Greco-Persian Wars described in detail by Herodotus in his History. He traveled a lot and visited various countries. Persia was no exception.
The Persian kingdom was headed by Darius I. The Greek cities located in the region were under the authority of the state. The Persians subjugated them and forced the population to pay huge taxes. The Greeks living in Miletus could no longer tolerate this oppression. Erupted in 500 BC. e. In this city, the uprising spread to other cities. 25 ships came to the aid of the rebels from Eretria (a city located on the island of Euboea) and Athens. Thus began the wars of antiquity, which became the most significant in the history of the two states.
The rebels, supported by naval forces, won several victories. However, the Greeks were subsequently defeated.
Darius, who swore revenge on the Athenians and Euboeans, decided to conquer all of Greece. He sends envoys to the policies demanding submission to his authority. Many expressed their resignation. However, Sparta and Athens remained adamant.
In 490 BC. e. The Persian fleet approached Attica from the north, and the army landed near the small village of Marathon. Immediately the Athenian militia was sent towards the enemy. Of all Hellas, only the population of Plataea (a town in Boeotia) provided assistance to the Athenians. Thus, the Greco-Persian wars began with the numerical advantage of the Persians.
However, Miltiades (the Athenian commander) correctly lined up his troops. So, the Greeks managed to defeat the Persians. The winners pursued the losers of the battle all the way to the sea. There the Hellenes attacked the ships. The enemy fleet began to quickly move away from the shores. The Greeks won a brilliant victory.
According to legends, one young warrior, having received an order, ran to Athens to tell the residents the good news. Without stopping, without taking a sip of water, he ran a distance of 42 km 195 meters. Stopping at the square of the village of Marathon, he shouted out the news of the victory and immediately fell breathless. Today there is a competition to run this distance called a marathon.
This victory dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the Persians. The Athenians themselves were very proud of the outcome of the battle. But the Greco-Persian wars did not end there.
At this time, Themistocles began to gain popularity and influence in Athens. This energetic and talented politician attached great importance to the fleet. He believed that with his help the Greco-Persian wars would end in victory for Greece. At the same time, a rich silver deposit was discovered in Attica. Themistocles proposed spending the proceeds from the development on building a fleet. Thus, 200 triremes were built.
The Greco-Persian Wars continued 10 years later. King Darius I was replaced by the ruler Xerxes. His army marched to Hellas by land from the north. Along sea coast she was accompanied by a huge fleet. Many Greek city-states then united against the invaders. Sparta took command.
In 480 BC. e. The Battle of Thermopylae took place. The battle lasted two days. The Persians could not break through the siege of the Greeks. But a traitor was found. He led the enemies to the rear of the Greeks.
He stayed with the volunteers to fight, and ordered the rest to retreat. The Persians won this battle and moved towards Athens.
The Athenians abandoned the city. Old people, children, and women were resettled to neighboring islands, and men went on ships.
The battle took place in the Strait of Salamis. Persian ships entered the strait at dawn. The Athenians immediately attacked the enemy's leading ships. Persian ships were heavy and clumsy. The triremes easily bypassed them. The Greeks won. Ruler Xerxes was forced to retreat to Asia Minor.
Afterwards the battles of Mycale and Plataea took place. According to legend, the battles took place on the same day, and the Greeks emerged victorious in both.
Military operations continued for a long time, until 449 BC. e. This year, peace was concluded, as a result of which all Greek cities located in Asia Minor received independence.
The Greeks emerged victorious. Their troops were few in number but well trained. In addition, the main reasons for the Greco-Persian wars were the desire of the Greek people to regain freedom and independence, which supported their morale.
People have been fighting since time immemorial. Some peoples tried to conquer other, weaker ones. This uncontrollable thirst for blood, profit, and power over others led to the emergence of entire eras that can only be told about wars. Every person knows that the real cradles of Western and Eastern civilization are Hellenic Greece and Persia, but not everyone knows the fact that both of these cultural titans fought among themselves at the turn of the 5th - 6th centuries BC. In addition to devastation and losses, the Greco-Persian War brought heroes to the world.
The conflict was truly a turning point in history ancient world. Many facts are unclear to this day, but the tireless work of scientists will certainly bear fruit. At this stage, we can only slightly lift the veil of secrecy over this truly terrifying, but at the same time mind-blowing historical event. All sources known to date were inherited from scientists and travelers who lived at that time. The authenticity of the Greco-Persian War is unconditional, but the scale is simply impossible to imagine, since the two most powerful powers of that time fought.
Brief description of the period
The Greco-Persian Wars is a collective concept of one period during which military conflict occurred between the independent city-states of Greece and Persia, under the Achaemenid dynasty. We are not talking about a single military skirmish of a prolonged nature, but about a whole series of wars that were fought from 500 to 449 BC. Actions of this magnitude were caused primarily by the conflict of interests between Greece and the Persian state.
The Greco-Persian Wars include all armed campaigns of the Persians against the states of the Balkan Peninsula. As a result of the war, Persia's large-scale expansion to the west was stopped. Many modern scientists call this period fateful. It is difficult to imagine the further development of events if the East nevertheless conquered the West.
It is impossible to describe the Greco-Persian wars briefly. This historical period needs detailed study. To do this, you need to turn to the sources of that time.
Main sources
The history of the Greco-Persian wars is rich in events and personalities. The information that has reached us allows us to accurately recreate the picture of the events of those years. Almost everything that modern historians know about the Greco-Persian War comes from ancient Greek treatises. Without those statements that were taken from the works of scientists Ancient Greece, people would not be able to acquire even a fraction of the knowledge available to them today.
