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the first Persian war in 500 BCE the
major Greek city-states
Sparta and Athens were not terribly
interested in the affairs of the
Achaemenid Persian Empire and for the
most part the status of the Ionian
Greeks who were under Persian control
also mattered very little to them
Sparta stood at the head of an alliance
league of the Peloponnesian city-states
who were more concerned with their
region while Athens had recently
abolished tyranny and was learning the
intricacies of democratic government
while Athens was uninvolved perhaps
following the cue of their Athenian
cousins some of the Ionian Aeolian and
Doric city-states in Anatolia revolted
against their own tyrants which was
tantamount to rebellion against their
Persian overlords Herodotus provided the
best account of the Ionian revolt which
was largely instigated by a former
tyrant named a risked a giris who
believed that a successful revolt would
place him in a powerful position
Herodotus wrote certain substantial
citizens of Naxos forced by the Commons
to leave the island took refuge in
militants which had been put under
arrest a giris son of Malta giris as
deputy governor he was nephew and
son-in-law of his TAS the son of life's
a giris who was being detained by Darius
at Sousa the first thing they did when
they got there was to ask Aris tagger
Asst to lend them some troops in the
hope of recovering their position at
home this suggested to Aris tagger estat
if he helped the exiles to return he
himself would be ruler of Naxos so using
their friendship with his T heirs to
cloak his purpose he made them an offer
Aris tagger has had a keen sense of
political acumen and a feel for the
times as a large part of his strategy
musta gained the favor of the Ionian
Greeks by promising the reward of
democracy first he had to abdicate his
own tyranny which he did in public
fashion according to Herodotus to induce
the Malaysians to support him he began
by professing to abdicate his tyranny in
favor of a popular government and then
went on to do the same thing in the
other I own States
where he got rid of the tyrants at the
same time aristocracy knew that enticing
the Ionian states to rebel would not be
enough to defeat the mighty Achaemenid
Empire for that he would need the
support of one or both of the Ionians
mainland Greek cousins however
aristocracies efforts to obtain the aid
of Sparta and Athens against the
Persians would lead to his demise and
set the Athenians on a crash course with
the Persians that would reach its apex
at marathon
perhaps owing to the fierce reputation
of the Spartan warriors or simply due to
the fact that Sparta was father's from
Ionia aristocracy so did Sparta first to
plead for assistance against the
Persians at the time Sparta's government
was a type of Republican monarchy in
which adult males had voting rights at
their councils but two kings presided
over the city and largely decided on
affairs of state such as diplomacy and
war when eros Tigris finally made it a
Sparta he met with the only reigning
king of the time Cleomenes and at first
tried to appeal to his patriotism then
his pride and finally his greed
Herodotus's account of Erised aggressors
plea to Cleomenes reads I hope clear
monies that you will not be too much
surprised at my anxiety to visit you the
circumstances of these that Ionian
should have become slaves in the place
of freemen is a bitter shame and grief
not only to us but to the rest of Greece
and especially to you who are the
leaders of the Greek world we beg you
therefore in the name of the gods of
Greece to save from slavery your Ionian
kinsmen it will be an easy task for
these foreigners have little taste for
war and you are the finest soldiers in
the world the Persian weapons are bows
and short Spears they fight in trousers
and turbans that will show you how easy
they are to beat
moreover the inhabitants of that
continent are richer than all the rest
of the world put together
they have everything gold silver bronze
elaborately embroidered clothes and
beasts of burden and slaves all this you
may have if you wish Cleomenes interest
was apparently peaked until
Aristagoras showed him a map of the vast
achaemenid empire to which the Spartan
replied your proposal to take lesser
demony ins a three months journey from
the sea is a highly improper one unfazed
by the Spartans denial of his proposal
era stagger s began to sail back to
Ionia but he stopped in Athens to
present the citizens of that city state
with a similar offer eros Tiger
approached the Athenians at an opportune
time as they had recently expelled their
tyrant Hippias who were supported by the
Persians so they were already inclined
to campaign against them eros tigerish
used many of the same arguments he tried
with the Spartans including the weakness
of the Persian military and the riches
of the Achaemenid Empire but he also
appealed to common ancestry that the
Athenians and Ionian shared he had
rotted as noted in addition to this he
pointed out that militants have been
founded by Athenian settlers so it was
only natural that the Athenians powerful
as they were should help her in her need
once persuaded to accede to Hera stagger
is's appeal the Athenians passed a
decree for the dispatch of 20 ships to
Ionia under the command of melanthius a
distinguished Athenian Athenians support
for the Ionian cause was lukewarm at
best and the entire Ionian coalition
soon crumbled under the weight of the
mighty Achaemenid Empire when the
Persians were finally able to
re-establish their rule over the
rebellious Ionian city-states eros de
Grasse blend and later died in exile and
the rebellious cities especially millet
us suffered under brutal punitive
measures Herodotus graphically wrote
about the punishment the Persians meted
out to the Ionians
once the towns were in their hands the
best-lookin boys were chosen for
castration and made into eunuchs the
most beautiful girls were dragged from
their homes and sent to Darius's court
and the towns themselves temples and all
were burnt to the ground
the ruthless suppression of the Ionian
revolt by the Achaemenid Persians proved
to be the first act in the greater
greco-persian wars and if the Athenians
thought that their limited involvement
in the affair would
mitigate the ire of the Persian King
Darius the first circa 552 486 BC II
they were sorely mistaken
through their involvement in the Ionian
revolt despite the fact it was minimal
for the most part the Athenians set
themselves at odds with the Persian
Emperor putting them on a crash course
that would culminate at the Battle of
Marathon about nine years later at the
beginning of the fifth century BCE the
Greek city-states were as prone to fight
each other as they were non Greeks the
Persians on the other hand commanded the
greatest empire of the known world had
ever witnessed the Achaemenid Empire
which spanned from Bactria present-day
Afghanistan in the East to Egypt in the
West
besides possessing the already ancient
and venerated kingdom of Egypt the
Achaemenid Persians also controlled the
city of Babylon and the regions of
Mesopotamia and the Levant which were
home to such illustrious previous
cultures as Israel the Phoenicians and
the Assyrians just to name a few when
viewed from this perspective the Greek
Ionian city-states were a small fraction
of the total Empire and the more distant
Athenians may have appeared to the
Persians as little more than minor
interlopers who were playing a dangerous
game that was out of their league that
said despite the fact that the Persians
in general may have disregarded any
military threat that the Athenians posed
Ionia was still viewed as an important
part of the Achaemenid Empire the
Athenians no doubt raised the ire of
Darius the first when they supported the
Ionian revolt but their direct
interference in the affairs of the
Achaemenid Empire was not their first
transgression against the Persians
before the Athenians inserted themselves
into the Ionian revolt they were
involved in a war with Sparta and when
that did not go well for them they
looked to Persia for an alliance the
Athenians sent invoice to the city of
Sardis in Ionia to meet with the Persian
governor our turf aranese who requested
that the Greeks give a symbolic gift of
earth and water to him
Herodotus explained to strengthen their
position they sent representatives to
Sardis in the hope of concluding an
alliance with Persia when they got there
and delivered their message art affaire
knees son of history's the governor
asked in reply who these athenians were
that sought an alliance with persia and
in what part of the world they lived
then having been told he put the persian
case in a nutshell by remarking that if
the Athenians would signify their
submission by the usual gift of earth
and water then Darius would make a pact
for them otherwise they had better go
home eager that the pack should be
concluded the end boys acted on their
own initiative and accepted our two
Pyrenees terms for which they were
severely censured on their return to
Athens as Herodotus wrote the Athenian
end boys were admonished for their act
of ABY scence towards the Persians but
the political damage had been done
the Athenians broke Persian protocol and
tradition when they offered earth and
water but did not give their obedience
furthermore around the time of the
Athenian earth and water fiasco Hippias
the tyrant who was expelled from Athens
in 510 BCE showed up in Sardis and urged
our turf Erinyes and the Persians to
restore him as tyrant of Athens in fact
when the Persians finally set forward
with their invasion plan of Greece
Hippias was with the Persian fleet which
indicates that the invasion was at least
partially intended to restore Athens to
tyranny by breaking the standard Persian
political protocol the Athenians had
placed themselves on the imperial radar
of the Persians but when they supported
the Ionian revolt Darius the fist took
the matter personally the Persians were
not the only one who committed
atrocities during the Ionian revolt as a
combined force of Ionian Greeks and
Athenians captured and sacked the city
of Sardis and reduced its temple to
rubble when Darius the first learned of
the Athenians roll in the sack of Sardis
he exploded according to Herodotus the
story goes that when Darius learnt of
the disaster he did not give a thought
to the Ionians
knowing perfectly well that the
punishment for their revolt would come
but he asked who the Athenians were and
then not being told called for his bow
he took it set an arrow on the string
shot it up into the air and cried grant
Oh God
I may punish the Athenians to darris the
first the matter was settled the
Athenians must be taught a lesson and
brought under the yoke of the Achaemenid
Empire in the ancient world it took a
lot of time and resources to plan a
large-scale military campaign and the
Persian invasion of Greece was no
exception the heart of the Achaemenid
Empire was thousands of miles from
Greece so any major invasion would
involve many logistical concerns
especially transportation of troops and
resources but darius the first was up
for the challenge the Persian army was
led by the general Mark Donis who
mustered his forces on land and sea in
Ionia in 491 BCE and his expedition into
Greece would be the largest military
expedition that the world had ever seen
in fact it was most likely intended to
subjugate not only Athens but all of
Greece from Ionia Mardonius led the
Persian army north along the Aegean
coast line until they marched through
Thrace and Macedonia at this point they
encountered a storm that destroyed most
of their ships the disastrous loss of
the Persian fleet only proved to be a
temporary setback though as the rich
Achaemenid Empire was able to muster a
new army which was led by a general
named datas datas was ordered by Darius
the first to reduce athens and eretria
to slavery and to bring the slaves
before the king data set many advantages
over the Greeks as he commanded
overwhelming naval superiority and had
the military intelligence of Hippias the
former tyrant of Athens at his disposal
instead of following mardonius rout the
previous year around the Aegean datas
led the Persian army by ships directly
across the Aegean reducing the island of
Naxos to slavery but sparing Delos when
datas and the Persians arrived in Greece
they first set their sights on laying
waste to Eretria according to Herodotus
the eretrians prepared themselves for a
long siege but were betrayed by some of
their own people the eretrians had no
intention of leaving their defenses to
meet the coming attack in the open their
one concern the proposal not to abandon
the town having been carried was to
defend their walls if they could then on
the seventh - well known eretrians you
forbus the Sun of alchemy cos and
phalaris the son of cnaeus betrayed the
town to the enemy the Persians entered
and stripped the temples bare and burnt
them in revenge for the burnt temples of
Sardis and in accordance with Darius's
orders carried off all the inhabitants
as slaves with Eretria reduced to rubble
datas then turned his attention south to
the Attica Peninsula and the city of
Athens but unlike the eretrians the
Athenians would be better prepared and
would leave their City to meet the
Persians on the plain near Marathon
although Athens was a decent sized city
state for the Hellenic world
it was puny compared to the Achaemenid
Empire making it impossible to make up
for the numerical disparity in a number
of ways nonetheless Athens were still
formidable all athenian citizens between
the ages of 18 and 42 were eligible for
military service and the army was
subdivided by tribes which were then
commanded by lieutenant snown as taxi ox
although the requirements for and basic
structure of the athenian military are
known much less is known about the mens
training during the period of the Battle
of Marathon there is no evidence for any
formal training of hoplites in Athens
and the only Greek city-state where any
significant training is recorded comes
from Sparta in other words the Athenian
military at the time of the Battle of
Marathon was a sort of home guard where
each male citizen was responsible for
his part militarily and thus always
prepared for war Herodotus is the most
complete primary source
concerning the Battle of Marathon but
others do exist or at least once did
that can help complement Herodotus his
account the oldest sources that depicted
the Battle of Marathon were actually a
series of pictures that were painted in
the Poya killed stoa by the artists
Micon and penas around 460 BCE about 30
years after the battle unfortunately the
pictures are no longer extant
but the Greek geographer Pausanias gave
