The Persian Wars, also known as the Greco Persian Wars, were a series of battles fought between Ancient Greece and the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the 5th century BCE. The most famous of these battles are the Battle of Marathon, the Battle of Thermopylae, the Battle of Salamis and the Battle of Plataea. The beginning of the Persian Wars saw the Achaemenid Empire ruled by Darius the Great, and the main catalyst of the wars was the Ionian Revolt and Athenian and Eretrian sack of the city of Sardis which was under Persian rule.
The first major battle between the Greek City-States and the Persian Empire was the Battle of Marathon with the Greek City-States led by either Callimachus or Miltiades and the Persians led by Datis and Artephernes. Before the next major battles Thermopylae and Artemision, Darius the Great died and his son Xerxes succeeded him as the new ruler of the Persians. The next major battle was the Battle of Salamis (a naval battle) after the Persians beat the Greeks in the Battle of Thermopylae. After the Persians were defeated by the Greek City-States at Salamis, their final major battle of the Persian Wars was in 479 BCE at the land Battle of Plataea, in which the Greek City-States emerged victoriously.
— CHAPTERS — 0:00 Introduction 0:49 What were the Persian Wars? 1:20 Why did the start? 3:19 The Battle of Marathon 5:45 Battles of Thermopylae and Artemision 9:08 The Battle of Salamis 10:31 The Battle of Plataea 11:47 The Aftermath of the Persian Wars
Did you know that our modern day marathon race was inspired by the Battle of Marathon during
the Persian Wars? Stay tuned to find out why. Hello and welcome to World History Encyclopedia.
My name is Kelly and today we're talking about the series of conflicts between the Greek city-states
and the Persian Empire, known as the Persian Wars. Don't forget the easiest way to support us is by
giving this video a thumbs up and subscribing to our channel so you don't miss out on any new
uploads. We also have a Patreon where you can get great rewards like art prints and t-shirts,
and you can find the link to that down below. The Persian Wars were a number of battles and
conflicts between the Greek city-states and the Achaemenid Persian Empire beginning in 490 BCE
and continuing on and off until peace was reached 41 years later in 449 BCE. The most
significant battles of the wars were Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea, all of which
have become legendary. So what was the catalyst for these battles between Greece and Persia?
At the time of the first military campaign in 490 BCE, Persia was under the rule of Darius I,
who had already expanded the Persian borders through mainland Europe, including Thrace,
Ionia and Macedonia, which is why he is also known as Darius the Great. And for his next conquest
and expansion, Darius had his eyes set on Athens and the Greek city-states. There are a few reasons
that caused enough resentment between the Persians and the Greek city-states to warrant Darius's
decision, but the primary one was the Ionian Revolt. The Ionians were Greeks who had settled
in Asia Minor, which was at this time under Persian rule. When they revolted against the
Persians, Athens and Eretria sent help to the Ionians, marking it as the first major battle
between the Greeks and the Persians. The second would be the Athenians and Eretrian sack of the
city of Sardis in 499 BCE, also under Persian rule at that point. In 492, Darius sent a punitive
expedition against Greece in retaliation, but was forced to withdraw due to the supporting fleet
being destroyed in a storm in the Aegean. Then in 491 BCE, Darius sent envoys to Greece requesting
they submit to Persian rule, and in response, Athens and Sparta both killed the envoys.
Sparta and Athens formed an alliance against the Persians, and in response, Darius sent 25,000 men
on 600 ships to attack the Cyclades and Evia. He failed to take the Cyclades but brought down Evia,
bringing him closer to his goal of the conquest of Greece. The first major battle between the
Persians and the Greeks was the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE. The Persian army, which numbered to
perhaps 90,000 infantry, was led not by Darius but by his commander, Dartus, while Darius' nephew
and second-in-command, Artafernes, may have led the 2,000-strong cavalry. The Greeks were led by
who shared command, and the army totaled between 10,000 and 20,000, plus 1,000 Plataeans.
The Spartans were called to help, but since they were in the middle of a religious celebration,
they said that they would join the defense when their rituals were concluded. The Persians' plan
was to draw the Athenians away from their city, and then send half of their troops to sack and
occupy it. The Athenians knew that they were leaving their city undefended, but when Miltiades
saw a chance for attack, he immediately ordered a full advance upon the Persians, whose army was
mostly reliant on missile troops. The Athenian heavy phalanx was able to break the Persian
lines of light infantry, and then surround and slaughter them. At the end of the Battle of
Marathon, a messenger named Pheidippides, who had just fought in the battle, was sent to Athens
to deliver the news of Greek victory. Apparently, he ran the entire way from Marathon to Athens
without stopping, and when he reached the assembly, he cried out,
we have won, and then collapsed and died. This run was the inspiration for the modern-day event
known as the Marathon. Once they had claimed victory, the dead-tired Athenians were marched
straight back to Athens to defend against the Persians, who were en route to claim the city.
When the Persians saw the Athenians waiting at Athens, they turned and fled. By the time the
Spartans arrived, the Athenians had already claimed victory. The Battle of Marathon was a watershed
moment for the Greeks, as they realized that the mighty Achaemenid Persians could be defeated.
