THE BEECHMONT CREST GUIDE TO ANCIENT GREECE
The Persians vs. the Greeks
Conflict between the Greek city-states and the Persian Empire was a recurring theme in ancient Greek history. At this time the Persians possessed the most formidable military force in the region. The Persian Empire was aggressively expansionist, and Persia’s successive rulers coveted the Greek peninsula.
The cultural differences between Greece and Persia were many. The Greeks themselves defined the conflict with Persia as a contest between slavery and freedom. In a play by the Greek writer Aeschylus, the Queen of Persia asks of the Greeks, “Who is their master? Who commands them?” The chorus answers: “The Greeks are their own masters. They are slaves to no one.”
Given these differences, conflict with Persia was perhaps inevitable. By the middle of the sixth century, the Ionian Greek communities in Asia Minor had been subjugated by the Persians. In 499 B.C., the Greek city of Miletus led a revolt of the Greek cities that were ruled by the Persians.
The Athenians were not about to stand on the sidelines. They sent twenty Athenian military vessels to aid the rebels. With Athenian help, the Milesians captured and burned the regional Persian capital of Sardis.
But Greek success was short-lived. In 494 the Persians quashed the rebellion and brutally sacked Miletus. Moreover, the Persian ruler Darius was now spoiling for a fight with the mainland Greeks. Not only did he want to punish the mainland Greeks for aiding their Ionian cousins; he also wanted to add mainland Greece to his empire. (Persia was at this time the mightiest empire in the world, after all.)
The Battle of Marathon
Darius sent an expedition against mainland Greece in 490 B.C. The Persians crossed the Aegean Sea and captured the town of Eretria, on the island of Euboea. (The Eretrians had also had the audacity to defy Persia by sending aid to the Ionian Greek rebels.) Euboea is separated from the Greek mainland by a narrow strip of ocean. It didn’t take long for Darius’s troops to cross over to Greece. They landed at Marathon, a mere 26 miles from Athens.
The Athenian forces marched to confront the Persians, joined by another army of Greeks from the nearby town of Plataea. The combined Greek force was significantly outnumbered; but they defeated the Persians with a bold charge across an open plain near Marathon.
The Persians had had enough of Greece for the time being. This would not be the last time that a Persian army invaded Greece; but the next invasion would come a decade later, under a new Persian ruler.
Different battle tactics
The Persian way of making war differed from Greek military methods. The Greek hoplites were heavily armored, not very mobile, and relied on the rigid phalanx structure. The phalanx killed its opponents with sword and spear thrusts. The Persians, by contrast, were lightly armored and highly mobile. The Persians had swords and spears; but the most formidable weapon in the Persian arsenal was the bow and arrow. Persian archers were respected and feared throughout the ancient Middle East.