a partial description in his Geographic
survey of Greece at the end of the
painting are those who fought at
marathon the P oceans are Plataea and
the Attic contingent are coming to blows
with the foreigners in this place
neither side has the better but the
center of the fighting shows the
foreigners in flight and pushing one
another into the morass while at the end
of the painting are the Phoenician ships
and the Greeks killing the foreigners
who are scrambling into them poor
sannyasis description of the poi kill
stoah is useful because it corroborates
Herodotus accounts namely that platoons
were the only other Greeks
besides the Athenians who fought the
Persians it also indicates the chaos of
the Persians retreat the Battle of
Marathon itself is believed to have
taken place in September 490 BCE and it
is also thought to be the first
amphibious battle in world history
the Persians landed their invasion force
near Marathon because it was believed to
be good ground for them to maneuver
their cavalry which the posion commander
data speed would give him the edge over
the Greek hoplites although the plane
around marathon was good ground for
cavalry and was no doubt a large part of
the Persian decision to land there its
proximity to Eritrea also played a role
Herodotus wrote the part of attic
territory nearest Eritrea and also the
best ground for cavalry to maneuvering
was at marathon to marathon therefore
Hippias the son of pisses Stratos
directed the invading army and the
Athenians as soon as the news arrived
hurried to meet it the Athenian troops
were commanded by 10 generals of whom
the 10th was Milty eighties the
appearance of the former Athenian tyrant
Hippias is also important because he
apparently provided useful intelligence
to datas and the Persians that revealed
marathon to be the best place for
cavalry operations it was also close to
the recently conquered Eritrea and the
close proximity to Eritrea was
logistically important to the Persians
and their potential success not only at
marathon but also if they were to
subject all of
and possibly grease itself since the
Persian army was so far removed from the
nearest Achaemenid colonies which were
across the Aegean in Ionia they were
forced to use Eritrea as a temporary
base and source of their supply lines
the short distance between Eritrea and
marathon across the bay also provided a
safe and quick route for the Persians to
move Goods and Men as a result the
Persians assembled their army near
marathon but the exact size of the army
is still open to conjecture
unfortunately Herodotus never gave a
number for the combatants in the Persian
army only ships so modern historians are
forced to make educated guesses based on
the size of the field the number that
Herodotus listed as killed and the
number of Persian ships a recent study
estimates that the number of Persian
fighting men may have been around 12,000
to 15,000 which would not be much more
than the army the Greeks fielded at
marathon but earlier studies such as
Hammonds places the total number of the
Persian army as high as 90,000 Haman
noted that many of them would have been
sailors and not infantry numbers aside
the two forces fought in a completely
different way which each side had
perfected over decades perhaps centuries
in their respective theatres of war the
Persian army was formed of contingents
mastered from the farthest reaches of
its vast empire and though one might
expect what was in effect a
multinational force to adopt vastly
different styles of fighting ancient
historians writing of the battle
indicate that there was a degree of
standardization in their equipment that
said it is possible the ancient
historians who wrote of the battle all
of whom were Greek decided to lump all
Persian forces together by assuming one
unit would have much the same equipment
as the next as was the case for the
Greek soldiers the Persian army that
faced the Spartans and their Greek
allies at Thermopylae
was made up of infantry cavalry and
chariots units each of them apparently
equipped in a similar fashion the
infantry was what would be categorized
by military historians as light thus not
bearing heavy
all weapons each individual Persian
infantryman would be equipped with a
light short thrusting spear which could
also be thrown if necessary a short
sword or saber a light double curved bow
and a weaker shield shield sizes appear
to have varied from unit to unit but
archaeological evidence from Persian
sculpture seems to suggest that
generally speaking the shields would
cover the soldiers wielding them from
knee to neck while not being wide enough
to create significant overlap with the
ranks on either side wicker might seem
like a foolish material to construct a
shield out of but it was in fact
remarkably effective in its own right
the wicker was of course extremely light
making it very easy to wield but it was
also effective in stopping slashes from
light weapons and could also trap thrust
weapons that penetrated it making them
extremely hard to withdraw the cavalry
and charioteers also shared similar
equipment being armed with longer curved
sabers for slashing double curved bows
and javelins it appears as though some
units particularly those from the
Persian heartland were also armed with
double-headed axes fearsome weapons
which would have been all likelihood
made them the Persian shock troops
armored for the Persian soldiers appears
to have also been fairly standardized as
well this is because for much of the
Persian infantry it was virtually
non-existent though it's hard to imagine
today especially considering the
Persians were going up against heavily
armed hoplites Persian soldiers appear
to have worn no Greaves VAM braces or
any other form of arm or leg armor and
most units seemed to have forgot helmets
in favor of knotted rags about their
heads or light caps of metal or leather
to protect their torsos the soldiers
either wore nothing at all or liked back
and breasts of leather chainmail or very
rarely bronze scales the elite Persian
infantry recruited from the Persian
heartlands and the famous Immortals the
Emperor's 10,000 strong personal guard
might have been more heavily armored but
generally speaking they were far from
protected
the reasons for this extremely light
equipment are simple aside from the
monumental cost of equipping such a
massive army like the one the Persians
fielded with heavy armor and weapons
they were simply not suited to the
climate in which the Persian army
conducted much of its operations the
scorching desert plains of Asia Minor
and Egypt the near-impossible mountains
of Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush and
the sweltering heat of the Punjab were
not battlefields suited for heavy iron
steel or bronze armor which way'd
soldiers down and in such extremes of
temperature might well carry them off
altogether from heatstroke or fatigue
thus the standard Persian tactic was to
shower similarly lightly armed opponents
with waves of arrows and javelins from a
distance before closing with the
weakened ranks of the enemy and cutting
them to pieces with their short swords
and Sabres the cavalry and charioteers
would also most likely fight in a
similar fashion rather than in the need
to me heavy cavalry charge of the Middle
Ages or the Napoleonic battlefields more
familiar to the West the Greeks by
contrast fought in a vastly different
manner to begin with while many of the
Persian soldiers were conscripts with
the exception of some elite Corps like
the Immortals service in which was one
of the greatest honors available in the
Persian Empire all of the Greek
infantrymen were volunteers and
generally far better trained once each
city-state required its volunteers to
undertake citywide annual or biannual
military exercises and the Spartans the
backbone of the Greek Force literally
spent their entire life training and
preparing for war with manual labor
entrusted to their serfs the helots it's
not entirely clear why Sparta placed
such a great emphasis on having a
militaristic society but it resulted in
making military fitness a preoccupation
for the Spartans from birth spartan
babies with even the slightest hint of
physical deformities were left to die
while the fortunate ones began their
military training at the age of seven
every Spartan male had to join the army
at 18
thus the back
the Greek way of war was the citizen
soldier and aside from some notable
exceptions like Boresha they fielded
armies made up almost exclusively of
infantry while that might sound like a
disadvantage against more diverse
opposing forces that included arches or
chariots the Greeks weren't using just
any infantry their main strength was the
hoplite a soldier about as different
from his Persian counterpart as could
possibly be most historians believe that
the hoplite became the dominant infantry
soldier in nearly all the Greek
city-states around the 8th century BC
hoplites were responsible for acquiring
their own equipment so not every hoplite
might have been equally armed but
considering the style of warfare they
needed as much uniformity as possible
like the Persian infantry the hoplites
also carried Spears but while the
Persian weapons were short and light the
Greek Spears were thick shafts anywhere
between 7 and 9 feet long these Spears
were topped by a 9 inch spearhead with a
lizard sticker but spiked at the bottom
which could be used as a secondary
spearhead if the main weapon was snapped
off or to plant the spear upright when
at rest
each hoplite also carried a short sword
designed specifically for thrusting in
the close confines of a melee the
spartan weapon the Zippos was so short
as to be virtually AB dagger its blade
barely over a foot long
unlike the Persian infantry the hoplites
did not carry bows though the Greeks did
employ light infantry in the form of
slingers javelin ears and archers their
role was extremely secondary to that of
the heavy infantry this was largely due
to the armor which each hoplite wore
into battle which consisted of bronze
Greaves covering the wearer from ankle
to ankle a skirt of leather or quilted
lemon to protect the groin area and a
heavy breastplate made either of bronze
or quilted linen under overlapping
bronze scales to protect their heads the
hoplites War the famous helmet that is
perhaps their most iconic feature a full
faced bronze helmet with high flaring
cheek pieces and a thick nasal that
obscured and protected their faces
completely topped by a
Sayre crest that added another foot to
their height helmets were worn front to
back from line infantry and sideways for
officers to make them more recognizable
to their own troops in the heat of
battle armed from head to foot in iron
and bronze the hoplite was the tank of
his age but the most important feature
of his equipment was undoubtedly his
shield weighing in at over 30 pounds the
hot blonde or aspis was a great wooden
bowl over three feet in diameter made of
heavy oak fronted with bronze and
covering each hoplite from neck to neck
as well as providing a significant
overlap with the shields of his
companions in the battle line obviously
these armaments did not lend themselves
to the style of fighting the Persians
favored there could be no standing off
and engaging the enemy at a distance
with the Greek hoplites carrying short
swords and thrusting spears and because
of the weight of their equipment which
was between 70 to 90 pounds all told for
the Greeks a hoplite was only as strong
as the hoplite next to him without
hoplites on the sides both flanks were
exposed and heavy infantry units are not
mobile thus the Greeks implemented the
Phalanx formation one of history's most
important military innovations the
Phalanx was a line of infantry as wide
across as the battlefield dictated
anything from five to thirty meant deep
with each rank of men officered by a
veteran the formation also included an
additional expert filed closer at the
back of each file to keep the formation
cohesive the Phalanx advanced slowly to
maintain its tight formation and unit
cohesion speeding up in unison just
before reaching combat the vast hoplite
shields overlapped one another
significantly forming an uninterrupted
wall of oak and bronze over which the
first rank while holding out their
shields would use their short swords to
stab at the enemy in front of him while
the ranks immediately behind the first
rank with slash at enemies with their
spears over the top of the first line
because each soldier's right flank was
shielded by his companion shield all
shields were strapped to the left arm to
preserve the integrity of the former
left-handed fighters did not exist the
Phalanx especially in the case of less
well trained units and a tendency to
edge to the right which the Greeks
countered by placing their elite troops
to the right as a bulwark the rows in
back of the first line would also use
their shields to help hold up the
hoplites in the front and help them
maintain their balance the formation and
method of attack was designed to
physically overpower the enemy and scare
them lowering their morale the famines
as a fighting unit fell out of favor by
the height of the Roman Empire but the
principles behind it remained in use for
subsequent infantry formations lasting
past the American Civil War as the
Greeks relied on the hoplite to defend
other hoplites
and concentrate their attack infantry
units in the gunpowder age relied on
concentrated gunfire to stun and scare
the enemy and as military commanders
learned time and again throughout the
ages if soldiers were not packed
shoulder-to-shoulder in a tight
formation they were far more likely to
flee ultimately though this is a subject
of some contention much of the consensus
argues that the main strength of the
hoplite phalanx was its utter in X or
ability when it operated as a cohesive
immaculately drilled unit an unstoppable
juggernaut which relied less on the
initial clash of shield walls hoplites
never advanced at a run to preserve
their formation then on the relentless
pushing force of their advance to
shatter the enemy formation the first
major decision that the Athenians would
face was to either prepare the city's
defenses for a siege or wait for help
from other Greeks such as the Spartans
to arrive the other choice was to meet
the much larger Persian force on the
battlefield near Marathon there was
merit to both arguments and in true
Greek fashion both sides were heard but
ultimately it was the general Milty ADEs
who swayed the opinion of the other
generals to meet the persians on the
battlefield amongst the athenian
commanders opinion was divided some were
against risking a battle on the ground
that the Athenian force was too small to
stand a chance of success of