The battle was then often depicted in later Greek art, literature, and pottery.
Before the second Persian invasion of Greece, Darius was distracted by a rebellion in Egypt,
and in 486 BCE, he died without finishing his preparations, and his son Xerxes succeeded him
as emperor. Xerxes spent four years planning his invasion of Greece, because he could not
leave Greece unpunished, and so assembled the largest army up to that date to ensure his total
victory. The Persians built a boat bridge at the Hellespont in order for their troops to cross
the water into the territory of the Greek city-states easily. The Greek city-states sent
a joint force of between 6,000 and 7,000 men to defend the pass at Thermopylae, since the
Persians had to pass it to get to the interior of Greece. Due to the sacred games at Olympia,
and the important Spartan religious festival of the Carnea taking place at this time which
prohibited any fighting, the Spartans only sent 300 troops, and the overall number of Greek troops
was quite small. The Greek poleis also sent a naval force of trireme warships to the coast of
Artemisium, 40 nautical miles from Thermopylae. At the pass of Thermopylae in 480 BCE, Xerxes and
his 80,000 troops waited four days for the Greeks to run away, and when they didn't,
Xerxes sent one last envoy for the Greeks to lay down their arms, and Leonidas, the Spartan king
in command of the Greek troops, replied with, come and get them, and so the battle commenced.
The Persians once again favored long-range attacks with archers, but also had the 10,000
immortals who would have been better protected and armed with spears. The Greeks were heavily
armored hoplites who fought in a densely packed formation called the phalanx. The first two days
were in the Greeks' favor, since their style of battle was best suited for the narrow pass of
Thermopylae, until Ephialtes, a Greek who favored Persian rule, betrayed them and told the Persians
of an alternative route, the Anopea path, they could use to bypass the defenses of the Greeks
and attack the southern flank. Before they were completely cut off, Leonidas ordered the majority
of the Greek defenders to retreat, keeping only those he felt necessary. Day three was the final
day of the battle, and Leonidas rallied the survivors from the original Spartan 300, 700
Thespians, and 400 Thebans to allow the rest of the Greeks to depart and regroup elsewhere.
The Persians could now attack from in front and behind the Greeks, but since the immortals were
late to the fight, Leonidas advanced the Greeks to the widest part in order to utilize all his men
at once. In the course of this battle, Leonidas was killed and the Greeks were defeated. Meanwhile,
the Persian fleet was battling the elements, and the naval battle at Artemisium was indecisive.
Then, the Greek fleet withdrew to Salamis at the news of Leonidas' death. The Persians' victory
at Thermopylae gave them easy access to Greece. Many city-states gave in to Persian rule, and even
Athens was sacked. In September of the year 480 BCE, the Battle of Salamis took place, the decisive
naval battle of the conflict. The number of ships from the Persians and Greeks is disputed in the
ancient sources, but it's safe to say that the Greeks were, once again, greatly outnumbered.
Both sides had triremes, which were ancient warships, but Greece had the advantage of the
great admiral Themistocles, who had 20 years of experience and had fought at the naval battle of
Artemisium. Details of the battle are contradictory between ancient sources, but it's generally
understood that Themistocles cleverly led the Persians into a trap, using his smaller and more
agile ships to effect against the larger Persian warships, and led the Greeks to a great victory,
forcing the Persians to withdraw to Asia Minor. The outcome of this battle proved the cryptic
Oracle of the Delphi right, with its prophecy that only a wooden wall will keep you safe,
which was understood as the wooden wall of the Greek ships, which defeated the Persians.
After the Persians' defeat at Salamis, Xerxes returned home to his palace at Susa,
but he still had control over much of Greece and had a large land army intact. In August of 479 BCE,
the Persians and the Greeks met in battle one more time at the land battle of Plataea. This
battle pitted the largest Greek army yet assembled, around 110,000 men from 30 city-states, against
only slightly fewer numbers of the army of the Persians. The superiority of the Greek hoplites
in tight phalanx formation, and the high morale following the victory at Salamis, gave the Greeks
victory in this battle. At the battle of Mycalae in Ionia, which was happening at pretty much the
same time as the battle of Plataea, the Greek fleet led by Leo Taikides landed an army which
defeated the Persian garrison there and killed their commander Tigranes. This victory meant that
Ionian states could swear allegiance to the Hellenic alliance, and the Delian League was
afterwards established to ward off any future attack by the Persians. Over the next 30 years,
Persia continued to launch small attacks and encourage skirmishes throughout the Aegean,
but in 449 BCE, Greece and Persia finally ended their conflict in the treaty known as the Peace
of Callaeus. The Achaemenid Persian Empire continued to thrive for almost another hundred
years, establishing its legacy in the east, while Greece flourished in its golden age,
contributing to the foundation of Western civilization as we know it, through philosophy,
literature, politics, religion, art, and the sciences. Both the Persians and the Greeks
contributed important aspects of world civilization which, in time, have come to
inform both eastern and western cultures. Our only sources for the Persian wars are
Greek historians. What do you think would be different if we had accounts of these battles
from a Persian perspective? Can we fully trust these Greek sources, or should we take them with
a grain of salt? Let us know what you think down in the comments below. If you enjoyed this video,
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