Persian Wars490BCE- 479 BCE

Copyright © Clara Kim 2007. All rights reserved.

Who Fought?• The Persians Fought against the Greeks

–Persia was ruled by Darius and Xerxes

–Greeks- Athenians, Spartans, Ionians

Persians

VS

Greeks

• Persia controlled Ionia but Greekswere already living there.

• in 499BCE when Persian King Darius raised taxes, the Ionian Greeks got mad and revolted–Athens backed them up

• Persians crushed the revolts

What caused the Persian War?

Causes• Darius wanted

revenge on Athenians for helping so he attacked mainland Greece.

Major Battles

1. Battle at Eretria– City north of Athens was burned by the Persians–Angry Athens asks Sparta for help

Major Battles2. Battle of Marathon: Sparta and

Athens work together– Persia- 25,000 soldiers–Greeks- 10,000 soldiers–Phalanx battle formation gave the

Greeks the victory•6,400 Persians died •192 Greeks died

Phalanx Formation

Pheidippides• Ran to Athens from

Marathon = 26 miles

• Told them of the victory (Nike!)

• Died after giving the news

* This is why marathons are now 26 miles!

• 10 years later

• Xerxes, son of Darius vowed revenge.

• Brought between 100,000-300,000 troops through a narrow mountain pass

Part 2: Persian War

Battle at Thermopylae• 3,300 Greeks led by the Spartans held

them off at a narrow pass in Thermopylae. –A traitor told Persians of another way

around

–Many Greeks retreat but 300 Spartans stood strong.

–They all died

Battle at Salamis• Athens is evacuated and

fought at sea.

• Athenians had a powerful navy

• Greeks fought with new ships called Trireme.

–Triremes punched holes in Persian ships and sink a third of the ships.

Trireme

• While Athens crushed the Persians at Sea, Spartans were on the plain of Plataea and crushes the rest of the Persian army

• Xerxes retreats

Battle of Plataea

Battle Summary:Greeks 3 – Persians 3

Battle Winner

Ionia Persia

Eretria Persia

Marathon Greece

Thermopylae Persia

Salamis Greece

Plataea Greece

• Greece victory creates a sense of unity• Athens had control of what was left of

Greece through leadership of the Delian League.

• Delian League- an agreement that the remaining Greek city states would help each other

Effects of the Persian Wars

Athens & Democracy...

It’s not what you think.

• Democracy– Demos (“people”) + kratein (“to rule”)

• Democracy developed through various reforms over 200 years (circa 620s B.C.E.-420 B.C.E.)– Draco– Solon– Clisthenes– Pericles

Athens and Athenian Democracy

Draco• Athenian noble• 621 B.C.E. – credited with putting down first

written laws of Athens– Severe (modern English term draconian meaning

“severe” or “harsh”)– Written “in blood, not ink”– Written laws meant that judges could not show

favoritism or make up laws

Solon

• 594 B.C.E. – rewrote Draco’s laws

• Helped the poor– All citizens could

participate in the legislature

– Ended debt enslavement– Canceled land mortgages– Limited amount of land a

person could own

Clisthenes• 508 B.C.E.• Enlarged Athenian Assembly and increased its powers• Created Council of 500 to represent the different classes

– Created and administered laws after they were approved by Assembly

• Officials were elected• Executive power

– Ten generals called strategi (singular strategus)– Elected for one year

• Citizenship granted to some freedmen (former slaves) and to some immigrants

• Ostracism – Names written on ostrakon (piece of broken potsherd) once a

year– Most votes = ten years of exile

Pericles• “Golden Age of Pericles” – 461-429

B.C.E.

• Repeatedly elected as a strategus

• All citizens could hold public office

• People were paid for government service

• “Golden Age of Pericles” also saw developments in art and architecture

• Athens’ adult population: Circa 300,000– 150,000 foreigners and slaves (not citizens)– 100,000 women and others– 50,000 male citizens with voting rights

• Direct democracy – the citizen had to be there to vote (typically 5,000-6,000 voted at a time)

• Women had few rights and opportunities• Slavery played a major role in the economy• Orators often used forceful and coercive

language, rather than logic, to sway voters

Athenian Democracy: Its Flaws

Pictures Cited• Slide 1 – http://www.post-gazette.com/images4/20070309ho_leonidas_450.jpg

• Slide 2 – http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u117/mikey_albert_photos/leonidis.jpg

• Slide 3 – http://www.the-toy-soldier.com/images/romans4.jpg, http://www.the-toy-soldier.com/images/romans2.jpg, http://www.markchurms.com/Merchant2/graphics/eagle-l.jpg

• Slide 5 – http://tn1-2.pv.deviantart.com/fs11/150/i/2006/183/c/e/wendy__s_revenge_by_bri_chan.jpg

• Slide 7 – http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Battleofissus333BC-mosaic.jpg

• Slide 9 – http://joseph_berrigan.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/greekinfantry.jpg,

• Slide 10 – http://www.livius.org/a/1/greece/phalanx.jpg

• Slide 11 – http://www.300spartanwarriors.com/images/719_Warner_Bros._Frank_Miller_300_-_300SpartanWarriors.jpg

• Slide 12 – http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39748000/jpg/_39748185_p_diddy_203.jpg

• Slide 13 – http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k46/mooshy_01/Xerxes.jpg

• Slide 14 - http://sha3teely.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/300movie02.jpg

• Slide 16 – http://students.mnmsa.org/~tkosanke/Thermopylae.jpg

• Slide 17 – http://www.molossia.org/milacademy/salamis.jpg

• Slide 18 – http://www.sikyon.com/Athens/images/salamis_battle.jpg

• Slide 19 – http://students.ou.edu/E/Ryan.C.Emrick-1/greek_trireme.JPG