Ionian Revolt 499 BC to 493 BC
499 BC
After a failed attack on the rebellious island of Naxos in the name of the Persians, Aristagoras, in order to save himself from the wrath of Persia, plans a revolt with the Milesians and the other Ionians. With the encouragement of Histiaeus (his father-in-law and former tyrant of Miletus. he induces the Ionian cities of Asia Minor to rise up against Persia, thus instigating the Ionian Revolt and the beginning of the Graeco-Persian Wars. The pro-Persian tyrant of Mytilene is stoned to death.
Miltiades the Younger, the ruler of the Thracian Chersonese, which has been under Persian suzerainty since about 514 BC, joins the Ionian revolt. He seizes the islands of Lemnos and Imbros from the Persians. Aristagoras seeks help with the revolt from Cleomenes I, king of Sparta, but the Spartans are unwilling to respond.
498 BCAthens and Eretria respond to the Ionian plea for help against Persia and send troops. A joint Athenian and Eretrian fleet transports Athenian troops to Ephesus, where they are joined by a force of Ionians. They march on Sardis, the capital of Lydia where Artaphernes is satrap. He is brother of Darius I). Artaphernes, who has sent most of his troops to besiege Miletus, is taken by surprise. However, he is able to retreat to the citadel and hold it. Even though the Greeks are unable to capture the citadel, they pillage the town and set fire to Sardis burning it to the ground. Retreating to the coast, the Greek forces are met by Artaphernes’ forces, and defeated in the Battle of Ephesus.
The revolt widens. Kaunos and Caria, followed by Byzantium and other towns in the Hellespont also rebel against the Persians. Cyprus also joins in, as Onesilus removes his pro-Persian brother, Gorgos, from the throne of Salamis.
497 BCThe Persians launch an expedition on the Hellespont and later Caria .
496 BCHipparchos, [son of Charmos and a relative of Peisistratos] is made Eponymous Archon of Athens. He leads the cause of peace arguing that resistance to the Persians is useless. He is friends with the tyrants of Athens. [He is later ostracized, in 488/7 BC].
494 BCThe Phoenician allies of the Persia exact savage reprisals on the Greeks, whom they regard as pirates.
The Thracians and Scythians drive Miltiades the Younger from the Chersonesos. Miltiades loads five boats with his treasures and makes for Athens. One of the boats, captained by Miltiades' eldest son, Metiochos is captured becoming a lifelong prisoner to Persia.
The Spartan king, Cleomenes I inflicts a severe defeat on Argos at Sepeia near Tiryns.
The former tyrant of Miletus, Histiaeus is captured by the Persians and executed at Sardis by Artaphernes.
493 BCThe people of Athens elect Themistocles as Eponymous Archon, the chief judicial and civilian executive officer in Athens. He favours resistance against the Persians. Themistocles begins the construction of a fortified naval base for Athens at the port of Piraeus.
Among the refugees escaping from Ionia after the collapse of the Ionian Revolt is a chief named Miltiades. He has a fine reputation as a soldier and favourably presents himself as a defender of Greek freedoms against Persian despotism. Themistocles appoints him as a general in the Athenian army.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Naxos_(499_BC)Ionian Revolt- Military Wikia - FandomBattle of Ephesus
First Persian invasion of Greece (492–490 BC)
492 BC
The first Persian expedition by Darius the Great against mainland Greece takes place under the leadership of his son-in-law and general, Mardonius. Darius the Great, was the fourth Persian King of Kings of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. Darius sends Mardonius to succeed his satrap Artaphernes in Ionia, with a special commission to launch an attack on Athens and Eretria.
The Persians under Mardonius subdue and capture Thrace and Macedonia. But he loses some 300 ships in a storm off Mount Athos, which forces him to abandon his plans to attack Athens and Eretria.
491 BCDarius I sends envoys to all Greek cities, demanding "earth and water”, as symbols of their submission to his overlordship and their surrender. Athens and Sparta refuse to capitulate..
The Greek island city-state of Aegina, fearing loss of trade, submits to Persia. The Spartan king, Cleomenes I tries to punish Aegina for having done this, but the other Spartan king, Demaratus, thwarts him. Cleomenes I engineers the deposition of Demaratus replacing him with his cousin Leotychidas. He does this by bribing the oracle at Delphi to announce that this action was divine will. The two Spartan kings now successfully capture the Persian collaborators in Aegina.
