegean Sea for its fleet.

Dardanelles Strait for its army.

1. The Persians wanted to emforce peace in the region.

2. The Greek city-states wanted to preserve their independence.

3. The Athenians wanted to become dominant and rich in the Greek world.

First it was a coalition of the southern Greek city-states led by Sparta to defeat the Persian invasion. After this there was the Delian League led by Athens.

During the Peloponnesian war, it was the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta versus the Athenian empire, which the Delian League had morphed into.

Some sided with the Persians, others combined to repel the Persian invasion.

It was between the Persian Empire and a coalition of Greek city-states led first by Sparta, then Athens.

It lasted 499 to 449 BCE.

The Persians lost.

499 BCE to 490 BCE.