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Greco-Persian Wars - 516-449 BC

The conflict between these two powers, Greek and Persian, if reckoned from the time at which Cyrus appeared in Asia Minor, taking Sanies (516 BC) and subjecting Greek cities, lasted nearly a century. Of course the larger conflict, that between Europe and Asia, had begun much earlier (Homer's Iliad is based upon it, when fully seen into), and has lasted much longer, even unto the present day.

Cyrus (Kyros), a Persian nobleman and grandson of King Astyages, at the head of his discontented fellow-citizens, dethroned his grandfather, who (as some report) had intended to kill Cyrus immediately after his birth. He conquered Media, Armenia and Cappadocia, thereby becoming the neighbor of the powerful Croesus, king of Lydia. The latter, whose riches became proverbial, made war on Cyrus, being brother-in-law of Astyages, but his capital, Sardes, was captured after a short siege, and he himself taken prisoner (548 BC).

Xenophon, ancient Greek historian and general [b. Athens, about 434 BC; d. Corinth, about 355 BC] lived during a period in which the greatest political and intellectual excitement existed at Athens, and in which the most distinguished men, of whom he was one, appeared on the stage. Xenophon was a disciple of Socrates. He was said to have fought with his teacher in the Peloponnesian war, and to have had his life saved by Socrates in the battle of Delium (424 BC), but this is not now accepted.

When the Persian prince, Cyrus the Younger contended with his elder brother Artaxerxes Mcmnon for the throne, the Lacedaemonians sent him auxiliaries, among whom Xenophon served as a volunteer. Cyrus was defeated and lost his life on the field of Cunaxa (401 BC). The principal officers of the auxiliary army having been likewise killed in battle, or taken prisoners by artifice, and then put to death, Xenophon was apparently selected to command the Greek forces, 10,000 men strong. They were in a most critical situation, in the midst of a hostile country, without cavalry, surrounded by enemies and innumerable difficulties; but Xenophon was able to inspire them with confidence, to repress insubordination, and to lead them in their return march of 1,500 miles to the Black Sea. Xenophon himself has described this retreat, and at the same time the whole expedition of the younger Cyrus, in his 'Anabasis,' the most famous of military narratives. There is no means of verifying the statements of this work.

The son and successor of Cyrus, Cambyses, conquered Egypt. After Cambyses was killed in battle, Darius, son of the Governor Hystaspes, was elected by lot to succeed him. Darius subjugated several countries, e. g. Thracia and Macedonia. The Greeks in Asia Minor, who bore the Persian yoke with indignation, attempted to liberate themselves. They rose against Darius, Aristagoras, governor of Milet, being at the head of the revolt, expelled their tyrants, and gave all cities republican forms of government. But it seemed to them to be necessary, in their dangerous undertaking, to ally themselves also with the European Greeks. Aristagoras first applied to the Spartans for assistance, but it was refused.

Darius Hystaspes, after having conquered Macedonia, longed for the possession also of beautiful Greece. He soon found pretexts for war. Darius ordered the Athenians to reinstate the expelled tyrant, Hippias; they refused to do so, and demanded that he should be delivered up to them instead. Besides, as the Greeks in Asia Minor had revolted against Darius, they assisted them. Hippias, too, excited the king to take vengeance. Consequently Darius was the more determined to wage war against Athens, and even against the whole of Greece. He began war by sea and by land (492 BC), but his fleet was wrecked in a storm in doubling the promontory of Athos (Capo Santo), and his land forces also were beaten by the Thracians in small fights.

Darius, nevertheless, did not give up his purpose of war, but armed again; at the same time he dispatched heralds to the different Grecian States demanding earth and water as an acknowledgment of their submission. Several States sent him this tribute; but the Athenians threw the heralds into ditches and wells, saying: "Get your earth and water there!" Nor did they fare any better at Sparta.

This enraged Darius. He sent a still greater army (500,000 men, as some report), and a fleet of six hundred ships. Hippias was also with the Persian troops. They carried chains and a huge marble block—the former to be used in taking the Athenians in fetters to the king, the latter to be erected as a trophy in the conquered land. The fleet sailed first to the island of Euboea, where was the hated town of Eretria, which, in the sedition of the Asiatic Greeks, had conspired with the Athenians. It was taken by storm, pillaged, and burned down, and the inhabitants were carried off as slaves to the interior of the Persian empire. The enemy overrun Attica.