490 BCDarius I sends an expedition, under Artaphernes and Datis the Mede across the Aegean to attack the Athenians and the Eretrians. Hippias, the aged ex-tyrant of Athens, is on board of one of the Persian ships in the hope of being restored to power in Athens.
When the Ionian Greeks in Asia Minor revolted against Persia in 499 BC, Eretria joined with Athens in sending aid to the rebels. Darius wants to teach them both a severe lesson. The Persians capture Eretria. It is sacked and burned and its inhabitants enslaved. Darius intends the same fate for Athens.
September 12 – The Battle of Marathon takes place as a Persian army of more than 20,000 men attempt an invasion. Hippias advise them to land in the Bay of Marathon, where they meet the Athenians supported by the Plataeans. The Persians are repulsed by 11,000 Greeks under the leadership of Callimachus and Miltiades. Some 6,400 Persians are killed at a cost of 192 Athenian dead. Callimachus, the war-archon of Athens, is killed during the battle. After the battle the Persians return home.
Before the battle, the Athenians send a runner, Pheidippides, to seek help from Sparta. But the Spartans delay sending troops because of their religious requirements (the Carnea) mean they must wait for the full moon.
The Greek historian Herodotus, the main source for the Greco-Persian Wars, names the famous messenger [Pheidippides] who runs from Athens to Sparta asking for help, and then runs back, a distance of over 240 kilometres each way. After the battle, he runs back to Athens to spread the news and raise its morale. It is claimed that his last words before collapsing and dying in Athens are "Chairete, nikomen" ("Rejoice, we are victorious").
Hippias dies at Lemnos on the way back to Sardis after the Persian defeat.
Cleomenes I is forced to flee Sparta when his plot against Demaratus is uncovered, but the Spartans allow him to return when he begins gathering an army in the surrounding territories. However, by this time he has become insane, and the Spartans put him in prison. Shortly after this, he commits suicide. He is succeeded by his half-brother, Leonidas.
Battle of Marathon - Military Wiki - Fandom
Second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC)
The Second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC) that occurred during the Graeco-Persian Wars, was only after a 10 year delay, when King Xerxes I sought to subjugate all of Greece. The invasion was a direct answer to the defeat of the First Persian invasion of Greece (492–490 BC) with Persia had suffered at the Battle of Marathon.
480 BCMay – King Xerxes I of Persia marches from Sardis and onto Thrace and Macedonia.
The Greek congress decides to send a force of 10,000 Greeks, including hoplites and cavalry, to the Vale of Tempe, through which they believe the Persian army will pass. The force includes Lacedaemonians led by Euanetos and Athenians under Themistocles. Warned by Alexander I of Macedon that the vale can be bypassed elsewhere and that the army of Xerxes is overwhelming, the Greeks decide not to try to hold there and vacate the vale.
August 20 or September 8-10 – The Battle of Thermopylae ends in victory for the Persians under Xerxes. His army engulfs a force of 300 Spartans and 700 Thespiae under the Spartan King, Leonidas I. The Greeks under Leonidas resist the advance through Thermopylae of Xerxes' vast army. For two days Leonidas and his troops withstand the Persian attacks; he then orders most of his troops to retreat, and he and his 300-member royal guard fight to the last man.
Pausanias becomes regent for King Leonidas' son, Pleistarchus, after Leonidas I is killed at Thermopylae. Pausanias is a member of the Agiad royal family, the son of King Cleombrotus and nephew of Leonidas.
Phocis and the coasts of Euboea are devastated by the Persians. Thebes and most of Boeotia join Xerxes.
King Alexander I of Macedon is obliged to accompany Xerxes in a campaign through https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pausanias, though he secretly aids the Greek allies. With Xerxes' apparent acquiescence, Alexander seizes the Greek colony of Pydna and advances his frontiers eastward to the Strymon, taking in Crestonia and Bisaltia, along with the rich silver deposits of Mount Dysorus.
The Athenian soldier and statesman, Aristides, as well as the former Athenian archon Xanthippus, return from banishment in Aegina to serve under Themistocles against the Persians.
