The period of the Greco-Persian wars. War of ancient Greece with Persia
The wars began with the uprising of the Ionians under Persian rule. Greek cities(on the western coast of Asia Minor) in 499 BC. Sparta refused the Ionians' call for help, but the Athenians, who feared that their former tyrant Hippias (he was then in Asia Minor and had plans to return) would not receive support from the Persians, decided to intervene and sent 20 ships. Together with the Eretrians from the island of Euboea neighboring Attica, the Athenians helped the rebels capture and burn the capital of the Persian satrapy of Sardis in 498 BC, but this detachment was soon withdrawn, and by 494 BC. the uprising was suppressed (however, the rebels managed to achieve some concessions).
In response, in 492 BC. Darius I, king of the powerful Persian Empire, sent his son-in-law Mardonius at the head of an army and fleet across the Hellespont (modern Dardanelles) to Greece. At the foot of Mount Athos (the Akta peninsula, protruding into the Aegean Sea from the north), the fleet was wrecked, and the ground army was forced to return.
Intending to punish Athens and Eretria for the burning of Sardis, in 490 BC. Darius sent a new fleet to the Aegean Sea under the command of Datis and Artaphernes, who were accompanied by Hippias.
Marathon.
First, the Persians sailed to Eretria and, after a six-day siege, captured the city. Meanwhile, the Athenians sent the walker Pheidippides to Sparta with a request for help, but the Spartans replied that due to a religious festival they would not be able to set out until the full moon. Then 10 thousand heavily armed Athenian infantry, to whose aid only 1000 Plataeans came, occupied a narrow valley overlooking the Marathon plain not far from the coast, where the Persian fleet was expected to stop on the way to Athens.
Athenian strategists chose Miltiades as commander-in-chief because he was familiar with the military tactics of the Persians, who expelled him in 493 BC. from Thrace. Now Miltiades waited, remaining in place, while the Persian infantry and cavalry (about 30 thousand people) landed on the shore. The Persians were protected by thin armor and were armed with bows and short swords. When the enemy's arrows began to hit the Greeks, Miltiades ordered them to attack - running, so as to remain as little as possible under the hail of arrows. The Persians, not ready for hand-to-hand combat, retreated to their ships, suffering heavy losses (about 6,400 people killed), 192 people were killed among the Athenians and Plataeans. An attempt to attack Athens by surprise from the harbor of Phalera ended in failure, and the Persians returned to Asia. The Athenians built a high mound in honor of the dead, which is still visible on the battlefield of Marathon. They then, following the advice of the prominent Athenian politician Themistocles, began building a fleet. Themistocles counted on the fact that Greece was too small to feed the army of the conquerors, and therefore, if the fleet providing communications was destroyed, the enemy army would have to leave.
Thermopylae and Salamis.
When Darius died, his son and successor Xerxes was unable to set out immediately due to the rebellion in Egypt, but the Persians began preparing a new invasion. Since they had to move again through the northern part of the Aegean Sea, food warehouses were built in Thrace, a canal was dug across the isthmus near Mount Athos, and a floating bridge was built across the Hellespont (the crossing point from Asia to Europe); finally, a land army of approximately 100 thousand people and a fleet of 1000 ships were assembled.
This time Athens and Sparta performed together. Their strategy was to hold the Persian army in the north until both fleets met in battle. Therefore, the Spartan king Leonidas with 6,000 Greeks occupied the mountain pass of Thermopylae, while Themistocles, at the head of an allied fleet of about 300 ships, awaited the Persians at Cape Artemisium, northern tip Euboea.
Summer 480 BC Xerxes invaded Thessaly with his huge army. His warriors died by the thousands at Thermopylae, a narrow pass between the mountain range and the sea, until a Greek traitor showed them a secret path through the mountains. When Leonidas learned that the Persians were about to attack him from the rear, he released most of his Greek allies and fought until his death at the head of 300 Spartans and several hundred Thespians.
Meanwhile, a storm forced Themistocles to leave Artemisium. The Persians entered Athens and burned the city. However, two months earlier, most of the Athenians had been evacuated to Troezen in the Peloponnese. Themistocles and the Spartan commander Eurybiades stationed a fleet in the bay of the island of Salamis, neighboring Athens. By cunning, as if avoiding battle, they lured the Persians into a narrow strait, where they destroyed the Persian fleet.
Final victory for the Greeks.
Xerxes had to retire to Asia, but he left an army of 80 thousand people in central Greece. The next year (at the end of August 479 BC), these forces, with Mardonius at their head, were destroyed at Plataea in southern Boeotia by a united Greek army of 40 thousand people, commanded by the Spartan commander Pausanias. According to legend, on the same day the allied Greek fleet defeated the Persians at Mycale, a cape on the coast of Asia Minor, and the remnants of the Persian troops were defeated there on land. As a result, over the next two decades, most of the Greek population of Asia Minor was liberated from Persian rule.
1. Reasons for the Greco-Persian warriors. Their periodization. The formation of Greek city-states, accompanied by violent socio-political upheavals, was completed by the end of the 6th century. BC e. The internal situation in Balkan Greece stabilized, economic life in numerous cities was revived, the political position of the middle layers of citizenship was strengthened, and conditions were created for the development of culture.
However, at the end of the 6th century. Don. e. Greek city-states began to be threatened by the neighboring powerful Achaemenid power. The huge Persian monarchy recovered from serious upheavals and internecine wars that broke out after the death of Cambyses. Through a series of economic and military-administrative reforms, Darius I managed to strengthen the internal and external position of the Persian Empire, which became at the end of the 6th century. BC e. into a world power.
Having captured the Greek cities of Asia Minor and the islands of the eastern Aegean Sea, the Persian ruling elite began to develop plans to conquer the policies of Balkan Greece. For world power Having a colossal military-economic potential for that time, unlimited financial resources, a huge trained army, the conquest of small, and also warring, Greek city-states seemed an easy task and at the same time a tempting goal. The Greek city-states were developed trade and craft cities, fairly populated, with high culture and therefore could bring the Persian treasury and ruling elite various benefits. In addition, the capture of Balkan Greece was important from a strategic point of view, since it gave the entire Eastern Mediterranean into the hands of the great king.
The Persians posed a threat to the Balkan city states, their very existence, their outlined path of development as city-state organisms with an intensive economy, an active political life of citizens, and a unique style of life and culture.
So, the aggression of the Persian power, fueled by the apparent weakness of the victim, on the one hand, and the natural need to protect the very foundations of their existence on the part of the Greeks - these are the most profound reasons for the Greco-Persian wars that shook the Eastern Mediterranean in the first half of the 5th century. BC e. and had a huge impact on the development of Greek society and its culture.
That is why the imminent war of the Greek city-states with the Persian power was considered not as an ordinary military clash, but as a struggle between two worlds. During the Greco-Persian wars, the fate of the Greek city-states was decided. This predetermined the severity of military clashes, led to the mobilization of all military-economic resources, and all social and political institutions of the warring parties were subjected to severe testing on the battlefields.
The war between the Greeks and Persia dates back to 500-449. BC e., i.e. this is one of the longest military clashes in world history. Usually in scientific literature it is customary to call the struggle of the Greeks with the Persian power Greco-Persian
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wars because military operations were not carried out continuously, but the order of military campaigns, more or less long, disintegrated. There are five such military campaigns:
1. 500-494 BC BC - the uprising of Miletus and the Greek cities of Asia Minor against the Persian yoke.
2. 492-490 BC BC - the first invasion of Persian troops into the territory of Balkan Greece.
3. 480-479 BC BC - Xerxes' campaign against Greece - the culmination of the Greco-Persian wars.
4. 478-459 BC e. - change in character hostilities, the transfer of strategic initiative to the Greeks, the liberation of the Greek cities of the islands of the Aegean Sea and Asia Minor from the Persians. Strengthening Athenian military power.
5. 459-449 BC BC - military expedition of Athens and its allies to Egypt and the end of the Greco-Persian wars.
2. The uprising of Miletus and the Greek cities of Asia Minor. The Greek cities of Asia Minor were captured by the Persian king Cyrus back in the 40-30s of the 6th century. BC e., and at first the Persians adhered to a relatively soft policy towards the Greeks, did not burden them with taxes, interfered little in internal life, and encouraged their trade with the cities of Asia Minor and other areas of the vast Persian state. However, under Darius there was a tightening of Persian policy towards Greek cities. The desire to centralize control led to constant interference in the internal affairs of the Greeks; in many cities, power was transferred to Persian henchmen - tyrants subordinate to the satrap of Asia Minor. Cities were subject to taxes and duties. Darius I provided clear preference Phoenician traders, which caused serious damage to the interests of the Greeks. In the Greek cities of Asia Minor, dissatisfaction with Persian domination accumulated, which was further fueled by the plans of the Persian elite to conquer the Balkan city-states.
Miletus, the largest Greek city in Asia Minor, was the first to rebel against the Persians. In 500 BC. e. the Persian protege Aristagoras, relying on increased anti-Persian sentiments, considered it possible to lead the patriotic forces. He abdicated the power of the tyrant, restored the functioning of the city's institutions and called on the inhabitants of Miletus to an armed uprising against the Persians. Other Ionian cities followed the example of Miletus, expelling the royal proteges - the tyrants - and the Persian garrisons where they were. The rebel cities entered into an alliance to conduct a joint fight against the Persians. Messengers were sent to all cities of Asia Minor with an offer to join the uprising. This call was supported by all the cities of Asia Minor from Byzantium and Chalcedon to Pamphylia and Cyprus. Aristagoras, who at first found himself at the head of the uprising, went to Balkan Greece for help. However, here his mission turned out to be practically fruitless: Sparta refused to help, and only Athens sent a small squadron of 20 warships (five ships were sent by the city of Eretria).
The rebel cities created a unified command. Militia of the rebel cities in the summer of 498 BC. e. attacked Sardis, the residence of the satrap of Asia Minor, destroyed the city, although he could not take the Acropolis, where the satrap Artaphrenes took refuge with a garrison. The following year, the allied Greek fleet defeated the Phoenician squadron near Cyprus. The uprising grew and began to pose a serious threat to Persian rule throughout Asia Minor. Darius understood the danger of the situation and took the most decisive measures. Dozens were transferred to Asia Minor
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additional military contingents, which, together with the garrisons existing in Asia Minor, were united into two large armies, which began to fight the rebel cities on the extreme flanks of the uprising. First, the Greek cities of Cyprus and the southern part of Asia Minor were brought into submission, then the rebel states in the Black Sea straits (Byzantium, Chalcedon, Abydos, Lampsacus, etc.). The ring around the center of the Greek uprising of Ionia and Miletus gradually tightened. The union of the rebels, itself quite loose organizationally, began to disintegrate. The Persians did not spare gold and generous promises for those who would leave the ranks of the rebels, and their “agitation” had a certain success. The Persians managed to inflict a painful defeat on the Greeks near the city of Ephesus. By 495 BC. e. The Persians assembled a huge fleet of Phoenician ships (there were about 600 of them) and inflicted a severe defeat on the allied fleet, assembled to protect Miletus, at the island of Lada. The center of the uprising, Miletus, was besieged by the Persians, and after almost a year-long siege it was taken in 494 BC. e. and brutally destroyed, the inhabitants were killed or sold into slavery. Soon all the other rebel Greek cities were brought into submission.
