Graeco-Persian Wars

I

Introduction

Graeco-Persian Wars, military confrontations between Greeks and Persians in 490 and 480-479 bc (see Achaemenid Empire; Ancient Greece). The Greeks themselves used the term “Median Wars”, which reflects a lack of distinction between two different Iranian peoples, the Medes and the Persians. The Graeco-Persian Wars include a first Persian campaign to Greece in 490 bc, culminating in the Battle of Marathon, and the invasion by Xerxes I in 480-479 bc, marked by the battles at Thermopylae, Artemisium, Salamis, Plataea, and ending with the Battle of Mycale in 479 bc.

II

The Persian Campaign of 490 bc

In 490 bc the Persian king, Darius I, sent a military force under the joint command of Datis the Mede and the Persian Artaphernes, a nephew of Darius, to punish Athens and the Euboean city of Eretria for their involvement in the revolt of the Greek cities of Ionia in 499-493 bc. While Eretria was taken after a two-day siege, Athens escaped punishment when the Persian forces were defeated at the Battle of Marathon.

During the reign of Darius I, Persian territorial control had been extended to Thrace and Macedonia, as well as to the islands off the coast of Asia Minor, including Sámos, Lésvos, and Khíos. To secure Náxos for the empire, Aristagoras, the tyrant of Miletus, led an expedition against the island in 499 bc. However, having to abandon the attack after a four-month siege, Aristagoras feared personal reprisals for his failed expedition and decided to revolt, supported by other Greek cities. Recognizing the strength of the Spartan hoplite army, the most advanced military force of its time, Aristagoras approached the Spartan king, Cleomenes I, to provide further support, but Cleomenes refused to undertake an expedition overseas. Athens and Eretria, however, sent 20 and 5 ships respectively to assist the Ionian Greeks who had joined Aristagoras. Their first target was Sardis, capital of the Persian satrapy (province) of Lydia. While Lydians and Persians defended the capital, a fire destroyed the city, including the temples. After a further battle near Ephesus, the rebelling Ionians retreated to their respective cities, while the Athenians and Eretrians withdrew their support for the revolt and returned to Greece. From Miletus the Ionian revolt spread to Cyprus, the Hellespont (now known as the Dardanelles), and Caria, but was successfully dealt with by Persian forces operating in the Hellespont under the command of Daurises and Hymaees, sons-in-law of Darius I, and in Caria under the command of Artaphernes and Otanes. A naval battle off Lade and a Persian attack on Miletus in 494 bc ended the revolt, and by 493 bc the Ionian cities were once again under Persian control.

As a result of the Athenian and Eretrian presence in Asia Minor, Darius I ordered a punitive campaign to be led against these two cities. Náxos also was to be punished for her resistance to Persian power in 499 bc. To ensure that the campaign would be limited to these cities, Darius I sent envoys to other Greek states demanding earth and water, the symbolic tokens of submission to the Persian king. Thrace and Macedonia, which were already part of the empire, confirmed their recognition of Persian power, as did other Greek cities and islands, including Thásos and Aíyina. The first target of the campaign, Náxos, offered no resistance, and in accordance with the customary reprisals for rebelling cities, Náxos was sacked and her temples destroyed. To demonstrate the general Persian policy of respecting different religious cults, Datis offered a sacrifice at Delos to Apollo and Artemis on his way to Euboea. After a six-day siege, Eretria was taken and, as a punishment for the city’s involvement in the burning of the temple of Cybele in Sardis, her own temples were destroyed. In September 490 bc the Persian navy, guided by an Athenian exile, the Pisistratid Hippias, landed at the Bay of Marathon. Here the Persian infantry was defeated by the Athenian army under the command of Miltiades, and, after retreating to Phalerum, the Persians decided to abort the attack on Athens and returned to Asia Minor.

III

Greece and Persia Between 490 and 479 bc

Despite the defeat at Marathon, Darius I did not abandon the plan of punishing Athens. Greek interference in Persian affairs in Asia Minor could not be accepted. More importantly, by sending ships to the coast of Asia Minor, the Greeks had demonstrated that their navy could cross the Aegean Sea, and therefore posed a threat to Persian control of both the sea and the islands. Darius I decided to prepare a large land and naval force against Greece. An army was levied from across the empire, and orders were given to build a strong navy. The matter may have become sufficiently important to require the king’s personal involvement in the campaign. But Darius’s plans for a second attack on Greece were halted when Egypt revolted against Persia in 486 bc, and the plans suffered a further setback when Darius himself died later the same year. It was left to his son and heir to the throne, Xerxes I, to execute his father’s plans. By c. 484 bc the revolt of Egypt was quashed, and Xerxes could continue the military preparations for the invasion of Greece. In 483 bc he ordered the building of an extensive canal (2.2 km/1.4 mi long and over 20 m/66 ft wide) at Mount Athos on the Chersonese to ensure a safe naval passage there. After quashing a further revolt in Babylon in 482 bc, led by Belshimani, Xerxes began to move his army overland from Susa to Sardis, and from there across the Hellespont through Thrace and Macedonia to southern Greece. Continuing his father’s policy of limiting the military offensive, Xerxes sent envoys to Greece in 481 bc asking for the tokens of submission, which were offered by the Thessalians, the people from the Malian Gulf, Locrians, Thebans, and Boeotians; no envoys were sent to Athens or Sparta.