Marathon

Athens called on the Grecian States for help, but the Spartans lingered because superstition did not allow them to set out before full-moon, and the other States refused aid entirely. Plataeas, only, sent one thousand men. Athens armed nine thousand citizens and the slaves. According to the advice of Miltiades it was resolved to attack the enemy in open battle. The other nine generals also offered him their right of command, in which they succeeded each other in regular rotation day by day. One of these generals was Aristides. The Athenians were encamped on the plain of Marathon, opposite the enemies. Though much inferior to them in numbers, they were well drilled in arms, and led by excellent chiefs. They were inspired with love of their country and of liberty, and glowing with hate against the servants of the despot. On the other hand, the Persians were forced to fight in a foreign country, without courage and experience in war.

Miltiades put his army at the foot of the mountains in battle array; he distributed his main forces on both wings, and the slaves in the center. Then he gave the signal for the attack (490 BC) The Greeks, according to his order, rapidly ran towards the enemy. Their impetuosity terrified the latter; they broke through the two wings of the Persians, and then attacked the main corps, which had already compelled the slaves to yield, and put the enemy to flight. The retreating Persians were pursued and harassed until they reached their ships, seven of which were burned. Among the killed was Hippias; his hope to see Athens in the fetters of bondage was now frustrated. The whole Persian camp, with all its treasures, became the spoil of the victors. Never was the joy over a victory greater. While the victorious army pursued the Persians, a courier, covered with blood and dust, hurried to Athens, crying to the citizens, " Rejoice, we have gained the victory!" and fell down lifeless.

The Persians then endeavored to surprise Athens, but Miltiades got the start of them, and already stood in arms before the city when they approached it. Frightened, they hastened back to Asia in their ships. The day after the battle the Spartans arrived, looked over the battle-field, the conquered spoils, and returned, ashamed, to their homes. The Athenians buried their dead fellow-citizens in the most solemn manner, and erected beautiful monuments over their graves. They especially honored Miltiades, the hero of the day. The whole people received their savior with shouts of joy, and his glory was rendered immortal in a large, skillfully-wrought painting, which, in several divisions, represented the course of the battle. For a long time the Athenians celebrated the glorious day with solemn processions and sacrifices. Later, they engaged Phidias to sculpture, from that marble block of the enemies, a statue of the goddess Nemesis, the avenger of human insolence, and raised it on the field of battle.

Soon after the battle, Miltiades learned of the ingratitude of his fellow-citizens. He had asked a fleet to chastise the islands which had betrayed the common cause. His attack on the island of Paros failed. He returned wounded, and was accused of having been bribed by Darius. His brother defended him at court, where, though acquitted from the capital charge, he was condemned to pay the expenses the armament of the fleet had caused. As he was unable to immediately pay the necessary sum, he was thrown into prison, where he, as some report, died of the wounds he had received at Paros.

Aristides, who had materially contributed to the victory of Marathon, was also rewarded with ingratitude. By his stern integrity in judicial decisions, he had acquired high authority, and the surname of the "Just." The young Themistocles, jealous of his public power, opposed him, and succeeded, by ostracism, in having him banished for ten years. During the voting (as they say), an ignorant man who did not know how to write, brought his shell to Aristides, whom he did not know, requesting that he would write the name of Aristides upon it. "Why, what harm has Aristides ever done you?" said he. "No harm at all," answered the citizen; "but I cannot bear to hear him continually called the 'Just.'" Aristides smiled, and taking the shell, wrote his name on it. He submitted calmly to the unjust decree of the people, saying: "I pray the gods not to permit that the Athenians ever have reason to remember me." His love of justice, among numerous instances, may be illustrated by the following: Once, in a lawsuit, the plaintiff reminded him of the injury Aristides himself had suffered from the adversary; but Aristides replied: "Tell me only what wrong your adversary has done to you, for now I am not my, but your judge."

Darius could not forget the ignominy he suffered. He commenced new, immense armaments, and after his death his son, Xerxes, continued them. He declared that all nations of his great monarchy must take part in the war against Greece. Thus it happened that the retinue of sutlers, slaves, women and children included, about two millions of people, took the field. But among them were only 10,000 of choice troops. The fleet consisted of 1,200 galleys of war, besides 3,000 transports and smaller vessels.