The uprising was doomed to failure from the very beginning, since the military-economic potential of two dozen cities and the world power was disproportionate, and there was no help from the Balkan states. However, suppressing the uprising required a lot of effort and time from Darius. For almost six years, the Greeks waged an unequal struggle with the Persians, inflicting painful blows on them.
3. The first Persian invasions of Balkan Greece (492-490 BC). After the suppression of the uprising of the cities of Asia Minor, Darius I considered the moment favorable for the implementation of his long-standing strategic plans to conquer the policies of Balkan Greece. He had a significant army, which had just won a victory over the rebel Greeks, had the strategic initiative, and had such a “legitimate” pretext for the invasion as the punishment of Athens and Eretria, which helped the Ionians. On the contrary, fear and confusion reigned in the Balkan states.
A strong expeditionary force of about 30 thousand people and a large fleet of about 600 ships were formed in Asia Minor. The king's son-in-law, a talented military leader and diplomat, Mardonius, was placed at the head of this army. The goal of Mardonius's campaign was the conquest of Greek cities in the straits and on the northern coast of the Aegean Sea, the subjugation of the Thracian tribes, Macedonia and, if the situation turned out to be favorable, the invasion of the territory of Greece itself and the capture of Athens. Mardonius also sought to strengthen his rear, in particular to prevent the possibility of a new uprising in Asia Minor. By his order, the tyrants who had compromised themselves in the eyes of the population were deposed, and policing authorities were restored in the cities.
In 492 BC. e. Mardonius sent his army across the Hellespont (modern Dardanelles), which began to capture the northern coast of the Aegean Sea. The fleet with supplies, equipment and food accompanied the ground army. The Persians managed to subjugate the coastal Greek cities, the southern Thracian tribes, the island of Thasos, and the Macedonian king Alexander also expressed his submission. However, near Cape Athos, the Persian fleet was caught in a storm and was destroyed on the coastal cliffs. According to Herodotus, 300 ships and about 20 thousand people perished.
Having suffered such losses, Mardonius was forced to withdraw the remnants of his army to Asia Minor. Despite the failure of the campaign of 492 BC. e. in general, for which Mardonius was removed from command, the Persians succeeded
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to gain a foothold in the northern part of the Aegean and create a springboard for the future.
The failure of the first campaign did not change Darius’s plans, and he again began to prepare for the invasion of Greece. A new selected army of up to 20 thousand people and a large fleet were formed. It was headed by the experienced military leader Datis and the king’s nephew Artaphrens. Their advisor was the former tyrant Hippias, expelled from Athens, who knew local conditions well and had his supporters in Athens. The Persians took into account the complexity of the roundabout movement around the northern coast of the Aegean Sea and made a bold, albeit risky decision - to transport the army by ship directly from Asia Minor to Attica and immediately defeat Athens. This decision was risky, since it was very dangerous to transport large masses of infantry and especially cavalry on small-capacity and slow-moving ships. Overloaded ships could easily become prey to even light sea waves and attacks by enemy ships.
Military preparations were preceded by diplomatic preparations. In 491 BC. e. Persian ambassadors were sent to all policies of Balkan Greece demanding complete submission (the demand for “land and water”) or at least neutrality in future war. Many Greek city states of the islands (for example, the islands of Aegina), Thessaly, Boeotia submitted to this demand, Argos declared its neutrality, but the most powerful Greek states, Sparta and Athens, categorically rejected the demands. The Spartans threw the ambassadors into a well, offering to take “earth and water” there themselves, and the Athenians overthrew the ambassadors from a cliff. The killing of the ambassadors made it impossible to conduct any negotiations. The Greeks were preparing for war.
After waiting for calm weather, Datis and Artaphrenes, using extreme caution, transported their army to the island of Euboea, where they captured and destroyed Eretria, and enslaved its inhabitants. After the conquest of Euboea, the Persians landed in the northeastern part of Attica - near the town of Marathon, located 42 km from Athens.
In all likelihood, the plan of military action against Athens was drawn up on the advice of Hippias. On the wide Marathon plain, the Persians could calmly and comfortably position their army and use excellent cavalry. Having a well-fortified camp, the Persians could easily devastate all of Attica. From Marathon it was possible to attack Athens by land, and a large Persian fleet could round Cape Sunium and attack Athens by sea. It was precisely this combined attack of the fleet from the sea and the land army from the depths that brought the Persians success in the capture of Miletus in 494 BC. e.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that Hippias had his supporters in Athens itself, who campaigned in favor of the Persians. In addition, there was no agreement among the Athenian command regarding the plan for conducting military operations. Some strategists adhered to a wait-and-see passive tactic and proposed limiting themselves to the defense of Athens. To top it all off, the Athenians were denied immediate assistance by Sparta, since a religious festival was taking place there on those days.
In these extreme circumstances, the talented commander Miltiades came to the fore. At the end of the 6th century. BC e. he was the ruler of Chersonese of Thracia, often clashed with the Persians and knew well the features of the Persian military organization, its strengths and weaknesses. In 490 BC. e. Miltiades was one of the strategists and proposed a plan for conducting military operations that ultimately led the Athenians to victory. Miltiades wanted to get ahead of the Persians and impose his rule on them.
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offensive tactics. He convinced his fellow strategists not to sit out in weakly fortified Athens, but to lead the entire army to Marathon and fight a decisive battle there. September 12, 490 BC e. The famous Battle of Marathon took place, which went down in the history of ancient military art.
Two collided on the Marathon Plain various systems military organization: the ancient Greek phalanx, consisting of a formation of heavily armed hoplite infantry, and the loose formation of the Persians. The best in the Persian army were the renowned cavalry and skilled archers.
Using the features of the terrain, Miltiades built a phalanx (11 thousand people in total) not as was usually done among the Greeks, 1000-1200 soldiers along the front and 8 ranks deep, but stretched it by reducing the density of the ranks in the center so that so that the flanks rested on the neighboring hills, which protected the Greeks from encirclement and attack by the Persian cavalry. To give greater maneuverability, the phalanx was divided into three parts: the left flank, the center and the right flank, which could act independently.
In order to neutralize the actions of the Persian riflemen, the Greeks ran the last 100 m before approaching the enemy. The battle developed according to the plan proposed by the commander: the Persian cavalry could not bypass the Greek flanks and practically took little part in the battle. During the battle, the Persians managed to push back the weakened center of the Athenians, but on the flanks the Greeks, having overthrown the Persians, turned around and hit the center. The victory was complete, over 6,000 enemy soldiers remained on the battlefield, and the Athenians lost 192 hoplites.
Immediately after the battle, a speedboat was sent to the city of Athens with the joyful news of the long-awaited victory. He ran to the agora and shouted “Victory!” fell to the ground dead. In memory of this episode on Olympic Games The marathon distance was set at 42 km 192 m - the distance from the battle site to the Athenian agora.
Taking advantage of the presence of the entire Athenian army far from Athens, the Persians made an attempt to capture the unarmed city from the sea, transporting soldiers on ships, but Miltiades foresaw this move. Immediately after the victory at Marathon, the Athenian army returned to Athens by forced march before the Persian fleet arrived there. The Persian squadron stood in the roadstead for some time and, realizing the futility of the siege, went to the shores of Asia Minor. Thus, this Persian attack on Balkan Greece also ended in complete failure.
The Athenian victory at Marathon had enormous moral and political significance. It showed the superiority of the Greek military organization and the strength of small Greek city-states. The famous Persian army, which also had an almost double superiority in strength, was completely defeated by the civilian militia. It became clear to the Persian king that the conquest of Hellas would require the mobilization of enormous funds and great effort from all the forces of the Persian state.
4. Campaign of Xerxes. Darius I, realizing that his military-political prestige had been damaged swipe, with redoubled energy began preparations for a new invasion of Greece. However, his death in 486 BC. e., and then the uprisings that broke out in Babylonia and Egypt prevented the new king, the son of Darius, Xerxes from completing these preparations. But, having restored relative calm in his vast power by 483 BC. e., Xerxes energetically began direct military and diplomatic preparations for a decisive campaign against Greece. From all over the empire, military contingents were drawn to Asia Minor, a fleet was built, equipment, food and supplies were prepared. Since transportation
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For a huge army, the direct route through the Aegean Sea was impossible, they approved the “Mardonius route” - a longer but reliable detour along the northern coast of the Aegean Sea. Here, on lands conquered by Mardonius, including Macedonia, which recognized the Persian protectorate, warehouses were built to supply the great army. To protect yourself from the accidents of sailing along Cape Athos, replete with whirlpools and reefs (it was here that a large Persian fleet was lost in 492 BC), a 2-kilometer canal was dug at the base of the Akte Peninsula for the passage of ships.
Careful diplomatic preparations for the campaign were carried out. Sparing no gold for bribery, the Ners gained support from a number of aristocratic policies of Thessaly and Boeotia. Argos declared its neutrality, which was beneficial to the Persians. To prevent possible assistance from the policies of Magna Graecia, Xerxes agreed with Carthage to intensify military operations in Sicily, which shackled the forces of the Western Greeks.
By 481 BC. e. preparations were completed, a huge Persian army numbering at least 150-200 thousand people (Herodotus, greatly exaggerating the strength of the Persians, calls a fantastic figure of 5.28 million people), a powerful fleet of 1200 ships different classes were ready for the invasion. Giving special meaning campaign, this largest army of antiquity was led by the king of kings, Xerxes himself. A terrible, deadly threat hung over Hellas.
In Greece, too, they were preparing for war, seeking the military-political unity of numerous and often warring policies and consolidation within the policies themselves, on the one hand, and the expulsion of pro-Persian elements and various opposition forces, on the other. Naturally, the military power of each city was increased, and various plans were developed to repel Persian aggression.
By 481 BC. e. in Balkan Greece, it was possible to stop civil strife and at the congress in Corinth a military alliance was concluded between 31 policies of Greece. The armed forces and navy were united, fielded in maximum numbers, and the Spartan kings were placed at the head of the united army and navy as the most experienced military leaders.
The political life of Athens at that time is best reflected in the sources. Athens was an irreconcilable enemy of the Persians, and the Persian kings were preparing for the invasion of Hellas under the pretext of taking the place of Athens. After the Marathon victory, the Athenians took decisive measures to combat pro-Persian elements, primarily supporters of the exiled tyrant Hippias, the Persians' closest adviser at the Battle of Marathon. Using the procedure of ostracism introduced by Cleisthenes, the Athenians expelled the most influential supporters of the Peisistratids (Hipparchus, son of Charmus, and Megacles, son of Hippocrates). On the issues of strengthening the military power of Athens, a struggle broke out in the People's Assembly between supporters of a political group led by Themistocles and another led by Aristides, a participant in the marathon battle. Themistocles called for strengthening the maritime power of Athens. He put forward a program for the construction of a strong navy consisting of 200 of the fastest ships - triremes, expansion of the Athenian harbor, construction of port buildings and constant training of ship crews. The implementation of Themistocles' naval program presupposed offensive actions and an active foreign policy of the Athenian state. To implement this program, it was planned to use income from the Lavria silver mines,
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increasing them through more active exploitation of mines. Themistocles' program had not only a military, but also a political aspect. Its implementation raised the political role of the lower strata of Athenian citizenship, representatives of the fourth property division according to Solon's class division - the fetes. The fetas did not have the means to purchase expensive hoplite equipment and could serve mainly in the navy. That is why Themistocles' program met with objections from the wealthy sections of Athenian landowners, whose interests were represented by Aristides. He sought to strengthen the hoplite army, build defensive fortifications around Athens and pursue a more passive foreign policy.
