Greco-Persian Wars

The Greco-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between Achaemenid Persia and Greek communities, conventionally dated from the Ionian Revolt of 499 BCE to the middle of the fifth century BCE. “Persian Wars” often refers more narrowly to the invasions of mainland Greece in 490 and 480–479 BCE.

Greek victories prevented the conquest of the mainland communities that had resisted Persia. The subsequent rise of Athens transformed the balance of power in the Aegean. These wars were not a conflict between two uniformly organised nations: many Greek communities remained neutral or served on the Persian side.

Map of the Greco-Persian Wars

Historians distinguish the Persian expeditions of 492 and 490 BCE from Xerxes’ invasion of 480–479. A broader account includes the Ionian Revolt and the later campaigns of the Delian League.

Principal events:

The Ionian Revolt against Persian rule, 499–494 BCE.
Mardonius’ expedition through Thrace and Macedonia, 492 BCE.
The campaign of Datis and Artaphernes and the Battle of Marathon, 490 BCE.
Xerxes’ invasion, Salamis, Plataea and Mycale, 480–479 BCE.
Delian League operations in the Aegean and Asia Minor after 478 BCE.
The Athenian expedition to Egypt in the 450s and the campaigns on Cyprus around 450–449 BCE. The date and historicity of the Peace of Callias remain debated.

Background

Greek-speaking communities had settled along the coast of Asia Minor and on nearby islands. The twelve Ionian cities traditionally associated with the Panionion were Miletus, Myus, Priene, Ephesus, Colophon, Lebedus, Teos, Clazomenae, Phocaea, Erythrae, Samos and Chios. Their common sanctuary expressed cultural and religious ties, but did not create a strong unified state. Herodotus comments on both the exclusiveness and the limitations of this association.

Under Croesus, the mainland Ionian cities came under Lydian rule. They retained internal institutions while acknowledging the king’s supremacy and paying tribute. Their experience under Lydia formed the background to their later dealings with Persia.

Cyrus II, founder of the Achaemenid Empire, conquered Croesus’ kingdom. During the conflict he had invited the Ionians to abandon Lydia, but, apart from Miletus, they had rejected the approach. After the fall of Sardis and the capture of Croesus, the coastal Greeks asked to submit on the terms they had enjoyed under Lydia. Cyrus refused. Herodotus illustrates his response with a fable about a fisherman who first tried to make fish come ashore by playing a flute, then caught them in a net.

Persian commanders, notably Harpagus, imposed submission on the western Anatolian cities. Miletus initially enjoyed a separate agreement, though its relationship with imperial authority changed under Darius I. Local autonomy did not mean independence from the Persian king.

Sparta had maintained relations with Lydia and concluded an alliance with Croesus around the middle of the sixth century BCE. When Croesus requested military help, the Spartans prepared to intervene, but news of his defeat arrived before assistance could be sent.

The Ionians subsequently appealed to Sparta. The Spartans declined to send an army, but attempted a diplomatic warning against attacks on the Greek cities. Cyrus rejected it. After resistance in individual cities, the western coast came under Persian control.

Persian power also extended to Greek communities on Cyprus and to Cyrene during Cambyses’ reign. In the early years of Darius I, Samos likewise came under imperial control.

In 513 BCE, Darius I crossed from Asia into Europe for a campaign against the Scythians. Greek cities in Thrace acknowledged Persian authority, and their rulers participated in the expedition. Megabazus, left in Europe with troops, extended Persian control along the northern Aegean. Otanes continued operations around the Hellespont and Propontis.

Athenian relations with Persia were complicated by the presence of the expelled tyrant Hippias at the Persian court. In 508/507 BCE, an Athenian embassy sought assistance from Artaphernes, the satrap at Sardis and brother of Darius, against the threat of Spartan intervention. The Persian demand for “earth and water” signified submission. Although the envoys accepted and were condemned after their return, Persia could regard the gesture as an acknowledgement of its authority.

Around 500 BCE, another embassy discussed Hippias’ activities. Artaphernes demanded his restoration to Athens. The Athenians refused, and the demand strengthened hostility towards Persia.

The revolt began against the background of an unsuccessful expedition to Naxos. Exiled wealthy Naxians appealed to Aristagoras, ruler of Miletus, promising to finance their restoration. Aristagoras hoped to extend his influence and persuaded Artaphernes to provide Persian support. A fleet of two hundred warships was placed under Megabates.

