Greece's Victory In The Greco-Persian War

Using this passage as a starting point, discuss whether Athens or Sparta played a more important role in the beginning of the Persian Wars, up to Xerxes’ invasion in 480 BC. The ancient Greek city-states of Athens, a rising naval force, and Sparta, a formidable land power, were the two most powerful and influential in the 5th century BC. Both played significant roles in the Persian Wars, the major conflict between the Persians and the Greeks, 499-449 BC, as well as the events leading up to it. This essay will analyse the preliminary stages of the Persian Wars using historical sources such as the ‘Histories’ of Herodotus to provide a detailed understanding of all facets of their respective contributions, and determine which city-state played

It is this arrogance and poor insight from the Persian leaders that added to a Greek victory.

It is unclear how it started. One theory is that the Greeks believed the Persians were loading their ships to sail up the coast to Athens and the Greeks attacked to prevent this. Another theory is the Persians attacked the Greeks which was followed by an immediate Greek counter attack XIII.) The Main reason the Greeks were able to defeat the Persians were their ability to protect themselves from the arrows launched by the Persian archers. The tight knit Greek battle formation known as the phalanx involved soldiers locking shields together for protection.

The Greeks showed more unity during the Second Persian War. Xerxes assembled a Persian army including soldiers from all parts of the Eastern world in order to

     After the Persian wars there was a development of Athenian control over the commercial and economic life of Greece. This growth was caused by the Persian wars themselves. Athens faced a mighty foe in Persia and therefore formed the Delian League. This league was an alliance of cities based around Athens. Each city contributed funds to the construction and maintenance of a vast navy for use against the Persian threat. After the wars Athens dominated the Delian league and declared the contributions from each city mandatory even though the Persian menace was gone. Over time these “allied” cities came under direct Athenian control and the Athenian Empire began to grow. The large navy was still maintained after the war and Athens, already a naval power in the region tightened its grip on the neighboring waters including those that surrounded the peloponnese. This had the effect of enclosing Sparta’s peninsula in a blanket of Athenian naval power. To the Spartans this development was one of considerable worry. The historian Thucydides wrote; “The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired (in Sparta), made war inevitable.” This comment validates the seriousness of Spartan worry and its contribution to the sparking of the peloponnesian war. Sparta’s geography left it vulnerable in some ways. The

There are times in history that something will happen and it will defy all logic. It was one of those times when a few Greek city/states joined together and defeated the invasion force of the massive Persian Empire. The Greeks were able to win the Greco-Persian War because of their naval victories over the Persians, a few key strategic victories on land, as well as the cause for which they were fighting. The naval victories were the most important contribution to the overall success against the Persians. The Persian fleet was protecting the land forces from being outflanked and after they were defeated the longer had that protection. While the Greeks had very few overall victories in battle they

Sparta was also a contributor to the defeat of the Persians. They were renowned for their great military strength and discipline on land. This gave fear to everyone who was facing the Spartans. In the battle at Marathon, the Persians had to attack soon, knowing that if they didn?t, the superior Spartan warriors would arrive. This fear forced the Persians to hurry their operations, which was why the cavalry was sent off by ships to attack Athens and allowed the Athenians to win at Marathon. The battle at Thermopylae was also another contribution to the war. The Spartans, along with the other Greeks were able to hold off the Persians, but when the enemy found a secret passage around the mountain, many of the Greeks retreated, except for the

Moreover, in the Battle of Thermopylae, Persian forces led by Xerxes outnumbered the Greeks yet again. However, the militant Spartans took up arms and were able to defeat the large Persian army. Thermopylae allowed the Greek forces to come up with various tactics and strategies in order to defeat Persia. Next, the Battle of Salamis was a naval battle between several Greek city-states and Persia. This battle forms the turning point of the Greco-Persian Wars since it ultimately “saved Greece from being absorbed into the Persian Empire and ensured the emergence of Western civilization as a major force in the world.” The ending of the Battle of Salamis left the Persian army trapped in Greece, which paves the way for the final battle of the war, the Battle of Platea. In the battle, the “Greek army came and defeated the weakened Persians, the Persian Wars were over”. The mark of the ending of the Greco-Persian wars gave way to Athens arising from the ashes as the dominant and central city-state of Greece, which then provides political and cultural advancements during its golden age.

The Persian Wars were a series of destructive and malevolent battles which occurred in the time frame of 490B.C and 480 – 479B.C. The Greek victory over the Persians in the Persian Wars cannot be attributed to only one factor, more it was a commixture of factors. Such factors include unity, leadership, strategy, tactics and the pre-eminence of the Greek soldier. Each contributing factor was to play a distinctive and pivotal role in the various battles to come, which ultimately would lead to the subsequent demise of the Persians.

The Persian Wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Greek states and the Persian Empire from 500-449 BC. It started in 500 BC, when a few Greek city-states on the coast of Asia Minor, who were under the control of the Persian Empire, revolted against the despotic rule of the Persian king Darius. Athens and Eretria in Euboea gave aid to these Greek cities but not enough, and they were subdued by the Persians. The Persians became determined to conquer Hellas and make Athens and Eretria pay for helping the Ionian cities. In 492 BC, the first Persian invasion had its fleet crippled by a storm before it could do any damage. King Darius sent another Persian expedition in 490 which destroyed

In early fifth century BC Greece, the Greeks consistently suffered from the threat of being conquered by the Persian Empire. Between the years 500-479 BC, the Greeks and the Persians fought two wars. Although the Persian power vastly surpassed the Greeks, the Greeks unexpectedly triumphed. In this Goliath versus David scenario, the Greeks as the underdog, defeated the Persians due to their heroic action, divine support, and Greek unity. The threat of the Persian Empire's expansion into Greece and the imminent possibility that they would lose their freedom and become subservient to the Persians, so horrified the Greeks that they united together and risked their lives in order to preserve the one thing they all shared in common, their

The Persians tried to conquer Greece, so Athens and Sparta cooperated to defeat Persia. Darius, the Persian King, and his troops fought at Marathon and Persia lost. After Darius died, his son Xerxes attacked. At the beginning, it seemed that Persia won, but then, Greece attacked and won. This victory proved that the union makes

The Greeks closest to the Persian Empire after the war created the Delian League to protect them from the Persians. The Greeks chose the Athenians to lead them. The Spartans were originally asked to lead them, but the kind was very arrogant, so they retracted their offer. The Spartans then created the Peloponnesian League because they didn’t think the Athenians should lead the Delian League because they were getting too much credit for defeating the Persians in the war. The two leagues didn’t get along at all. This rivalry eventually turned into the Peloponnesian War. This war went on for about 30 years. After the war, the government changed in Athens.

The Persians wanted to conquer the Greeks after the Greeks were allies to Aristogoras. Darius, the king of Persia, started to send agents to determine any potential allies in the Greek city-states. They found Argos and supplied the with men and money to get the job done. They failed as Spartans sliced and diced every soldier, as shown in the movie “300.” Spartans always came out on top due to their aggressive and “perfect” military. Athens had their entire fleet destroyed and were controlled by Sparta from there on

The Peloponnesian war was fought between the two city states in ancient Greece, being Athens and Sparta. These two cities had alliances that, between them, included close to every Greek city-state. The Peloponnesian war was inevitable because Athens was too hungry for power, and tried to take total control of Greece. Athens’s growth in military and economic power led to the beginning of a bloody war.