By the end of the 80s of the 5th century. BC e. Themistocles' group was victorious, his political opponent Aristides was ostracized, and Themistocles' naval program began to be vigorously implemented. Its successful implementation was facilitated by such a democratic reform of the Athenian political system as the introduction of lots in the selection of senior officials in Athens - the archons. If previously they were elected by open voting, the results of which the aristocracy could influence through dependent persons by bribery and other means, then after 487 BC. e. 500 candidates were elected from all 10 territorial philes, from whom nine highest magistrates-archons were selected by blind lot. However, striving to unite forces on the eve of the Persian invasion, the Athenians allowed all those ostracized to return to the city, including Aristides, who, forgetting past feuds, along with Themistocles, took an active part in the hostilities that soon unfolded.
The large Athenian fleet, consisting of the best ships of the time, controlled by trained crews, successfully complemented the magnificent Spartan heavily armed infantry. Together with the militias and ships of other allied policies, Hellas had impressive forces to repel the Persian invasion.
In early spring 480 BC e. Xerxes' great campaign against Hellas began. The Persians crossed over two pontoon bridges across the Hellespont Strait, and the crossing was not without a curiosity: a strong current and wave destroyed one pontoon bridge. The angry Xerxes, as a typical eastern despot, who considers himself the ruler of not only people, but also the elements, ordered the waters of the Hellespont to be punished with scourges; to pacify him, shackles were thrown into the water. The bridge builders were beheaded. We had to build a new bridge.
Following a pre-prepared route, the Persians safely passed the entire Thracian coast and Macedonia. The Greeks initially intended to hold the defense at the narrow entrance to the Tempean Valley (Northern Thessaly) and even sent a 10,000-strong detachment there, but, fearing betrayal by the Thessalian aristocracy sympathetic to the Persians, they abandoned their defensive positions and retreated.
The narrow Thermopylae Gorge, along which the only road from Thessaly to Central Greece passed, was chosen as a new defensive line. Defensive structures were built here - a wall, towers (their remains were discovered by archaeologists). A combined detachment of 7.2 thousand hoplites headed here, including 300 Spartans led by their king Leonidas. At the same time, a strong Greek fleet of 270 triremes took up positions near the northern tip of the island of Euboea at Cape Artemisium. The defense of Thermopylae and the battle of Artemisium pursued limited goals: to test the combat readiness of the Persians, on the one hand, and on the other, to unite the alliance in a joint battle
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Greek cities and arouse hatred against the invaders. While there could be no talk of a decisive battle both on land and at sea - the forces of the Greeks were too insignificant compared to the army of Xerxes. The set goals were achieved. The defense of Thermopylae has become a symbol of the merciless and sacred struggle for Greek independence. In the battle episode at Thermopylae the best sides Greek military organization. For four days, a huge Persian army stormed the Greek positions, defended by a small detachment. Things got to the point that, frightened by the heroic actions of the Greeks, the Persian soldiers refused to go on the attack and, by order of the king, they were driven forward with whips. Xerxes was forced to bring his famous guard, the so-called “immortals,” into battle, which was done on very rare occasions. But the “immortals” could not knock the Greeks off their positions. Leonid turned out to be a brilliant tactician. He skillfully used local conditions and skillfully built his defenses. In battle, the Greeks used maneuvering, false retreats back, after which they again lined up in a phalanx and delivered crushing blows to the advancing enemies.
Xerxes was indignant, but it was all in vain. A paradoxical situation arose: the most prepared and largest Persian army could not do anything with the small Greek detachment. Xerxes was rescued by a Thessalian traitor. For a large sum, he showed a bypass road and led the Persians to the rear of the defenders of Thermopylae. Considering further defense pointless, Leonid, in order to save most of the remaining soldiers, ordered them to retreat. Only the Spartans remained at the battle site, for whom the law forbade them to retreat from the battlefield. Warriors from the cities of Thespiae and Thebes voluntarily joined them. After heroic resistance, they all fell in battle, and it became clear that in Hellas Xerxes would meet equally valiant defenders.
A monument was subsequently erected over the burial of the Spartans - a sitting lion, with words written by one of the best poets of that time, Simonides, engraved on the pedestal:
O traveler, tell all the citizens of Lacedaemon:
Here we lie in our graves, having faithfully fulfilled the law.
The heroic death of the defenders of Thermopylae in 480 BC. e. became a symbol of military courage in world history.
Simultaneously with the defense of Thermopylae, the naval battle at Cape Artemisius. The battle lasted for three days, but neither side achieved success. After the death of Leonidas, the Greek fleet departed from Artemisium and, together with the ships of other policies, stood near Athens opposite the island of Salamis.
Having passed through the Thermopylae Gorges, the huge Persian army flooded Central Greece. Attica was sacked. Since the city of Athens did not have
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strong defensive structures and was not suitable for a long siege, its inhabitants were evacuated to the city of Troezen in Argolis and to the neighboring island of Salamis. The complex task of evacuating, accommodating and supplying refugees from Athens was taken over by the aristocratic Council of the Areopagus, whose influence on state affairs increased greatly. Abandoned by its inhabitants, Athens was captured by the Persians and set on fire.
Despite the capture of Central Greece, including Athens, the main military forces of the Greeks, the allied army and navy, were preserved. According to the original plans, the Greeks were supposed to defend the Isthmus of Corinth with their entire army, where powerful defensive structures were erected. That is why the Spartans insisted on transferring the allied fleet concentrated in the Strait of Salamis closer to the land army. However, the Athenian leaders and, above all, Themistocles proposed a different plan: to fight a decisive naval battle in the narrow Strait of Salamis, where fast and maneuverable Greek triremes would have an advantage over the enemy’s bulky and slow-moving ships. And a naval victory, according to the Athenians, could dramatically turn the fate of the entire war.
Xerxes himself, in turn, considered a decisive naval battle at the moment extremely desirable because he had an almost double superiority in the number of ships; he considered their Phoenician crews to be quite experienced in maritime affairs. In addition, the Greek fleet was separated from the ground forces, while the Persian ships interacted closely with the main army.
In an effort to persuade the Spartans to a decisive battle, Themistocles used the following trick. A spy was sent to the Persian camp, who conveyed supposedly secret information to Xerxes about the impending departure of the Greek fleet from Salamis. Believing these reports, and they could correspond to reality, Xerxes ordered to occupy the exits from the Strait of Salamis and thereby block the Greek fleet. The battle became inevitable. It happened on September 28, 480. As Themistocles predicted, fast and maneuverable Greek ships, perfectly oriented in the shallow waters of the narrow strait, broke the stubborn resistance of the Persians and destroyed almost their entire huge fleet.
In helpless rage, Xerxes watched from the shore the destruction of his ships. The destruction of the Persian fleet dramatically changed the military situation. Greek ships could now cut off all communications with Asia Minor, destroy pontoon
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bridges across the Hellespont and put the land army in a difficult situation. Therefore, Xerxes changes plans for the military campaign. With a significant part of the army and the remnants of the fleet, he returns to Asia. A selected corps, led by the experienced Mardonius, remained in Central Greece.
Mardonius withdrew his troops to Boeotia, friendly to the Persians, reorganized them and in the spring of the following 479 BC. e. recaptured and sacked Athens. A reserve army and navy were being prepared near Cape Micale, which were supposed to back up the actions of Mardonius. In 479 BC. e. The Greek allied command developed a plan for a combined attack and destruction of both the land army of Mardonius in Boeotia and the reserve base at Mycale. The allied Greek militia under the command of the talented Spartan commander Pausanias gathered in Boeotia and, near the city of Plataea, imposed a decisive battle on Mardonius (479 BC). The Battle of Plataea, one of the largest land battles of antiquity, is an example of the military art of Ancient Greece. Mardonius had a selected army of 70 thousand, the Greek allied militia was no less. During the battle, examples of military cunning, tactical talent and skillful maneuvering of large masses of infantry were demonstrated. Both commanders - Mardonius and Pausanias - lined up troops in fortified positions and each sought to lure the enemy out of the fortifications, forcing them to strike the first blow. Mardonius's cavalry managed to discover and fill up the Greeks' water supplies, intercept wagons with food, and thereby put their army in a difficult situation. Unable to remain in his fortified positions, Pausanias makes a risky and completely unexpected maneuver for the enemy. In the dead of night, he ordered his center, consisting of hoplites from the allied cities, to withdraw from their positions, retreat 20 km to Plataea and gain a foothold there. Then he began a retreat movement along different roads, but maintaining contact with each other, the right flank occupied by the Spartans, followed by the left flank occupied by the Athenians. In the morning, when the Persians discovered an empty Greek camp, Mardonius ordered his soldiers to withdraw from their positions and move to Plataea, and he himself, at the head of a select vanguard and cavalry, hastily rushed to pursue, as he believed, the enemy retreating in disarray. This is what Pausanias was waiting for. As soon as the first Persian horsemen appeared, the Spartans deployed their phalanx and met the Persian vanguard with all their might. At the decisive moment of the battle, the Athenians arrived and the Persians were scattered. Mardonius also fell in battle. When the rest of the Persian army approached, the Spartans and Athenians did not have much difficulty defeating the commandless army. The Persian rearguard under the command of Artabazus did not manage to approach the battlefield. Having learned about the complete defeat of the main part of the army, Artabazus hurried with his corps to Asia Minor. The Battle of Plataea ended with the complete defeat of the selected army of Mardonius. On the same day, an allied squadron led by the Spartan king Leotychides and the Athenian strategist Xanthippus attacked the Persian reserve base near Cape Mycale and, with a combined attack from sea and land, destroyed the strong Persian army and burned most of the Persian ships.
The battles of Plataea and Mycale were a brilliant conclusion to the intense struggle of the Greeks with the army of Xerxes. After her death, the great king no longer dreamed of conquering free Hellas; the military power of the Persian monarchy was so shaken that the king had to think about how to keep his state from collapse.
In the military actions of the Greek city-states with the Persian power there was a radical
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noah turn. The strategic initiative passed to the Greeks. Having repelled the attack on Balkan Greece, the Greeks set themselves new tasks: liberation of the cities of western Asia Minor and the straits from Persian domination.
5. Organization of the Delian Symmachy (the first Athenian maritime union). Liberation of the Greek city-states of Asia Minor and the straits from Persian domination. The repulsion of the Persian invasion became possible thanks to the unification of the Greek city-states and, above all, Sparta, Corinth and Athens. This unification of forces was caused by the mortal danger from Persia. But after the decisive victories of the Greeks in 480-479. BC e. and the elimination of the Persian threat, differences began to appear between the allies on a number of military-political issues. Sparta was not interested in long campaigns, especially those where the navy became the decisive force. The constant social danger from the helots, the lack of a fleet, and the orientation towards landowning aristocratic circles determined the limited nature of Sparta's foreign policy. Athens, on the contrary, was an energetic supporter of an active policy of conquest. The emerging predominance in the sociopolitical life of democratically minded trade and craft layers of citizenship, a large, well-equipped fleet, together with a strong hoplite militia, dictated a different policy.