In the decade after Marathon, Athenian attention had returned to Greek political strife. Her war with Aíyina, which had first erupted in 491 bc, was resumed in the mid-480s bc. In 483 bc Themistocles, the dominant politician in Athens, persuaded the Assembly to use the rich finds of the silver mines of Laurium to build a fleet for the war against Aíyina. It was thus only by 480 bc that Athens had gathered a fleet which it was able to employ against the Persian navy. The Greek League, formed by allied states to determine their policy against the Persian invasion, met only in c. 480 bc.

Not all Greeks joined the common cause against Persia. Apart from those Greek states siding with Persia, others remained neutral. None of Argos, Corcyra (now known as Corfu), and Crete offered their support for Athens. Likewise, Gelon of Syracuse declined, and instead sent a gift for Xerxes via Delphi, undoubtedly in expectation of a handsome reward after a Persian victory. Greek omens also favoured the Persians, and the oracle of Delphi hinted at a Persian victory, and foresaw the occupation of Athens. Even within Athens, some of the most influential families were pro-Persian. Thus, the Pisistratids stood to gain politically from their connections with Persia. Hippias, the former tyrant, had gone into Persian exile after his expulsion from Athens in 510 bc. Likewise, the family of the Alcmaeonidae could expect to increase their influence in a Persian-controlled Athens. But due to their stance against Themistocles, ostracism was used to remove members of these families from the political scene. The Pisistratid Hipparchus was ostracized in 487 bc, and a year later, the Alcmaeonid Megacles became a victim of the same political ploy. The policies of Themistocles thus dominated Athenian politics during the 480s, and when a war with Persia became imminent in 480 bc, Themistocles was elected sole general.

IV

Invasion by Xerxes

In the autumn of 480 bc Xerxes’ army marched via Phocis and Boeotia towards Attica. Its first military encounter with Greek forces occurred at Thermopylae, which was held by a small force of Spartiatai, Thebans, and Thespians under the command of the Spartan king, Leonidas I. Before the Persian attack, Leonidas asked the members of the Greek League for additional military aid. None came, and Leonidas and his force were totally destroyed. At sea the Persian fleet lost several hundred ships due to a strong north wind (Boreas). Yet despite their weakened fleet, the Persian navy maintained its position during the Battle of Artemisium. After a three-day engagement, the outcome of the battle remained undecided, and the Athenian navy withdrew to the Straits of Salamis. Meanwhile, the Persian land forces advanced through Attica, taking Athens in the summer of 480 bc. On the advice of Themistocles, most of the inhabitants had been evacuated to Salamis and Troezen in the previous winter. At the end of September 480 bc the city was occupied, and the citadel was seized. The aim of the invasion by Xerxes, the punishment of Athens, had thus been achieved.

In light of these developments, the Peloponnesians withdrew their military forces from the Greek mainland and began to fortify the Isthmus of Corinth. At the end of September 480 bc the Persian fleet fought against the Greek navy at Salamis, but was defeated. Themistocles had forced the Persian navy into the narrow straits, and it was a matter of limiting their ability to manoeuvre, and damaging their fleet using ramming tactics, which offered the best hope of military success. Once the Persian fleet was trapped in the straits, those in the front line were unable to escape, their own ships preventing their retreat. Apart from the cunning tactics employed by Themistocles, there was a general incompatibility between the Persian navy, which was equipped to board enemy ships, and the Greek navy, which was trained to ram its opponents.

After the defeat at Salamis, Xerxes returned with part of the land forces to Asia Minor, while the Persian navy retreated to Cyme and Sámos. Considering the Persian success on land and the occupation of Athens, as well as recognizing the incompatibility of the Persian and Greek ships, Xerxes may have deemed it militarily wise to attempt no further naval battle. There is also evidence of a new revolt in Babylon, erupting in c. 479 bc, which would have influenced the decision of Xerxes to return.

The Persian commander Mardonius remained with an elite force in Greece, wintering in Thessaly, before bringing the campaign to an end. A peace offer, made to the Athenians through the Macedonian king and Persian ally, Alexander I, was rejected, and thus Athens was occupied for a second time in the spring of 479 bc. A second peace offer was also rejected by the Athenians, but while they wanted to continue the war, other Greek states were by now reluctant to offer support. Only after Sparta was given an ultimatum by the Athenians did they provide any military support. The death of Mardonius, during the ensuing Battle at Plataea, signalled defeat for the Persians forces, which then surrendered and retreated. The Spartans took the Persian camp and forced the Thebans, who had fought on the Persian side, to surrender. The remainder of the Persian army, now under the command of Artabazus, returned to Asia Minor via Macedonia and Thrace, crossing into Asia Minor at Byzantium.

Meanwhile, the returning Persian fleet had anchored at Sámos, but moved to Mycale on the Ionian coast when the Greek fleet approached the island. After being pursued by the Greek navy, the Persian fleet was engaged in battle, resulting in further defeat for the Persians at Mycale. It was the final battle of the Graeco-Persian conflict of 480-479 bc.