The most important source is a book called History, written by Herodotus of Halicarnassus. Its author traveled half the world, collecting various data about peoples and other historical events the era in which he lived. Herodotus tells the story of the Greco-Persian War, from the conquest of Ionia to the defeat of Sestus in 479 BC. The description of all events makes it possible to literally see all the battles of the Greco-Persian wars. However, this source has one significant drawback: the author was not a witness to all those events. He was simply retelling what other people had told him about. As we understand, with this approach it is very difficult to distinguish lies from truth.
After the death of Herodotus, Thucykides of Athens continued the work. He began to describe events from the point where his predecessor left off, and ended with the end of the Peloponnesian War. The historical brainchild of Thucydides is called: “The History of the Peloponnesian War.” In addition to the presented scientists, other historians of antiquity can be distinguished: these are Diodorus Siculus and Ctesias. Thanks to the memoirs and works of these people, we can analyze the main events of the Greco-Persian wars.
What contributed to the start of the war
Today we can highlight large number factors that were literally brought to earth Ancient Hellas Greco-Persian wars. The reasons for these events are perfectly described in the works of Herodotus, who is also called the “father of history.” According to the data he provided, during the Dark Ages colonies were formed on the shores of Asia Minor. These small cities were mainly inhabited by tribes of Aeolians, Ionians and Dorians. A number of established colonies had complete independence. In addition, a special cultural alliance was concluded between them. Such closed-type cooperation right on the shores of Asia Minor did not exist independently for long. The alliance turned out to be so shaky that within a few years King Croesus conquered all the cities.
Conflict between Persians and Greeks
The reign of the self-proclaimed king did not last long. Soon the founder of the Achaemenid dynasty, Cyrus II, conquered the resulting state.
From this time on, the cities came under complete control of the Persians. But a series of military conflicts begins a little later, at least that’s what Herodotus tells. The Greco-Persian wars, in his opinion, begin in 513 BC, when Darius I organizes his campaign in Europe. Destroying Greek Thrace, his troops encountered an army of Scythians, which they could not defeat.
The most intense political conflict erupted between the Persians and Athens. This center of ancient Greek culture endured the attacks of the tyrant Hippias for a very long time. When he was finally driven out, a new threat arrived - the Persians. Once under their rule, many Athenians showed discontent, reinforced by the order of the Persian commander, according to which Hippias returned back to Athens. It was from this moment that the Greco-Persian wars began.
March of Mardonius
The chronology of the Greco-Persian wars begins from the moment when Mardonius, son-in-law of Darius, moved straight to Greece, through Macedonia and Thrace. However, the dreams of this ambitious military leader were not destined to come true. The fleet, consisting of more than 300 ships, was completely smashed against the rocks by a storm, and the land forces were attacked by barbarian brigs. Of all the planned territories, only Macedonia was conquered.
Artapherna Company
After the terrible failure of Mardonius, the general Artaphernes took command, with the support of his close friend Datis. The main purpose of the campaign was as follows:
1. Subjugation of Athens.
2. The defeat of Eretria on the island of Euboea.
Darius also ordered the inhabitants of these cities to be brought to him as slaves, which would symbolize the complete conquest of Greece. The primary goals of the campaign were achieved. In addition to Eretria, Naxos was conquered. But the losses of the Persian army were colossal, because the Greeks resisted with all their might, thereby exhausting the enemy.
Marathon Battle
The Greco-Persian Wars, the main battles of which took place quite epically, wrote the names of some commanders into history. For example, Miltiades - this talented commander and strategist was able to brilliantly use the small number of advantages that the Athenians had during the Battle of Marathon. Miltiades was the initiator of the battle between the Persians and Greeks. Under his command, the Greek army launched a massive attack on enemy positions. Most of the Persian army was thrown into the sea, the rest was killed.
In order not to completely lose the campaign, Artaphernes' army begins to advance by ship along Attica with the goal of conquering Athens while the city does not have enough forces to defend it. At the same time, the Greek army immediately after a long battle took a march towards the capital of all Greece. These actions have borne fruit. Miltiades and his entire army managed to return to the city before the Persians. Artaphernes' exhausted army retreated from Greek soil because further battle was pointless. Prominent Athenian politicians prophesied that the Greeks would lose all the Greco-Persian wars. The Battle of Marathon completely changed their minds. Darius's campaign ended in complete failure.
Break from the war and construction of the fleet
The Athenians understood that the results of the Greco-Persian wars would depend on many factors. One of these was the presence of a fleet. The fact that the Persians would continue the war was not even questioned. The famous politician and skillful strategist Themistocles proposed strengthening his fleet by increasing its number. The idea was received ambiguously, especially by Aristide and his followers. Nevertheless, the threat of the Persians had a much greater effect on the consciousness of people than the danger of losing a small amount cash. Aristides was expelled and the fleet increased from 50 to 200 ships. From this moment on, the Greeks could count not only on survival, but also on victory in the war with Persia.
Beginning of Xerxes' campaign
After the death of Darius I (in 486 BC), his son, the cruel and reckless Xerxes, ascends to the Persian throne. He was able to gather a huge army, the likes of which had never before been seen in Asia Minor. In his historical writings, Herodotus tells us about the size of this army: about 5 million soldiers. Modern scholars are skeptical about these figures, insisting that the number of the Xerxes army did not exceed 300,000 soldiers. But the greatest danger came not from the soldiers themselves, but from the fleet of 1,200 ships. Such naval power really brought real horror to the Athenians, who had nothing at all: 300 ships.
Battle of Thermopylae
The offensive of Xerxes' army began in the area of the Thermopylae Pass, which separated northern Greece from central Greece. Exactly in this place famous story about three hundred Spartans led by King Leonidas found its beginning. These warriors bravely defended the passage, inflicting heavy losses on the Persian army. The geography of the area was on the side of the Greeks. The size of Xerxes' army did not matter because the passage was quite small. But in the end, the Persians made their way, having previously killed all the Spartans. However, the strength of the Persian army was irrevocably undermined.
