Читать книгу Western Civilization - Paul R. Waibel - Страница 25

The Greek city‐states along the coast of Asia Minor (Ionia) fell under Persian control in 546 BC, when Cyrus the Great (d. 530 BC) conquered the Kingdom of Lydia. In 499 BC, the Ionian Greeks rebelled, led by the city of Miletus. Athens and Eretria sent aid. After a long struggle, the Ionian Greeks were defeated in 494 BC and, once again, were under Persian rule. Darius I, the Great (550–486 BC) decided on a punitive expedition to punish Athens and Eretria.

A Persian expeditionary force crossed the Aegean Sea in 490 BC. Eretria fell after a six‐day siege. Shortly after, on the plain of Marathon northeast of Athens, an Athenian army, with some support from Plataea under the command of Miltiades (550–489 BC), met and defeated a Persian force estimated to have been twice as large. The Greek victory brought only a temporary reprieve. Darius I's son, Xerxes I, the Great² (519–466 BC) determined to conquer Greece.

Xerxes began his campaign in 480 BC. A Persian army believed to have been between 100 000 and 150 000, crossed the Hellespont and proceeded through Thrace and Macedonia to Greece. At the narrow mountain pass of Thermopylae, a small band of 300 Spartans and 5000 other Greek soldiers died slowing the Persian advance. The decisive battle, however, was fought at sea.

After the Persian defeat in 490 BC, the Athenians heeded the advice of Themistocles (c. 524–459 BC) and built a fleet of 200 triremes, a type of warship with three banks of oars. Themistocles was a veteran of the Battle of Marathon and a populist politician elected archon in 493 BC. The Athenians consulted the Delphic Oracle and were told to “trust in wooden walls.” Themistocles argued before the Popular Assembly that “trust in wooden walls” meant build a navy.

In 480 BC after the Battle of Thermopylae, Themistocles once again was able to persuade the Popular Assembly to follow his advice. The Athenians evacuated their beloved city and took refuge on the island of Salamis. The Persians burned Athens. Again, heeding the advice of Themistocles, the Greeks lured the much larger Persian fleet into the narrow Straits of Salamis. An allied fleet led by Athens, attacked the Persian fleet. The Persian ships were large and difficult to maneuver in the narrow straits. The smaller Greek triremes destroyed the Persian fleet, while Xerxes observed the battle from the slopes of Mount Aegaleo.

The final battle took place in the summer of 479 BC near Plataea in southeastern Boeotia. The Persian army was decisively defeated by a Greek army made up of Spartans and soldiers from other Greek city‐states. On the same afternoon as the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea, what was left of the Persian fleet was captured in the Battle of Mycale on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor, opposite the island of Samos. The Greek victories in the two battles ended the Persian threat. The Greeks then went on the offensive.