Social and political disagreements were aggravated by a dispute over the fate of Asia Minor and island cities liberated from Persian rule. Sparta imposed a policy of harsh punishments, even to the point of relocating residents to other places, while the Athenians adhered to a soft policy, up to inclusion in the pan-Greek union as equal members. In the midst of these serious disagreements, Sparta weakened its activity and actually withdrew from the pan-Greek union created in Corinth in 481 BC. e. On the contrary, Athens became the center of attraction for the remaining members of this union; new members also sought to join it, mainly from among the liberated island and Asia Minor cities.
Interested in the further development of military operations and the complete displacement of the Persians from the Aegean region, the Greek cities, led by Athens, sent their representatives to the island of Delos and concluded a new alliance, which was called the Delian Military League (Symmachia). The Delian symmachy became a stronger unification of Greek cities because almost all allies shared the main goals of foreign policy, were interested in rapid economic development, and many of them had the same type of democratic structure. The strength of the Delian League is also explained by its thoughtful organization. The Allies had a common treasury and united armed forces: ground forces and navy. The main affairs of the union were decided by a council consisting of representatives of all the policies that were part of it. However, from the moment of the founding of the Delian League, Athens became strongly dominant in it. Athens was the richest and largest city in Greece; they bore the brunt of the war with the Persians; its politicians had great authority throughout Greece. It is not surprising that the allies very soon entrusted all affairs, treasury and armed forces to the Athenians. Instead of supplying the allied army with the required number of ships and hoplites, the allies preferred to contribute an appropriate amount of money, allowing the Athenians to spend it on maintaining additional contingents of Athenian hoplites and naval crews. Athens thus received at its disposal
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significant financial resources (460 talents) for the maintenance of an impressive fleet and land army (up to 200 triremes, 40 thousand crew and oarsmen, 10 thousand hoplites and 1 thousand horsemen). Therefore, the Delian Symmachy is usually called the First Athenian Maritime League.
Having secured the support of its allies, Athens began vigorous military operations against the Persians, who still remained in many points of the Aegean coast, on the islands and in the straits.
Sparta watched with alarm the strengthening of Athenian military power, and tensions between Sparta and Athens grew. In order to protect themselves from threats from land, the Athenians decided to create a new defensive system around Athens, making the city an impregnable fortress. Under the leadership of Themistocles, over the course of several years, a complex system of fortifications was built around Athens, which included a ring of city walls, the so-called long walls (about 5 km) protecting the road from Athens to the port of Piraeus, and, finally, fortifications around Piraeus. Thus, Athens could withstand any long siege, since the possibility of a safe and uninterrupted supply to the city from Piraeus was provided. After the construction of defensive structures, Themistocles' popularity increased even more and caused sharp discontent among the Athenian aristocracy, grouped around the Areopagus, and even some democrats, to whom Themistocles' enormous authority seemed incompatible with democratic principles. In 471 BC. e. Themistocles was ostracized and took refuge with the Persian king Xerxes, against whom he had fought so successfully in the recent past. In Athens, the political influence of Cimon, the son of Miltiades, the winner of the Persians at Marathon, increased.
In the 70s of the 5th century. BC e. The Athenians, under the leadership of Kimon, captured a number of islands of the Aegean Sea (the island of Skyros, etc.), firmly established themselves on the Thracian coast at the mouth of the Strymon River, where there were rich gold mines, in Byzantium and a number of other cities in the straits. Many cities of Ionia and Caria became part of the Delian Symmachy. The Aegean Sea basin was cleared of Persian garrisons and pirates and became a safe place for trade and navigation. Cimon and the Athenian allies made far-reaching plans to conquer cities in the southern part of Asia Minor. The elderly Xerxes made an attempt to stop the expansion of the Athenians. At the mouth of the Eurymedon River in Pamphylia, a large Persian fleet (about 350 ships) and a strong land army of several tens of thousands of people were concentrated. The Persians were waiting here for a Phoenician squadron of 80 ships, so that they could then begin a campaign against the Greeks in the Aegean Sea. This was a serious threat to Athenian dominance.
Cimon developed and carried out an operation unexpected by the enemy to destroy these large accumulating Persian forces. The entire Athenian fleet and land army were concentrated near Cnidus. In order to accommodate the largest number of hoplites on the ships, their design was improved: a second deck was built, the upper deck was expanded with additional extensions. From Cnidus, the Athenians secretly transported their fleet and infantry to the city of Phaselis (on the border of Lycia and Pamphylia). From here, the Athenian ships unexpectedly attacked the main forces of the Persians. Taken by surprise, the Persians tried to evade the battle and withdrew their fleet to the mouth of the Eurymedon River, under the protection of their infantry standing on the shore, but, pursued by the Athenians, they were forced to fight. In the ensuing battle, the Persian fleet was defeated in full view of the infantry standing on the shore, 150 ships
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destroyed, and 200 captured by the victors.
Having sunk the enemy ships, Cimon landed the hoplites ashore, imposing a battle on the Persian ground forces. In a bloody battle that lasted many hours, in which many Athenians also died, the Persian army was completely defeated. The tireless Kimon leads the fleet into the open sea to meet the Phoenician squadron of 80 ships and destroys it. This triple victory of Cimon at Eurymedon (469-468 BC, the date is not precisely established) over a superior enemy is another brilliant example of Greek military art, skillful and complex maneuvering, and the destruction of the enemy army in parts. Rich booty and many valuables fell into the hands of the winners. With these funds, Cimon carried out a number of buildings in Athens, partially compensated for expensive military preparations, and 20 thousand prisoners were sold into slavery.
After Cimon's brilliant victory at Eurymedon, the power of Athens and its dominance in the Delian League increased. Attempts by two islands - Naxos (469 BC) and Thasos (465 BC) - to leave the union in protest against the strengthening of Athens were decisively suppressed. The Athenian squadrons sent tore down the walls of their city fortifications, the cities of the allies reimbursed the expenses incurred by the Athenians, they were forbidden to have their own fleet and were forced to pay additional sums to the allied treasury.
6. Increasing tension between Athens and Sparta. Military expedition of Athens to Egypt and the end of the Greco-Persian wars. The successes of Athens in the fight against the Persians in the 60s of the 5th century. BC e., the strengthening of the role of Athens in the Delian League was due to the growing political influence of the middle part of Athenian citizenship, that is, those layers that formed the social support of the democratic order. The Athenians provided direct and indirect support to democratic elements at the expense of aristocratic ones in many allied cities. Naturally, this development of events caused increasing discontent among aristocratic Sparta, which usually supported oligarchic institutions in Greece. 60s BC e. characterized by growing tensions between Athens and Sparta. It seemed that a military clash was inevitable. But it was prevented. The fact is that in 464 BC. e. happened in Sparta strong earthquake, which caused great destruction and confusion among the Spartiates. The helots did not fail to take advantage of this. They rebelled, fortified themselves on Mount Itome and from there carried out devastating raids on the possessions of the Spartiates. Under these conditions, the Spartiates could not even think about any war with Athens. On the contrary, frightened, they turned to Athens for help. This appeal of Sparta to its political enemy is a striking example of the commonality of the social positions of the aristocracy and the democratic circles of citizenship of the Greek city-states in the face of social danger. The influential Areopagus and the agitation of the head of the Athenian aristocrats, the Laconophile Cimon, convinced the National Assembly to send a strong Athenian detachment to Sparta. However, when this detachment arrived in Laconia, the Spartiates managed to localize the uprising on their own and therefore sent the Athenian hoplites back. The Athenians considered this attitude towards their aid an insult, and this only worsened the hostility between Athens and Sparta. The failure of the campaign in Sparta led to the discreditation of Cimon himself, and he was soon expelled through ostracism. Taking advantage of the favorable situation, the leader of the democratic group in Athens, Ephialtes, decided to deal a decisive blow to the political prestige of the Areopagus, which had greatly increased during the Persian War. To
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to discredit this influential body politically, a number of members of the Areopagus were first brought to trial on charges of corruption, and in 462 BC. e. The Athenian national assembly passed a law according to which the Areopagus was deprived of political levers of power, and this stronghold of the Athenian aristocracy began to play its original role as the guardian of public morality and religious traditions, which also provided it with sufficient influence in society.
Democratization state life accompanied by an intensification of Athenian foreign policy. But all this led to a sharp aggravation political relations with Sparta. Military conflict became inevitable when the Spartiates had largely suppressed the helot uprising. In 457 BC. e. A strong Spartan army of 11.5 thousand hoplites, together with their allies from Boeotia, inflicted a severe defeat on the 14 thousand-strong Athenian militia at Tanagra. But in the same year, in the repeated battle of Oenophyta, the new Athenian army defeated Sparta's allies, the Boeotians, and restored its political influence in Central Greece. Building on their success, the Athenians forced their longtime enemy, neighboring Aegina, to capitulate. Soon the Athenians captured Trezena, and the Athenian fleet cruised freely around the Peloponnese, attacking vulnerable points in the south and west (the so-called first, or Lesser, Peloponnesian War).
Athens and their allies carried out military operations not only against Sparta. Another important front was the fight against the Persians, which entered its final stage.
The defeat of the large Persian fleet and land army at Eurymedon not only brought the Greek cities of southern Asia Minor and Cyprus under Athenian influence, but also shook Persian dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean in general, where separatist movements in the satrapies revived. The situation was aggravated by the dynastic struggle. In 465 BC. e. As a result of palace intrigues, Xerxes and his eldest son were killed, and the youngest son Artaxerxes ascended the throne. Separatist forces in Egypt took advantage of the situation. In 460 BC. e. An uprising broke out, led by Inar, a representative of the Libyan aristocracy. The fall of such a rich satrapy as Egypt would put the Persian kingdom in a difficult situation and could mark the beginning of its political disintegration. The Athenians decide to provide generous assistance to Inar. In 459 BC. e. a well-equipped squadron of 200 ships and 20 thousand soldiers was sent to help the Egyptian rebels. The Athenian squadron entered the mouth of the Nile and rose to the capital of Egypt, Memphis. Interacting with Inarus, the Athenians inflicted several defeats on the Persian satrap and captured Memphis. However, in 455-454. BC e. the new Persian army sent to Egypt managed to defeat the rebels and then the Athenian fleet. The death of large Athenian forces in the swamps of the Delta greatly shook Athenian military power and political prestige. The Athenians feared uprisings and discontent among the allies. Under the pretext that the allied treasury, kept in the temple of Apollo on the island of Delos, could be captured by the Persians or pirates, the Athenians unilaterally transferred it to the treasury of the temple of Athena. From then on, the allied treasury began to be considered in fact as part of the Athenian treasury itself, and the allies from members equal to Athens were, to a certain extent, like subjects. That is why the fact of the transfer of the union treasury from Delos to Athens in 454 BC. e. is considered a milestone in the transformation of the Delian symmachy into the Athenian arche (power).