Naval battles
The defeat of Leonidas forced the Athenians to leave their city. All residents crossed to the Peloponnese and Enigma. The forces of the Persian army were running out, so it did not pose much of a threat. Plus, the Spartans were well entrenched on the Isthmus Isthmus, which significantly blocked the path of Xerxes. But the Persian fleet still threatened the Greek army.
The previously mentioned strategist Themistocles put an end to this threat. He literally forced Xerxes to take battle at sea with his entire unwieldy fleet. This decision became fatal. The Battle of Salamis marked the end of Persian expansion.
All further actions by the Greek army were aimed at the complete destruction of the Persians. The Greeks slowly drove the enemy out of the expanses of Thrace, took away half of Cyprus, as well as cities such as Chersonesos, Rhodes, and the Hellespont.
The Greco-Persian Wars ended with the signing of the Peace of Potassium in 449 BC.
Results
Thanks to the tactics, fortitude and courage of the Greeks, the Persians lost all their possessions in the Aegean Sea, as well as on the coasts of the Bosphorus and Hellespont. After the events of the war, the spirit and self-awareness of the Greeks increased noticeably. The fact that Athenian democracy contributed greatly to the victories sparked massive democratic movements throughout Greece. From that moment on, the culture of the East began to gradually fade against the background of the great West.
Greco-Persian Wars: Event Table
Conclusion
So, the article examined the Greco-Persian wars. A brief summary of all the events allows you to get acquainted in detail with this difficult period in the history of ancient Greece. This turning point shows the power and indestructibility of Western culture. Started new era when the Greco-Persian wars ended. The reasons, main events, persons and other facts still cause a lot of controversy among modern scientists. Who knows what other incredible information the period hides? great war between West and East.
Greco-Persian Wars briefly
Persian conquest of Asia Minor
At the end of the 6th century. BC e. Persia subjugated the Greek cities of Asia Minor and captured some islands of the Aegean Sea. Crafts and trade were highly developed in the cities of Asia Minor. The Persians plundered these richest cities and forced the population to pay huge taxes, which fell heavily on the masses.
In 500 BC. e. The population of Miletus and other Greek cities of Asia Minor rebelled against the Persian yoke.
The rebels asked the Greeks for help Balkan Peninsula. Of the major states of Greece, only Athens sent twenty ships. Deprived of the support of the European Greeks, the rebels were defeated by superior Persian forces. Miletus was razed to the ground and its population sold into slavery.
Marathon Battle
Having dealt with the Greeks of Asia Minor, the Persians decided to capture all of Greece. The small country, fragmented into separate states, seemed to them an easy prey. The pretext for the attack on Greece was the assistance provided by Athens to the rebel inhabitants of Miletus. King Darius 1 sent envoys to Greek cities demanding “land and water,” which, according to Persian custom, meant a demand for submission.
The fear of Persian power was so great that most Greek cities agreed to submit. But Sparta and Athens refused.
In 490 BC. e. The Persians assembled a large fleet and, putting their warriors on ships, headed across the Aegean Sea to Attica.
Having conquered a number of islands, the Persians landed in Attica in the Marathon Valley, forty kilometers from Athens. The narrow Marathon Valley was unfavorable for the numerous Persian cavalry. Athenian heavily armed warriors, led by the experienced commander Miltiades, rushed at the Persians from the heights bordering the valley. The Greeks were inspired by the desire to defend their homeland, to secure its freedom and independence. And they fought desperately. Unable to withstand the onslaught of the Greeks, the Persians retreated in disarray to the ships and left Greece.
Campaign of Xerxes
The Persians, having suffered defeat at Marathon, did not give up hope of conquering Greece. Soon King Darius died. His son Xerxes, who ascended the throne, began to gather forces for a new campaign against the rebellious Greeks.
The Greeks, well aware of the military power of the Persian state, were preparing to defend against a new invasion. Aristocratic landowners, fearful that their lands would suffer, demanded the defense of Athens from the land side. Representatives of the trade and craft circles of Athenian society stood in favor of strengthening the fleet. Their leader Themistbkl believed that only “wooden walls,” that is, ships, could save his homeland.
Thanks to the insistence of Themistocles, the Athenians decided to use the income from the silver mines, 
previously divided between citizens, for the construction of 100 warships and for the strengthening of Athenian harbors. In addition, the Athenians encouraged other Greek states to form an alliance to fight the Persians. Sparta took over the leadership of the military forces of this union.
In 480 BC. e. Xerxes with a huge army, consisting of warriors from all countries subject to the Persians, crossed the Hellespont (now the Dardanelles) and headed south by land and along the coast
on ships. One after another, Greek cities surrendered to the Persians, yielding enormous power invaders.
A small army of Spartans and their allies, led by King Leonidas, occupied the Thermopylae Pass. Twice the Persians went on the offensive. The Spartans fought with unparalleled courage and inflicted heavy damage on the enemy. However, with the help of a traitor, the Persians managed to find a bypass path and reach the Greeks’ rear. Having learned about the encirclement, Leonid decided to release most of his army in order to save strength for a future fight. Three hundred Spartans and Leonidas fell in an unequal battle. Subsequently, a monument to the fallen heroes was erected at this place with a sculpture of a lion and the inscription: “Traveler, tell the Spartans about our death. True to the covenants of the country, here we died in our bones.”
After the battle of Thermopylae the road to Central Greece was open. The Persians marched towards Athens and burned it. Women, old people and children were transported in advance to the Peloponnese and to the island of Salamis, separated from Attica by a narrow strait.
The Greek fleet stopped in the Strait of Salamis. The Spartans, seeking to protect the Peloponnese from the Persian invasion, insisted on the retreat of the fleet. But Themistocles did not agree with them.
