The Persian Factor

1
The Persian Factor

• Medes and Persians burst on the world scene to
  confront the Greeks

2
Rise of the Medes

• In 700 the Assyrian Empire was at its height.
• The Assyrians controlled both Babylonia and
  northern Persia, or Media.
• Deioces led the Medes in a successful rebellion
  against their Assyrian overlords and is made
  king.
• His successor Phraortes conquers the area south
  of Media known as Persia.

3
The Rise of Babylon

• Babylonia revolted against their Assyrian
  overlords, joining forces with Medes in doing so.
• The combined forces of the Babylonians under
  Nabopolassar and Medes defeated the Assyrian army
  and Ninevah fell in 612.
• The Assyrian Empire was divided between Media and
  Babylonia.
• Nebuchadnezzar succeeds to the Babylonian throne
  and brings that Empire to its greatest height,
  604-562.
• Babylon now thought to be the greatest city in
  the worldits Hanging Gardens one of the worlds
  seven wonders.

4
Meanwhilein Ionia

• The greatest polis of Ionia in western Asia Minor
  was Miletus.
• There lived a Greek named Thales who had studied
  astronomy in Egypt.
• He was the first European to successfully predict
  an eclipse to occur during May of 585.
• We know him as the first Greek philosopher who
  was also the first scientist he believed water
  was the common substance that explained the
  variety and unity of natural phenomena.

5
The Medes and Lydia

• Medes now controlled eastern Asia Minor to the
  banks of the Halys Riverthe border with Lydia.
• To conquer Lydia was the Median objective and
  they went to war for six years.
• Butin the midst of battle on May 28, 585, the
  eclipse occurred! Warriors of both armies were
  stunned.
• Both sides laid down their arms and concluded a
  peace. The Lydian king Alyattes gave his
  daughter in marriage to the Median king Astyages.
  

6
Croesus, 560-546

• Freed from Median threat, Lydia now turned to
  conquest of the Greek cities of Ionia and Aeolia.
• Alyattes son Croesus was able to subdue all the
  poleis except Miletus, which had signed a peace
  treaty with his father.
• Croesus adopted Greek religion, language, dress,
  and culture. He consulted Delphi.
• He built the world famous Temple of Artemis at
  Ephesus.
• His incredible wealth became proverbial. He
  introduced coins of pure gold and silver.

7
Fall of the Medes and Lydia

• Croesus brother-in-law Astyages was ousted from
  the throne by the Persian Cyrus the Great.
• Croesus consulted Delphi about a pre-emptive
  attack. The oracle said, if you cross the Halys
  you will destroy a mighty empire.
• Cyrus turned him back and captured Sardis in 546.
  Croesus foolish attack had destroyed a mighty
  empirehis own.
• The fall of Lydia removed an important buffer
  between Greek mainland and the eastern empires.
• The Persians inherited Greek lands in western
  Asia Minorand would look longingly to the Greek
  mainland.

8
A Story About Croesus

• According to Herodotus, Cyrus built a great pyre
  and placed Croesus along with 14 Lydian youths on
  the top.
• While awaiting burning, Croesus recalled a
  conversation with the Athenian Solon about
  happiness.
• He had been offended that Solon thought only
  poorer men truly happy, but now he recognized
  Solons wisdom.
• He cried aloud, moaning the name of Solon. The
  fire was lit when Cyrus heard what Croesus had
  been crying about and ordered him sparedtoo
  late.
• Apollo heard Croesus prayer and sent a rain
  shower out of a clear sky to quench the flames.
• Croesus was carried into exile in Media. This
  story became as popular to the Greeks as The
  Three Bears is to us!

9
Handwriting on the Wall

• The Persians conquered Babylon in 538 and killed
  the king Belshazzar. Mene Mene Tekel Peres
  Weighed in the balances and found wanting, your
  kingdom will be handed over to the Medes and
  Persians.
• Darius succeeded Cambyses, Cyrus son and turned
  his attention to Greece, beginning with the
  campaign against Scythia and the conquest of
  Thrace.
• Darius ruled from 522-486 B.C. after he killed a
  usurper to the throne who claimed to be Cambyses
  brother.