and amongst them Milty ADEs urged it to
callimachus therefore Milty ad s turned
it is now in your hands callimachus he
said either to enslave athens or to make
her free and to leave behind you for all
future generations a memory more
glorious than even harm odious and
aristotle left never in our history have
we Athenians been in such perilous now
if we submit to the Persians Hippias
will be restored to power and there is
little doubt what misery must then ensue
but if we fight and win then the city of
ours may well grow to preeminence
amongst all the cities of Greece Milty
ADEs words prevailed and by the vote of
callimachus the war Archon the decision
to fight was made the Athenians thus
decided to meet the Persians on the
battlefield and it is generally believed
that they took the northern route from
Athens to marathon which is about 25
miles long the only other road to
marathon was slightly longer at about 28
miles and would have left the Greeks
more exposed to a cavalry attack after
the Greeks arrived the two sides faced
each other in an uneasy calm that lasted
for a few days before the battle which
helped the Greeks fortify their forces
and better prepare for battle once the
Greeks arrived on the plain they camped
at a site that was considered to be
sacred to the hero Hercules and they
were then joined by the platino Greek
contingent according to Herodotus the
Athenian troops were drawn up on a piece
of ground sacred to Heracles when they
were joined by the platoons who came to
support them with every available man
the total number of Greeks who were
camped at the plain near marathon is
estimated to be around 10,000 with about
1000 of the hoplites being platoons
although most of the Athenian hoplites
traveled to Marathon to confront the
Persians a small skeleton crew stayed
behind in Athens in order to defend the
city in case the Persian forces split
and part attacked the city datas and the
Persians were eager to engage the Greeks
in battle as they had the advantage with
numbers and cavalry but the Greeks were
not yet done with their preparations
that would help give them the ultimate
advantage in the days before the
actual battle the Greeks probably
gradually advanced their position
felling trees along the way and then
using those trees to obstruct the
Persian cavalry thus by the time the
Greeks had advanced to the actual
battlefield they tried to be protected
in the rear and flanks by the rugged
hillsides which effectively made the
Persian cavalry useless this strategy
was a major factor in how the Greeks won
the battle because the vaunted and
feared Persian cavalry played almost no
role in the Battle of Marathon and the
Greek hoplites were much better armed
and trained than the average Persian
soldiers who wore little armor in
essence Milty ADEs and the greeks knew
that in order to defeat the larger
Persian army they had to plan
accordingly and win the battle before
the first blow was struck while datas
became too reliant on his cavalry and
was unwilling to improvise still while
the decisions made by multi eighties and
dentists before the actual battle may
have ultimately decided the victor the
two sides still had to fight and it
turned out to be an epic battle that has
rightfully earned its legendary
reputation in pre-modern warfare the
standard order of battle usually
involved the belligerent armies lining
up in a shield wall or phalanx across
from each other and then fighting with
the ultimate goal of breaking through
the enemy's line
Herodotus is description of the Battle
of Marathon appears to follow this
method when it did come the Athenian
army moved into position for the coming
struggle the right wing was commanded by
callimachus for it was the regular
practice at that time in Athens that the
war Archon should lead the right wing
then followed the tribes in their
regular order and finally on the left
wing were the platoons the fact that the
Athenian field marshal war Archon
callimachus was on one of the wings
instead of the center is another
important aspect of the battle that will
be discussed further but as the two
armies meet the Greeks were forced to
compensate for their numerical
inferiority
so callimachus Miltiades and the other
Greek generals were faced with a choice
concentrate their forces in the center
where the initial Persian thrust would
probably be focused
or place the majority of their forces on
the wings in order to prevent being
flanked according to Herodotus the
Greeks chose the second option one
result of the disposition of Athenian
troops before the battle was the
weakening of their center by the effort
to extend the line sufficiently to cover
the whole Persian front the two wings
were strong but the line in the center
was only a few ranks deep the
dispositions made and the preliminary
sacrifice promising success the word was
given to move and the Athenians advanced
at a run towards the enemy not less than
a mile away they were the first Greek so
far as we know to charge at a run and
the first who dare to look without
flinching at Persian dress and the men
who wore it for until that day came no
Greek could hear even the word Persian
without terror perhaps the most
interesting and strategically important
aspect of this passage is the fact that
the Greeks ran to meet the Persians at
first one may think that running to meet
the enemy on the battlefield would be
disadvantageous especially a minor way
because it could tire the runners out
but there are some advantages to the
strategy as well combatants in
pre-modern battles had to be in good
physical shape given the nature of the
hand-to-hand fighting so a brisk run to
meet the enemy would raise soldier's
heart rates and help get them in the
proper frame of mind as the battle began
in effect the mind also that the Greek
hoplites ran across the plain of
Marathon to meet the Persian army was a
warm-up for the main event
which was the actual battle mountain
scholars have also pointed out that when
the Greeks sprinted to meet the Persians
they eliminated one of the advantages
that the Persians had cavalry once the
two armies became engaged and the Greek
flanks were protected by the hilly
terrain the Persian cavalry threat was
eliminated the other Persian advantage
numerical superiority was countered by
the Greek formation of the battle line
which would prove to be the ultimate
undoing of datas and his army however
once battle began it was not long before
the thin Greek center collapsed a burial
mound that was discovered and excavated
in modern times marks the place where
the Greeks
Center stood and also where the Greeks
suffered most of their casualties
Herodotus's account tells how the
persians pushed through the center the
struggle at marathon was long and
drawn-out in the center held by the
persians themselves and thus AC the
advantage was with the foreigners who
were so far successful as to break the
Greek line and pursue the fugitives
inland from the sea but the Athenians on
one wing and the platoons on the other
were both victorious drawing their two
wings together in a single unit they
turned their attention to the Persians
who had broken through in the center the
wings were instrumental in the Greek
victory as they essentially ceded the
center to the Persians but then
collapsed on their enemy from the wings
Herodotus who had no military experience
and was not well versed in military
affairs does not mention if the Greeks
planned the maneuver in such a way but
logic would seem to indicate that they
did up to this point in the battle
everything that Miltiades and
callimachus did was precise and well
thought-out
from the road they took to marathon to
where they chose to camp and even the
decision to sprint to engage the
Persians as such it would be hard to
believe that the Greek generals did not
plan to collapse the wings as well
Hemant noted now it is obvious that the
action of the Athenians and the protiens
on the wings which were separated from
one another by a considerable distance
had been preconcerted for Milty ATS
having thinned his Center and packed his
wings must have anticipated the actual
developments in the fighting and issued
orders in advance to the effect that the
men on the wings if and when victorious
were to turn towards the center to form
line and to go to the aid of the Greek
troops at the center Hannibal's victory
against the Romans at cannae has often
been considered the seminal use of a
pincer attack of this type and it is
still considered a masterpiece of
generalship that was imitated about
2,000 years later by Napoleon at
Austerlitz
but if hammond is correct Milty ADEs and
callimachus orchestrated a pincers
attack at marathon centuries before
Hannibal did either way it's clear
Milty 80s and the other Greek generals
Aidid their cause and even the odds by
planning for contingencies on the other
hand despite numerous advantages datas
and the Persians were unable to
capitalize on their superior numbers at
the center of the line and their cavalry
was useless once the Greek flanks
collapsed on the Persian center datas
knew that phase of the metal was lost so
he ordered the Persians to retreat to
the ships Herodotus wrote very little
about the Persian retreat other than
that the Greeks captured seven Persian
ships and their two Greek generals
callimachus and Stacie Laos were killed
pursuing the Persians but Pausanias
helps fill in the gaps he wrote that the
disastrous Persian retreat may have been
partially due to their not knowing the
terrain and running into a mush there is
at marathon and lake which for the most
part is marshy into this ignorance of
the roads made the foreigners fall in
their flight and it is said that this
incident was the cause of their great
losses data said the Persians were
losing but they were not yet defeated so
he and his surviving army that made it
to the ships set sail around the attic
Peninsula for Athens the quickest way
for the Persians to reach Athens from
marathon was by land and preferably on
horseback but once the Greeks defeated
them at marathon they had to sail the
entire way to Athens at this point the
Greek victory of the battlefield of
Marathon was assured but all may have
been lost if datas and the Persians
could reach Athens before them Plutarch
succinctly captured the Greek urgency as
they raced back to Athens on foot when
the Athenians had routed the barbarians
and driven them aboard their ships and
saw that they were sailing away not
toward the islands but into the Gulf
toward Attica and a compulsion of wind
and wave then they were afraid lest the
enemy find Athens empty of defenders and
so they hastened homeward with nine
tribes and reached the city that very
day but Arista DS was left behind at
marathon with his own tribe to guard the
captives and the booty one of the most
legendary aspects of the Battle of
Marathon
at least in terms of how it resonates in
modern society is the story of the
runner named for liberties or fade
deputies according to the later Greek
historian Plutarch and the 2nd century
CE II Greek writer Lucian Fay deputies
ran a little over 26 miles from the
battlefield of Marathon to Athens in
order to tell the citizens of that city
that the Greeks had won the battle blue
sea and wrote Philippa Dee's the one who
acted as courier is said to have used it
first in our sense when he brought the
news of victory from marathon and
addressed the magistrates in session
when they were anxious how the battle
had ended joy to you we've won he said
and there and then he died breathing his
last breath with that joy to you after
the Battle of Marathon Darius the first
was not done with his punitive plans for
Athens according to Herodotus the
Persian loss at marathon only incensed
the Achaemenid King even more when the
news of the Battle of Marathon reached
Darius son of history's and king of
Persia his anger against Athens already
great enough on account of the assault
on Sardis was even greater and he was
more than ever determined to make war on
Greece without loss of time he
dispatched couriers to the various
states under his Dominion with orders to
raise an army much larger than before
and also warships transports horses and
grain so the Royal Command went round
and all Asia was in an uproar for three
years for the best men being enrolled in
the army for the invasion of Greece and
with the preparations in the year after
that a rebellion in Egypt which had been
conquered by canvases served only to
hearten Darius as resolved to go to war
not only against Greece but against
Egypt - Darius would never get his
chance to exact revenge against the
Athenians as he died soon after in 487
BCE but the greco-persian wars would
continue with his son and successor
Xerxes who would lead an even greater
army into Greece a team ended persian
historical records say nothing of the
Battle of Marathon
and little concerning the greco-persian
Wars which is not surprising since the
Persian historical tradition was
essentially inherited from other ancient
Near Eastern traditions that depicted
the sovereign as always victorious even
had the Persians followed more modern or
Hellenic historiographical traditions
they still would have ignored their loss
at marathon due to its one-sidedness
according to Herodotus the final
casualty count of the battle was five
thousand four hundred Persians killed
while the Greeks lost only one hundred
and ninety two men
although it is known that Xerxes the
first became Darius the first successor
the method of succession remains
problematic for modern scholarship and
is an important factor when considering
reasons why the Persian king initiated
the second round of the greco-persian
Wars Herodotus gives a long account of
Xerxes accession to the throne which he
attributed to a combination of the crown
prince's mother a tosser and the fact
that Xerxes was born while Darius the
first was King unlike his older brothers
who were born before he was King old
Persian cuneiform inscriptions from the
ancient Persian city of Persepolis
attributed Sexy's rise to power to the
god Ahura Mazda a text known as Dirk
sees Persepolis a XPA States saith Dirk
sees the king of the sons of Darius
there were but thus unto our master was
the desire
Darius my father made me the greatest
after himself
when my father Darius went away from the
throne by the will of Allah Mazda I
became King on my Father's throne when I
became King I built much excellent
construction what had been built by my
father that I protected and other
building I added the text is clearly
aimed at proving the new Kings
legitimacy to rule the Achaemenid Empire
which suggests that they may have been
questions within the royal family about
Xerxes right to rule the text also
relates that Xerxes dedicated at least a