He understood that among the rocks and shallows of the Strait of Salamis, the huge Persian fleet would not be able to move quickly and freely and the Persians would lose their superiority.
Left alone among the ship commanders who insisted on the withdrawal of the fleet, Themistocles resorted to a trick. He secretly sent a messenger to the Persian king with the news that those who were frightened of him 
With might, the Greeks are preparing to retreat, and if Xerxes wants to prevent this, let him block their way. Believing Themistocles, Xerxes ordered his ships to enter the Strait of Salamis. The Greek fleet began to retreat back, and the Persian ships entered the narrowest part of the strait. When the wind from the sea raised waves in the strait, Themistocles gave the sign to attack. Small Greek ships broke the oars of Persian ships and pierced their sides with sharp metal tusks nailed to the bow at water level. The large and clumsy Persian ships could not turn around in tight spaces, ran aground and crashed against the rocks.
Reasons for the Greek victory
The next year after this victory, Xerxes' troops left Greece. The war continued for thirty years and ended in victory for the Greeks. The Persians recognized the independence of the Greek cities and renounced their claims in the Aegean Sea and the Balkan Peninsula.
The Greeks won because they united their forces and fought a just war of liberation. In addition, their military formation was more perfect than that of the Persian army. Many-
the numerically but unstable masses of Persian archers retreated before the heavily armed Greek infantry.
The warriors who made up the army of invaders - Persians, Egyptians, Babylonians - fought under pressure for the alien cause of the Persian despot king. Finally, the internal weakness of the Persian state was one of the reasons for its defeat.
Wars between the Persian Empire and the Greek city-states continued from 500 BC. e. to 449 BC e. They went down in history as the Greco-Persian Wars.
The actual reason for the Greco-Persian War was the intervention of Greek cities in the internal affairs of the Achaemenid Empire, when Athens provided military assistance to Greek cities in Asia Minor that rebelled against the Persians. After the Persians managed to suppress the uprising in 493 BC. e. the king decided to deal with the Greeks. The Persian military leader Mardonius set out on a campaign to conquer Greece in the spring of 492, but his fleet of 300 ships was lost during a storm near Cape Athos. The campaign was then forced to be postponed.
490 BC e. - the Persian army under the command of Datis and Artaphernes crossed the island of Euboea and captured it by sea through the islands of Rhodes and Delos. And from there they went to the shores of Attica and landed on the Marathon plain.
490 BC e., September 13 - the Battle of Marathon took place, one of the most famous battles of antiquity. Then something happened that does not fit into the minds of ordinary people. An army of citizens, the militia, was able to defeat the army of professionals. This may indicate the emergence of a new war strategy, which will subsequently be adopted by many countries and will begin to operate successfully in many states of the ancient world and in the Middle Ages.
So, what happened at Marathon?
The Persian army captured the city of Eretria on the island of Euboea. Then Persian troops landed in the northeastern part of Attica, on the Marathon plain near the small town of Marathon, which was 42 km from Athens.
The place was very convenient for the Persian cavalry, because it was a plain. The Persians had 10,000 horsemen and 10,000 foot archers.
The Athenian general Miltiades brought with him 11,000 hoplites, consisting of citizens' militia. A hoplite was a heavy infantry warrior who was dressed in copper armor, had a helmet and a large heavy shield. The hoplite's weapons included a sword and a long spear.
The Persians had excellent professional cavalry and lightly armed archers (armed with bows and light sabers), whose task was to shower the enemy with a cloud of arrows before a cavalry attack and mix up their ranks.
Miltiades formed his phalanx at the entrance to the Marathon Valley. On the right flank he placed the best part of his army of Athenian hoplites under the command of Callemarchus, and his left flank consisted of detachments of Plataeans under the command of Aemnest. Miltiades immediately had to take care of his flanks, because the phalanx has one drawback - clumsiness. And therefore, it was the flank attacks of the cavalry that were extremely dangerous. Therefore, it was necessary to reduce the number of ranks in the center and increase them on the flanks. The common front was up to 1 km long.
The press placed archers in the center, and concentrated cavalry on the flanks. It was the right tactical decision. They needed to strike the enemy as quickly as possible with all the forces of their cavalry.
Miltiades understood this very well and therefore moved towards the enemy with a quick march. This allowed him to quickly overcome the space that was dangerous for warriors due to archers. And psychologically, the Greeks, thundering with armor and weapons, had strong impact on the morale of the Persians.
The troops have converged! The Persian infantry quickly broke through the weak center of the Athenian phalanx and it was only up to the cavalry. However, the cavalry was unable to penetrate the thickened flanks of the foot hoplites.
The Persian cavalry began to retreat. The flanks of the Athenian infantry enveloped the Persian center on both sides and this threatened complete defeat. Unable to bear it, the Persian infantry ran after the cavalry. The defeat was complete. In this battle, the Greeks lost 192 people killed, and the Persians 6,400 people.
The defeat at Marathon did not stop the Persians. 480 BC e. - The Persian king Xerxes invaded Hellas. The very geopolitical position of the countries made this war inevitable. The Persians could not be confident in the peace of the Ionian Greek cities located on the coast of Asia Minor, while these cities were constantly provoked into rebellion by Athens and the island Greek states. Leaving them free meant having a constant “hotbed of tension” on one’s borders.
Political preparations for war began in 481. At this time, Xerxes arrived in person in Sardis and began negotiations with the Greek city-states. Almost all regions of Northern and Central Greece - Macedonia, Boeotia, Thessaly, Locris - made a promise to submit to the king. Argos, exhausted by its struggle with Sparta, chose to remain neutral. Most likely, the Argives would have joined the Persian army if it had reached the Peloponnesian Peninsula, but to recognize themselves as an ally of the Persians, being surrounded on all sides by Spartan allies, would be simply madness.