The restoration of Persian rule in Egypt and the defeat of the Athenians changed the political situation in the Eastern Mediterranean in Persia's favor. But
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the forces of Athens, which had full control of the enormous resources of the Athenian Maritime League, were still very large. The successful Cimon again (he was returned from exile) organizes an expeditionary army to support the Egyptian rebels and the Greek cities of Cyprus besieged by the Persians. In 450-449 BC e. military operations are concentrated in Cyprus. Cimon managed to defeat a strong royal fleet near the city of Salamis, capturing a number of Cypriot cities. In an effort to revive the separatist movement in Egypt, Kimon sent 60 warships there. But these plans were not destined to come true. During the siege of one of the Cypriot cities, Kimon died, and the Athenian squadron was recalled back. This recall meant that the Athenians were abandoning their claims to the Eastern Mediterranean, where the power of the Persian king was fully restored. 449 BC e. was the last year of the long Greco-Persian wars. The Athenian aristocrat, cousin of Aristides and close relative of Cimon (he was married to his sister), Callias, was sent to Cyprus to make peace with the Persians. The terms of the Peace of Callias (449 BC) ended the Greco-Persian Wars and sealed the Greek victory. The Persian king recognized the independence of all Greek city-states of Asia Minor, pledged not to conduct military operations against them, and not to send a military fleet into the Aegean Sea and the straits. The Greeks made commitments not to interfere in the affairs of the Eastern Mediterranean and Egypt.
Soon after the Peace of Callias, there was a lull in hostilities between Athens and Sparta, and in 446 BC. e. the so-called Lesser Peloponnesian War ended with thirty years of peace. After several decades of intense military clashes both in Greece itself and with the great Persian power, a more or less stable order was established in Hellas. Favorable opportunities for economic and cultural development have been created.
The Greco-Persian Wars ended in complete victory for the Greeks. What are the reasons for their victorious outcome? Why were small Greek city-states, which occupied an insignificant territory and, moreover, had a different socio-political organization, able to defeat a world power that had a powerful military-economic potential, united by the centralized power of the king and his administrative apparatus? Several such reasons can be given.
During the Greco-Persian wars, the Greek socio-economic and political systems, the polis organization of society, which presupposed an intensive income economy, a wealthy middle class of citizenship, and republican institutions, turned out to be more viable, more advanced, and progressive than the cumbersome Persian socio-political system. The activity of the internal political struggle in the Greek city-states in conditions of military danger, as it turned out, did not weaken the internal strength of city-state organisms, but gave it a more conscious and organized character, while under the cover of external blind submission to the power of the great king, there was hidden the deep separatism of individual satraps, which could appear at any moment.
An important reason for the victory of the Greeks was the achievement of unity of action between the leading policies at the decisive moment of military clashes, in particular the unification of the forces of Sparta, Corinth and Athens. The combined forces of the Greeks were militarily inferior to the Persians in the number of people and equipment, but they were superior to them in the quality of their organization. The tactics of a cohesive, well-trained phalanx that can skillfully ma-
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During the battle, the army, consisting of heavily armed hoplites clad in armor, turned out to be much higher than the scattered formation of the Persians. The Greek hoplite defended his homeland, his shrines, the land of his ancestors and therefore possessed significantly higher moral and combat qualities than the forced soldiers of the Persian king, who sometimes had to be driven into battle with whips. The deliberate death of the Spartans and other Greeks at Thermopylae is the best example of this. During the crisis moments of the war, the Greeks produced talented commanders and polygyes. Miltiades, Pausanias, Themistocles, Cimon enriched the ancient military art, creatively developing all the possibilities inherent in the Greek military organization.
The victory over the strongest enemy had a huge impact on the development of all areas of the socio-economic, political and cultural life of the ancient Greeks, and contributed to the highest flourishing of ancient Greek civilization in the 5th-4th centuries. BC e.
Wars between the Persian Empire and the Greek city-states continued from 500 BC. e. to 449 BC e. They went down in history as the Greco-Persian Wars.
The actual reason for the Greco-Persian War was the intervention of Greek cities in the internal affairs of the Achaemenid Empire, when Athens provided military assistance to Greek cities in Asia Minor that rebelled against the Persians. After the Persians managed to suppress the uprising in 493 BC. e. the king decided to deal with the Greeks. The Persian military leader Mardonius set out on a campaign to conquer Greece in the spring of 492, but his fleet of 300 ships was lost during a storm off Cape Athos. The campaign was then forced to be postponed.
490 BC e. - Persian army under the command of Datis and Artaphernes by sea through the islands of Rhodes and Delos they crossed to the island of Euboea and captured it. And from there they went to the shores of Attica and landed on the Marathon plain.
490 BC e., September 13 - the Battle of Marathon took place, one of the most famous battles of antiquity. Then something happened that does not fit into the minds of ordinary people. An army of citizens, the militia, was able to defeat the army of professionals. This may indicate the emergence of a new war strategy, which will subsequently be adopted by many countries and will begin to operate successfully in many states of the ancient world and in the Middle Ages.
So, what happened at Marathon?
The Persian army captured the city of Eretria on the island of Euboea. Then Persian troops landed in the northeastern part of Attica, on the Marathon plain near the small town of Marathon, which was 42 km from Athens.
The place was very convenient for the Persian cavalry, because it was a plain. The Persians had 10,000 horsemen and 10,000 foot archers.
The Athenian general Miltiades brought with him 11,000 hoplites, consisting of citizens' militia. A hoplite was a heavy infantry warrior who was dressed in copper armor, had a helmet and a large heavy shield. The hoplite's weapons included a sword and a long spear.
The Persians had excellent professional cavalry and lightly armed archers (armed with bows and light sabers), whose task was to shower the enemy with a cloud of arrows before a cavalry attack and mix up their ranks.
Miltiades formed his phalanx at the entrance to the Marathon Valley. On the right flank he placed the best part of his army of Athenian hoplites under the command of Callemarchus, and his left flank consisted of detachments of Plataeans under the command of Aemnest. Miltiades immediately had to take care of his flanks, because the phalanx has one drawback - clumsiness. And therefore, it was the flank attacks of the cavalry that were extremely dangerous. Therefore, it was necessary to reduce the number of ranks in the center and increase them on the flanks. The common front was up to 1 km long.
The press placed archers in the center, and concentrated cavalry on the flanks. It was the right tactical decision. They needed to strike the enemy as quickly as possible with all the forces of their cavalry.
Miltiades understood this very well and therefore moved towards the enemy with a quick march. This allowed him to quickly overcome the space that was dangerous for warriors due to archers. And psychologically, the Greeks thundering with armor and weapons had a strong impact on the morale of the Persians.
The troops have converged! The Persian infantry quickly broke through the weak center of the Athenian phalanx and it was only up to the cavalry. However, the cavalry was unable to penetrate the thickened flanks of the foot hoplites.
The Persian cavalry began to retreat. The flanks of the Athenian infantry enveloped the Persian center on both sides and this threatened complete defeat. Unable to bear it, the Persian infantry ran after the cavalry. The defeat was complete. In this battle, the Greeks lost 192 people killed, and the Persians 6,400 people.
The defeat at Marathon did not stop the Persians. 480 BC e. - The Persian king Xerxes invaded Hellas. The very geopolitical position of the countries made this war inevitable. The Persians could not be confident in the peace of the Ionian Greek cities located on the coast of Asia Minor, while these cities were constantly provoked into rebellion by Athens and the island Greek states. Leaving them free meant having a constant “hotbed of tension” on one’s borders.
Political preparations for war began in 481. At this time, Xerxes arrived in person in Sardis and began negotiations with the Greek city-states. Almost all regions of Northern and Central Greece - Macedonia, Boeotia, Thessaly, Locris - made a promise to submit to the king. Argos, exhausted by its struggle with Sparta, chose to remain neutral. Most likely, the Argives would have joined the Persian army if it had reached the Peloponnesian Peninsula, but to recognize themselves as an ally of the Persians, being surrounded on all sides by Spartan allies, would be simply madness.
In the same year 481, a “pan-Greek” congress was convened on the Isthmian Isthmus. In fact, this congress was merely the conclusion of a defensive alliance between Sparta and Athens, providing for preventive action against the Persian allies in Greece.
Attempts by the Athenians and Spartans to prepare for war were far from satisfactory, and they achieved little through diplomacy. The Thessalians behaved rather ambiguously; the Boeotian League also took a very pro-Persian position. Argos, due to hostility towards the Athenians and Spartans, remained neutral. Perhaps the only success can be considered the joint pressure on Aegina, which was forced not to enter into an alliance with the Persians.
In an attempt to prevent the Persian invasion, the Hellenes sent 10,000 hoplites to Thessaly to delay the Persians there and keep the Thessalians on their side. But these insignificant forces were not enough to defend all the mountain passes and the hoplites sailed by sea back to the Isthmian Isthmus. The Thessalians, having no hope of winning the war alone, immediately recognized the Persian protectorate.
More than 5,000 hoplites, led by the king of Sparta Leonidas, were sent to the Thermopylae Gorge. This gorge was blocked by a wall and in front of the wall there are streams specially released from the mountains from hot springs. This position also had the advantage that being protected by the sea by the fleet did not make it possible to bypass the defenders from the sea. At this time, the Persian fleet was badly damaged by a storm at Magnesia - the Persians lost about 400 ships.
After several unsuccessful assaults on the Thermopylae Pass, the Persians learned of a bypass route guarded by 1,000 Phocians. Because of the sudden attack, the Persians managed to push them off the path and they descended into the valley. Most of the Greek army scattered at this news, leaving only his 300 Spartans of the royal guard, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans (whom, according to some sources, Leonidas forcibly left as hostages). At first, they repulsed enemy attacks from the front, then retreated to a hill at the exit from the gorge and defended themselves there from attacks from all sides. Leonid, for whose body there was a fierce battle, and all the other defenders of the passage died there.
Later, this particular battle was so widely publicized that it became an example of courage and devotion to duty. This event formed the basis of many books and films. Although in reality the Battle of Thermopylae was not at all an example of military art. After all, the Spartans fought with the Persians in a narrow passage, when they did not have the opportunity to fight more than several dozen people at the same time. But this battle had, without a doubt, great moral and political significance for Greece.
Simultaneously with the Persian breakthrough at Thermopylae, the naval battle of Artemisium took place. The Greek fleet acted quite successfully, but the defeat of the ground forces forced the Greeks to retreat to Attica.
The Persian army, having passed through Central Greece, invaded Attica. The Peloponnesians, who now made up almost all the allies, proposed to retreat to the Isthmian Isthmus and defend the Peloponnese itself. The Athenians, who had evacuated their population from Attica and transported children and women to Aegina and Salamis, insisted on giving the Persians a naval battle.
The Persians had already ravaged the entire territory of Attica and, having taken Athens, burned them. The Athenians were able to convince the allies to give battle. In the narrow strait between the island of Salamis and Attica, the art of the Phoenician sailors who were in the service of the king of the Persians, best quality and the maneuverability of their ships could not make any difference. The Persian fleet was defeated.
At this time, the very vastness of the Persian state came to the aid of Hellas. A powerful uprising broke out in the northeastern, most significant regions of the state. Xerxes could no longer remain in Greece, especially since he had already completed his formal task of punishing Athens for interfering in internal Persian affairs.
Therefore, he left only his commander Mardonius in Greece, leaving him with precisely those troops that came from the rebel satrapies and reinforced him with the Persians. The main Persian army retreated back unhindered.
After wintering in Thessaly, the Persian military leader Mardonius in 479 BC. e. again moved to Attica. Having offered an alliance to the Athenians and having been refused, he devastated their lands a second time. At sea, no active actions were taken. The remnants of the Persian fleet retreated to about. Samos, the Greek gathered at Delos. But both fleets were afraid to move forward.
At this time, the Spartan Pausanias, who commanded the allied army, fearing Athens' withdrawal from the alliance, invaded Boeotia with the main forces of the Hellenes from the Peloponnese. Mardonius retreated there, fearing for his communications and not being able to supply the army in devastated Attica.