portion of his time and resources to
building projects which was a way that
many kings from various ancient Near
Eastern cultures legitimized their rule
given that he had rebellions to suppress
and possibly questions about his
legitimate right to rule it's fair to
wonder why Xerxes embarked on a
Herculean effort to invade Greece
shortly after his father had been
defeated in answering that question
Herodotus relates in detail that when
Xerxes came to power in 486 BCE his
geopolitical interests were to the south
of Greece in Egypt as Xerxes prepared
his punitive expedition against the
Egyptians the Persians general mark
dounia's who was famous for Lou
the potion fleet in Greece during the
reign of Darius the first convinced the
Great King to also invade Greece
Herodotus wrote Xerxes at first not at
all interested in invading Greece
but began by building up an army for a
campaign in Egypt but Mardonius the Son
of God Ria's and Darius a sister and
thus cousin to the king who was present
in court and had more influence with
Circe's than anyone else in the country
used constantly to talk to him on the
subject master he would say the
Athenians have done us great injury and
it is only right they should be punished
for their crimes
by all means finish the talks you
already have in hand but when you
obtained the arrogance of Egypt then
lead an army against Athens do that and
your name will be held in honor all over
the world and people will think twice in
future before they invade your country
and to the argument for revenge he would
add that Europe was a very beautiful
place it produced every kind of garden
tree the land there was everything that
land should be it was in short too good
for any mortal except the Persian king
Martone Isis influence was apparently
effective because Xerxes heeded the call
to arms with the further incentives of
upholding family honour and retribution
for the Athenians destruction of the
city of Sardis during the Ionian revolt
Xerxes proclaimed I will bridge the
Hellespont and March an army through
Europe into Greece and punished the
Athenians for the outrage they committed
upon my father and upon us as you saw
Darius himself was making his
preparations for war against these men
but death prevented him from carrying
out his purpose I therefore on his
behalf and for the benefit of all my
subjects will not rest until I have
taken ethany nted to the ground in
revenge for the injury which the
Athenians without provocation once did
to me and my father these men you
remember came to Sardis with era stagger
Aslam elysian a slave of ours and burnt
the temples and sacred groves these two
passages reveal both Xerxes initial
reluctance to attack Greece and
his passionate personality both of which
were important for how the fighting
turned out but either way once the
emperor was in favor of an invasion of
Europe the great Persian army would have
to be mobilized and moved from Asia to
Europe the Persian Army's mobilization
and mustering was no doubt the largest
type in history until that time and was
probably the largest until the first
crusade about 1,500 years later the
logistical feat of just assembling the
army took years and according to
Herodotus the amount of materials
consumed by the army was immense the
historian wrote for the four years
following the conquest of Egypt the
mustering of troops and the provision of
stores and equipment continued and
toward the close of the fifth year
Xerxes at the head of his enormous army
began his march all these armies
together with others like them would not
have equaled the army of Xerxes
was there a nation in Asia that he did
not take with him to Greece save for the
Great Rivers was there a stream his army
drank from that was not drunk dry some
nations provided ships others formed
infantry units for some cavalry was
requisitioned from others horst
transports and crews from others again
triremes for floating bridges or
provisions and naval craft of various
kinds the mastering of the army took
place in Sardis from 484 to 481 BCE
after which they then sent out in the
spring of 480 for their long trek to
Greece following the Aegean coast line
before the army left Sardis Xerxes sent
representatives throughout Greece to
demand the symbolic earth and water from
the various kingdoms and city-states
earth and water if given was a symbol of
a rulers obeisance and fealty towards
the Persian King the Persian king in
turn agreed to leave the subordinate
ruler in power and to do no harm to any
of his temples or people at the same
time however Xerxes sent no demand for
earthen water to the two most important
Greek city-states
Athens and Sparta because the Persian
messengers were killed when his father
Derry
the first cent demands for earthen water
during the first war it would also have
been contrary to the partly punitive
aspect of Xerxes expedition against
Athens to demand earth and water since
Xerxes did not want the obedience of the
Athenians but to destroy and enslave
them according to Herodotus the entire
army soldiers sailors Marines and
various support personnel numbered
1,700,000 and it took them an entire
week to bridge and cross the Hellespont
which is a channel in the Aegean that
separates Asia from Europe while it's
almost certain that number was inflated
the most important number concerning the
size of the Persian army in relation to
the Battle of Salamis was the twelve
hundred and seven triremes warships that
he rotted his send comprised the Persian
fleet since Persia was a landlocked
country nearly the entire Navy was
gathered from other peoples including
300 of the ships being manned by
Phoenicians and 200 sailed by Egyptians
of course
Xerxes and the Persians were not the
only ones who prepared for the coming
war as the great Persian army began its
long march into Europe the Greeks
particularly the Athenians
also made preparations that would
ultimately ensure their victory at the
Battle of Salamis recognizing that war
was in all likelihood and inevitability
the Athenians had begun the construction
of a giant fleet but because Evans could
not hope to bear the expense of both
treasure and manpower or funding both a
standing army and a fleet they had
sought support elsewhere
the chief Greek states ignoring the
ambassadors that Xerxes sent to demand
earth and water in 481 BCE met at
Corinth to decide on what was to be done
their resolve was an indication of the
measure of the crisis they faced for the
Greek city-states were notoriously
fractious and only came together in
times of the greatest emergency at the
Hellespont Xerxes planned to cross the
Straits via a gigantic bridge of boats
and incredibly ambitious endeavor and
one that ends with one of Antiquities
most colorful legends Herodotus reported
that the
Persians first attempt to bridge the
Hellespont failed after a storm
destroyed the flax and papyrus cables of
the bridges enraged Xerxes ordered his
men to whip the Hellespont with 300
lashes and throw fetters into the water
after the meeting at corinth a force of
10,000 Allied troops under the command
of the Spartans were sent to blockade
the pass at Tempe in Thessaly only to
discover that Xerxes had stolen a march
on them despite the first failure the
Persians had actually accomplished the
unthinkable and physically bridged the
Hellespont in 480 BC crossing into
northern Greece to the south of the
hoplites waiting at Tempe there was now
only one way to stop Sexy's to cross
into Greece proper the Persians would be
forced to travel through the narrow
defile the mountain pass at Thermopylae
a site which had already seen its fair
share of battle due to its strategic
nature if the Greeks could hold Xerxes
off at Thermopylae and concurrently if
the allied freed could stop the Persian
Navy at Artemisium
to prevent a bypass then the invasion of
Greece could be defeated the Spartans as
expected were put in command of all
allied land forces their prowess in
battle borne of the fact that all
Spartan citizens trained from boyhood in
the ruthless warrior Academy of the
Agoge to be perfect in the pursuit of
feats of athletics and arms and
something they were able to do free of
constraints as they dedicated all manual
labor to the helots was legendary and
their fame rightly acquired the Spartan
hoplites were very rarely defeated and
the sight of their red cloaked hoplites
with the lambdas greek-letter
l-shaped line and inverted V for lack
edemen the Spartan Heartland stark and
their shields was offered enough to
prompt enemies to flee the field
altogether the Greeks set about making
their preparations while Xerxes army
advanced south through Thessaly and
Macedonia a horde to end all hordes
there has been intense speculation and
debate among historians as to just how
large the Persian army was with ancient
accounts reporting that a drank Rivers
dry
and stripped entire regions of their
crops though Herodotus and the other
Greek sources talk of a force numbering
anything between a million and two and a
half million fighting men with
equivalent numbers of support personnel
these figures are in all likelihood
exaggerated the product of either Greek
propaganda or Persian misinformation
modern scholars believe Xerxes army was
a more manageable but still extremely
formidable 300,000 to 500,000 men and
the lowest modern estimates put the
number at 100,000 even the celebrated
Spartans would have their work cut out
for them
indeed the campaign might well be over
before it had properly begun for the
timing of Xerxes advance could not have
been more unfortunate for the Greeks as
the Persians approached Thermopylae the
Spartans were engaged in celebrating the
festival of carnea the traditional
period of peacetime in LAC edemen during
which time no armies could march on pain
of offending the gods in the gravest way
possible one of the two spartan kings
Leonidas the Spartans always had two
monarchs so that if one should fall in
battle Sparta would still have a ruler
besieged the ephors the Spartan high
priests for a special permission to the
statue unit - Thermopylae given the
extraordinary circumstances the ephors
granted him the right to take the Kings
bodyguard a unit of 300 men to war they
honored us for sure he was marching to
his death since the renowned Oracle at
Delphi had predicted that Sparta must
mourn a king in order to achieve victory
according to ancient accounts the Oracle
foretold for you inhabitants of
wide-wayed Sparta either your great and
glorious city must be wasted by Persian
men or if not that then the bound of
lesser demon must mourn a dead King from
Heracles line the might of bulls or
lines will not restrain him with
opposing strength for he has the might
of Zeus I declare that he will not be
restrained until he utterly tears apart
one of these seeking to fulfill the
prophecy the auditors personally picked
300 all of whom had living sons so their
bloodlines
not be extinguished according to
Plutarch Wendy on turdus was asked upon
his departure by his wife Gorgo Queen of
Sparta what she should do in his absence
he replied marry a good man and bear
good children the Spartans were
willingly creating a suicide unit but to
the men who joined Lea outed us it was
undoubtedly a high honor to be selected
the ancient Roman historian Plutarch
captured the essence of the Spartans
thinking and culture in recounting a
story about one of the men who was not
chosen when peter etus was not chosen to
be the one to the 300 an honor which
ranked highest in the state he departed
cheerful and smiling with the remark
that he was glad the state possessed 300
citizens who were better than himself
thus in the summer of 480 BCE Leonidas
and his men marched towards Thermopylae
alongside the vaunted 300 Spartans were
a further six hundred of the perioikoi
the Spartan peers which enjoyed similar
rights to full-blooded Spartan citizens
and an equal number of headed servants
and light infantry men for a total of
1500 the Spartans were quickly joined
along the march by another 3,000
hoplites from Corinth Arcadia Mantinea
tagaya and Mycenae and more troops
joined them as they progressed out of
the Peloponnese and into northern Greece
the thespians sent 700 hoplites the
Thebans 400 and when the allied army
reached Thermopylae the Fukien xand
locrians who inhabited the lands
directly to the south of the pass sent
all 2,000 men they had according to
Herodotus thus to bolster liana das's
ranks the Greeks either had around 6,000
men according to Herodotus or 7,500
according to ancient historian Diodorus
sicilus whatever the actual number the
Greeks were facing what even modern
historians have estimated as being
upwards of half a million men based on
modern estimates at best the Greeks were
facing odds of 20 to 1 but it's more
likely there were 50 to 80 Persians for
every Greek obviously the Greeks heading
toward Thermopylae knew they were going
to be outnumbered by
an astounding amount ahead of time so
they were obviously determined to stand
and fight there no matter how many men
Xerxes hat as Plutarch so aptly put it
the Spartans used to ask about the enemy
it was not important how many there are
but where the enemy was but the Greeks
weren't heading to Thermopylae simply to
die a glorious death they chose it
because it was the best defensive ground
to bolster their defense the Greeks
planned to occupy the narrowest point of
the pass at Thermopylae what was known
as the middle gate at that spot they
still stood the ruins of an ancient wall
built by the folk ins which would help
the defense of the pass
some of the Peloponnesian allies once
they had surveyed the site offered the
opinion that they should abandon focus
and Locris to their fate and fall back
to the Isthmus of Corinth where it would
be easier to summon reinforcements but
Leonidas was adamant that they must make
their stand at Thermopylae or not at all
not least because he had 2,000 fokin and
Locrian soldiers at his orders now but
leo notices considerations were tactical
as well as political simply put
Thermopylae the hot gates in Greek named
from the hot springs that made it a
sought-after spawn location for
travelers from all across Greece was the
best possible place for a numerically
inferior enemy to contest
Sexy's passage though the geography of
the pass has changed considerably over
the millennia in ancient times it
consisted of a track running at the
bottom of a defile about 100 yards
across snaking its way along the coast
to one side of the path the land fell
away sheer to the rocky coasts below
while to the other the past was hemmed
in by impassable cliffs there was a
single mountain path which could allow a
small force to bypass Thermopylae a fact
which the Greeks knew that the Persians
did not accordingly the honor distr