In the same year 481, a “pan-Greek” congress was convened on the Isthmian Isthmus. In fact, this congress was merely the conclusion of a defensive alliance between Sparta and Athens, providing for preventive action against the Persian allies in Greece.
Attempts by the Athenians and Spartans to prepare for war were far from satisfactory, and they achieved little through diplomacy. The Thessalians behaved rather ambiguously; the Boeotian Union also took a very pro-Persian position. Argos, due to hostility towards the Athenians and Spartans, remained neutral. Perhaps the only success can be considered the joint pressure on Aegina, which was forced not to enter into an alliance with the Persians.
In an attempt to prevent the Persian invasion, the Hellenes sent 10,000 hoplites to Thessaly to delay the Persians there and keep the Thessalians on their side. But these insignificant forces were not enough to defend all the mountain passes and the hoplites sailed by sea back to the Isthmian Isthmus. The Thessalians, having no hope of winning the war alone, immediately recognized the Persian protectorate.
More than 5,000 hoplites, led by the king of Sparta Leonidas, were sent to the Thermopylae Gorge. This gorge was blocked by a wall and in front of the wall there are streams specially released from the mountains from hot springs. This position also had the advantage that being protected by the sea by the fleet did not make it possible to bypass the defenders from the sea. At this time, the Persian fleet was badly damaged by a storm at Magnesia - the Persians lost about 400 ships.
After several unsuccessful assaults on the Thermopylae Pass, the Persians learned of a bypass route guarded by 1,000 Phocians. Because of the sudden attack, the Persians managed to push them off the path and they descended into the valley. Most of the Greek army scattered at this news, leaving only his 300 Spartans of the royal guard, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans (whom, according to some sources, Leonidas forcibly left as hostages). At first, they repulsed enemy attacks from the front, then retreated to a hill at the exit from the gorge and defended themselves there from attacks from all sides. Leonid, for whose body there was a fierce battle, and all the other defenders of the passage died there.
Later, this particular battle was so widely publicized that it became an example of courage and devotion to duty. This event formed the basis of many books and films. Although in reality the Battle of Thermopylae was not at all an example of military art. After all, the Spartans fought with the Persians in a narrow passage, when they did not have the opportunity to fight more than several dozen people at the same time. But this battle had, without a doubt, great moral and political significance for Greece.
Simultaneously with the Persian breakthrough at Thermopylae, the naval battle of Artemisium took place. The Greek fleet acted quite successfully, but the defeat of the ground forces forced the Greeks to retreat to Attica.
The Persian army, having passed through Central Greece, invaded Attica. The Peloponnesians, who now made up almost all the allies, proposed to retreat to the Isthmian Isthmus and defend the Peloponnese itself. The Athenians, who had evacuated their population from Attica and transported children and women to Aegina and Salamis, insisted on giving the Persians a naval battle.
The Persians had already ravaged the entire territory of Attica and, having taken Athens, burned them. The Athenians were able to convince the allies to give battle. In the narrow strait between the island of Salamis and Attica, the art of the Phoenician sailors who were in the service of the king of the Persians, best quality and the maneuverability of their ships could not make any difference. The Persian fleet was defeated.
At this time, the very vastness of the Persian state came to the aid of Hellas. A powerful uprising broke out in the northeastern, most significant regions of the state. Xerxes could no longer remain in Greece, especially since he had already completed his formal task of punishing Athens for interfering in internal Persian affairs.
Therefore, he left only his commander Mardonius in Greece, leaving him with precisely those troops that came from the rebel satrapies and reinforced him with the Persians. The main Persian army retreated back unhindered.
After wintering in Thessaly, the Persian military leader Mardonius in 479 BC. e. again moved to Attica. Having offered an alliance to the Athenians and having been refused, he devastated their lands a second time. At sea, no active actions were taken. The remnants of the Persian fleet retreated to about. Samos, the Greek gathered at Delos. But both fleets were afraid to move forward.
At this time, the Spartan Pausanias, who commanded the allied army, fearing Athens' withdrawal from the alliance, invaded Boeotia with the main forces of the Hellenes from the Peloponnese. Mardonius retreated there, fearing for his communications and not being able to supply the army in devastated Attica.
Mardonius prepared a fortified camp in Boeotia so that there would be somewhere to retreat, if necessary, after the battle and began to wait for the Hellenes to descend from the spurs of Cithaeron, where Pausanias stood with the army.
The Persians had every opportunity to conquer Greek cities and even defeat Sparta!
The Greeks were completely unprepared for such a battle as Mardonius forced on them! The tactic of wearing down the enemy worked perfectly! And only cavalry could help the Greeks in this case, but there was not enough of it.
The Greeks suffered significant losses and could not launch a counterattack, fearing the Persian cavalry. The Megarians, who suffered the main losses, promised to leave their place in the battle line if they were not replaced. Of course, no one wanted to replace them with other detachments of the same helpless hoplites.
Only the Athenians were able to correct the situation, having drawn the proper conclusions from the battle of Marathon and having 200 Scythian archers and 300 horsemen. They sent both of these detachments to help the Megarians. The maneuver turned out to be successful, they managed to cover the phalanx, in addition, the Hellenes were helped by an accident - a horse was killed near Masistius, and then he himself was killed. The success or failure of battles sometimes depends on such little things.
Shocked by the death of the commander, the Persian cavalry rushed to the attack, trying to save the body of their commander. They easily managed to overthrow the Athenian horsemen and archers, but when the phalanx approached the battlefield, the Persians retreated before the numerical superiority of the enemy.
The Greeks, encouraged by the fact that they managed to leave the battlefield behind them, decided to descend from the spurs of Cithaeron and change their camp site, since the water supply at this place was difficult. The army crossed to the Asopus River, and the Persians did not interfere with them, celebrating mourning for Masistius.
