The Greco-Persian Wars

Core Idea

The Greco-Persian Wars (main phase 499–479 BCE; fighting continued at lower intensity until about 449 BCE) were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Persian Empire and an alliance of Greek city-states. They began with the Ionian Revolt of Greek cities in Asia Minor and peaked in two Persian invasions of mainland Greece, under Darius I in 490 BCE and Xerxes I in 480–479 BCE. Greek victories at Marathon, Salamis and Plataea kept mainland Greece independent. The wars boosted Athenian naval power and confidence, and they set up the Athenian-led Delian League whose growth later fed the Peloponnesian War.

How It's Best Learned

Follow the wars on a map, from Ionia to Marathon, then Thermopylae, Artemisium, Salamis and Plataea. Read short passages of Herodotus and ask what his purpose was and where his numbers are hard to believe. Then look at the wars from the Persian side, as a costly frontier campaign by an empire that stayed intact. This contrast teaches students to separate a dramatic Greek narrative from its wider context.

Common Misconceptions

• Only 300 Spartans fought at Thermopylae. (Leonidas led 300 Spartans, but the Greek force held several thousand soldiers from many cities; on the final day a smaller rearguard stayed.)
• Losing in Greece destroyed the Persian Empire. (Persia remained the largest power in the region for nearly 150 more years, until Alexander the Great conquered it in the 330s BCE.)
• The modern marathon race copies a runner Herodotus describes going from Marathon to Athens. (Herodotus tells of Pheidippides running from Athens to Sparta to ask for help; the Marathon-to-Athens story appears in much later writers.)

Explainer

You already know two worlds that met in this war. One is the Achaemenid Persian Empire, a huge state ruled through satraps and linked by royal roads. The other is the Greek polis, a small self-governing city that often fought its neighbors. The Greco-Persian Wars show what happened when the first tried to bring the second under control.

The trouble began on the edge of the empire. Greek cities in Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor, had come under Persian rule. In 499 BCE they revolted. Athens and Eretria sent ships to help. Persia crushed the revolt by 494 BCE, and Darius I then sent an expedition to punish the two cities that had helped. In 490 BCE the Persians landed at Marathon, near Athens. The Athenians, with help from Plataea, defeated them. The victory gave the Athenian citizen army great confidence.

Ten years later Darius's son Xerxes led a far larger invasion by land and sea. Many Greek cities submitted, but about thirty, led by Sparta and Athens, chose to fight. At the narrow pass of Thermopylae, a Greek force under the Spartan king Leonidas held the Persian army for several days. When the Persians found a mountain path around the pass, Leonidas and a rearguard died fighting. The Persians then burned Athens, whose people had moved to safety. In the narrow straits off Salamis, the Greek fleet, much of it Athenian, defeated the Persian navy. In 479 BCE a Greek army led by Sparta won at Plataea, and a Greek fleet won at Mycale. The invasion was over.

Most of what we know comes from Herodotus, who wrote decades later. He collected stories from many sides and wanted to explain why the war happened. His figures for Xerxes' army run into the millions, which modern historians reject as far too high.

The wars had lasting effects. The poorer Athenians who rowed the fleet gained political weight at home. Athens led the new Delian League against Persia and slowly made it an empire. Sparta watched this growth with alarm, and the rivalry led to the Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE. For Persia, the defeat closed one frontier, but the empire stayed strong until Alexander.