Specht ass out of his men to guard the
path while he arrayed the rest of his
troops defensively across the narrow
aperture known as the middle gate there
were three such tightenings of the pass
all tolled with the hastily reinforced
fokin wall as a fallback defensive
position in the narrow pass
sieze massive advantage in numbers would
be nullified now all the auditors in his
men could do was wait some time after
alia notice his Spartans and their
allies had set up their defensive
position at Thermopylae and with the
Allied fleet standing two of Artemisium
Xerxes army finally arrived in August of
480 BC the Spartan Scouts possibly the
skillet I the celebrated Spartan Light
Infantry who always fought on the
extreme left of the Spartan battle line
directly opposite the enemy elite troops
spotted a great horde of armed men
moving on the far side of the Malian
Gulf tens then hundreds of thousands of
armed men followed by an equal or even
greater number of slaves and camp
followers and more bullocks
horses camels and assorted cattle then
the assembled Greeks had ever seen in
their lives
Xerxes horde was big enough to blacken
the ground from Horizon to Horizon and
all that stood between it and Greece
were six perhaps seven thousand hoplites
yet remarkably or perhaps as a testament
for the respect he had for greek heavy
infantry Xerxes did not attack at once
instead he chose to talk he dispatched
an invoice and the Greeks asking them to
stand down and grant him passage and
promising that the Spartans themselves
would receive untold honors if they
would but submit the Greeks
Sexy's envoi argued would still be free
inclusion in the Persian Empire would
mean riches and privilege for all
Leonidas however did not see things
quite that way
capitulation he and the Greek allied
generals argued was tantamount to
slavery at Leonidas as stubborn refusal
to see sense
Xerxes envoi grew irate and insisted the
Spartans and their allies laid down
their weapons according to Plutarch
Leonidas replied with the famous phrase
Milan la baie come and take them five
days passed by the Greeks waited and
Xerxes determined what was to be done
his Navy could not hope to force the
passage at the Straits of Artemisium
without suffering extremely heavy
casualties and
might well be turned back altogether
likewise outflanking the small Greek
force at Thermopylae appeared impossible
the Persians would have no choice then
except to make a fight of it on the
morning of the fifth day after the
Persian army's arrival Xerxes gave his
orders five thousand archers moved
forward into position towards the Greek
encampment at the folk Ian wall the
Battle of Thermopylae had begun with the
Spartans in the vanguard Lyanna
disordered the Greeks to take up the
Phalanx formation across the pass and
arrayed them before the wall as the
Persian archers advanced to within a
hundred yards of the Greeks from there
the Persians unleashed a colossal volley
of arrows against them like all good
archers it is likely that at that range
the Persians could shoot three volleys
while their first arrow was still in the
air and the Greeks soon found themselves
under a veritable hail of dots however
to the Persians great consternation the
Greeks literally shrugged them off the
light Persian bows were a far cry from
the long bows or compound bows of the
English and Mongols which could punch
through Armour at 300 yards and the
Greeks thick bran shields helmets and
armor completely protected them from the
storm of arrows which the ancient
historians claimed caused only a few
light flesh wounds shaken Xerxes ordered
his archers to fall back and sent in his
hammer blow ten thousand of his best
infantry natives of the Persian
heartland of Medea and Sitia which
included among their officers a number
of Xerxes own relatives scions of the
royal family it was time for the
Spartans to prove why they were the best
heavy infantry in the world like a wave
the Medes and [ __ ] ins swept forward
towards the Greek positions where the
Spartans perioikoi and other
Peloponnesians had taken up their place
in the van with Leonidas who was any
sixtieth year and thus considerably
older than he has historically been
portrayed nevertheless like a wave
hitting a cliff as the Persians smashed
against the Greek felling's
they broke the Persians had just
encountered the famous wall
bronze and these initial attackers were
powerless against it their courage and
valor could not be disputed but their
training and equipment were completely
inadequate to the task the Persians had
shorter Spears making it hard for them
to even reach the Greek phalanx before
getting speared themselves and even if
they did make contact the light of
shields and shorter Spears and swords of
the Persians prevented them from
effectively engaging the Greek hoplites
their light Spears shivered against the
great bronze fronted shields and thick
armor of the hoplites their Sabres and
short swords cut ineffectually at the
crested helmets and bronze wrapped chins
and their own light armor and wicker
shields could do nothing to prevent the
heavy Greeks peers from punching through
them like paper splitting the men
wielding them despite their advantage in
numbers and the great number of men they
poured into the pass try as they might
the Persians could make no headway
against the Greek forces indeed they
soon found themselves on the receiving
end of what the hoplites had spent
countless soul numbing hours practicing
orth is moss
this was the mash of of the hoplite
phalanx which began pushing the Persians
in their front backwards and chewing up
their line like a meat grinder thousands
of the Medes and [ __ ] ins were cut down
while still more were crushed to death
by the press of men who were literally
held off the cliffs to drown or smash
into the rocks below according to
Herodotus this was achieved at the cost
of only a few spartan dead the carnage
was so catastrophic for the Persians
that Xerxes who was watching the battle
from the heights above whipped up from
his chair three times in mortal anguish
for his men who were being cut to pieces
in the defile below the Greek historian
Tessie as' wrote that the Persians first
wave was cut to ribbons yet only two or
three Spartans were dead fighting in the
Phalanx even for trained warriors was
incredibly taxing physically the need to
be constantly reactive often at a split
seconds notice in order to block a
thrust or slash or strike back in turn
coupled with wearing over 60 pounds of
armor and
constantly shoving against a solid
packed mass of men was so exhausting
that it could only be endured for a
handful of minutes at a time even by the
Spartans because of this the Greek
troops rotated their units generally
divided by city of origin in and out of
the battle line to ensure a constant
supply of fresh hoplites to the
meat-grinder of the favics according to
Herodotus this was also an indication
that the Greeks had sufficient numbers
to block the entire pass the Greek
soldiers were so exhausted from fighting
that as soon as they were relieved they
dropped to the ground as though dead
while the helots rushed to assist them
the ground which had been hard packed
and parched in summer was churned with
blood in the early afternoon a lull fell
on the battlefield as the Persian forces
pulled back which allowed the Greeks a
chance to catch their breath and tend to
the small wounds which despite their
armor wear a natural consequence of
fighting in the famines given that
fighting in the famines formation
consisted largely of a confused shoving
brawl where weapons burst into fragments
of wood and iron and people lunged with
knives swords spears and axes it's quite
likely that a significant number of
wounds would be the result of friendly
fire by overly enthusiastic fellow
hoplites and though they reportedly
suffered few casualties in the first
wave of fighting the Greeks were
impressed by the bravery of the Persians
who despite being decidedly art matched
had continued to hold themselves at the
valence even tearing with their own bare
hands at the weapons and shields of the
enemy in an attempt to disarm them so
that their comrades might get a spear
thrust in the Medes and [ __ ] ins had
acquitted themselves nobly if futile II
and they had been blooded Lee repulsed
but Xerxes was far from done the
Spartans and their allies had barely
dented his great hoard and now he
dispatched the hammer blow that he
assumed would fill them in earnest
against troops already bone weary from
the morning's battle he sent in his
famed 10,000 man crack unit The
Immortals
unlike the Medes and Cissy ins the
Immortals advanced into battle in tomb
like utter silence
as the spartans did themselves in the
deliberate attempt to avoid battle
frenzy and instill fear into the waiting
enemy the greek hoplites rose to their
feet shouldered their shields and took
up their positions in the phallic s--
the persians were coming again the
persians elite core remains the subject
of much intrigue including over the
origins of their name
it was Herodotus who refer to the force
as the Immortals claiming that the name
refer to the fact that the force was
always ten thousand strong and that
there was thus always a new member to
replace a wounded or dead one though
there is evidence from Persia that the
unit did exist no name was attached to
them and modern historians believe that
Herodotus
and/or his source mistook the name our
new Shia companions with a nossa
immortals
Herodotus wrote in his histories of all
the extra perks the Immortals received
including concubines and food designated
only for them but they were about to
receive the same treatment from the
Greeks that their counterparts had
received earlier Xerxes may very well
have hoped or even assumed that his
vaunted immortals would make short
shrift of the tired Greeks especially
because it was not even the Spartans but
one of the Allied contingents who first
rose to take their place in the battle
line against them however once again the
superior training and armament of the
hoplites
proved decisive they're slightly more
heavily armed than their meat and [ __ ]
encounter paths the immortals were no
match for the Phalanx who suckered the
Immortals deeper into the pass by
failing a retreat and tempting the
Persians to chase after them once again
Xerxes was forced to watch in horror as
his vaunted infantry was cut to ribbons
in the past
at last as darkness fell that decimated
immortals fell back yielding the field
of battle to the Greeks who were so
tired that many of them needed their
comrades to physically force food and
water into their mouths because they
were incapable of taking sustenance
themselves though the night passed
without incident the dawn of the second
day of the battle brought no respite for
the Greeks though his elite shock troops
had failed
Xerxes still had ten
of thousands or even hundreds of
thousands of completely fresh troops to
throw at the hot gates counting on the
fact that the Spartans and their allies
would be exhausted and or injured by
wounds and incapable of putting up a
spirited resistance
Xerxes launched an all-out assault
against the foe Kian war yet again
Xerxes could not have been more wrong
driven to extremes of valor and
endurance by a desire to match up to the
notorious Spartans the Allied Greeks
performed like prodigies on the second
day and once again the Phalanx proved to
be a bulwark that could take any amount
of enemy damage shrugging off the
Persian attacks without faltering
now however fatigue began to tell in
earnest and as the Greeks became more
sluggish the number of casualties began
to rise dozens were killed and many more
wounded including a significant number
of Spartans
despite their casualties and exhaustion
however the Greeks managed to push back
the advancing Persians once more and
towards midday Xerxes men fell back to
their encampment now by all accounts
terrified by the apparent utter
invincibility of their foes it was at
this crucial moment when Xerxes was
pondering if even attrition could
destroy the Spartans and their allies
that he received what amounted to a gift
from the gods
a native of Thrace as' named Ephialtes
deserted to his side and revealed to his
generals that there existed a remote
mountain path through which the Persians
could march to the rear of Thermopylae
this would allow the Persians to envelop
the defending Greek forces and destroy
them Ephialtes name would later become
so reviled as a traitor that it
virtually disappears from Greek
history's altogether indicating the
shame associated with it even in modern
greece the name Ephialtes is synonymous
with traitor and his name has become the
word for nightmare in modern Greek
according to Herodotus two other men
were accused of betraying the hidden
trail to the Persians on it US a native
of Christus and son of fauna giris and
corydalis
a native of antisera however Herodotus
was certain that it was actually
Ephialtes
because as he wrote the deputies of the
Greeks the pile agree who must have had
the best means for ascertaining the
truth did not offer the reward on the
heads of Anytus and corydalis but for
that of ephialtes of trachis
whatever the case dirk sees no longer
needed to force his way past the
hoplites guarding the hot gates now he
could simply outflank them and appear in
both their front and rear at dawn of the
third day of the battle general
Mardonius at the head of 10000 immortals
whose numbers were immediately filled by
selecting eligible recruits from other
units and a further 10,000 Persian
troops moved up the path that Ephialtes
had revealed surprising the 1,000 folks
who were guarding it faced with
overwhelming odds and without a
similarly effective defensive position
to protect the folk ins fell back to a
hilltop nearby where they plan to make a
final stand but the Persians contented
themselves with keeping them at a
distance with volleys of arrows while
the main force proceeded at the double
down the path a folky and runner raced
ahead of them bearing the grave news to
Leonidas in a few hours at most his
troops would be encircled staring
calamity in the face Leonidas convened a
council of war with his surviving
generals despite their previous
successes all the Greeks knew that
staying to fight meant death accordingly
many of the generals leading the Greek
contingents chose retreat as the only
viable option but not Leonidas with the
weight of prophecy Spartan military
tradition and simple common tactical
sense on his shoulders he bared the
other Greek contingents dispersed but he
and his Spartans were determined to
stand and die according to Plutarch
Leonidas exhorted his men eat well for
tonight we dine in Hades the recent
forleo notices decision is simple and it
