Greek Success: The Persian Wars

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The Greek Success Over Persia The Persian Wars were fought from 492 to 449 B.C. The most intensive fighting occurred during two invasions when Persia attacked mainland Greece between 490 and 479 B.C. The Persian Empire was at its most powerful, but in truth the combined Greek defense against Persia overcame impossible odds (Encyclopedia Britannica). With this in mind, we must examine the events that led up to and took place during the Persian wars in order to understand how the Greek city-states defeated the powerful Persian army. Prior to 522 B.C., King Cyrus II and Cambyses II expanded Persia from the Indus River to the Mediterranean Sea. The Persian expansion eventually grew to include small Greek city-states in the Aegean Sea, the …show more content…

Persian troops traveled across the Aegean Sea and landed in Naxos. They destroyed Naxos for its resistance in 499 B.C. and then went on to destroy Eretria. Athens hated the idea of tyranny being reinstated and were determined not to submit to the Persian forces. Instead the Athenians confronted the Persian at Marathon. Athens requested help from Sparta, but Sparta could not march until their religious observation was over. The only troops to aid Athens came from Plataea. The Persian troops were enormous in number compared to the Athenian and Plataean contingent. The Athenian commanders felt a tremendous pressure to succeed because they feared the imbalance in forces might convince the assembly to surrender or the oligarchic sympathizers to make a deal with Darius. The Greek commanders, led by Miltiades, decided to change their strategy. They thinned out their center line of soldiers and put more men on the outer sides. The plan was to minimize the amount of time their soldiers would be exposed to the Persian archers. They sent their hoplites in a run at the Persian troops. Once in a hand to hand combat, the heavily armed Athenians would be on equal ground with the …show more content…

The Greeks overcame their opponents a result of their longer weapons (a steel tipped spear) and superior armor. They donned leather breastplates covered with bronze, skirts of leather strips, thick belts, and bronze helmets that covered their cheeks and nose. Along with the spear, they carried a short sword and a bronze shield. The Persians relied on the bow and arrow. Most of their soldiers wore no armor and for close combat they had daggers or short spears. The men placed at the sides of the Greek line closed in on the Persians and they were able to turn inward to take over the Persian center. The Greeks drove the Persians back into a swamp where they could not flee and killed them one by one. The Greeks quickly headed to Athens to guard the city against the Persians. Subsequently, the Persian sailed home

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