August – The Persians achieve a naval victory over the Greeks in an engagement fought near Artemisium, a promontory on the north coast of Euboea. The Greek fleet holds its own against the Persians in three days of fighting but withdraws southward when news comes of the defeat at Thermopylae.
Breaking through the pass at Thermopylae from Macedonia into Greece, the Persians occupy Attica.
September 21 – The Persians sack Athens, whose citizens flee to Salamis and then Peloponnesus.
September 22 – The Battle of Salamis brings victory to the Greeks, whose Athenian general Themistocles lures the Persians into the Bay of Salamis, between the Athenian port-city of Piraeus and the island of Salamis. The Greek triremes then attack furiously, ramming or sinking many Persian vessels and boarding others. The Greeks sink about 200 Persian vessels while losing only about 40 of their own. The rest of the Persian fleet is scattered, and as a result Xerxes has to postpone his planned land offensives for a year, a delay that gives the Greek city-states time to unite against him.
Aeschylus is fighting on the winning side.
An eclipse of the sun discourages the Greek army from following up the victory of Salamis. Xerxes returns to Persia leaving behind an army under Mardonius, which winters in Thessaly.
Battle_of_Thermopylae
Thermopylae : the battle that changed the world : Cartledge, Paul - Internet Archive
Battle_of_Artemisium
Battle_of_Salamis
The battle of Salamis : Barry S. Strauss - Internet Archive
479 BCMardonius, from his base in Thessaly, wins support from Argus and western Arcadia. He tries to win over Athens but fails. He attacks Athens once again. This time the Athenians are forced to flee their city. The Persians raze Athens to the ground. The Spartans march north in support of Athens.
August 27 - The Battle of Plataea in Boeotia ends the Persian invasions of Greece as Mardonius and his forces are routed by the Greeks under Pausanias, nephew of the former Spartan King, Leonidas I. The Athenian contingent is led by the repatriated Aristides. Mardonius is killed in the battle and the Greeks capture enormous amounts of loot. Thebes is captured shortly thereafter and the Theban collaborators are executed by Pausanias.
Meanwhile at sea, the Persians are defeated by a Greek fleet headed by Leotychidas of Sparta and Xanthippus of Athens in the Battle of Mycale, off the coast of Lydia in Asia Minor.
Potidaea is struck by a tsunami during a siege saving it from a Persian attack.
[During the siege, the tide seemed to retreat much farther than usual, creating a convenient invasion route. But this wasn't a stroke of luck. Before the Persians had crossed halfway, the water returned in a wave much higher than anyone had ever seen before, drowning the attackers. The Potidaeans believed they were saved by the wrath of Poseidon. But what really had saved them was a tsunami.]
Battle of Plataea - Wikipedia
Battle of Mycale - Wikipedia
The Delian League
The Delian League was founded in 478 BC. It was an alliance of Greek city-states, including many of the islands in the Aegean and most of the city-states of Ionia, in all well over 150 members and possibly considerably more, all under the leadership of Athens. Its purpose was to continue to pursue the fight against the Persian Empire after the victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Second Persian Invasion of Greece.
Its official meeting place was the island of Delos, where congresses were held in the temple and where the treasury stood until Pericles moved it to Athens in 454 BC.
Delian League - Military Wikia - Fandom
492 BC
The first Persian expedition by Darius the Great against mainland Greece takes place under the leadership of his son-in-law and general, Mardonius. Darius the Great, was the fourth Persian King of Kings of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. Darius sends Mardonius to succeed his satrap Artaphernes in Ionia, with a special commission to launch an attack on Athens and Eretria.
The Persians under Mardonius subdue and capture Thrace and Macedonia. But he loses some 300 ships in a storm off Mount Athos, which forces him to abandon his plans to attack Athens and Eretria.
491 BCDarius I sends envoys to all Greek cities, demanding "earth and water”, as symbols of their submission to his overlordship and their surrender. Athens and Sparta refuse to capitulate..
The Greek island city-state of Aegina, fearing loss of trade, submits to Persia. The Spartan king, Cleomenes I tries to punish Aegina for having done this, but the other Spartan king, Demaratus, thwarts him. Cleomenes I engineers the deposition of Demaratus replacing him with his cousin Leotychidas. He does this by bribing the oracle at Delphi to announce that this action was divine will. The two Spartan kings now successfully capture the Persian collaborators in Aegina.
