Text 5: Greek Wars With Lesson 2: The Greek City-States ...€¦ · Text 5: Greek Wars With Persia...
Transcript of Text 5: Greek Wars With Lesson 2: The Greek City-States ...€¦ · Text 5: Greek Wars With Persia...
Text 5: Greek Wars With
Persia
Topic 5: Ancient GreeceLesson 2: The Greek City-States
Greek City-States Join Together
In 500 B.C.E. the Greek world was small
The rival city-states and a growing number of Greek colonies scattered around the Mediterranean
The Greeks were often bitterly divided
Athens, the wealthiest Greek city-state, had rivals
More powerful than any Greek city-state was the huge Persian empire, that lay to the east, just across the Aegean Sea
When the Persians threatened them, the Greeks briefly put aside their differences to defend their freedom
The Persians had conquered a huge empire from Asia Minor to the border of India
Their subjects included the Greek city-states of Ionia in Asia Minor
Though under Persian rule, these Ionian city-states were largely self-governing
Still, they resented their situation
In 499 B.C.E. Ionian Greeks rebelled
Athens sent ships to help them
As the historian Herodotus wrote some years later, “These ships were the beginning of mischief both to the Greeks and to the barbarians”
They triggered the Persian Wars, a series of wars that lasted on and off for half a century
Athens Wins at Marathon
The Persians crushed the rebel cities in Ionia
Emperor Darius I was furious at Athens
Darius sent a huge force across the Aegean to punish Athens for its interference
The mighty Persian army landed near Marathon, a plain north of Athens, in 490 B.C.E.
The Persians greatly outnumbered Athenian forces
The invaders were amazed to see “a mere handful of men coming on at a run without either horsemen or archers.”
The Persians responded with a rain of arrows, but the Greeks rushed onward
They broke through the Persian line and engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat
Overwhelmed, the Persians hastily retreated to their ships
The Athenian leader, Themistocles, knew the victory at Marathon had bought only a temporary lull in the fighting- urged Athens to build a fleet of ships for an army
Joint Effort
In 480 B.C.E. Darius's son Xerxes sent a much larger force to conquer Greece
Athens had persuaded Sparta and other city-states to join in the fight against Persia
Once again, the Persians landed in northern Greece
A small Spartan force guarded the narrow mountain pass at Thermopylae
Led by their great warrior-king Leonidas, the Spartans held out heroically against the enormous Persian force but were defeated in the end
The Persians marched south and burned Athens which was empty
The Athenians had already withdrawn to safety, using the ships Themistocles had urged them to build
The Athenians lured the Persian fleet into the narrow strait of Salamis where Athenian warships rammed, burned, and sank the Persian fleet
From the shore, Xerxes watched helplessly
The next year, the Greeks defeated the Persians on land in Asia Minor
This victory marked the end of the Persian invasions
In a brief moment of unity, the Greek city-states had saved themselves from the Persian threat
The Delian League
Victory in the Persian Wars increased the Greek sense of their own uniqueness
The gods, they felt, had protected their superior form of government—the city-state—against invaders from Asia
Athens emerged from the war as the most powerful city-state in Greece
To meet continued threats from Persia, it organized with other Greek city-states an alliance
Modern scholars call this alliance the Delian League after Delos, the location where the league held meetings
Athens dominated the Delian League used its position of leadership to create an Athenian empire
It moved the league treasury from the island of Delos to Athens and forced reluctant allies to remain in the league against their will
It even used money contributed by other city-states to rebuild Athens
Yet, while Athens was enforcing its will abroad, Athenian leaders were championing political freedom at home