According to Herodotus, a quarrel between Megabates and Aristagoras led the Persian commander to warn the Naxians. The islanders prepared for siege, and the expedition returned after four unsuccessful months. Aristagoras now faced the cost of the campaign, failure to fulfil his promises and a dangerous dispute with a royal relative. A message from Histiaeus, who was at the Persian court, encouraged rebellion.

Aristagoras and his supporters decided to revolt. The movement spread beyond Ionia to other parts of western Asia Minor and Cyprus. Tyrannies were overthrown in several cities. Aristagoras sought aid in mainland Greece: Cleomenes I of Sparta refused, while Athens sent twenty ships and Eretria five.

In 498 BCE, these forces joined the rebels near Ephesus and advanced on Sardis rather than directly defending Miletus. Aristagoras delegated field command to Charopinus and Hermophantus. Artaphernes withdrew into the fortified part of Sardis. A fire spread through the lower city, destroying houses and the sanctuary of Cybele. Local resistance forced the Greeks to retreat towards the coast.

Persian forces from neighbouring regions pursued the retreating army and defeated it near Ephesus. The Athenians then returned home despite Aristagoras’ appeals. The burning of Sardis nevertheless helped spread the revolt, while Persian accounts treated the destruction of the sanctuary as sacrilege. Herodotus represents Darius as resolving to punish Athens.

Artaphernes organised a more systematic response. Daurises campaigned along the Hellespont, capturing Dardanus, Abydos, Percote, Lampsacus and Paesus before turning to Caria. The Persians won battles near the Marsyas and at Labraunda, but the Carians later ambushed Daurises’ army near Pedasus and killed its commanders. This setback interrupted the advance.

In 494 BCE, the Persians prepared a major campaign against Miletus. Their fleet included Phoenician, Cypriot, Cilician and Egyptian contingents. The rebels had to decide how to defend the principal centre of the uprising.

At the Panionion the rebels agreed to leave the land defence of Miletus to its inhabitants, while assembling a common fleet offshore. Persian commanders considered defeat of that fleet essential to a successful siege. Divisions among the allies, and the withdrawal of some contingents, contributed to the Greek defeat at Lade.

Miletus was captured after siege. Herodotus describes the killing of inhabitants and the enslavement and deportation of survivors. The fall of the city effectively ended the revolt.

Other Persian forces had attacked Clazomenae and Cyme. Aristagoras had already left Miletus for a settlement in Thrace associated with Histiaeus; he later died during a siege there. After the fall of Miletus, Persian operations brought the remaining islands and coastal cities back under control.

The scale of destruction and deportation varied. Subsequent measures by Artaphernes sought to regulate relations between communities and assess their tribute, while Mardonius later removed several Ionian tyrannies.

Mardonius’ expedition

In 492 BCE, Mardonius, son-in-law of Darius, led an army and fleet through Thrace and Macedonia. The fleet subdued Thasos, but suffered a severe storm while rounding Mount Athos. Herodotus reports the loss of about three hundred ships and twenty thousand people; these are ancient figures, not independently verified totals. The land army also suffered attacks by the Brygians.

The expedition consolidated Persian control in Macedonia but did not reach southern Greece. Darius prepared another operation. In 491 BCE, envoys demanded earth and water from Greek communities. Many submitted, including Aegina. According to Greek tradition, Athens and Sparta killed the envoys.

Responses reflected local interests and political rivalries as well as fear of Persia. The threat encouraged cooperation among resisting communities, but no complete Greek political unity resulted. Athens appealed to Sparta over Aegina’s submission.

The campaign of Datis and Artaphernes

Darius entrusted the next expedition to Datis and his nephew Artaphernes. Its objectives included Naxos, other Cycladic islands, Eretria and Athens. Herodotus states that the king ordered the capture and deportation of the Eretrians and Athenians. Hippias accompanied the expedition and hoped to regain power.

In 490 BCE, the Persian fleet attacked Naxos and reached Euboea. The Eretrians decided to defend their city. After several days of fighting, according to Herodotus, two citizens opened the gates. The Persians looted the city, burned its sanctuaries and enslaved captives, presenting the destruction as retaliation for Sardis.