490 BCDarius I sends an expedition, under Artaphernes and Datis the Mede across the Aegean to attack the Athenians and the Eretrians. Hippias, the aged ex-tyrant of Athens, is on board of one of the Persian ships in the hope of being restored to power in Athens.
When the Ionian Greeks in Asia Minor revolted against Persia in 499 BC, Eretria joined with Athens in sending aid to the rebels. Darius wants to teach them both a severe lesson. The Persians capture Eretria. It is sacked and burned and its inhabitants enslaved. Darius intends the same fate for Athens.
September 12 – The Battle of Marathon takes place as a Persian army of more than 20,000 men attempt an invasion. Hippias advise them to land in the Bay of Marathon, where they meet the Athenians supported by the Plataeans. The Persians are repulsed by 11,000 Greeks under the leadership of Callimachus and Miltiades. Some 6,400 Persians are killed at a cost of 192 Athenian dead. Callimachus, the war-archon of Athens, is killed during the battle. After the battle the Persians return home.
Before the battle, the Athenians send a runner, Pheidippides, to seek help from Sparta. But the Spartans delay sending troops because of their religious requirements (the Carnea) mean they must wait for the full moon.
The Greek historian Herodotus, the main source for the Greco-Persian Wars, names the famous messenger [Pheidippides] who runs from Athens to Sparta asking for help, and then runs back, a distance of over 240 kilometres each way. After the battle, he runs back to Athens to spread the news and raise its morale. It is claimed that his last words before collapsing and dying in Athens are "Chairete, nikomen" ("Rejoice, we are victorious").
Hippias dies at Lemnos on the way back to Sardis after the Persian defeat.
Cleomenes I is forced to flee Sparta when his plot against Demaratus is uncovered, but the Spartans allow him to return when he begins gathering an army in the surrounding territories. However, by this time he has become insane, and the Spartans put him in prison. Shortly after this, he commits suicide. He is succeeded by his half-brother, Leonidas.
Battle of Marathon - Military Wiki - Fandom
Second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC)
The Second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC) that occurred during the Graeco-Persian Wars, was only after a 10 year delay, when King Xerxes I sought to subjugate all of Greece. The invasion was a direct answer to the defeat of the First Persian invasion of Greece (492–490 BC) with Persia had suffered at the Battle of Marathon.
480 BCMay – King Xerxes I of Persia marches from Sardis and onto Thrace and Macedonia.
The Greek congress decides to send a force of 10,000 Greeks, including hoplites and cavalry, to the Vale of Tempe, through which they believe the Persian army will pass. The force includes Lacedaemonians led by Euanetos and Athenians under Themistocles. Warned by Alexander I of Macedon that the vale can be bypassed elsewhere and that the army of Xerxes is overwhelming, the Greeks decide not to try to hold there and vacate the vale.
August 20 or September 8-10 – The Battle of Thermopylae ends in victory for the Persians under Xerxes. His army engulfs a force of 300 Spartans and 700 Thespiae under the Spartan King, Leonidas I. The Greeks under Leonidas resist the advance through Thermopylae of Xerxes' vast army. For two days Leonidas and his troops withstand the Persian attacks; he then orders most of his troops to retreat, and he and his 300-member royal guard fight to the last man.
Pausanias becomes regent for King Leonidas' son, Pleistarchus, after Leonidas I is killed at Thermopylae. Pausanias is a member of the Agiad royal family, the son of King Cleombrotus and nephew of Leonidas.
Phocis and the coasts of Euboea are devastated by the Persians. Thebes and most of Boeotia join Xerxes.
King Alexander I of Macedon is obliged to accompany Xerxes in a campaign through https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pausanias, though he secretly aids the Greek allies. With Xerxes' apparent acquiescence, Alexander seizes the Greek colony of Pydna and advances his frontiers eastward to the Strymon, taking in Crestonia and Bisaltia, along with the rich silver deposits of Mount Dysorus.
The Athenian soldier and statesman, Aristides, as well as the former Athenian archon Xanthippus, return from banishment in Aegina to serve under Themistocles against the Persians.
August – The Persians achieve a naval victory over the Greeks in an engagement fought near Artemisium, a promontory on the north coast of Euboea. The Greek fleet holds its own against the Persians in three days of fighting but withdraws southward when news comes of the defeat at Thermopylae.