The Hellenic army took up a new defensive position on the low hills in the Plataea region. The entire Greek army gathered there - 33 thousand hoplites and 35 thousand lightly armed soldiers. They were opposed by the army of Mardonius - a total of about 14,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry. That is, there were many more Greeks this time.
For eight days the two armies stood opposite each other, separated by the river. Asopom. Then Mardonius, apparently having sufficiently reconnoitered the area, began active operations; he sent cavalry to the communications of the Hellenic army and this enterprise was immediately crowned with success. The cavalry managed to capture 500 food carts heading towards the army. It was a success! Moreover, it was almost a victory!
Herodotus says that after this Mardonius, who began to be burdened by idleness, decided to give battle to the Greeks. For two days after the capture of the convoy, the Persians continued to harass the Greeks with shooting.
The position made it possible for the Persian horse archers to prevent the Hellenes from reaching the water, and they had to go to the Gargafia spring for water. So, in order to bring the Greeks to the final limit, all that remained was to deprive them of water. Therefore, Mardonius decided to disturb the Greek army once again and ordered his cavalry to raid, wanting to provoke the enemy into battle or finally force them to retreat from Boeotia. The raid was very successful, the Persian arrows again inflicted heavy losses on the helpless enemy, and the Persians managed to fill up the Gargathia spring, from where the entire Greek army drew water.
Cut off from water and food, the Greeks decided to send half of their troops to Kiferon at night to restore supplies, and the other half to retreat to Oeroe in order to have water. But instead of retreating to the designated places at night, the Greeks standing in the center (6.2 thousand hoplites) almost fled, wanting to get rid of the Persian cavalry to Plataea. Many militias lost faith in victory over the Persians.
The Athenians and Spartans with the Tegeans remained in place. It is clear that the Athenians still hoped for a battle - for them it was vital. This was an opportunity to turn the tide of the war.
The Spartans also understood this. They knew that the Persians would not spare them if they won. And if this battle is lost, then many cities will bow their heads to the king of the Achaemenid state. Sparta itself was doomed to defeat alone.
The commanders of the remaining Greek troops decided to retreat to the Amompharetu stream and, apparently, made an appointment at the sanctuary of Demeter. The Spartans began to retreat there, and the Athenians moved around the hills along the valley passing behind the previous position of the Greek army, trying to join the left flank of the Spartans.
At this time, the Persian cavalry, not finding the Greek army in its place, headed across the hills. Mardonius, having learned that the Greek army had retreated at night, naturally decided that he could only complete the brilliant operation by pursuing the exhausted enemy. And he played all-in!
He threw all his troops into pursuing the Spartans. And this step would have been correct if the warriors of Sparta and Athens had completely despaired. But they were still ready to fight and win.
The Spartans sent a messenger asking the Athenians for help, asking them to send at least archers if the phalanx was too slow. But the Athenians did not even have time to send archers, because the Thebans and other Greek allies of Mardonius were already moving towards them from the hills.
It was not difficult for the Athenians, stretched out in a marching column, to turn into a combat position, since they simply needed to turn to the left and double the ranks, turning 4 ranks of a marching position into 8 ranks of a combat one. Therefore, they met the Thebans quite calmly. The same, not seeing the Athenians in the valley, fell into the valley without any order, being sure that they would only face persecution. The outcome of this battle was a foregone conclusion; the Athenians were easily able to overthrow almost all of Mardonius’s Greek allies.
The Theban cavalry became more famous in this battle than their infantry. The horsemen moved between the Hellenes of the right wing of Mardonius and the Persians themselves. Descending into the valley, they passed between the Spartan and Athenian phalanxes. At this time, troops began to arrive in the exposed center, fleeing at night to Plataea. Still rushing to help the Spartans, about 10,000 Corinthians and other Hellenes flowed like a chaotic river through the valley. The riders crashed into this mass, and almost a third allied troops was stopped and driven to Kiferon.
But this significant success could no longer save the situation - the Athenians, having put their opponents to flight, struck the victorious cavalry in the rear and flank. They apparently cut off some of them from their own and completely killed them - these were 300 selected Theban aristocrats, brilliant cavalrymen.
Meanwhile, on the right flank of the Greek army, Mardonius, having descended into the valley, found, instead of a retreating column of Spartans, an army completely ready for battle. And having no more than 4,000 infantry and 2,000 horsemen, Mardonius unexpectedly came out against 11,500 Spartans and Tegeans!
Mardonius gave the order to the infantry to deploy a fortification of shields and begin shooting with arrows, waiting for the rest of the troops. The only correct action in such a situation. The Persians began to shower the enemy with arrows, and the Spartan Pausanias for a long time did not dare to attack them, waiting for the approach of the Greek center.
At this time, the Tegeans, tired of the Persian shooting, moved to attack and the Spartans were forced to support the allies. And just in time - Artabazus, Mardonius’s deputy, who commanded the rest of the Persians, did not have time to help his commander and 4,000 Median, Bactrian and Indian infantry did not have time to take part in the battle.
This military leader was a very cautious commander. He moved slowly up the hills, trying to get his troops into the fight in perfect order. But the hillsides turned out to be steeper than it seemed visually, and the soldiers of Artabazus fell significantly behind the right and left flanks.
United by their excellent discipline, the Spartans withstood the shooting of archers and got to the Persian infantry, but could not overthrow them with one blow. It came down to hand-to-hand combat, in which the Persians, although they were stronger, but the enemy’s double superiority made itself felt. However, the battle hung in the balance, and a terrible massacre took place around the sanctuary of Demeter. At that point in the battle, no one had yet won.
Mardonius also came to the aid of the Persian infantry with his last remaining reserve - 2,000 horsemen. Their crushing attack was a success and it is unknown how the matter would have ended, but Mardonius himself led the battle of his cavalry.