10
The Persian Machinery of Rule

• Darius centralized the Persian government at
  Persepolis.
• Darius divided the empire into satrapies.
  Satraps ruled them as a governor does a province.
  The title is from old Farsi for protector.
• Satraps were appointed by the king and were
  assessed an annual tribute.
• Persian king was viewed much like a demigod whose
  orders to labor or perform military service were
  unquestioned by his subjects.
• This was a hard pill for Greeks, who were used to
  more independence than Persian subjects.

11
Ionian Rebellion

• Greeks were Persian subjects in western Asia
  Minor, or Ionia.
• Ionia and Lydia were two satrapies ruled by a
  single satrap at Sardis.
• Persians at first were content to allow tyrants
  to rule in Ionia, one of them was Aristagoras,
  tyrant of Miletus.
• With the kings blessing, Aristagoras attempted
  to annex the island of Naxos, but he was betrayed
  by the admiral of the Persian navy in the Aegean.
• Disillusioned with the Persians, Aristagoras led
  a failed revolt in 499 that overthrew tyrants in
  Ionia and enlisted the aid of Athens and Eretria.
  

12
Revenge of the Persians

• In the Ionian rebellion, Athenians and Eretrians
  not only helped the rebelsthey accidentally
  burned down Sardis, capital of the satrapy.
• The mainland Greeks left the city and marched to
  Ephesus. There they were met by a Persian force
  that defeated them.
• After the battle at Ephesus the mainland Greeks
  went home, but they were now on Darius radar.
• When told that the Athenians burned Sardis,
  Darius remarked, Athenians? Who are they?
• In 494, Miletus was defeated by the Persian navy.
  Aristagoras got away Miletus men were carried
  off to the mouth of the Tigris wives and kids
  enslaved.

13
Athens braces for the Persians

• The defeat of Miletus depressed the Athenians.
• Athenians elected Themistocles archon and he
  adopted a policy of building defenses and
  fortifying harbors.
• In 492 the Persians conquered Thrace, Macedonia,
  and Thasos.
• In 490 the Persian navy landed a force in Greece,
  first burning Eretria and carrying off her people
  to central Asia.
• The Persians then sailed to the plains of
  Marathon in order to make a run at Athens.

14
The Battle of Marathon

• August 490
• How different the world would be today if the
  Athenians had suffered the same fate as the
  Eretrians!

15
Preparing for the battle

• Marathon was a Peisistradid fortress about 26
  miles northwest of Athens near the Aegean coast.
• Athens decided to meet the Persians rather than
  wait for them to come to Athens.
• They sent a runner, Philippides, to Sparta who
  ran the 140 miles in one day to ask for help.
  The Spartans would come as soon as possible, at
  the new moon.
• About 1000 Plataeans did come to Athens aid.
  The Athenians may have had 9000 of their own to
  face a Persian force of more than 20,000.

16
The Battlefield
17
The Battle

• Callimachus was the elected strategos who was
  advised by the brilliant Miltiades.
• The Athenians were in perfect position to engage
  the Persians.
• The Persians attempted to slip by on a southern
  route to Athens.
• The Athenians attacked their flank from the west,
  thin in the middle and strong on the sides (let
  me demonstrate)
• According to Herodotus (who is probably right)
  the Greeks lost 192, the Persians 6400.
• The surviving Persians escaped to the fleet which
  tried to make a run at Piraeus.
• The Athenian army left a regiment to clean up and
  quick marched back to Athens and stared down the
  Persians.

18
Athenian Soul Searching

• The Spartans arrived during the clean-up.
• The Persians were not done by a long shot.
• How best to fight the Persians in the future?
• Themistocles wanted to use a windfall silver
  strike from Laurium to build a navy, but
  Aristides opposed him.
• Aristides was ostracized and the navy built in
  482.

19
A Persian Comeback?

• Persians soon began to prepare for another
  invasion try.
• Darius died in 485 and was succeeded by Xerxes.
  After putting down rebellion in Egypt, he began
  to prepare to invade Greece.
• He built a canal in Chalcedon around Mt.
  Athosstrange to us, but necessary for his army
  and navy.
• In 484 Xerxes began to rebuild the navy.

