The Persian Wars

• Wars between Greeks and Persians in 5th century BC

• Roughly from 492 – 448 BC• Two main invasions of Greece by

Achaemenid kings of Persia• Herodotus – primary historian

Map pf Persian Empire

Battle of Marathon

• Ionian revolt and other battles• 490 BC - Darius I “The Great” sent about

25,000 men to plains of Marathon• Darius preceded by Cyrus the Great and

Cambyses• 10,000 Athenians and Plataeans under

Callinachus and Miltiades• First victory for Greeks

Battle at Thermopylae

• 480 BC• Xerxes – King of Persia, son of Darius I• 70,000 Persians bridged the Hellespont• 10,000 “Immortals”• Themistocles led navy at Athens• Athens and Sparta form alliance• Decide to defend at Thermopylae• Leonidas I and 300 Spartans and 1000 Boetians

Map of Thermopylae invasion

Battle of Salamis, also 480 BC

• Athens evacuated after Thermopylae• Athens burned• Navy waiting around island Salamis• Themistocles’ ruse• Confined waters around Salamis• Egyptians, Phoenecians, Ionian Greeks• 40 Greek ships lost, 200 Persian ships lost• Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus

Map of Battle of Salamis

Battle of Plataea, 479 BC

• Xerxes I had left a land army under Mardonius • Spartans and Athenians rode up • Met at isthmus of Corinth• Mardonius fled

The Delian League, 478 BC

• Ionian city-states joined for mutual protection• Treasuary on island of Delos, Aristides leads

Athens• Athens in charge due to naval supremacy• Pericles leads Athens during Golden Age• Parthenon, Long Walls built• Sparta captures Athens in 404 BC

Peloponnesian Wars

• Begins in 431 BC between Athens and Sparta• 429 BC – Pericles dies of plague• Three stage war• Most of Delian League sided with Sparta• 404 BC – Sparta wins war with defeat of

Athenian navy at Aegospotami by Lysander with help from Persia

• Lysander installs 30 rulers at Athens, later known as the “30 Tyrants”

The Thirty Tyrants

• Spartan hegemony• Long Walls destroyed• Athenian oligarchy appointed by Sparta led by

Critias• Leading democrats exiled• Council of 500 were the judiciary• Only 3000 Athenian had citizenship• Many sentenced to hemlock

End of Thirty Tyrants

• Other city-states helped exiled democrats• Retook Piraeus by force• Sparta did not come to help• Democracy restored in 403 BC

Rise of Macedonia

• Philip II