Persian+Invasion+of+Greece

by David** You may have heard the story of 300 Spartans who gave their lives to defend their country. You may have heard the story of the Athenian soldiers that defeated an army over twice their size... twice. The Persian invasion of Greece is a great story that contains even greater stories. Darius, a cruel king who is looking to control Europe, turned his eye and his entire empire on the small country of Greece. The people of Greece however were not going to give in to the Persians in a million years. After Athens sent back Darius his son Xerces returns with 3 times as many soldiers and once again they run home after Athens, Sparta and many other Cities in Greece fight them off. The first Persian invasion of Greece was lead by Darius who believed himself more than a king, closer to a God and he wanted control over all of Europe starting with Greece. He had a Persian puppet at every city in Ionia and was a cruel king to his people. He had the Ionians paying high taxes and getting nothing in return. Some of the Cities controlled by Persia mainly Ionian rebelled and over threw the Persians controlling their town then teamed up to form a rebellion. Aristagoras, leader of the rebellion went to Greece to try and get some help. Aristagoras asked Sparta to help them destroy a large tradeport for the Persian Empire Sardis. Sparta did not help them because they thought it would not be reasonable to put their army on ships and take a 3 month journey away while Darius was around. Athens however did join the rebellion and they burned Sardis to the ground. Darius was furious. He heard Athens was partially responsible and swore to crush the City state. Darius tortured the Ionian cities and kidnapped many of their children. When Darius sent his army to attack Athens they landed some 20 miles away on the field of Marathon. Some Hoplites and soldiers from cities near Athens joined them but the Persians still greatly outnumbered them. The two armies faced each other many days neither wanting to attack first. Athens saw an opportunityt to attack and charged. They made their lines wide but then to keep from getting flanked and sprinted as fast as they could from where they were in arrow range to the enemy, to keep from getting shot down. They were far better at warfare then the persians and caught them in a pincer attack causing the persians to flee back to their ship or the swamp where they drowned or were cut down by the Greeks in pursuit. Over 6,000 Persians died when only 192 Athenians did. Darius went back to Persia but swore he would get revenge. The Persians took 10 years before they returned to Greece and in that time Darius died but his son, Xerces took up the crown and formed a massive army to attack Greece. His army had around 1,000,000 men including sailors and cavalry. Xerces thought taking Greek would be simple with so many men. An Athenian council man Themistocles predicted the Persians would return so he had Athens build a huge fleet to prepare. When Xerces got to Greece with his army most of the city states surrendered due to the sheer size of the army However, some Cities did not surrender, including Athens and Sparta. Sparta and Athens, who were leading the Greeks that were fighting the Persians, had a plan to unite all of the Greek navy and destroy the Persian fleet cutting off supplies. King Leonidas of Sparta in order to hold of the Persians long enough to unite the navy, lead a small group of Greeks to hold Thermopylae also known as the gates of fire. Among Leonidas was only his 300 personal gaurd and some hoplites and men from smaller cities near the area. All together there was only 7,000 of them and Xerces was marching around 300,000 Persian soldiers through Thermoplyae. Leonidas and his small army held out for 3 days because the Persian could only come a few at a time through the small passages through the gates of fire and Leonidas's Spartans would just cut them down. The third day Xerces bribed a Greek to show him a secret path that came around from behind the small army. Leonidas found out they were going to surround and defeat them so he told the army to leave but him and his 300 Spartans stayed and fought until all of their spears were broken then the made a stand with just their shields and swords until the Persians showered them with arrows. After the three days the body count for the Persians was almost 20,000 dead. Athens formed up their navy fleet of 340 ships inside of the strain between Salamis and Attica. 600 Persian ships went into the strait and the Greek ships rammed the Persian's and they started banging into eachother. The Persian ships were in chaos trying to retreat from the strait with not enough room between eachother and the greeks kept charging them with their ramming ships. The strait ran red with Persian blood as the Greeks demolished Xerces army. Xerces knew he was not safe in Greece anymore so he left his son with 150,000 men to finish taking Greece. However Xerces again underestimated the Greeks and they sent the Persians running for their lives never to try to take Greece again. I am amazed at how valiantly the Greeks defended their country. The Greeks were outnumbered in about every single battle with the Persians yet still they never lost their country to the Persian empire. My research i have done on this subject has been very interesting. It is weird to try to think of how different the world might be if Athens would have surrendered or if Leonidas had not been brave enough to hold his ground and fight to the death against hundreds of thousands of soldiers. I think the world has learned a lot from this story like to never underestimate your enemy and to not give up something you really care about no matter how hopeless the situations appears. WORK CITED [|http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/History/hakhamaneshian/mara] [|thon.htm] Thomas Setzer, the battle of marathon(2009)
 * __[[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/i/c.gif width="22" height="22" caption="Underline"]]The First and Second Persian Invasion of Greece__

[] Thomas Setzer, Persian Invasion of Greece (2009) CIAS

[] See P. Green, ​//Xerxes at Salamis//​ (1970).

Don Nardo, History of the Ancient Greeks(pages 35-47); Men of Marathon(2004)