has less to do with bombast and the will
of the gods than it does with a desire
not to see his entire command
annihilated by fighting a rearguard
action he could ensure that the
slow-moving hoplites would be able to
escape before Xerxes cavalry unleashed
on the vast plains behind
ma Polly could run them down and cut
them to pieces thus those who would stay
behind to fight were doing so in an
effort to save those who fled whether it
was because so many other Greeks were
just as brave as the Spartans or because
they realized the tactical situation
what was left of the 700 thespians
refused to leave even when ordered to do
so as did 400 Thebans the helots who had
accompanied the spartans into battle
also refused to retreat thus while the
majority of the Greek forces departed
the battlefield a mixed unit of around
1700 men stayed back to defend the pass
against Xerxes and the Persians as
daylight washed across the battlefield
Xerxes made his customary morning
sacrifices and having established that
the Immortals were now advancing towards
the rear of what remained of the Greek
forces ordered a fresh wave of 10,000
infantry to advance against the foe Keon
wall this time however the Greeks did
not remain on the defensive rather in a
last desperate glorious attempt to take
as many of the enemy with them as they
could they advanced into the wider part
of the path meeting the Persians where
every Greek spear and sword could be
brought to bear the struggle was brutal
and vicious and despite the odds it
lasted for hours as the Greeks inflicted
carnage upon the Persian forces but
began to be slowly whittled down
according to Herodotus when all their
Spears were shattered and even their
birth spikes have been smashed to
kindling the Greeks fought on with
swords daggers and captured Persian
weapons continuing a desperate melee
where all form of fighting order broke
down completely at the height of this
fighting
Leonidas himself was killed feathered
with shafts by Persian archers and a
massive running fight broke out between
the Greeks desperate to keep his body in
their possession and the Persians who
sought to despoil it it was at this
point when the fighting was at its most
bitter that two of Xerxes own brothers
were killed but both sides could not
sustain a massacre of such ferocity for
long Greeks and Persians alike fill back
to draw breath and with the Immortals
now approaching from their rear
the remnants of the Greek force dragged
their dead and wounded back to a hill
not far behind the fokin wall to make
one final stand it was at this point
that Herodotus claims the Thebans had a
change of heart
historians have largely assumed the
Thebans were brought as hostages to
Thermopylae as Arantes himself suggested
which makes it unclear why the departing
Greeks didn't take the hostages back
with them some historians speculate the
Thebans that remained were loyal to the
Greek cause but here
Herodotus seems to dispel that notion in
writing that they moved away from their
companions and with hands upraised
advanced toward the barbarians shouting
that they surrendered they advanced
towards the Persians casting their
weapons aside many were cut down either
out of vengeance or because the Persians
suspected a trick but eventually the
rest were seized and borne away in
Chains the final act of the drama was
about to unfold the Persians swept in
against the beleaguered Greeks who stood
back-to-back atop the knoll they had
chosen to die on their armor was in
pieces
their shields stove in all long gone and
their weapons were little more than
sticks and blunted twisted pieces of
metal Herodotus described the final
scene here they defended themselves to
the last those who still had swords
using them and the others resisting with
their hands and teeth finally furious at
the losses he had suffered Xerxes
ordered his men to fall back and with
his archers standing in at a distance
had the remaining Greeks slaughtered
with a hail of arrows with the desperate
fighting finally over the Greeks had
lost between two and three thousand men
but they had succeeded in holding the
past for three days and inflicted
several times their number of casualties
it was a defeat obviously but one that
had the flavor of victory in fact
Thermopylae so enraged Xerxes that he
ignored Persian customs honoring valiant
enemy warriors
and had Leonidas as Corpse beheaded and
crucified though the Greeks who had
stayed behind to contest the passage of
Xerxes troops had perished to the last
man their sacrifice would echo
throughout Greece an inspiration
the men preparing for the battles yet to
come with the fate of all the Hellenic
world would be decided
Thermopylae had been the gates of Greece
and after the battle Xerxes advanced
with both his army and navy into the
heart of his enemy's territory
Greece's Allied fleet retreated from its
blockading position at Artemisium
towards Salamis where they helped ferry
the Athenians away from their city and
onto the island not far from the shore
meanwhile the Persian army advanced into
the interior putting Boresha including
Thess be a to the torch before marching
on Athens itself finding the city
deserted by almost all of its citizens
Xerxes vented his spite upon the Greeks
and took revenge for his father's defeat
at marathon by putting the entire city
to the torch forcing the Athenian
citizens to watch as their city was
turned to rubble in the aftermath of the
campaign a stone line was erected on the
site of the last stand of Leonidas men
at Thermopylae and most of the bodies
were interred there Spartan Helen and
allied although only honored Issus bones
were eventually returned to Sparta over
them was laid a plaque bearing the
epitaph written by the celebrated poet
simona d's one that has since spawned
countless variations like go tell the
Spartans stranger passing by that here
according to their laws we lie ancient
Athens is remembered militarily for its
prowess on the sea but if not for some
fortuitous circumstances the Athenians
would never have become a maritime power
and the Persians may have won the Battle
of Salamis in 483 BC II while the
Persian army was muttering in Sardis a
large deposit of silver was discovered
about 25 miles southeast of Athens in a
place that would later be named Laurium
this serendipitous discovery by the
Athenians proved to be a boon to their
economy but the city leaders came to an
armed pass over how to spend the money
most of the city leaders wanted to put
the six hundred thousand drachma of
silver towards the dole fund but
Themistocles the great hero of the
Battle of Salamis had other ideas he
argued that the silver surplus should be
used to build an aid
which the Athenians intend would use to
fight the Greek city-state of Aegina
Herodotus explained for mr. Cleese
however persuaded them to give up this
idea and instead of distributing the
money to spend it on the construction of
200 warships for use in the war with a
Gina the outbreak of this war at that
moment saved Greece by forcing Athens to
become a maritime power Herodotus
account is corroborated by the later
historian and biographer Plutarch who
also gives more details concerning
Themistocles intelligence and
personality Plutarch wrote and so in the
first place whereas the Athenians were
wont to divide up among themselves
the revenue coming from the silver mines
at Laurium he and he alone dare to come
before the people with emotion that this
division be given up and that with these
monies triremes be constructed for the
war against a Jena
this was the fiercest wall then
troubling Hellas and the Islanders
controlled the sea owing to the number
of their ships
wherefore all the more easily that
Themistocles carry his point not by
trying to terrify the citizens with
dreadful pictures of Darius or the
Persians these were too far away and
inspired no very serious fear of their
coming but by making opportune use of
the bitter jealousy which they cherished
toward a jena in order to secure the
armament he desired the result was that
with these monies they built a hundred
triremes with which they actually fought
at Salamis against Xerxes for mr. Cleese
oratory skills intelligence and guile
convinced the other Athenian leaders to
go with his plan which ultimately saved
their city from the Persians but he was
also successful in convincing them of
the type of Navy they should build
Themistocles specified that the Navy
would be comprised of fast light
triremes which were designed for ramming
not carrying large numbers of Marines in
Themistocles judgment it was the Persian
Navy that was its Achilles heel so a
well-trained and equipped Athenian Navy
would be the only way to defeat Xerxes
and his army despite defeating the
Persian army on the plain of Marathon
the force that Zook seized was bringing
with him south on land was so much
larger that the greeks had thought to
find another way to defeat the Persians
this time around the Persian Navy was
also vast but unlike its army which had
a solid core of Persian fighters it was
primarily made up of subject peoples who
were forced to fight the mr. Clea's was
able to build the Athenian Navy through
his silver tongue with the silver
discovered in Attica and he then used
even more duplicitous methods to become
the general of the Athenian fleet
according to Plutarch there were not
many men who desired to lead the
Athenians against the Persians do you in
large measure to fears of Persian
reprisals should Sexy's defeat the
Greeks however fear did not stop all
candidates and Themistocles and an
apparently corrupt man named a pissah
T's were finalists for the position
until the former used his guile to
displace the latter Plutarch explained
at last when the mead was descending
upon Hellas and the Athenians were
deliberating who should be their general
all the risks they say voluntarily
renounced their claims to the
generalship so panic-stricken were they
at the danger bouta pissah teased the
son of you families our popular leader
who was powerful in speech but
effeminate in spirit and open to bribes
set out to get the office and was likely
to prevail in the election so
Themistocles fearing lest Mathers should
go to utter ruin in case the leadership
fell to such a man bribed and bought off
the ambition of a pissah tease with the
mystical ease firmly in the position as
general the Athenians had a capable
leader who could defeat the Persian
fleet the Athenians also temporarily
rescinded all ostracism zin 480 BCE
which allowed notable and wealthy
citizens to return to defend their
possessions Athens later benefitted from
this policy at the Battle of Salamis
since the formerly banished Arista T's
the second most important Athenian at
the battle fought valiantly alongside
his countrymen the Greeks then had two
final acts of preparations to make
before Xerxes and the Persian army
arrived in Attica they had to evacuate
the attic Peninsula and consult their
Oracle's the ancient Greeks were a very
religious people who solved the
influence and actions of their gods in
most events great and small
Poseidon protected greek mariners athena
did the same to her eponymously named
city and Xia's sat on Mount Olympus
presiding over all mortals and immortals
alike when the Greeks had important
questions that pertain to worldly events
and situations they consulted Oracle's
for answers and the most important
Oracle in the Greek world was Apollo's
Oracle in the city of Delphi thus the
Athenians approached the Oracle and
asked directly what course of action
they should take against the approaching
Persian army and Herodotus recorded that
the Oracle replied as follows why said
you doomed ones fly to the world's end
leaving home and the heights your city
circles like a wheel the head shall not
remain in its place nor the body nor the
feet beneath nor the hands nor the parts
between but all is ruined for fire and
the headlong god of war spending in a
Syrian chariot shall bring you low may a
tower shall he destroy not your alone
and give two pitiless fire many shrines
of gods which even now stand sweating
with fear quivering while over the
rooftops black blood runs streaming in
prophecy of woe that needs must come but
rise haste from the sanctuary and bow
your heads to grief
the Oracles answer both upset and
Confused the Athenians who then decided
to approach the Oracle a second time
with olive branches in their hands as
signs of their supplication the second
prophecy was still enigmatic but it
proved to be the final settlement on the
matter Herodotus wrote that this time
the Oracle said not holy can Pallas win
the heart of Olympian Zeus though she
praised him with many prayers and all
her subtlety yet when I speak to you
this other word as firm as adamant
though all else shall be taken within
the bound of sir crops all the fastness
of the holy mountain of so Theron yet
seus the all-seeing gras
to Athene's prayer that the wooden wall
only shall not fall but help you and
your children but await not the host of
horse and foot coming from Asia or be
still but turn your back and withdraw
from the foe truly a day will come when
you will meet him face to face
divine Salamis you will bring death to
women sons when the corn is scattered or
the harvest gathered in the second
prophecy was a bit clearer but a new
question arose what was the wooden wall
determining what the Oracle meant by the
wooden wall immediately became a new
source of debate amongst the Athenians
and while one party believed that it
referred to the wooden palisade around
the Acropolis in Athens another faction
believed it was in reference to the new
Athenian fleet the Athenians with their
democratic nature appear to be at an
armed pass once more and it would be
bridged not by a priest or Oracle but by
Athens Supreme Commander and orator
Themistocles the Athenian commander had
invested too much into the Athenian
fleet to let it slip away through a
misinterpreted prophecy so he did what
any farsighted military commander would
have done by interpreting the prophecy
himself Herodotus noted there was
however a man in Athens who had recently
come into prominence Themistocles called
neo cleese son he now came forward and
declared that there was an important
point in which the professional
interpreters were mistaken if he
maintained the disaster referred to was
to strike the Athenians it would not
have been expressed in such mild
language hateful Salamis would surely
have been a more likely phrase than
divine Salamis if the inhabitants of the
country were doomed to destruction there
on the contrary the true interpretation
was that the Oracle referred not to the
Athenians but to their enemies the
wooden wall did indeed mean ships so he
advised his countrymen to prepare at
once to meet the invader at sea for mr.