But the commander’s place is not in front of the detachment! No! A commander must control the battle, not put himself at risk.
As a result, Mardonius was killed in battle, and almost 1,000 of his horsemen fell along with him. The death of the commander turned out to be the very luck that turned his face to the Greeks. The Persians fled. Artabazus, who remained commander in place of the killed Mardonius, saw that both of his flanks were completely defeated. And he began to retreat without ever engaging in battle.
The Spartans pursued them in formation, that is, quite slowly, which gave the Persians the opportunity to gain a foothold in the camp and fight back for quite a long time. The camp was taken after the Athenians arrived and with their help. Herodotus wrote that 3,000 people remained alive from the entire Persian army.
The winners' losses were also quite significant. The Spartans lost 91 Spartans alone, not counting the Perioecians. Counting the number of wounded 10 times more, we get a number of 1,000 people.
Thus ended the biggest and decisive battle this Greco-Persian war.
GREECO-PERSIAN WARS (500-449 BC), wars between the ancient Greek city-states (polises) and Persia. Caused by aggressive policies Persian kings Achaemenid dynasty (see Achaemenid state). After absorbing Media, defeating Lydia, and conquering Babylonia, the Persians continued their advance westward, beginning to conquer Greek cities. Under Cyrus II, they established themselves on the Asia Minor coast, subjugating the ancient Greek cities of Ionia and Aeolis (546), at the end of the reign of Cambyses II they established control over Samos (522), and under Darius I, as a result of the Scythian campaign, although they did not achieve their intended goal ( defeat of the Northern Black Sea Scythians), nevertheless extended their power to the zone of the Black Sea Straits, Thrace and Macedonia (512). This led to restrictions on Greek trade, since ships of the Phoenicians, subjects of the Persian king, now appeared in the Aegean Sea and the straits. The interests of the Asia Minor city states, which suffered from Persian extortions and the tyranny of the Persian proteges - the tyrants, were especially infringed. In 500, a Greek revolt broke out in Ionia, a prelude to a more general conflict. It was suppressed by the Persians, and its center - the city of Miletus - was stormed and destroyed (494).
Although the Greeks of the metropolis provided purely symbolic assistance to the rebels (Athens sent 20 ships, and Eretria on Euboea - 5), the Persians understood that without the conquest of Balkan Greece, domination over the coastal cities would be fragile. Therefore, in 492, Darius I undertook his first campaign in Greece. A large Persian army, accompanied by a fleet under the command of Mardonius, moved along the coast of Asia Minor to the north, crossed the Hellespont and rushed further to the west. However, the Persian ground army suffered significant losses from the attacks of the Thracians, and the fleet was badly damaged by a storm at Cape Athos (the southeastern tip of the Chalkidiki peninsula). All this forced Mardonius to stop the campaign. In 491, Darius I resorted to diplomatic pressure, sending embassies to Greek cities demanding “land and water,” that is, complete submission. In some communities of Thessaly and Boeotia, where the aristocracy was in power, this demand was fulfilled, but in the leading Greek city-states (Ancient Athens and Sparta) the Persian ultimatum was rejected and the ambassadors were killed. In 490, a new Persian campaign against Greece followed, this time along a different route. A large fleet with a significant landing force (up to 20 thousand infantry and cavalry) under the command of Datis and Artaphernes sailed from Samos and, after an intermediate stop on the island of Delos, landed on the island of Euboea. The Persians captured and destroyed the Euboean cities, after which they landed on the northeastern coast of Attica, near Marathon. The landing site was chosen on the advice of the Athenian exile, son of the tyrant Peisistratus Hippias, who remembered his father's support from the inhabitants of Diacria, the mountainous region where Marathon is located. An Athenian militia of about 10 thousand people rushed towards the Persians. On the day of the battle, the command was by general agreement entrusted to Miltiades, who, using the striking force of the close formation of Greek infantry, broke through the center of the Persian army and forced the Persians to retreat to their ships. The victory of the Greeks in the Battle of Marathon had enormous moral and political significance, showing the strength of the Greek people's militia, the superiority of weapons, tactics and physical training of Greek heavily armed warriors - hoplites and the vulnerability of the army of such a seemingly powerful Persian power.
The military failures of the Persians led to uprisings in Egypt and Babylonia. Darius I, busy suppressing them, died (486), and his son and successor Xerxes had to suppress the rebellions. The latter, however, did not abandon his intention to conquer the Greeks and, having put an end to the internal unrest, began preparing a new invasion of the Balkans. A huge army was assembled (according to the calculations of the ancients, undoubtedly exaggerated, up to 1,700 thousand infantry, 80 thousand cavalry and 1,200 ships). To quickly transport troops to Greece, pontoon bridges were built across the Hellespont, and warehouses with provisions were prepared on the Asia Minor and Thracian coasts. Diplomatic preparations were added to the military preparations: Xerxes concluded a military alliance with Carthage, the strongest naval power in the Western Mediterranean, and the parties agreed to attack the Greeks from two sides - from the east and the west. By the spring of 480, preparations were completed and a huge armada under the command of Xerxes himself set out on a campaign against Greece.