Breaking through the pass at Thermopylae from Macedonia into Greece, the Persians occupy Attica.
September 21 – The Persians sack Athens, whose citizens flee to Salamis and then Peloponnesus.
September 22 – The Battle of Salamis brings victory to the Greeks, whose Athenian general Themistocles lures the Persians into the Bay of Salamis, between the Athenian port-city of Piraeus and the island of Salamis. The Greek triremes then attack furiously, ramming or sinking many Persian vessels and boarding others. The Greeks sink about 200 Persian vessels while losing only about 40 of their own. The rest of the Persian fleet is scattered, and as a result Xerxes has to postpone his planned land offensives for a year, a delay that gives the Greek city-states time to unite against him.
Aeschylus is fighting on the winning side.
An eclipse of the sun discourages the Greek army from following up the victory of Salamis. Xerxes returns to Persia leaving behind an army under Mardonius, which winters in Thessaly.
Battle_of_Thermopylae
Thermopylae : the battle that changed the world : Cartledge, Paul - Internet Archive
Battle_of_Artemisium
Battle_of_Salamis
The battle of Salamis : Barry S. Strauss - Internet Archive
479 BCMardonius, from his base in Thessaly, wins support from Argus and western Arcadia. He tries to win over Athens but fails. He attacks Athens once again. This time the Athenians are forced to flee their city. The Persians raze Athens to the ground. The Spartans march north in support of Athens.
August 27 - The Battle of Plataea in Boeotia ends the Persian invasions of Greece as Mardonius and his forces are routed by the Greeks under Pausanias, nephew of the former Spartan King, Leonidas I. The Athenian contingent is led by the repatriated Aristides. Mardonius is killed in the battle and the Greeks capture enormous amounts of loot. Thebes is captured shortly thereafter and the Theban collaborators are executed by Pausanias.
Meanwhile at sea, the Persians are defeated by a Greek fleet headed by Leotychidas of Sparta and Xanthippus of Athens in the Battle of Mycale, off the coast of Lydia in Asia Minor.
Potidaea is struck by a tsunami during a siege saving it from a Persian attack.
[During the siege, the tide seemed to retreat much farther than usual, creating a convenient invasion route. But this wasn't a stroke of luck. Before the Persians had crossed halfway, the water returned in a wave much higher than anyone had ever seen before, drowning the attackers. The Potidaeans believed they were saved by the wrath of Poseidon. But what really had saved them was a tsunami.]
Battle of Plataea - Wikipedia
Battle of Mycale - Wikipedia
The Delian League
The Delian League was founded in 478 BC. It was an alliance of Greek city-states, including many of the islands in the Aegean and most of the city-states of Ionia, in all well over 150 members and possibly considerably more, all under the leadership of Athens. Its purpose was to continue to pursue the fight against the Persian Empire after the victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Second Persian Invasion of Greece.
Its official meeting place was the island of Delos, where congresses were held in the temple and where the treasury stood until Pericles moved it to Athens in 454 BC.
Delian League - Military Wikia - Fandom
Themistocles
472_BC or 471 BC,Themistocles is ostracised
466 BCCimon carries the war against Persia into Asia Minor and wins the Battle of the Eurymedon in Pamphylia. This is a decisive defeat of the Persians by Cimon's and his land and sea forces who manage to capture the Persian camp and destroy or capture the entire Persian fleet of 200 triremes (manned by the Phoenicians). Many new allies of Athens are now recruited, such as the trading city of Phaselis on the Lycian-Pamphylian border.
http://military.wikia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Eurymedon
465/4 BCKing Xerxes I of the Persian Empire and his eldest son, are assassinated by one of his Ministers, Artabanus the Hyrcanian who served either as his vizier or as head of his bodyguard. The Persian general, Megabyzus, is thought to have been one of the conspirators in the assassination. Artabanus takes control of the empire as regent for several months. However, he is betrayed by Megabyzus , and is killed before he could kill the new emperor, Artaxerxes Xerxes' son. Megabyzus is appointed satrap of Syria.
Egypt seizes the opportunity created by the murder of Xerxes to revolt against Persia. The revolt is led by Inaros, a Libyan, who gains control of the Delta region and is aided by the Athenians.