The Grecian States saw the approaching tempest; nevertheless, they were at variance among themselves. Athens and Sparta desired a general alliance; but some held aloof by a warning of the oracle; others, through a fear of the king of the Persians; some even already paid him homage. At this crisis, Themistocles saved Greece. While yet a boy, he showed such rare faculties that his teachers said that he was destined to become either the blessing or the curse of his native town. Instead of being fond of playing, like other boys, he delivered extempore speeches, in which he impeached or defended his playmates. Nothing in instruction interested him so much as matters which concerned the State. While in a merry company at one time he was taunted because he did not know how to play the lyre. "Well," replied he, proudly, "I do not know how to sing and play; still I think I know the art of rendering a State famous and great." The glory of Miltiades excited his ambition so that he admitted to his friends that the trophy of that hero did not let him sleep. This man foresaw the war with the Persian kings; therefore he had induced the Athenians to build betimes a large fleet. Now he reconciled the discordant States, and, in the congress of the Greeks, at Corinth, he inspired them for vigorous resistance.

Thermopylae

Meanwhile the masses of the hostile army arrived at the Hellespont, with Xerxes himself at their head. A bridge of boats was built over the straits by his order, and as a storm destroyed it, a new one was constructed. A passage was then effected, which is said to have lasted seven days and seven nights. The fleet followed the land forces. The enemies were scattered over Thracia and Thessalia, as far as the narrow mountain pass of Thermopylae, the key of Greece. Here, where mountains and morasses only permitted a narrow passage, Leonidas, king of Sparta, had encamped with eight thousand Greeks (for Sparta at that time still had the leadership of the Grecian states, 480 B. C.) The Grecian fleet was cruising in the neighboring ocean.

The Spartans adorned themselves, as they were accustomed to do before a battle, braided their long hair, and performed sportive combats. The Persian king, to whom a scout reported the news of this occupation, was much astonished. He commanded Leonidas to deliver up his arms, who sent him this answer: "Come and take them." Xerxes waited four days more in the hope of seeing the Greeks retreat of their own accord; finally, on the fifth he commenced an attack. All captured Greeks were to be brought alive into his presence. The Greeks, in close rows, and covered with great shields, stretched their long pikes towards the Persians. All attacks failed; the enemies fought till evening, but finally withdrew with great loss.

The corps of the ten thousands, called the Immortals, marched on to their place; but after a murderous contest, they also were forced to yield. The next day there was a new combat, and the same result. The hirelings refused to fight longer; they were driven with lashes into the narrows. Xerxes already despaired of the possibility of gaining the victory, when a wretch, whose name was Ephialtes, betrayed to him the by-path which led over the mountains. Forthwith he dispatched the corps of the immortals. These found but a feeble resistance on their march, and assailed Leonidas in the rear. The latter sent the army of the allies back, retaining only his three hundred Spartans; with these he resolved to die. One thousand Thespians and Thebans remained, by their own choice, with him. All adorned and armed themselves, and cheerfully took their last meal.

"The next repast," said Leonidas, "we shall take in the nether world." The next morning he advanced to the wider part of the valley. His small troop fights with the courage of lions. They make dreadful havoc among their enemies. Two brothers of Xerxes were slain. After the spears of the heroes were shivered to pieces, they still fight with swords. Leonidas at their head, is one of the first to fall. A furious combat takes place over his corpse. The Persians, who desire to secure it, are four times repelled; at last the Greeks get possession of the dear treasure, and hold it till the troop which Ephialtes guides, assails them from the rear. The faithless Thebans, too, desert to the enemies; but the Spartans and Thespians retreat, fighting, to a hill where they still defend themselves, till the last man falls. Later, the place where the heroes had died for their country was marked by the simple epitaph: "Go, passenger, and tell Lacedaemon that we died here in obedience to her laws." A lion of stone pointed out the spot in the defile where Leonidas had expired. Ephialtes did not escape his deserved reward. The Amphictyons offered a prize for his head, and when he took to flight he was killed.

The battle at Thermopylae had caused Xerxes the loss of 20,000 men; it was small for him, but it raised the enthusiasm of the Greeks so much higher. His troops poured down upon Hellas and laid it waste by fire and sword. The people of the Peloponnesus abandoned Athens and the other Greeks to their fate, and intrenched themselves behind the isthmus of Corinth. In this forlorn condition the Athenians consulted the oracle of Delphi; they received the ambiguous answer that Athens must seek shelter behind wooden walls. Themistocles, who had caused the priestess to dictate this reply of the oracle, persuaded his fellow-citizens that by the wooden walls their ships were understood. At his advice, therefore, they left the city, and gave it up with their goods to the enemies. All men who were able to bear arms, betook themselves to the ships; the old men, women and children took refuge in the neighboring islands. Xerxes pillaged and burned the empty town.