Mardonius prepared a fortified camp in Boeotia so that there would be somewhere to retreat, if necessary, after the battle and began to wait for the Hellenes to descend from the spurs of Cithaeron, where Pausanias stood with the army.
The Persians had every opportunity to conquer Greek cities and even defeat Sparta!
The Greeks were completely unprepared for such a battle as Mardonius forced on them! The tactic of wearing down the enemy worked perfectly! And only cavalry could help the Greeks in this case, but there was not enough of it.
The Greeks suffered significant losses and could not launch a counterattack, fearing the Persian cavalry. The Megarians, who suffered the main losses, promised to leave their place in the battle line if they were not replaced. Of course, no one wanted to replace them with other detachments of the same helpless hoplites.
Only the Athenians were able to correct the situation, having drawn the proper conclusions from the battle of Marathon and having 200 Scythian archers and 300 horsemen. They sent both of these detachments to help the Megarians. The maneuver turned out to be successful, they managed to cover the phalanx, in addition, the Hellenes were helped by an accident - a horse was killed near Masistius, and then he himself was killed. The success or failure of battles sometimes depends on such little things.
Shocked by the death of the commander, the Persian cavalry rushed to the attack, trying to save the body of their commander. They easily managed to overthrow the Athenian horsemen and archers, but when the phalanx approached the battlefield, the Persians retreated before the numerical superiority of the enemy.
The Greeks, encouraged by the fact that they managed to leave the battlefield behind them, decided to descend from the spurs of Cithaeron and change their camp site, since the water supply at this place was difficult. The army crossed to the Asopus River, and the Persians did not interfere with them, celebrating mourning for Masistius.
The Hellenic army took up a new defensive position on the low hills in the Plataea region. The entire Greek army gathered there - 33 thousand hoplites and 35 thousand lightly armed soldiers. They were opposed by the army of Mardonius - a total of about 14,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry. That is, there were many more Greeks this time.
For eight days the two armies stood opposite each other, separated by the river. Asopom. Then Mardonius, apparently having sufficiently reconnoitered the area, began active operations; he sent cavalry to the communications of the Hellenic army and this enterprise was immediately crowned with success. The cavalry managed to capture 500 food carts heading towards the army. It was a success! Moreover, it was almost a victory!
Herodotus says that after this Mardonius, who began to be burdened by idleness, decided to give battle to the Greeks. For two days after the capture of the convoy, the Persians continued to harass the Greeks with shooting.
The position made it possible for the Persian horse archers to prevent the Hellenes from reaching the water, and they had to go to the Gargafia spring for water. So, in order to bring the Greeks to the final limit, all that remained was to deprive them of water. Therefore, Mardonius decided to disturb the Greek army once again and ordered his cavalry to raid, wanting to provoke the enemy into battle or finally force them to retreat from Boeotia. The raid was very successful, the Persian arrows again inflicted heavy losses on the helpless enemy, and the Persians managed to fill up the Gargathia spring, from where the entire Greek army drew water.
Cut off from water and food, the Greeks decided to send half of their troops to Kiferon at night to restore supplies, and the other half to retreat to Oeroe in order to have water. But instead of retreating to the designated places at night, the Greeks standing in the center (6.2 thousand hoplites) almost fled, wanting to get rid of the Persian cavalry to Plataea. Many militias lost faith in victory over the Persians.
The Athenians and Spartans with the Tegeans remained in place. It is clear that the Athenians still hoped for a battle - for them it was vital. This was an opportunity to turn the tide of the war.
The Spartans also understood this. They knew that the Persians would not spare them if they won. And if this battle is lost, then many cities will bow their heads to the king of the Achaemenid state. Sparta itself was doomed to defeat alone.
The commanders of the remaining Greek troops decided to retreat to the Amompharetu stream and, apparently, made an appointment at the sanctuary of Demeter. The Spartans began to retreat there, and the Athenians moved around the hills along the valley passing behind the previous position of the Greek army, trying to join the left flank of the Spartans.
At this time, the Persian cavalry, not finding the Greek army in its place, headed across the hills. Mardonius, having learned that the Greek army had retreated at night, naturally decided that he could only complete the brilliant operation by pursuing the exhausted enemy. And he played all-in!
He threw all his troops into pursuing the Spartans. And this step would have been correct if the warriors of Sparta and Athens had completely despaired. But they were still ready to fight and win.
The Spartans sent a messenger asking the Athenians for help, asking them to send at least archers if the phalanx was too slow. But the Athenians did not even have time to send archers, because the Thebans and other Greek allies of Mardonius were already moving towards them from the hills.
It was not difficult for the Athenians, stretched out in a marching column, to turn into a combat position, since they simply needed to turn to the left and double the ranks, turning 4 ranks of a marching position into 8 ranks of a combat one. Therefore, they met the Thebans quite calmly. The same, not seeing the Athenians in the valley, fell into the valley without any order, being sure that they would only face persecution. The outcome of this battle was a foregone conclusion; the Athenians were easily able to overthrow almost all of Mardonius’s Greek allies.
The Theban cavalry became more famous in this battle than their infantry. The horsemen moved between the Hellenes of the right wing of Mardonius and the Persians themselves. Descending into the valley, they passed between the Spartan and Athenian phalanxes. At this time, troops began to arrive in the exposed center, fleeing at night to Plataea. Still rushing to help the Spartans, about 10,000 Corinthians and other Hellenes flowed like a chaotic river through the valley. The horsemen crashed into this mass, and almost a third of the allied army was stopped and driven to Kiferon.
But this significant success could no longer save the situation - the Athenians, having put their opponents to flight, struck the victorious cavalry in the rear and flank. They apparently cut off some of them from their own and completely killed them - these were 300 selected Theban aristocrats, brilliant cavalrymen.
Meanwhile, on the right flank of the Greek army, Mardonius, having descended into the valley, found, instead of a retreating column of Spartans, an army completely ready for battle. And having no more than 4,000 infantry and 2,000 horsemen, Mardonius unexpectedly came out against 11,500 Spartans and Tegeans!
Mardonius gave the order to the infantry to deploy a fortification of shields and begin shooting with arrows, waiting for the rest of the troops. The only correct action in such a situation. The Persians began to shower the enemy with arrows, and the Spartan Pausanias for a long time did not dare to attack them, waiting for the approach of the Greek center.
At this time, the Tegeans, tired of the Persian shooting, moved to attack and the Spartans were forced to support the allies. And just in time - Artabazus, Mardonius’s deputy, who commanded the rest of the Persians, did not have time to help his commander and 4,000 Median, Bactrian and Indian infantry did not have time to take part in the battle.
This military leader was a very cautious commander. He moved slowly up the hills, trying to get his troops into the fight in perfect order. But the hillsides turned out to be steeper than it seemed visually, and the soldiers of Artabazus fell significantly behind the right and left flanks.
United by their excellent discipline, the Spartans withstood the shooting of archers and got to the Persian infantry, but could not overthrow them with one blow. It came to this hand-to-hand combat, in which the Persians, although they were stronger, the double superiority of the enemy made itself felt. However, the battle hung in the balance, and a terrible massacre took place around the sanctuary of Demeter. At that point in the battle, no one had yet won.
Mardonius also came to the aid of the Persian infantry with his last remaining reserve - 2,000 horsemen. Their crushing attack was a success and it is unknown how the matter would have ended, but Mardonius himself led the battle of his cavalry.
But the commander’s place is not in front of the detachment! No! A commander must control the battle, not put himself at risk.
As a result, Mardonius was killed in battle, and almost 1,000 of his horsemen fell along with him. The death of the commander turned out to be the very luck that turned his face to the Greeks. The Persians fled. Artabazus, who remained commander in place of the killed Mardonius, saw that both of his flanks were completely defeated. And he began to retreat without ever engaging in battle.
The Spartans pursued them in formation, that is, quite slowly, which gave the Persians the opportunity to gain a foothold in the camp and fight back for quite a long time. The camp was taken after the Athenians arrived and with their help. Herodotus wrote that 3,000 people remained alive from the entire Persian army.
The winners' losses were also quite significant. The Spartans lost 91 Spartans alone, not counting the Perioecians. Counting the number of wounded 10 times more, we get a number of 1,000 people.
Thus ended the largest and decisive battle of this Greco-Persian war.
"Greco-Persian Wars"
The Greco-Persian Wars, which united the Greeks in the face of a single enemy, became not only a turning point in the history of Hellas. This was the first clash between East and West, two civilizations, two worldviews, two ways of existence of human society. In contrast to the despotic Persian Empire, where all subjects were subordinate to the king who reigned supreme over them, the main principle of the existence of numerous independent Greek city-states was freedom: the freedom of the polis and the personal freedom of every citizen, for which every Hellenic was ready to sacrifice without hesitation with your life.
If by the beginning of the 5th century BC. e. the political system of Sparta did not undergo significant changes, then Athens, which until recently lived under the tyranny of the Peisistratids, thanks to the laws of Cleisthenes, became a democratic state with reliable legal mechanisms for preserving the power of the people. Already at that time, Greece and especially Attica, due to population growth, could not provide themselves with food and were heavily dependent on the import of grain from the three main agricultural regions: Egypt, Pontus (the steppes of Southern Ukraine) and Sicily, which were hitherto controlled by the Hellenes. Now the aggressive campaigns of the Persians cut off the Balkan Greeks from the first two sources of grain, leaving them only Sicily. This caused discontent in Athens and was the main reason why this city supported the Ionian revolt against the Persians.
Back at the end of the 6th century BC. e. immediately after the unsuccessful campaign in Scythia and the conquest of Macedonia, Darius I ordered the satrap of Lydia Artaphernes to equip a reconnaissance expedition to Hellas led by the courtier, doctor, and Greek Demokedos. However, Democedes, who was once forbidden by the king to return home to Greece, took advantage of this campaign to escape to his homeland. The Persians themselves, having lost their guide and leader, turned home. The king was informed that there was no point in conquering mountainous, infertile lands inhabited by warlike and freedom-loving inhabitants. It is unknown how Darius I perceived this news, since the Athenians left him no choice: they themselves attacked the Persians and thereby forced them to fight with Greece.
Having suppressed the uprising in Ionia, Darius I sent envoys to Balkan Greece demanding land and water. The Athenians threw the Persian ambassadors into the abyss, and the Spartans drowned them in a well. By that time, an alliance of city states led by Sparta had formed in Hellas, which did not want to submit to the Persians and were jointly preparing for war. The Persians, having received refusals in a number of cities, began to prepare for a punitive operation against Athens and Eretria. In 492 BC. e. Darius I sent an army and fleet under the command of his relative Mardonius against the rebellious Greeks. The Persians safely crossed the Bosporus and, having passed through Thrace, were greeted in a friendly manner by the Macedonian king Alexander I (498-454 BC), who intended, thanks to the conquerors, to expand his possessions in Greece. But when the Persian fleet rounded the southern coast of Chalkidiki, it was caught in a terrible storm off Cape Athos and was almost completely destroyed by the elements.
In 490 BC. e. Darius I organized a new campaign against Greece. The troops under the command of Datis and Artaphernes boarded 600 ships and sailed to the island of Euboea. The guide of the Persians was the tyrant Hippias, son of Peisistratus, expelled from Athens, to whom the king promised to return power over Attica after the overthrow of democracy. After a six-day siege, the Persians took the city of Eretria, located on this island, and sent its entire population into the interior of Persia. Now it was Athens' turn. The Persian fleet arrived on the shores of Attica and landed an army in the Marathon Valley. This place, especially convenient for the action of the main striking force of the Persians - the cavalry, was chosen on the advice of Hippias.