Kleist charm charisma and oratorical
skills prevailed once more as the
Athenians decided to evacuate Athens and
Attica and to make their stand on the
sea in the narrow channel between the
Attic
and the island of Salamis but before the
Greeks would make their retreat further
south to the island of Salamis and even
further to the Peloponnesian Peninsula
they had to form a formal alliance thus
as Xerxes and the Persian army was
rampaging its way south through the
kingdoms of Thrace and Macedonia of
Greek city-states held a conference and
formed the Hellenic League with Sparta
playing the role of military leader once
the Athenians had chosen a leader built
a navy and recruited allies it was time
for them to put their plan into motion
with the Persians marching south the
Greeks decided that they would meet
Xerxes and his forces in order to give
their people more time to evacuate
Attica after the meeting at Corinth a
force of 10,000 allied Greek troops
under the command of the Spartans was
sent to blockade the pass of tempi in
Thessaly only to discover that sexies
had stolen a march on them despite the
first failure the Persians had actually
accomplished the unthinkable and
physically bridged the Hellespont in 480
BCE thereby crossing into northern
Greece to the south of the hoplites
waiting at tempie there was now only one
way to stop Xerxes to cross into Greece
proper the Persians would be forced to
travel through the narrow defile of the
mountain pass at Thermopylae a site
which had already seen its fair share of
battle due to its strategic nature if
the Greeks could hold Xerxes offered
Thermopylae and concurrently if the
Allied fleet could stop the Persian Navy
at Artemisium to prevent a bypass then
the invasion of Greece could be defeated
Thermopylae was clearly an important
battle in the greco-persian Wars but a
naval engagement between the Persian and
Athenian fleets that took place at the
same time near the city of Artemisium
had an even greater impact on the Battle
of Salamis Herodotus his account states
that the Greeks were vastly outnumbered
by the Persian fleet but that the battle
was a draw Plutarch's account reveals
more details particularly how the Greeks
used their experiences at Artemisium at
the subsequent Battle of Salamis he
wrote the battles which were fought at
that time with the ships of the
barbarians in
arrows were not decisive of the main
issue it is true but they were of the
greatest service to the he leans in
giving them experience since they were
thus taught by actual achievements in
the face of danger
that neither multitudes of ships
Plutarch's passage reveals two important
aspects of naval warfare that the
Athenians learned at Artemisium and
would later use at Salamis first the
Athenians due to their inferior numbers
fought in the Narrows against the
Persian fleet
where the Persians numerical superiority
mattered less since only a limited
number of ships could fight at one time
in the bottleneck created by the Narrows
furthermore the Greeks learned that they
could stand in the face of a numerically
superior enemy and the confidence the
Athenians gained from the Battle of
Artemisium went a long way towards their
victory at Salamis despite the good
showing of the Greek fleet at Artemisium
it only slowed the Persian advance
temporarily and if anything provoked the
wrath of Xerxes even more when the Greek
defense of Thermopylae failed they fell
back on their second defensive line
which spread across the Isthmus of
Corinth on land where the Peloponnesians
mainly Spartans constructed a wall the
other end was at the Salamis Strait the
Greeks yielded all land north of the
line essentially all of Attica to Xerxes
and the Persians any Greeks who were
unlucky enough to be caught north of the
defensive line suffered greatly under
the Persian army Herodotus explained
along the valley of the surfaces nothing
was spared dry --mess sharara Erica's
Tetro Neum and Fosse ax knee on Peddie's
try tease Ella taya who amplest para
pata my all these places were burnt to
the ground including Abbey where there
was a Temple of Apollo richly furnished
with treasure and offerings of all kinds
there was an Oracle there as indeed
there is today the shrine belonging to
it was plundered and bent a few phocians
were chased and court near the mountains
and some women were raped successively
by so many Persians that they died once
the Persian army reached pan appease it
divided into two dove
Xerxes led one division to Athens while
the other sacked the holy city of Delphi
and its temple when the Persians finally
arrived in Athens they found the city
largely deserted except for a small
force left to defend the Acropolis after
a successful siege Xerxes leveled the
final insult towards the Athenians by
ordering the destruction of the
acropolis and its temples Herodotus
wrote but in the end the Persians solved
their problem a way of access to the
Acropolis was found for it was
prophesied that all Athenian territory
upon the continent of Greece must be
overrun by the Persians there is a place
in front of the Acropolis behind the way
up to the gates where the ascent is so
steep that no God was set because it was
not thought possible that any man would
be able to climb it here by the shrine
of Sir crops daughter egg Loras some
soldiers managed to scramble up the
precipitous face of the cliff
having left not one of them alive they
stripped the temple of its treasures and
burnt everything on the Acropolis Xerxes
now absolute master of Athens dispatched
a rider to Susa with news for art a
bonus of his success as it turned out
the most crucial battle would take place
not on land but on water the Battle of
Salamis was fought in a narrow channel
much like the Battle of Artemisium that
separates the attic Peninsula from the
island of Salamis despite the name
Salamis being attributed to the island
in modern times there is some ambiguity
in the ancient sources as to whether the
reference must of the island or a town
the most detailed ancient source
concerning the physical description and
history of Salamis was written by the
1st century CE II Greek geographer pause
Aeneas who wrote Salamis lies over
against Eleusis and stretches as far as
the territory of Megara it is said that
the first to give this name to the
island was psyche Rios who called it
after his mother Salamis the daughter of
a sophist and afterwards it was
colonized by the edge and Eaton's with
Telamon filius the son of yarissa sees
the son of Ajax is said to have handed
the island over to the Athenians having
been made an Athenian by the
many years afterwards the Athenians
drove out all the salah' minions having
discovered that they had been guilty of
treachery in the war with Cassander
obviously since the battle was at sea
the exact positioning of the ships can
only be implied from the historical
sources but two other notable landmarks
from the Battle of Salamis can be
located on land
Xerxes watched the entire battle from a
throne on land which will be discussed
more thoroughly below mount a Julius so
modern scholars place his exact position
opposite the island of Salamis and above
the temple known as the erechtheum
which was the narrowest part of the
channel the island of pissed alia which
was the site of the limited land
fighting during the Battle of Salamis
lies at the mouth of the channel in
front of the town of Salamis perhaps one
of the most fascinating aspects of the
physical layout of the channel of
Salamis is how so many triremes were
able to fit into such a tightly confined
area the size of both fleets can be
deduced by the accounts of Herodotus and
Plutarch along with Aeschylus as drama
the Persians in fact Plutarch cites
Aeschylus as a source for the size of
the Persian fleet but he only gives the
number of attic Athenian ships in his
account which he placed at a hundred and
eighty Herodotus's account concurs as he
wrote that the Athenians numbered a
hundred and eighty triremes and
accounted for half of the Greek fleet
the passage where Aeschylus noted the
numbers of both fleets was a scene where
a Persian messenger related the disaster
of the battle to Xerxes mother a tosser
the scene states if number of ships
might gain the fight believe me Queen
the victory had been ours the Greeks
could tell but ten time thirty ships
with other ten of most select equipment
Xerxes numbered a thousand ships two
hundred sail and seven of rapid wing
beside based on all three of the ancient
accounts the modern historian ngl
Hammond placed the total number of
Persian vessels at fourteen hundred and
seven and the Greeks at three hundred
and eighty which included some Greek
defectors from the Persian fleet who
came over to join
countrymen after the Battle of
Artemisium despite the discrepancy in
numbers many major battles have been won
before the battle even started through
supreme planning and strategy and the
Battle of Salamis was no different in
this respect one of the most vital
aspects of any military strategy is
determining where and when the battle
will be fought if a commander is able to
pick the place and time to engage his
enemy then he already has two advantages
in his favor as the Persian fleet
advanced toward Salamis and the Persian
army neared the Greek wall across the
Isthmus of Corinth not all of the Greeks
especially the Spartans and other
Peloponnesians were convinced that
Salamis was an ideal location to engage
the Persians but Themistocles the wise
commander of the Athenians knew that
Greek victory depended on holding the
channel near Salamis once again he
relied on his excellent oratory skills
to convince his countrymen to make a
stand according to Herodotus
Themistocles said now for my plan it
will bring if you adopted the following
advantages first we shall be fighting in
narrow waters and there with our
inferior numbers we shall win provided
things go as we may reasonably expect
fighting in a confined space favors us
but the open sea favors the enemy
secondly Salamis where we have put our
women and children will be preserved and
thirdly for you the most important point
of all you will be fighting in defense
of the Peloponnese by remaining here
just as much as by withdrawing to the
Isthmus nor if you have the sense to
follow my advice will you draw the
Persian army to the Peloponnese if we
beat them at sea as I expect we shall
they will not advance to attack you on
the Isthmus or come any further than
Attica they will retreat in disorder and
we shall gain by the preservation of
megara Aegina and Salamis where an
oracle has already foretold our victory
not only is the mystical ease
intelligence and knowledge of military
strategy related in this passage but
also a deep understanding of the Greek
psyche after the Battle of Artemisium
Themistocles knew what his fleet was
capable of and what it needed to do to
win at Salamis fighting in a narrow
channel benefited the numerically
inferior Greek fleet as it prevented the
Persian fleet from maneuvering at Dieppe
loose and surrounding them the Athenian
general also appealed to the Greeks
emotional states by pointing out that
the Persian would not stop until they
were beaten and that the Oracle at
Delphi predicted their wooden wall of
ships would be the victors the Spartans
and other Peloponnesians appear to have
been placated by Themistocles speech but
the wily Athenian commander had one last
machination plan that would go a long
way to ward Greek victory at Salamis
Themistocles realized that if the Greek
army had no way to retreat they would
fight more fiercely as the two fleets
assembled and faced each other in the
Salamis channel Themistocles believed
that many of the men especially the
Peloponnesians might desert in order to
go back and defend their homes so to
prevent this Themistocles devised a plan
that utilized a combination of deception
and guile
he rotted has explained at this point
the mr. Cleese feeling that he would be
out voted by the Peloponnesians slipped
quietly away from the meeting and sent a
man over in a boat to the Persian fleet
with instructions upon what to say when
he got there the men sicilus was one of
Themistocles slaves and used to attend
upon his sons following his instructions
then sicilus made his way to the Persian
commanders and said I am the bearer of a
secret communication from the Athenian
commander who is a well-wisher to your
king and hopes for a Persian victory he
has told me to report to you that the
Greeks are afraid and are planning to
slip away only prevent them from
slipping through your fingers and you
have at this moment an opportunity of
unparalleled success they are a daggers
drawn with each other and will offer no
opposition on the contrary you will see
the pro Persians amongst them fighting
the rest in the cover of darkness
Themistocles had no way of knowing if
his plan worked until his fellow
athenian an occasional political rival
arista d's sailed quietly through the
purse
fleet from the allied Greek state of
Aegina despite the well-documented
conflicts between the two esteemed
Athenians Arista T's offer to put aside
all differences and defer to
Themistocles Plutarch wrote otha mr.
Clea's he said if we are wise we shall
at last they aside our vain and puerile
contention and begin a salutary and
honourable rivalry with one another in
emulous struggles to save Hellas thou as
commanding general I as assistant
councillor since at the very onset I
learned that thou art the only one who
has adopted the best policy urging as
thou dost to fight a decisive sea fight
here in the Narrows as soon as maybe
this was actually a crucial point for
the Greeks before the battle even began
because Arista T's who would prove to be
indispensable in the land battle joined
the Greek fleet and saw the virtue in
Themistocles trick which was successful
Herodotus recounted that not only was
the mystic his plan successful since the
Persian fleet encircled the Greeks he
was also so supremely confident that he
didn't care how the Greeks would react
if they found out he was behind it it
was I who was responsible for this move
of the enemy for as our men would not
fight here of their own free will it was
necessary to make them whether they
wanted to do so or not but take them the
good news yourself if I tell them they
will think I have invented it and will
not believe me please then go in and
make the report yourself if they believe
you well and good if they do not it's
all the same for if we are surrounded as
you say we are escaped is no longer
possible
Themistocles ploy proved to be effective
since it ensured the Greeks were forced
to fight to the last ship but he also
demonstrated his qualities as a
commander by choosing when the battle
commenced and the ancient sources agree
that when the Battle of Salamis took
place was almost as important as where
it was fought according to Plutarch
Themistocles chose a time that benefited
the sleek low to the water Greek
triremes Themistocles is thought to have
divined the best time for fighting with
Noli a success
then the best place in as much as he
took care not to send his triremes bow
on against the barbarian vessels until
the hour of the day had come which
always brought the breeze fresh from the
sea and a swell rolling through the
Strait this breeze wrought no harm to
the hellenic ships since they lay low in
the water and were rather small but for
the barbarian ships with their towering
stones and lofty decks and sluggish
movements in getting underway it was
fatal since it smoked them and slew them
round broadside to the hélène's at dawn
before combat began the leaders of both
armies took their places as mentioned
before Zook seas took a position of
relative safety on the shore where he
could observe the battle according to
Plutarch at breakup day Xerxes were
seated on a high place and overlooking
the disposition of his armament this
place was according to fair nonnamous
above the heracleum where only a narrow
passage separates the island from Attica
Xerxes stayed on his perch for the
entire battle never in danger which
stood in stark contrast to Themistocles
who took his place on a trireme amongst
his men and roused them with his
oratorical skills unfortunately only a
compact version of the speech survives
in Herodotus account and it is for the
most part paraphrased in the speech the
mr. cley's used standard Greek
rhetorical techniques to exhort his men
to demonstrate their better nature
against their enemies and despite the
fact little of Themistocles speech
remains it's easy to see how it fits
into the overall picture of Greek
victory at the Battle of Salamis
Themistocles an expert at strategy and
rhetoric used all of these available
skills to exhort the Greeks to fight
fearlessly against overwhelming odds and
though the speech may not have been a
decisive factor in the Greek victory at
the Battle of Salamis it was another
plank in the wooden wall that the Oracle
prophesized one of the most interesting