20
The Hellenic League

• 481 Thirty-one poleis met at Corinth to discuss
  the Persian problem.
• Athens, Aegina, and the Peloponnesian League
  cities formed an alliance.
• Sparta was given military command with the
  Athenian navy under their direction.
• The League decided to make a stand in central
  Greece at Thermopylae.
• Atticas populace was evacuated to Salamis.

21
The Battle of Thermopylae

• July 480
• Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
• That here, obeying their commands, we lie.

22
A Place to Stand

• The Peloponnesians were most concerned with a
  defense of the Corinthian isthmus, but
  contributed soldiers to a defense of Attica.
• To protect eastern Greece the most feasible place
  of defense was Thermopylae (hot springs), a pass
  between the Malian Gulf and the Callidromus
  mountains in central Greece.
• Its only weakness was a mountainous bypass south
  of the pass that had to be secured.
• Spartan King Leonidas led the Greek army, which
  numbered about 7000 from a number of areas,
  including 300 Spartans.

23
The Battle Begins

• The Greek fleet hovered nearby as did the Persian
  fleet, but the Persians lost hundreds of ships in
  two storms and this emboldened the natives,
  mostly Athenian.
• Leonidas dispatched 1000 Phocians to guard the
  mountain bypass.
• Xerxes arrived with his army, but waited four
  days, expecting a Greek retreat, then attacked on
  the fifth and sixth days.
• The Greeks spearmen were superior to the Persian
  archers and beat them back.

24
Betrayal and Tragedy

• Xerxes decides to try the mountain bypass and a
  Malian Greek named Epialtes shows the way around
  the native armies to the Immortals, Xerxes
  personal guard.
• Phocians flee higher seeing Persian strength and
  stragglers report news to Leonidas.
• Leonidas dismisses all but 1400 of his forces to
  take up a new position. 300 Spartans guard the
  west end of the pass, 1100 Thebans and Thespians
  guard the east end.
• Leonidas charges oncoming Persians with his
  soldiers and is killed. A battle of Homeric
  proportions results to protect his body. All the
  Spartans are slain, Greek total losses in the
  thousands.

25
The Battle of Salamis

• September 480
• A heavy blow to the naval power of the Persians

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27
The Battle Begins

• When the Greek fleet heard of the fall of
  Thermopylae, they retreated to the shores of
  Attica.
• People of Attica had been removed to the island
  of Salamis.
• Persians marched into Athens and burned the
  Acropolis.
• Persian fleet thought they had the Greeks bottled
  up in a sound called the Bay of Eleusis between
  Attica and the island of Salamis.
• Persian fleet decided to go through to the bay by
  way of an entrance bisected by an island into two
  narrow straits on morning of September 20.

28
The Battle Ends

• The Greeks divided the Persian fleet and drove
  their unwieldy ships into the shore. It was a
  disaster for the Persians under the view of
  Xerxes, enthroned on the Attican shore watching.
• The awful strategy of the Persian navy may
  actually have been invited by Themistocles, to
  force his Greeks to fight and not be tempted to
  withdraw to Corinth.
• Persian fleet retreats to the Hellespont.
• Xerxes leaves with 60,000 troops for Hellespont
  rendezvous.

29
Platea Spring 479

• The last battle with the Persians in Europe took
  place near Platea, a city in extreme southeastern
  Boeotia.
• A Greek force of Spartans, Athenians, and Tegeans
  opposed a huge force of Persians and their Theban
  allies.
• Persian forces misperceived a weakness in the
  Spartan forces and attacked. The Spartans saw
  positive omens and attacked fiercely and crushed
  the Persians against a hillside.
• The battle was over before any Athenians could
  get involved. Persians fled to the Hellespont,
  the Greeks besieged Thebes.

30
Mycale, Spring 479

• The Greek fleet was positioned at the island of
  Delos.
• A message came from Greeks of the island of
  Samos, asking for liberation from the Persians.
• The Greek fleet under Xanthippus sailed to Samos,
  then pursued the retreating Persian navy to Cape
  Mycale where an army of Ionians and some Persians
  was camped.
• The Greeks blocked the Persians, then destroyed
  the land base when Ionian troops deserted the
  Persians. Ionia was free!