463 BC
Cimon is charged by Pericles and other democratic politicians with having been bribed not to attack Macedonia which has been suspected of covertly helping the Thasian rebels) Although Kimon is acquitted, his influence on the Athenian people is waning.
Themistocles, who is in exile, approaches the Persian King Artaxerxes I seeking Persian help in regaining power in Athens. Artaxerxes is unwilling to help him, but instead gives him the satrapy of Magnesia.
460_BCEgypt revolts against Persian rule. The Egyptian leader, Inaros, asks Athens for assistance, which is willingly provided as Athens has plans to trade with and colonise Egypt. A force of 200 Athenian triremes, which is campaigning in Cyprus, is immediately ordered to set sail for Egypt to render assistance.
472_BC or 471 BC,Themistocles is ostracised
466 BCCimon carries the war against Persia into Asia Minor and wins the Battle of the Eurymedon in Pamphylia. This is a decisive defeat of the Persians by Cimon's and his land and sea forces who manage to capture the Persian camp and destroy or capture the entire Persian fleet of 200 triremes (manned by the Phoenicians). Many new allies of Athens are now recruited, such as the trading city of Phaselis on the Lycian-Pamphylian border.
http://military.wikia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Eurymedon
465/4 BCKing Xerxes I of the Persian Empire and his eldest son, are assassinated by one of his Ministers, Artabanus the Hyrcanian who served either as his vizier or as head of his bodyguard. The Persian general, Megabyzus, is thought to have been one of the conspirators in the assassination. Artabanus takes control of the empire as regent for several months. However, he is betrayed by Megabyzus , and is killed before he could kill the new emperor, Artaxerxes Xerxes' son. Megabyzus is appointed satrap of Syria.
Egypt seizes the opportunity created by the murder of Xerxes to revolt against Persia. The revolt is led by Inaros, a Libyan, who gains control of the Delta region and is aided by the Athenians.
463 BC
Cimon is charged by Pericles and other democratic politicians with having been bribed not to attack Macedonia which has been suspected of covertly helping the Thasian rebels) Although Kimon is acquitted, his influence on the Athenian people is waning.
Themistocles, who is in exile, approaches the Persian King Artaxerxes I seeking Persian help in regaining power in Athens. Artaxerxes is unwilling to help him, but instead gives him the satrapy of Magnesia.
460_BCEgypt revolts against Persian rule. The Egyptian leader, Inaros, asks Athens for assistance, which is willingly provided as Athens has plans to trade with and colonise Egypt. A force of 200 Athenian triremes, which is campaigning in Cyprus, is immediately ordered to set sail for Egypt to render assistance.
Achaemenes, Persian satrap of Egypt, is defeated and is slain during a battle at Papremis, on the banks of the Nile by Egyptian forces.
The First Peloponnesian War breaks out between the Delian League (led by Athens) and a Peloponnesian alliance (led by Sparta), caused in part by Athens' alliance with Megara and Argos and the subsequent reaction of Sparta. The Athenians have built long walls for the Megarans to their port at Nisaea, thereby earning the enmity of Megara's old rival Corinth, Sparta’s ally.
Argos rises against Sparta. Athens supports Argos and Thessaly. The small force that has been sent by Sparta to quell the uprising in Argos is defeated by a joint Athenian and Argos force at the Battle of Oenoe.
Why didn't the Greeks unite into a single nation after winning the Persian Wars?
Mardonius - Wikipedia
Battle of Plataea - Military Wiki - Fandom
Mardonius - Military Wiki - Fandom
Greece and Rome at War: Connolly, Peter - Internet Archive
William Shepherd (2019). The Persian War in Herodotus and Other Ancient Voices. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4728-0865-3.
Tom Holland (21 April 2011). Persian Fire: The First World Empire, Battle for the West. Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN 978-0-7481-3103-7.
The wars of the ancient Greeks : and their invention of western military culture : Hanson, Victor Davis - Internet Archive.
The First Peloponnesian War breaks out between the Delian League (led by Athens) and a Peloponnesian alliance (led by Sparta), caused in part by Athens' alliance with Megara and Argos and the subsequent reaction of Sparta. The Athenians have built long walls for the Megarans to their port at Nisaea, thereby earning the enmity of Megara's old rival Corinth, Sparta’s ally.
