Miller 1
Sydney Miller
Brenda Pennington
Ancient World History
Friday, April 26
th
, 2019
The Greco- Persian War
The conflict between Greece and Persia will go down as one of the most well known in
European history. (Green) Greece was a gold mine for power and trade that many empires
wanted to conquer, and it was at this time that the Persian Empire was one of the largest empires,
that set their eyes on Europe as their next conquer. It wasn’t until 499 B.C. when the Greek city
state Ionia, that had been conquered by Persian leader Cyrus the Great, rebelled from Persian
rule that the conflicts between the two empires turned into what would later be known as the
Greco- Persian War. The war consisted of two main invasions and numerous battles from 429
B.C. to 449 B.C. The first invasion being led by Darius and the second invasion being led by
Xerxes, Darius’s oldest son. This war was a turning point in history, that also had a lasting effect
on both empires.
During this time Persia was one of the largest empires, expanding from Asia Minor to
present day Afghanistan and into Egypt and Mesopotamia. It was under the rule of the third
Persian king, Darius, that Persia was expanding into Europe with their first conquer being the
Greek city state of Ionia. Darius thought this would be the beginning of their expansion into
Europe but instead Ionia was hard to control and instead revolted. The exiled tyrant of Miletus,
Arisagoras, ordered the Persian revolt not knowing it would lead to five years of several bloody
wars. (Debattista) When Ionia revolted, they seeked alliance from other Greek city states.
Although Sparta refused to ally with them, Athens promised to send 20 ships, and Eretria sent
five ships.
(Debattista) Darius was furious with Athens for their alliance with Ionia and wanted
to punish them for their support and burn the city to the ground. The Battle of Marathon fought
Miller 2
on the Marathon plain in 490 B.C. marked the start of the Greco- Persian War. Datis, the Persian
commander, led the 90,000 strong Persian army to battle, meanwhile the Greek forces made up
of a total of 10,000- 20,000 men, mostly made up of Athenian forces. (Cartwright) The Persians
yet outnumbered were still confident. They were able to weaken the Greek center back, yet the
Greeks were got the upper hand on both flank sides pushing them back to their ships. The
Persians tactics had failed, and their cavalry was useless. As the Persian army flee back to their
ships the battle continued and the Greeks were able to capture seven Persian ships. (Cartwright)