aspects of the Battle of Salamis at
least in terms of military maneuvers is
that no ancient source mentions a dick
close or an attempt at a dick close by
either Navy some modern historians
believe the
the Phoenician ships that were at the
rear ranks of the Persian fleet were
expected to prevent a Greek dick close
but one cannot say for sure
based on the silence of the ancient
sources the Greek fleet was drawn up in
a single line against the Salamis shore
and while a careful look at the sources
reveals that although the word dick
blows was never used to describe
maneuvers at Salamis
it was clearly on Themistocles mind it's
apparent that the Athenian commander
chose the narrow channel near Salamis
which were similar in topography to
Artemisium to prevent a Persian dig plus
it's possible that since the Greeks were
successful at preventing one the ancient
sources simply never describe one when
recounting the battle but either way the
narrows clearly prevented the Persian
fleet from performing the manoeuvre for
their part the Greeks did not have the
numbers to perform one The Thin Greek
line of triremes that faced the Persian
fleet consisted of ships from Aegina on
the right wing spartan ships in the
middle and the athenian fleet on the
left wing against the Phoenicians
as the Persian fleet moved forward to
attack the Greeks trumpets and war cries
erupted from the Greek line Aeschylus
wrote then the first trumpets voice
blazed oh the mane and on the salt sea
flood for with the oars with measured
plash descended and all their lines with
dextrous speed displayed stood with
opposing front the right wing first then
the whole fleet bore down and straight
up rose a might shut sons of the Greeks
advance your country free your children
free your wives the altars of your
native gods deliver and your ancestral
tombs halls now at stake the Persians
who were perhaps over anxious and over
aggressive due to their numerical
superiority move toward the Greek line
but the line held and even backroad in a
feigned retreat in order to face the
Persian ships with their rams the
Persian fleet was then at a serious
disadvantage
despite their numbers as their broad
sides were exposed to the deadly Greek
Rams this early engagement was written
about by both our auditors and Plutarch
but the details in their accounts
differ slightly Herodotus wrote the
whole fleet now got underway and in a
moment the Persians were on them the
Greeks checked their way and began to
back astern and they were on the point
of running aground when a meanness of
Pauline in command of an Athenian ship
drove ahead and rammed an enemy vessel
seeing the two ships foul of one another
and locked together the rest of the
Greek fleet hurry to a medias assistance
and the general action began Plutarch's
account of the early fighting at the
Battle of Salamis does not mention a
meanness but it appears to be more
revealing in terms of general strategy
and maneuvers Plutarch noted now the
first man to capture an enemy ship was
like comedies an Athenian captain who
cut off its figurehead and dedicated it
to Apollo the laurel bearer at FLIR then
the rest put on an equality in numbers
with their foes because the barbarians
had to attack them by detachments in the
narrow strait and so ran afoul of one
another
routed them though they resisted till
the evening drew on
although Plutarch's account is much more
concise in fact his total account of the
actual fighting is just this short
passage it is also more revealing in
terms of the successful strategies
employed by the Greeks again the narrow
straight channel between Attica and
Salamis played a crucial role in this
battle as it proved to mitigate the
Persians numerical superiority by
creating a bottleneck in the channel the
Greeks only had to fight the Persians as
they came at them a few at a time which
also prevented the Persians from
performing a dick plus maneuver it was
not long after the initial fighting
broke out that the battle moved into its
second crucial phase due to frustration
of not being able to encircle the Greek
fleet poor commanders or a combination
of both the Persian fleet quickly
demonstrated its lack of discipline and
broke its line once the Persian line
broke the Battle of Salamis was decided
as the only individual ships in the
Persian fleet that were a match for the
Greeks one-on-one were helmed by the
Phoenicians as the Persian line broke
and each ship was left to its own
devices the Greeks held strong and
picked their individual battle
wisely Herodotus explained the Persian
fleet suffered severely in the battle
the Athenians and the HN Eaton's
accounting for a great many of their
ships since the Greek fleet worked
together as a whole by the Persians had
lost formation and were no longer
fighting on any plan that was what was
bound to happen in ship-to-ship combat
the Persians were no match for the
Greeks who continued to use their rams
to sink their enemy ships in the few
instances where the method of boarding
and then fighting on the decks of ships
was used the Persians fared well because
they carried many arches and javelin men
and their ships were higher off the sea
but such instances were the exception at
Salamis throughout the day the Greeks
continued to decimate the Persians one
at a time using the ramming technique
but one commander in the Persian fleet
stood out for her use of guile and
intelligence since the Persians were so
severely defeated at Salamis none of
their commanders are remembered very
well except one Artemisia of
Halicarnassus Artemisia was the queen of
the city-state of Halicarnassus
ironically also the hometown of
Herodotus which was a part of the Curia
satrapy in the Achaemenid Empire by all
accounts Artemisia was a loyal subject
of the Persians and even volunteered to
lead a contingent from her city to
follow Zook seas in his campaign against
Greece in 480 BCE Artemisia also fought
against the mr. clays and the Greeks at
Artemisium which is where she got her
first taste of what the Persians were up
against but it was at Salamis with the
Queen became immortalized as fate would
have it Artemisia became famous for
participating in a battle that she had
advised the Persians against fighting
according to Herodotus she said tell the
King to spare his ships and not to do a
naval battle because our enemies are
much stronger than us in the sea as men
are to women and why does he need a
Driss can naval battle Athens for which
he did undertake this expedition is his
and the rest of Greece - no man can
stand against him and they who once
resisted were destroyed if Xerxes chose
not
rush into a naval encounter but instead
kept his ships close to the shore and
either stayed there or move them towards
the Peloponnese victory would be his the
Greeks can't hold out against him for
very long they will leave for their
cities because they don't have food in
store on this island as I have learned
and when our army will march against the
Peloponnese they who have come from
there will become worried and they will
not stay here to fight to defend Athens
but if he hurries to engage I am afraid
that the Navy will be defeated and the
land forces will be weakened as well in
addition he should also consider that he
has certain untrustworthy allies like
the Egyptians the Cypriots lickilicky
ins and the Pamphylia --nz
who are completely useless interestingly
she gained her fame at the Battle of
Salamis not through any excellent
maneuvers or strategies but because of
her cunning after the Greeks broke the
Persian line and applause everybody for
themselves Artemisia sprang into action
Herodotus explained I must however
mention Artemisia on account of an
exploit which still further increased
her reputation with Xerxes in this
awkward situation she hit on a plan
which turned out greatly to her
advantage with the Athenian clothes on
her tail she drove ahead with all
possible speed and rammed one of her
friends for the captain of the Athenian
trireme on seeing her Ram and enemy
naturally supposed that her ship was a
Greek one or else a deserter which was
fighting on the Greek side so he
abandoned the chaise and turned to
attack elsewhere as the Battle of
Salamis progressed and it became
apparent as eggsy's that his navy had
lost the great king tried one last-ditch
effort to win the day although he did
not participate directly in the Battle
of Salamis he watched the entire event
from his perch and the few Persian
commanders that fought well were duly
noted by Xerxes Herodotus wrote Xerxes
watched the course of the battle from
the base of mount edge Elias across the
Strait from Salamis whenever he saw one
of his officers behaving with
distinction he would find out his name
and his secretaries wrote it down
together with the city and
parentage indeed it was from his
mountain throne that he watched and was
so impressed by Artemisia that he told
one of his advisers my men have turned
into women my women into men while
watching with anger as the Greeks our
Nile ated his Navy Xerxes realized that
he still had one card left to play his
immense land army
if Xerxes could somehow land his army on
the island of Salamis where all of the
Athenian evacuees were located then he
could force the Athenians to terms but
he had few ships left to transport his
army after the Greek fleet routed them
so he planned to bridge the channel the
narrow channel which was an advantage
for the Greeks nearly turned into a
disadvantage when Xerxes sent men to
build a causeway across it Plutarch
explained after the sea fight Xerxes
still furious at his failure undertook
to carry Mol's out into the sea on which
he could lead his infantry across to
Salamis against the Hellenes damming up
the intervening Strait as clever as oak
sees planned to bridge the Strait of
Salamis was it never materialized as the
few ships he had left quickly fell
victim to Greek mop up efforts when it
became obvious that they were defeated
the remaining Persian ships tried to
sail for their original base at phalerum
on the attic Peninsula near the mouth of
the Salamis channel the ancient sources
revealed that few prisoners were taken
which suggests that among all the other
strategies that mr. Cleves planned he
told the Greeks to take no one alive
thus according to Herodotus this phase
of the battle was little more than a
massacre when the Persian rut began and
they were trying to get back to phalerum
the edge' neaten squadron which was
waiting to catch them in the Narrows did
memorable service the enemy was in
hopeless confusion such ships as offered
resistance or try to escape were cut to
pieces by the Athenians while the ijen
Eaton's caught those which attempted to
get clear so that any ship which escaped
the one enemy promptly fell amongst the
other Herodotus account of the massacre
of the Persian sailors by the Greeks can
be corroborated by Aeschylus the war
veteran and
just wrote about the carnage from the
perspective of a Persian meanwhile the
Greeks stroke after stroke dealt
dextrous all around till our ships
showed their keels and the blue sea was
seen no more with the multitude of ships
and corpses covered all the shores were
strewn and the rough rocks with dead
till in the end each ship in the Barbary
Coast that yet had oars in most
disordered flight rode off as men that
fish for tönnies so the Greeks with
broken booms and fragments of the wreck
struck our snared men and hacked them
this phase of the Battle of Salamis may
be the most difficult for people today
to comprehend since the killing of
prisoners of war is now deemed a war
crime and there is no doubt the mr.
Clea's was aware of and probably ordered
the killing of all captured and fleeing
Persians in fact this move may have been
well thought out by the Athenian
commander after all although most of the
women and children of Attica were safely
evacuated to Salamis the Athenians who
fought in the Battle of Salamis still
faced uncertainties when they returned
home would their homes and fields still
be intact with their sacred temples and
shrines still be there when they wanted
to give offerings these were unknown to
the Greeks when the battle commenced but
they could probably assume that the
Persians devastated Attica the massacre
also dealt with a logistical problem for
the Greeks who had nowhere and no way of
caring for hundreds if not thousands of
prisoners thus just like they did at the
Battle of Marathon
they simply killed any survivors while
the Greeks were destroying the last of
the Persian fleet the last phase of the
Battle of Salamis took place as the day
turned to night and Xerxes was trying to
bridge the channel between Salamis and
Attica Persian transports ferried 400 of
their elite soldiers to the island of
pistoleer
and although somewhat peripheral to the
eventual outcome of the Battle of
Salamis the island of pistoleer was
important to both the Persians and
Greeks and may have played a bigger role
in the overall battle if the Persians
would have been able to hold it
pistoleer is at the mouth of the channel
of Salamis which meant that if the
Persians could have held the island the
may have been able to cross to Salamis
and perhaps draw the Greeks onto land
where they would not have been so
outclassed at the same time the island
was important of the Greeks for
spiritual reasons as the Athenians
believed it to be the sacred abode of
the god Pan the religious significance
of the island should not be
underestimated either especially in the
wake of the Persian destruction of so
many Greek temples previously after all
the Greeks had extra incentive to
prevent them from defiling any more
sacred spaces according to Plutarch
Arista T's was the first Greek to notice
Persians on pistoleer while the captains
of the Hellenes were acting on this plan
Arista Dee's noticed a pistoleer a small
island lying in the Straits in front of
Salamis was full of the enemy he
therefore embarked in small boats the
most ardent and the most warlike of the
citizens made a landing on pistoleer
joined battle with the barbarians and
slew them all save the few conspicuous
men who were taken alive among these
were the three sons of the King's sister
sonda see whom he straightaway sent to
Themistocles and it is said that in
obedience to some Oracle or other and at
the bidding of you Franta teased the
seer they were sacrificed to Dionysus
carnivorous then Arista T's lined the
islet all round with his hoplites and
lay in wait for any who should be cast
up there that no friend might perish and
no foe escaped with the fighting done
Herodotus wrote that there were not many
Greek casualties but he provided no
numbers he also wrote that the few
Persians who survived the massacre
drowned because they did not know how to
swim among the multitude of Persians
killed at the Battle of Salamis was area
Benji's the son of Darius the first and
brother of Xerxes meanwhile having been
massacred on both sea and land at
Salamis Xerxes and the Persian fleet
quickly sailed back to Asia but even
still the employer had not abandoned his
hopes for a conquest of Greece because
the best of his army under Mardonius
still remained in the field however the
following year in the summer of 479 BCE
the
Persians faced a force of between 40,000
and 100,000 Greek infantry near The Vow
Asian city of Plataea at the battle the
Greeks completely annihilated Mardonius
force of between 100,000 and 300,000 men
and Mardonius himself was killed around
the same time what remained of the
Persian fleet was destroyed off my Kayle
the Persian invasion was over at no
Persian army would ever set foot on
greek soil again the victory at Salamis
was obviously a proud moment for the
greeks especially the athenians but the
real rewards for athens came in the
succeeding years as the city became the
preeminent force in the Greek world
before the Persian Wars Athens had no
great traditions of philosophy art
science or historical writing that after
the Battle of Salamis
their culture began to flourish into
what most moderns regard as the Golden
Age of Athens this opinion is not just
confined to modern scholars Plutarch
also believed that it was the mystic
lees and his Navy that brought Athens to
greatness
he claimed but the mr. Cleese did not as
Aristophanes the comic poet says need
the Piraeus on to the city nay he
fastened the city of the Piraeus and the
land to the sea and so it was that he
increased the privileges of the common
people as against the nobles and filled
him with boldness since the controlling
power came now into the hands of
skippers and boats winds and pilots so
it was that the mr. Cleese and the
Battle of Salamis transformed Athens
previously a sleepy city-state that had
just awoken from the nightmare of
tyranny and was transitioning into early
democracy ëthe inseparably became the
world's center of learning and culture
on the other hand after the Battle of
Salamis persia would begin its long
decline
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