Argos rises against Sparta. Athens supports Argos and Thessaly. The small force that has been sent by Sparta to quell the uprising in Argos is defeated by a joint Athenian and Argos force at the Battle of Oenoe.
Why didn't the Greeks unite into a single nation after winning the Persian Wars?
An important question to ask is why was that the Greeks didn't unite into a single nation after winning the Persian Wars?
After winning the Persian Wars in the early 5th century BCE, the Greek city-states did not unite into a single nation for several reasons rooted in their historical, cultural, and political context:
a) Political Independence and Autonomy: The Greek city-states, or poleis, highly valued their independence and autonomy. Each polis had its own government, laws, customs, and identity. This strong sense of local identity made them resistant to the idea of unifying under a single political structure.
b) Geographical Factors: Greece's mountainous terrain and scattered islands contributed to the development of isolated, self-sufficient city-states. This geographical fragmentation made communication and centralised control challenging, reinforcing the independence of each polis.
c) Different Political Systems: The Greek city-states had diverse forms of government, ranging from democracy in Athens to oligarchy in Sparta. These differing political systems created conflicting ideologies and governance methods, making it difficult to agree on a unified political structure.
d) Rivalries and Conflicts: There were long-standing rivalries and conflicts among the city-states, most notably between Athens and Sparta. The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE), a protracted and destructive conflict between these two major powers and their allies, highlighted the deep divisions and mutual distrust among the Greek states.
e) The Greek City States preferred Alliances to Unification: rather than unifying into a single nation, the Greek city-states preferred to form alliances to address common threats. The Delian League, led by Athens, and the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta, are examples of just such alliances. These leagues were more about mutual defence and hegemony rather than genuine political unification.
f) Cultural Differences: Despite a shared language and religious beliefs, the Greek city-states had significant cultural differences. Each polis had its own patron gods, festivals, and traditions, which contributed to a strong sense of local identity.
g) Leadership and Hegemony: Attempts at leadership and hegemony by powerful city-states, such as Athens during the height of the Delian League, often led to resistance and conflict rather than unification. Other city-states were wary of domination by a single polis and preferred to maintain their independence.
In summary, the Greek city-states did not unite into a single nation after the Persian Wars due to their strong emphasis on local independence, geographical challenges, diverse political systems, inter-state rivalries, and cultural differences. These factors combined to maintain the fragmented political landscape of ancient Greece.
After winning the Persian Wars in the early 5th century BCE, the Greek city-states did not unite into a single nation for several reasons rooted in their historical, cultural, and political context:
a) Political Independence and Autonomy: The Greek city-states, or poleis, highly valued their independence and autonomy. Each polis had its own government, laws, customs, and identity. This strong sense of local identity made them resistant to the idea of unifying under a single political structure.
b) Geographical Factors: Greece's mountainous terrain and scattered islands contributed to the development of isolated, self-sufficient city-states. This geographical fragmentation made communication and centralised control challenging, reinforcing the independence of each polis.
c) Different Political Systems: The Greek city-states had diverse forms of government, ranging from democracy in Athens to oligarchy in Sparta. These differing political systems created conflicting ideologies and governance methods, making it difficult to agree on a unified political structure.
d) Rivalries and Conflicts: There were long-standing rivalries and conflicts among the city-states, most notably between Athens and Sparta. The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE), a protracted and destructive conflict between these two major powers and their allies, highlighted the deep divisions and mutual distrust among the Greek states.
e) The Greek City States preferred Alliances to Unification: rather than unifying into a single nation, the Greek city-states preferred to form alliances to address common threats. The Delian League, led by Athens, and the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta, are examples of just such alliances. These leagues were more about mutual defence and hegemony rather than genuine political unification.
f) Cultural Differences: Despite a shared language and religious beliefs, the Greek city-states had significant cultural differences. Each polis had its own patron gods, festivals, and traditions, which contributed to a strong sense of local identity.
g) Leadership and Hegemony: Attempts at leadership and hegemony by powerful city-states, such as Athens during the height of the Delian League, often led to resistance and conflict rather than unification. Other city-states were wary of domination by a single polis and preferred to maintain their independence.
In summary, the Greek city-states did not unite into a single nation after the Persian Wars due to their strong emphasis on local independence, geographical challenges, diverse political systems, inter-state rivalries, and cultural differences. These factors combined to maintain the fragmented political landscape of ancient Greece.
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