The fleet then carried the army to Marathon in Attica. The open plain offered opportunities for cavalry, although its role and location at the decisive moment remain disputed.

Athens mobilised its citizens and appealed to Sparta. The Spartans delayed their departure on religious grounds; the Plataeans sent assistance. The Athenian and Plataean army, commonly estimated at about ten thousand hoplites, marched to Marathon.

The polemarch Callimachus and ten generals, including Miltiades, shared responsibility for command. Herodotus describes disagreement over whether to fight and Miltiades’ appeal to Callimachus. Several generals yielded their days of command to Miltiades.

The Greek position restricted Persian movement towards Athens. The exact sequence of deployment, the whereabouts of the cavalry and the timing of embarkation remain debated. In the battle, the Greek line had a comparatively weak centre and stronger wings. The wings ultimately turned against the Persian forces that had advanced through the centre.

Map of the Battle of Marathon

At Marathon in 490 BCE, the Athenians and Plataeans defeated the Persian army. The Greeks’ stronger wings overcame their opponents and converged after the centre had been pushed back. Surviving Persians withdrew to their ships. Modern reconstructions differ over the cavalry’s role and the precise date of the battle.

The Persian fleet then sailed around Attica, creating a threat to Athens while the hoplites were still at Marathon. The Greek army hurried back, leaving a guard for captives and spoils. Finding the city defended, the expedition withdrew.

Herodotus reports 192 Athenian and 6,400 Persian dead. The Athenian figure is not the total number of all Greek casualties: Plataeans also fought. The victory became a central element of Athenian civic memory.

Xerxes’ invasion

In the spring of 480 BCE, Xerxes led an invasion across the Hellespont, now the Dardanelles. Pontoon bridges carried the army from Asia to Europe. Ancient accounts give exceptionally large totals for his forces; Herodotus’ figure of more than five million includes an estimated support population, not simply the land army. Modern estimates vary widely, and a precise total cannot be established.

The army was accompanied by a large fleet, traditionally numbered by Herodotus at 1,207 triremes. It included Phoenician ships and contingents from Greek communities subject to Persia. The presence of these Greeks illustrates the political divisions of the Greek world.

Xerxes advanced through Thrace, Macedonia and Thessaly along the northern Aegean coast. A canal through the Athos peninsula allowed ships to avoid the dangerous cape. Many Thessalian communities submitted.

The resisting allies initially considered defending the Vale of Tempe, but withdrew from that position. They then combined a land defence at Thermopylae with naval operations at Artemisium, near northern Euboea. Leonidas commanded a force drawn from several Greek communities, including his three hundred Spartiates. Thermopylae was an allied defence, not a battle fought by Spartans alone.

After Thermopylae, the Persians occupied and burned Athens, whose population had largely been evacuated. The Greek fleet gathered near Salamis. Themistocles argued for battle in the strait rather than retreat towards the Isthmus. Eurybiades, the Spartan overall commander, led the allied fleet; Athens provided its largest contingent.

In September 480 BCE, the confined waters prevented the Persian fleet from exploiting its numbers effectively. Greek attacks and collisions among crowded ships disrupted the Persian formation. Aristides’ troops also attacked Persian soldiers on the nearby island of Psyttaleia. Salamis became the decisive naval victory of the invasion.

Xerxes withdrew, leaving Mardonius with land forces to continue the campaign. Mardonius wintered in Thessaly and returned to southern Greece in 479, occupying Athens again after unsuccessful negotiations. The allies eventually assembled a substantial army under the Spartan regent Pausanias.

At Plataea in 479 BCE, the allied Greeks defeated Mardonius, who was killed. The remnants of his army retreated. Around the same time, a Greek fleet under Leotychidas and Xanthippus reached Mycale in Asia Minor. Its forces landed and attacked the Persian camp, destroying ships drawn up on shore. This was not a simultaneous land and naval engagement.

Ancient tradition placed Mycale on the same day as Plataea, but this does not prove a coordinated modern-style operational timetable. The victories ended the principal invasion of mainland Greece and enabled a Greek counteroffensive.

The Greek counteroffensive

After Salamis, Mardonius sought permission to continue the war with part of the land army. He wintered in Thessaly and Boeotia. Athens remained vulnerable while the Spartans concentrated on defending the Isthmus.