The Greeks, in turn, were preparing to repel an enemy invasion. Athens showed a particularly great initiative: at the suggestion of the leader of the Athenian democracy, Themistocles, the income from the Laurian silver mines was used for the construction of new warships (according to one version - 100, according to another - 200), and on his initiative a congress of representatives was convened in Corinth Greek states, who proclaimed the creation of a panhellenic military alliance with a common council and united armed forces, the command of which was entrusted to Sparta. Initially, the Allies were going to defend the mountain passes from Macedonia to Northern Greece, near the Tempeian Gorge, where up to 10 thousand hoplites were sent. However, the unreliability of the Thessalian communities, who were inclined to side with the Persians, forced the allies to retreat and take a position at the passes from Northern Greece to Central Greece, at the Thermopylae Gorge. At the same time, the Greek fleet took up a position at the northern tip of Euboea, at Cape Artemisium, to repel the Persian fleet. The Greeks at Thermopylae were commanded by the Spartan king Leonidas, who had about 7 thousand hoplites at his disposal. For three days the Greeks steadfastly repelled the Persian attempts to break through Thermopylae, but when the Persian detachment managed to get behind the Greek army in a roundabout way, Leonidas sent back most of the allied contingents, and he himself, with 300 Spartans and a small number of other volunteer soldiers, remained to defend Thermopylae to the end . Surrounded by the Persians, they all died, but their heroic death served as an example of courage for the Greeks. Simultaneously with the land battle at Thermopylae, the naval battle at Artemisium also took place. The Greeks successfully repelled the attacks of the Persian fleet, but when the position at Thermopylae was broken through, the Greek flotillas retreated to the shores of Attica. After passing through Phocis and Boeotia, the Persian army invaded Attica. In the face of superior enemy forces, the Athenians decided to evacuate women, children and the elderly to the Peloponnese, and mobilize all combat-ready men (citizens and foreigners living in Athens) into the fleet. At the insistence of the Athenians, the allies decided to give the Persians battle at sea. The battle took place near the island of Salamis in September 480 and ended in complete victory for the Greeks. Around the same time, the Sicilian Greeks inflicted a crushing defeat on the Carthaginians at Himera (on the northern coast of Sicily). Fearing for his communications, Xerxes returned to Asia with most of the army, but, not wanting to admit his defeat, left a large detachment (probably up to 300 thousand people) under the command of Mardonius for the winter in Boeotia and Thessaly.
In 479, Mardonius again invaded Attica, and again the Athenians had to abandon their city. Mardonius entered into negotiations with the Athenians, trying to persuade them to an alliance with the Persians, but they remained faithful to the pan-Greek cause. Meanwhile, a large Greek militia numbering 110 thousand people gathered in the Peloponnese, which, under the command of the Spartan Pausanias, moved through the Isthmus to Boeotia. Fearing being locked in Attica, Mardonius also moved with his army to Boeotia. Here, near Plataea, a grandiose battle took place, in which Mardonius died and his army was completely defeated. At the same time, the Greek fleet won a new victory over the Persian fleet off the Asia Minor coast, at Cape Mycale.
Having won victories at Plataea and Mycale, the Greeks achieved a decisive turning point in the war with the Persians. The war itself acquired a different character: from defensive for the Greeks it turned into offensive and aggressive. After the actual withdrawal of Sparta from the war, which, as a land power, was not interested in overseas operations, the leadership of military operations passed to Athens. They headed a new military-political association - the Delian League, or the First Athenian Maritime League, formed in 478/477, which included island and coastal, mainly Ionian, policies. The union launched an active offensive against the Persians with the goal of finally ousting them from the Aegean and liberating the Greek cities of Asia Minor from their power. In the 470s, the Persians were expelled from the Thracian coast and from the area of the straits and the Asia Minor policies were liberated. In 469, the Persians were once again defeated by the Athenian commander Cimon in sea and land battles at the mouth of the Eurymedon River (at south coast Asia Minor). The Athenians' attempt to achieve more by supporting a new uprising of the Egyptians ended in failure: the Persians managed to destroy the Greek fleet in the Nile Delta and suppress the uprising in Egypt. However, in 450/449, Cimon once again defeated the Persians in a naval battle near Salamis in Cyprus, after which both sides began peace negotiations. According to the Peace of Callias (named after the Athenian representative Callias), concluded in 449, the Persians actually admitted defeat in the war with the Greeks. From now on, Persian ships were prohibited from sailing into the Aegean Sea, and no troops could be within three days routes from the Asia Minor coast. The Aegean Sea finally became the internal sea of the Greeks, and the Greek cities of Asia Minor gained freedom and independence.
The reasons for the victory of the Greeks in the wars with the Persians were the superiority of their socio-economic and political system, ancient civil society over eastern despotism. The highly developed crafts of the Greek cities provided their troops with first-class weapons and ships for those times. The advantage of the Greeks in military tactics was also obvious, both on land, where the close-knit formation of the Greek hoplites (phalanx) prevailed over the masses of irregular Asian infantry, and at sea, where the skill of the Greek helmsmen and the maneuverability of the Greek triremes (ships with three rows of rowers) equipped with rams had no equal. Finally (and perhaps most importantly), the Greek warriors, who received a harmonious upbringing as free people and filled with patriotism, were both physically and morally superior to the Persian warriors, recruited for the most part from the regions subject to the Persians and not interested in the enterprises of the Persian kings .
The victory of the Greeks in the wars with the Persians had world-historical significance. It delivered large material assets to the Greek cities in the form of military booty, including a mass of slave prisoners of war, opened trade routes and access to sources of raw materials and markets, in particular in the Black Sea region, and provided ancient society with the opportunity for further development.
Source: Herodotus. History in nine books. L., 1972; Plutarch. Comparative biographies. 2nd ed. M., 1994. T. 1-2 [biographies of Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon].
Lit.: Will Ed. Le monde grec et l'Orient. R., 1972. Vol. 1 ; Burn A. R. Persia and the Greeks: the defense of the West, 546-478 V. S. 2nd ed. L., 1984; Dandamaev M. A. Political history of the Achaemenid state. M., 1985; Strogetsky V. M. The problem of the Callian Peace and its significance for the evolution of the Athenian Maritime Union // Bulletin ancient history. 1991. No. 2; Balcer J. M. The Persian conquest of the Greeks, 545-450 V. S. Konstanz, 1995; Hammond N. History of Ancient Greece. M., 2003.