The Athenians sent to Sparta for help and, having appointed Miltiades as a strategist, began to advance an army to the village of Marathon. The former tyrant of the Athenian colony of Chersonese of Thracia, Miltiades, took part in the campaign of Darius I against Scythia and supported the Scythian proposal to destroy the bridge over the Danube in order to destroy the Persian army in the Ukrainian steppes. He served the Persians for a long time, knew their methods of warfare very well, and was even married to a Persian woman. Then Miltiades quarreled with Darius I, was forced to flee Chersonesus and was now eager to take revenge on the Persians. Meanwhile, Sparta, the head of the anti-Persian alliance, citing the holiday in honor of Apollo, refused to help Athens, which it saw as a rival to its dominant position in Hellas. Only the small city of Plataea kept its allied obligations, sending several hundred warriors to Marathon.
On the morning of September 13, Miltiades lined up 11 thousand Greeks in a phalanx with their backs to the hills, which protected them from being outflanked by the enemy cavalry. 20 thousand Persian soldiers stood in front of them. No one ever defeated the Persians; everyone knew that this was impossible, that the Persian army was invincible. There were half as many Greeks, but they fought on their native soil. Before the battle began, the Persians, confident of their victory, loaded the cavalry onto ships and sent the fleet along the peninsula to Athens. Self-confidence destroyed the Persians. By sending the cavalry, they lost their main advantage. Having attacked the enemy infantry, the Athenians crushed its ranks, and for the first time in history the invincible Persians fled. Leaving 6,400 dead on the battlefield, they rushed to their ships. Miltiades lost only 192 soldiers. However, it was too early to celebrate the victory - the Persian fleet, rounding the peninsula, was approaching defenseless Athens. Immediately after the battle, all the Athenians, and not just the messenger, as the legend says, ran in full armor along the Marathon road to Athens, which was 40 km away from the battlefield. When the ships sailed to Piraeus the next day, the Persians saw the Athenian army arrayed in battle order and turned home.
After the victory at Marathon, Miltiades suggested that the Athenians punish those cities that sided with the Persians. The rich island of Paros was chosen as the object of revenge, whose inhabitants sent their triremes along with the Persians to Marathon. Miltiades, who had personal scores with the Parians, since at one time they slandered him before the Persians, equipped 70 ships with the money of the policy and arrived on the island, but could not take the city, received a wound in the thigh and returned to Athens, where he was convicted of embezzlement public money. His wound became inflamed and the hero of Marathon died in prison from gangrene. His son Kimon settled accounts with the state for him. The Greeks who died at Marathon were buried under a mound, which has survived to this day. For many centuries, there was a legend according to which every night on the Marathon field one could see the shadows of the fighters who, at sunset, leave their graves to continue their battle.
King Darius I did not consider himself defeated at Marathon. The Persians themselves viewed the trip to Greece as an ordinary punitive expedition. Therefore, they were in no hurry to take revenge on the Hellenes. In addition, the uprising in Egypt forced Darius I to postpone a new campaign in Hellas for a while. In 486 BC. e. the king died, leaving the throne to his son Xerxes. Unlike his father, Xerxes was distinguished by religious intolerance and considered the conquest of the Balkan Greeks a matter of honor.
After many years of preparation, in 480 BC. e. King Xerxes, having gathered more than 200 thousand soldiers from all the countries under his control, set out on a campaign against the Greeks.
The war with Persia brought into the political arena of the Athenian state two prominent figures opposing each other - Themistocles and Aristides, who came from the noblest families of the polis. If Themistocles loved power, then Aristides loved Athens, but salvation hometown required a courageous and decisive figure who would not constantly look back.
Themistocles was the first to understand that the future of Athens depended on a strong navy. On his initiative, the townspeople built the port of Piraeus, which was later connected by walls to Athens. B 483 BC e. Rich deposits of silver were discovered in Attica. Themistocles was able to convince the Athenians to spend the silver mined at the Lavrion mines on building a fleet. If at the beginning of the 5th century BC. e. Athens had only 20 ships, but before the invasion of the hordes of Xerxes, the city had 200 ships and turned into the most powerful maritime power in Greece. This played a decisive role in the fight against the Persians. Aristides, who opposed the fleet building program, was ostracized, that is, expelled from Athens.
Before the start of the campaign, Xerxes sent envoys to all Greek city-states, except Athens and Sparta, demanding land and water. Argos, Boeotia and Thessaly expressed submission to Persia, in addition, King Demaratus, expelled from Sparta, fled to the Persians. In these states, power belonged to groups that were interested in trade with the Persians. As a rule, such sentiments were characteristic of noble families. The peasants and artisans were anti-Persian, because they feared that if Xerxes won, they would lose influence in the state. In Athens and Sparta, the war was considered fair and united all layers of citizens of the polis. Representatives of the Greek city-states, who decided to resist the invasion from Asia to the end, gathered in 481 BC. e. in Corinth, where they formed an alliance led by Sparta. At this meeting, it was decided to meet the Persians on the border of Central and Northern Greece at Thermopylae, where the mountains came close to the seashore, creating a narrow passage convenient for defense, where it was planned to send an army of seven thousand, including 300 Spartans under the command of King Leonidas. Meanwhile, the Persians completed the construction of a canal bypassing Cape Athos and entered Greece. Mardonius led the land forces, while Xerxes took command of the fleet.
When in August 480 BC. e. the hordes of Xerxes approached Thermopylae, 7 thousand Greek hoplites were waiting for them at the pass; The Hellenic fleet, numbering 380 ships, was waiting for the enemy at the northeastern tip of Euboea, near the sacred grove of Artemis. The Greeks could hold the narrow Thermopylae pass indefinitely, but a traitor was found who led the Persians along a secret mountain path bypassing the Hellenic positions. This road was guarded by a thousand hoplites from Phocia, who were taken by surprise and destroyed. Having learned about this, King Leonidas ordered the Greeks to retreat to the south, leaving only a rearguard of 300 Spartans and several hundred Thebans and Thespians, who were supposed to hold the passage until the end. Having learned about the small number of Leonidas’s soldiers, Xerxes invited them to surrender, because in front of them stood an armada so large that it could block the sun for the Spartans with its arrows. King Leonidas replied: “We will fight in the shadows.” The Greeks fought to the last, putting the enemy to flight four times, but by the end of the day all the defenders of Thermopylae were killed. Many Persians died in this battle, including two brothers of Xerxes.
While Leonidas' warriors defended Thermopylae, the Greek fleet fought with Persian ships at Cape Artemisium. But, having learned about the death of the Spartans, the Hellenic ships retreated to the south - the road to Attica was open and there was no point in holding the enemy north of Euboea. Meanwhile, Themistocles evacuated the entire population of Athens to the island of Salamis, and the allied troops occupied the narrow Isthmian Isthmus, which connected the Peloponnese with Attica. The Persians captured and completely destroyed defenseless Athens, which was defended by several hundred old men who had secluded themselves on the Acropolis, and occupied all of Attica. However, the Persians could not move further while they had the Greek fleet in their rear. In the autumn of 480 BC. e. A naval battle took place at Salamis, which decided the outcome of the campaign. Aristides also took part in this battle, and thanks to the amnesty declared by Themistocles, he was able to return to his homeland. On September 27, 380 Greek warships under the command of the Spartan Eurybiades met Xerxes' fleet, which consisted of 1,000 ships, most of which belonged to the Phoenicians and Egyptians. According to Themistocles' plan, the Hellenes lined up their ships in two lines, while the Persians lined up in three lines with small intervals, which made it difficult for them to maneuver during the battle. Having lighter and more mobile ships, the Greeks attacked the enemy, crushed their formations and put them to flight. Xerxes lost over 200 ships, while Euribiades lost only 30. After this, the Persian fleet returned to Asia, but a land army under the command of Mardonius was left in Greece. However, unable to feed his army in deserted and scorched Attica, Mardonius retreated to winter quarters in Thessaly. Here his army was replenished with Thessalians and Macedonians, increasing to 300 thousand people.
In the spring of 479 BC. e. The Persians again invaded Attica. On September 26, the troops of Mardonius clashed with the Greeks near the city of Plataea. The Hellenic troops were commanded by the Spartan Pausanias, but Aristides led the battle. The Persian army of the Persians was completely defeated by three times smaller forces of the Greeks, and Mardonius himself fell on the battlefield.
On the same day, the Greek fleet, which landed troops in Ionia, defeated the Persians at Cape Mycale near Miletus. The next year, the ships of the Hellenes approached the Bosphorus, and the army of Pausanias, punishing Thebes, which served as a stronghold for Mardonia, moving north through Macedonia and Thrace, reached Byzantium. After this, the Spartans returned to their homeland, and the Athenians, along with other allied states, continued fighting against the Persians. Now that the danger of a Persian invasion of Europe had been eliminated once and for all, the Greeks again went on the offensive. They regained control over the straits connecting the Aegean Sea with the Black Sea and began punitive operations against those policies that supported Xerxes.
In 477 BC. e. with the consent of Sparta, allied command of the sea was transferred to Athens. Since the main fighting was carried out by the fleet, this was fair. In addition, the Spartans did not want their army to remain abroad for too long. Thus, the Athenian Maritime Union was formed in Byzantium, which included coastal and island policies, each of which had to field a certain number of ships or buy off this obligation with a large monetary contribution for the construction of ships by the Athenians themselves. The treasury of the alliance was located on the island of Delos, where the second name of this alliance came from - Delian. The commander of the Athenian fleet, the incorruptible Aristides, was unanimously elected as the manager of the allied money. Membership in the Athenian Maritime League was officially voluntary, but cities liberated from Persian garrisons were forced into it. In addition, the Athenians cruelly punished any attempts to leave the alliance. In fact, with the help of the Delian League, Athens began to extend its power to other city-states, gradually displacing Sparta from the first roles in pan-Greek politics.
New times have made unnecessary and sometimes dangerous politicians, through whose efforts Greece was saved from invasion from Asia. In 477 BC. e. Aristide retired, although he still played important role in Athenian politics. Themistocles, who immediately after the expulsion of the Persians from Greece, despite the opposition of Sparta, was able to rebuild the walls around Athens and begin the restoration of the city, gradually lost his influence and in 471 BC. e. was ostracized. After this, he went first to Argos and then to the court of the Persian king Artaxerxes, who made him ruler of Magnesia. A more terrible fate awaited Pausanias. The famous commander, who commanded an army of 100 thousand, reluctantly obeyed the Spartan ephors, considering himself superior to them. He began to wear luxurious Persian clothes, surrounded himself with a real court in the Eastern style, for which he was accused of high treason and connections with the Persians. Fleeing from trial, in 467 BC. e. Pausanias secluded himself in the sanctuary of Athena. But the Spartans walled him up in the temple and doomed him to martyrdom from hunger and thirst.
In Athens, Aristides made his successor the son of Miltiades Cimon, who became famous as a successful commander. Under his command, the allied army and navy captured the coast of Thrace and several islands in the Aegean Sea. In 469 BC. e. in Ionia, Cimon's troops inflicted a major defeat on the Persians at the mouth of the Eurydemont River. After this, the Persian fleet no longer dared to appear in the Aegean Sea, and the Delian League extended its influence to Ionian Greece.