Mardonius offered Athens a separate agreement. The Athenians rejected it and were again forced to evacuate when he occupied their city. They appealed urgently for Spartan help. Pausanias, regent for Leonidas’ young son Pleistarchus, then led the allied army north.

The Athenians, under Aristides, supplied an important contingent. Plutarch describes Aristides as holding extensive command powers. The allied victory at Plataea removed the main Persian army from Greece.

Mycale marked the beginning of a new phase. Greek communities in Asia Minor again challenged Persian rule. The allied fleet then moved to the Hellespont and captured Sestos. In 478 BCE, an expedition also took Byzantium. Pausanias’ conduct alienated allies and contributed to his recall.

Sparta increasingly wished to withdraw from the continuing naval war. Athens assumed leadership of a new alliance formed on Delos, conventionally dated to 478/477 BCE. The Delian League united many Aegean communities for operations against Persia. Thucydides describes retaliation and the devastation of Persian territory as its declared objectives.

League forces removed Persian garrisons from parts of Thrace and expanded the area controlled by the allies. The sequence in which individual Ionian cities joined is not always clear. Samos, Chios and Lesbos were among important early participants. Aristides organised assessments of allied contributions; traditions about his later travels are less certain.

Cimon led operations at Eion on the Strymon, where the Persian garrison resisted and the town was taken. He subsequently captured Scyros, expelled its inhabitants and claimed to have recovered the bones of Theseus. Their transfer to Athens strengthened his political reputation and the city’s heroic cult.

Later traditions also connect Cimon with the expulsion of Pausanias from Byzantium. Plutarch relates an anecdote about the division of captured Persians and their ornaments: allies chose the valuables, while the Athenians received captives whose ransom later produced substantial funds. Such anecdotes reveal ancient interpretations of Cimon’s judgement but are not detailed administrative records.

Cimon’s victory at the Eurymedon in southern Asia Minor was a major League success. Greek forces defeated Persian ships and land troops; later accounts also describe an attack on approaching Phoenician reinforcements. The battle is commonly dated to the 460s BCE, but its exact year and sequence are disputed.

Traditions concerning peace negotiations after these successes are difficult to reconstruct. A later, formal Peace of Callias is conventionally associated with 449 BCE, though its date and even its historicity remain subjects of debate.

The Athenians also intervened in Egypt in support of a revolt against Persia. The expedition in the 450s ended disastrously. Conflict between Athens and Sparta further complicated the continuation of the Persian war.

Cimon led another expedition to Cyprus around 450 BCE and died during the campaign. After victories associated with Salamis on Cyprus, Athens reduced offensive operations against Persia. This Salamis should be distinguished from the island near Athens where the naval battle of 480 BCE took place.

Consequences

Greek victories checked Persian expansion into mainland Greece and reduced imperial control in parts of the Aegean. The position of the Asian Greek cities nevertheless changed repeatedly; Persia remained an important power in Greek affairs.

Athens became the principal naval leader and an influential cultural centre. The Delian League gradually developed into an Athenian empire, producing tensions with allies and Sparta. The victories strengthened civic confidence, but did not establish democracy everywhere or remove slavery. Greek memories of freedom and resistance were therefore inseparable from later struggles over power.

Literature and sources

Herodotus. Histories, especially Books V–IX.
Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War, especially Book I.
Xenophon. Anabasis.
Plutarch. Lives of Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon and Pericles.
Diodorus Siculus. Library of History.
Ctesias. Persica (fragments).
Cornelius Nepos. Lives of Miltiades and Themistocles.
Yu. V. Andreev, G. A. Koshelenko, V. I. Kuzishchin and L. P. Marinovich. History of Ancient Greece. Moscow: Vysshaya Shkola, 2001 (in Russian).
John Warry. Warfare in the Classical World. Russian edition: Moscow, Eksmo, 2009. ISBN 978-5-699-30727-2.
The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. IV: Persia, Greece and the Western Mediterranean, c. 525–479 B.C. Russian edition, edited by J. Boardman et al., translated by A. V. Zaikov. Moscow: Ladomir, 2011. 1112 pp. ISBN 978-5-86218-496-9.

Herodotus. Histories, Book VII — text and translation

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