Salamis

The Grecian fleet, which meanwhile had gloriously fought at Artemisium (on the northern end of Euboea), and then had sailed to the straits of Salamis (opposite Athens), desired to depart from this place now in order to defend the Peloponnesus. Themistocles explained how unwise this plan was, and advised the Greeks to remain. In the heat of the dispute which ensued between the commanders, Eurybiades, commander-in-chief, lifted his cane against him; but Themistocles cried: "No matter, strike; but hear me!" When he threatened that the Athenians, whose ships composed nearly half the fleet, would leave it, and expose the allies to destruction, his advice finally was accepted.

But, as they understood that the Persian fleet was approaching, this resolution would have been disregarded if he had not used a stratagem, viz., he disclosed to Xerxes the design of the Greeks to leave the bay, and advised him to surround them in the night, because he could in this manner easily vanquish them. The king, consenting, was thus ensnared. Xerxes enclosed the bay and immediately made the necessary preparations for the battle. Aristides, who lived exiled in ^Egina, first observed the movement of the enemies. He forgot all of his personal enmity, and, at the risk of his life, hastened through the hostile ships to Themistocles, reported to him what he had seen, and offered to serve under his orders. The proposal was readily accepted.

At daybreak, Xerxes gave the signal for the battle; it began. Themistocles made a courageous attack with the fleet of the Athenians. Only a few of the clumsy Persian ships could fight together in the narrow bay. The wind, which had risen during the night, dashed them against one another, or drove them against rocks and cliffs, where they foundered. The Grecian ships entered between them from all sides, and sank them or made them useless for combat. Confusion and disorder spread among the enemies, and in the midst of the combat the Asiatic Greeks, too, deserted to their brothers. The Grecian fleet, though only composed of 380 sails, gained a complete victory (480 BC).

Xerxes, confounded by the defeat of his fleet, ordered it to set out immediately for the Hellespont, and followed it with the larger portion of the land forces, which, on their retreat, were still more reduced by disease and want of provisions. Only Mardonius, with 300,000 men, remained in Thessalia.

Greece acknowledged that it owed its safety chiefly to Themistocles. For that reason the Spartans carried him in triumph into their capital, adorned him with an olive-branch, presented to him the finest chariot they possessed, and sent the royal body-guard to escort him as far as their boundaries. As the Olympian games were celebrated soon after, all who were present rose before him, and he was the subject of such general admiration, on account of his dignified appearance, that the people entirely forgot the combats. Themistocles declared this day to have been the most grateful of his life.

Battle at Platsese

The returning spring of 479 BC called the Greeks to the last combat against the Persians. First, Mardonius endeavored to induce the Athenians to desert the allies, promising, in the name of his king, to enlarge their territory considerably, if they would enter into a confederation with him. But all artifices of Mardonius were baffled by the faithfulness of Aristides, who, after his glorious conduct at Salamis, had been recalled, and, at that time, was first Archon. The Athenians, upon his advice, answered that they would fight the Persian king as long as the sun moved in its accustomed course. They promulgated the direst imprecations against whoever should make a proposition to unite with the Persians.

When Mardonius saw that his proposals were rejected, he invaded the territory of the Athenians and laid it waste. Shamefully forsaken by the Spartans, they were obliged again to flee from their native city. Hoping that they had become less obstinate by their distress, Mardonius again offered them the same conditions of peace, but they were refused with the same stern resolution as before. A senator who moved to accept them was stoned by the furious people. Meanwhile the Spartans built a rampart on the isthmus of Corinth.

At last they became persuaded of the folly of this enterprise, and sent auxiliary troops. The allies, mustering 100.000 men, now marched to Boeotia, in the environs of Platasae. Pausahias had the chief command; Aristides was at the head of the Athenians. Much time, however, passed away before the attack actually took place. At length," as, the Greeks, from want of provisions, left their encampment, and marched towards Plataeae, Mardonius, taking their retreat for flight, set out and pursued them at the head of his cavalry; the remainder of the army followed in disorder, glad to have a chance to vanquish their enemies without striking a blow.

A terrible conflict, however, soon ensued. As the Persians were three times as numerous as the Greeks, and fought valiantly, it was for a long time a drawn battle. But when Mardonius fell, struck by the spear of a Spartan, his corps gave way in fright; the rest soon also broke in the confusion, and the flight became general. The Persians retreated to their fortified encampment, but the victors also attacked them there, scaled the wooden walls, and cut down almost all enemies. They captured an immense amount of spoils.