In 465 BC. e. A strong earthquake occurred in Sparta, during which a large number of buildings were destroyed and many Spartans died. The helots took advantage of this and rebelled. Although the rebels were unable to take Sparta, they gained a foothold on Mount Ifoma in Messenia and fought off all attempts to dislodge them from there. The continued existence of Sparta was under threat, and in 463 BC. e. she turned to Athens for help. In Athens, supporters of the democratic party led by Ephialtes, citing Themistocles, proposed not to send troops to help the Spartans, since their weakening would be beneficial to the alliance. But Cimon was able to convince the Athenians to send an army to Sparta and he himself led the expedition.
This was the end of his political career: when, upon the arrival of Cimon’s troops, Mount Itoma could not be taken, the Spartans accused the Athenians of conspiring with the helots and asked them to leave. Upon returning home, Cimon was ostracized, and power passed into the hands of Ephialtes.
Through the efforts of Ephialtes in 462 BC. e. In Athens, a constitutional reform was carried out, which negated the political role of the Areopagus, the supreme court, consisting of representatives of the nobility, which could overturn the decisions of the people's assembly (ekklesia). Now the Areopagus could only be tried for serious criminal offenses, and all of his political functions handed over to the council of five hundred - supreme body people's assembly. Ephialtes intended to continue the democratization of the government of Athens, but in 461 BC. e. he was killed. The killer was never found, and Ephialtes’ place was taken by his associate Pericles.
In 465 BC. e. Xerxes and his eldest son were killed in a palace coup. After a period of unrest and civil strife in 464 BC. e. Artaxerxes came to power and tried to save the collapsing empire. Four years later, a rebellion broke out in Lower Egypt, which was immediately supported by Athens. The Delian League sent troops and a fleet to the Nile Delta, led by Cimon, who had returned from exile. The expedition to Egypt ended unsuccessfully: the Persians surrounded the Greeks on one of the islands in the delta and, after an 18-month siege, forced them to surrender. At the same time, the Persians defeated the Greek flotilla sent to help the Egyptians. More successfully for Athens, the fighting unfolded in Cyprus, occupied by the Phoenicians. In 450 BC. e. The Persian fleet was defeated at the Battle of Salamis in Cyprus, but shortly before this Cimon died during the siege of the Cypriot city of Kitia.
Artaxerxes, realizing the futility of continuing the war, sent a proposal to the Greeks to hold peace negotiations. In 449 BC. e. The Greek embassy, headed by the Athenian Callias, arrived in Susa and signed a peace treaty. According to the Peace of Qadli, Persia pledged not to send its fleet to the Aegean Sea and the straits, recognized the independence of the Greek city-states in Asia Minor, and withdrew its garrisons to a distance of three days' march from the Ionian coast. Athens formally recognized itself as vassals of the Persian king and pledged not to attack Cyprus or help the rebels in Egypt.
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Greece is known to everyone as one of the most developed ancient states. Its inhabitants had to participate in many conflicts with other empires, but the largest among them are considered to be Greco-Persian wars described by Herodotus in his work “History”. What caused the clash between the two strongest powers of that time? How did events develop? You can find out all this and many other interesting facts right now!
Greco-Persian Wars. 499-493 BC e. Ionian revolt
Photo: obm.interfile.site.ruOne of the most common reasons wars are the uprising of oppressed peoples dissatisfied with their situation: high taxes and neglect by the rulers of the empire force ordinary citizens to rebel. They are often supported by all kinds of military units and senior officials.
But the Greco-Persian wars did not simply begin because of an uprising by disgruntled citizens. Here the rulers had a hand, or as they were called at that time - tyrants, who were in fact Persian henchmen. First of all, this is the current head of Miletus - Aristagoras, who quarreled with the closest associates of the Persian Emperor Darius during the unsuccessful campaign against Naxos. Hestia, his cousin, who was in “honorable imprisonment” in the ruler’s palace, also contributed.
Aristagoras feared that the failed campaign would significantly affect his position. The tyrant gathers a military council, where a decision is made to start an uprising against the rule of the Persians. The seeds of war fell into fertile soil: the Ionian Greeks had long been dissatisfied with the huge taxes. The fact that he resigned as a tyrant and proclaimed Miletus a democratic republic also played in Aristogora's favor.
The leader of the rebels was not stupid: he understood that without allies his cause was doomed to failure. In search of comrades-in-arms, he goes to Greece. In Sparta, he receives a categorical refusal: King Cleomenes could not be won over to his side either by bribery or by the promise of rich profit. But the Athenians and Erythrians decided to help the rebels and allocated 25 ships.
Photo: otvet.mail.ru So, the Greco-Persian wars began with the destruction of the richest city in Persia - Sardis. Darius' troops, at that moment moving at full speed towards Miletus, were forced to change the direction of the offensive. There were no longer any rebels in Sardis, but the imperial army managed to overtake them near nearby Ephesus. In the ensuing battle, the rebels suffered a crushing defeat and lost a strategically important ally: the Athenians left the camp and went home. But Darius harbored a grudge against them, which largely became the reason for the continuation of the Greco-Persian wars.
Rebellions against imperial power broke out like wildfire in one city after another. But the Persians were inexorable: successively conquering Cyprus, Propontis, Hellespont, Caria and, finally, Ionia, they brutally dealt with the rebels and eliminated all sources of discontent. Miletus was the last to fall in the Battle of Lada, where, in fact, thoughts about liberation from the oppression of the emperor came from. But this event did not mark the end of the war. Vice versa. The most interesting things were just beginning...
Greco-Persian Wars. 492-490 BC e. Campaigns of Darius I
Photo: pinme.ru The Persian emperor was never able to forgive the Greeks for their participation in the Ionian uprising. The time has come for the inhabitants of the city-policies to defend their freedom - in 492, the army of Darius I crossed the borders of Persia and headed towards Hellas.
The first campaign was more of an expeditionary nature: the king wanted to know the strengths and weaknesses of his enemy. Nevertheless, it was not without the capture and destruction of cities: the Persian army, commanded by Darius’s comrade-in-arms Mardonius, conquered 13 Greek city-states, including Enos and Mirkin. He managed to capture Thrace and Macedonia, forcing Alexander the Great into an alliance with the Persians, but after an attack on the island of Thassos, the commander’s luck turned away: the fleet at Cape Athos was overtaken by a storm, as if Poseidon himself, heeding the prayers of the Greeks, sent misfortune to their opponents. The land army was defeated by the Brigs, a warlike tribe living in the area.
Mardonius himself was wounded in battle and fell out of favor. The king of the Persians, having made up for his losses, again gathered an army in 490 and sent it to Greece. This time he has two commanders: the Lydian Artaphernes leads the Persians on the sea, and the Mede Datis leads the Persians on land.
Soldiers sweep through Naxos like a hurricane, punishing the inhabitants for the recently raised uprising, besiege Eritrea and after 6 long months enter the city, set it on fire and plunder it, avenging the devastated Sardis. And they rush to Attica, crossing the Euripus Strait.
Greco-Persian Wars. 490 BC e. Marathon Battle
Photo: godsbay.ru 490 BC: Athens is in great danger. The Persians, having dealt with the uprisings in their own territories, began to attack their allies. A large army gathered on the Marathon plain, threatening the freedom of the Hellenes.
The location was not chosen by chance: the Persian cavalry, as the main striking force, could operate as efficiently as possible in such conditions. The Athenians, having asked for help from their allies (of which, however, only the inhabitants of Plataea decided to help; the Spartans, citing a divine holiday, did not appear on the battlefield), also settled down near Marathon.
Of course, it was possible to hide behind the city walls, but the fortifications of Athens were not very reliable. And the Hellenes were afraid of betrayal, like what happened in Eritrea, where the eminent citizens Philagrus and Euphorbus opened the gates of the city to the Persians.
The Athenians took a rather advantageous position: the height of Pentelikon, blocking the passage to the city. The question arose about further strategy. The opinion of the members of the military council, headed by Callimachus, was divided. But the most gifted and talented strategist, Miltiades, managed to convince everyone to go on the offensive. The tactics for further actions were developed by him.
Photo: wallpaper.feodosia.net The Persians decided to avoid battle and moved towards the ships, intending to leave the Marathon field and land near Athens in the town of Falera. But after half of the armed Persian soldiers had already boarded the ships, the combined forces of the Greeks dealt a crushing blow: during the battle that took place in 490 BC. e., on September 12, about 6,400 Persians and only 192 Hellenes were killed.
The Persians set out to attack Athens, which seemed unprotected. But Maltiades sent a messenger, who, according to legend, ran 42 kilometers and 195 meters without stopping to report a grandiose victory and warn the city residents about a possible attack. This distance, currently included in the program of the Olympic Games, is called the marathon.
The commander himself and his army also quickly reached the city. The Persians, making sure that Athens was well protected, were forced to return to their homeland. Darius's punitive campaign failed. And a further attack on the Greeks remained just plans: a much more dangerous rebellion was brewing in Egypt.
Greco-Persian Wars. 480-479 BC e. Campaign of Xerxes
Photo: pozdravimov.ru Darius I died without taking revenge on the Greek offenders. But his successor Xerxes was not satisfied with this state of affairs. The suppression of the Egyptian uprising did not exhaust the enormous resources of Persia, which was at the peak of its power: it was decided to continue what Darius had started and capture rebellious Greece. Xerxes began to gather armies of conquered peoples under his banners.
But the Greeks also did not sit idle. On the initiative of the far-sighted politician Themistocles, the Athenians create a powerful fleet, and also hold a congress, where representatives of 30 Greek city-states are present. At this event, the Hellenes agree to act together against a common enemy. The army assembled by the Greeks is indeed very powerful: the well-armed Athenian fleet, which also includes ships sent by Aegina and Corinth, under the command of Eurybiades, a native of Sparta, is a formidable force at sea, and its warlike brethren, with the support of its allies, must resist the enemy's ground forces.
The Greeks had to prevent the advance of Xerxes' troops deep into Hellas at any cost. This could only be done by placing soldiers in the narrow gorge of Thermopylae and barricading the strait with ships near Artemisium, the cape next to which the path to Athens lay.
Photo: worldunique.ru Two battles: the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Artemisium ended unsuccessfully for the Greeks. The most famous event of the first is the death of 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas, who heroically defended the narrow passage. The Greeks might have survived in the gorge if not for the betrayal of the inhabitants, so characteristic of those times. Following the defeat on land was the retreat of the fleet. The Persians fought their way to Athens.
Thanks to the cunning of Themistocles, the Athenian orator, and the shortsightedness of the Persian king, the next battle between the opponents took place in the narrow straits near the island of Salamis. Here luck was on the side of the Greeks.
However, in 479 the Persians managed to occupy Athens (the inhabitants were evacuated to Salamis). However, not for long: in the Battle of Palatei they again lost their advantage, this time completely. The Greco-Persian wars were effectively over.
However, everything is not as simple as it seems at first glance. The Hellenes, having gained an advantage, began to advance into Persian territory. The Greeks were able to conquer vast territories and even reach the most troubled province that was part of the enemy empire - Egypt. The conflict will finally end only in 449 BC. e., 50 years after the events began. But this is a completely different story, and we will tell it next time...
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