On the same day of the victory of Plataeae, the Greeks engaged and burned the Persian fleet at the promontory of Mycale, near Ephesus; after this, the Ionians declared themselves free, and joined the alliance of the European Greeks. Athens was reconstructed and made more beautiful than it was before, and the city and harbor, under the direction of Themistocles, enclosed within a strong wall. The Spartans in vain opposed its construction, pretending that, in case of a new attack, the Persians would be provided with a new stronghold. The Athenians, afraid of the resistance of their rivals, had recourse to an artifice, upon the advice of Themistocles; namely, they promised soon to send embassadors to Sparta, who would impart full information concerning this affair.

Meantime all, even women, children and slaves, continued building the walls, and Themistocles went himself to Sparta, but there retarded the desired explanation, under the pretext that he must wait for the arrival of his colleagues. As the Spartans complained that the construction of the walls was not discontinued, he denied the fact, and requested them to send embassadors to Athens to ascertain. They did so; but, according to the directions of Themistocles, the Athenians detained the deputies until the walls were finished; then he declared to the Spartans that his townsmen had enclosed their city with walls, because it certainly was their right to do so, and because it was both to their own advantage and for the welfare of all allies. As the Spartans saw that they were outwitted, they liberated the embassadors of Athens, whereupon the latter also permitted the Spartan embassadors to return home.

The Grecians continued the war against the Persians, in order to also liberate their colonies from their dominion. Pausanias conducted himself with such revolting haughtiness towards the other allies that they would no longer serve under his command, and elected Aristides their commander-in-chief, because he was honest and commanded universal respect (447 BC). In this manner Sparta lost the prerogative of the chief command in war, which now passed to the Athenians. After the death of Aristides the brave Cimon, son of Miltiades, became general-in-chief ot the federal troops. He vanquished the Persians several times.

The Greco-Persian conflict did not end in a definite peace between the belligerents till the convention of Callias (450-449 BC) nearly thirty years after the capture of Sestos by the Greeks, with which the History of Herodotus properly concludes. In this peace of Callias the great separation between Greece and Persia, or between Orient and Europe, is acknowledged by both sides, and becomes a permanent element of the historic consciousness from that day to this. Soon after the Persian wars, the domestic quarrels of the Grecian States began, in which they inflicted upon each other deeper wounds than the Persians had ever done. Sparta and Athens, especially, hated each other bitterly.

Aristides, Cimon, Pausanias and Themistocles

Pausanias and Themistocles, in later time, stained the glory they had gained in the Persian war. The former, in a secret letter to Xerxes, promised to effect the subjugation of Greece, on condition of his receiving his daughter in marriage; besides, he lived in such a pompous manner that it caused the suspicion of treason, which was soon proved. The ephori recalled the traitor from the army, and attempted to seize him; but he succeeded in escaping to the Temple of Minerva, which was regarded as a sacred asylum, the entrance of which they closed up, and he was left to perish by hunger. It is said that even his aged mother assisted in carrying stones for this purpose.

Themistocles also was accused of being an accomplice of Pausanias. He at that time lived in Argos, whither the Athenians, influenced by his personal enemies and the Spartans, had banished him. They sent officers there to arrest him, but he escaped, amidst many dangers, to Asia, where he was graciously received by the king of the Persians. He promised to aid him in subjugating Greece. The king made him many presents, and, for his support, assigned him the revenues of three cities. It is also reported that Themistocles, perceiving that it was impossible to fulfill the given promise, finally committed suicide. Plutarch relates that he was sixty five years of age, when he died. Now, it appears by Cicero, and by Eusebius, that Themistocles died in the third year of the seventy eighth Olympiad: about 449 BC

Aristides enjoyed the confidence of his fellow-citizens and even of all confederates, to the end of his life. Knowing his strict honesty, which had been oftentimes tried, they committed to him the superintendence of the federal treasury, which he administered with the greatest faithfulness, and in so doing, remained poor himself. One of his relatives, the richest citizen in Athens, being reproached for allowing Aristides and his family to pine in poverty, vindicated himself by asserting that he often, but in vain, offered him large sums of money, and appealed to the testimony of Aristides himself. Aristides died in honorable poverty, not leaving enough to even pay the expenses of his burial. The State paid them, and provided also for his family.

Cimon, like the other powerful Athenians, was also banished, because his fellow-citizens were afraid of his great authority; but after the fifth year he was permitted to return. He gained the admiration and affection of the Athenians, not only in war, but also in peace. He put the harbor into closer connection with the city by the magnificent long walls, which were constructed at his suggestion. He allowed everyone to eat of the fruits of his gardens, which were left without guardians or enclosures. If he went out, he was always followed by servants, in order to be able to give to the needy. He often offered his upper garment to the poorly clothed and indigent. He assisted every needy person with his wealth and offered them protection; he enriched many, and buried others at his expense. His demise was generally mourned.