1. Persian Wars, Peloponnesian War, and Alexander the Great
Ancient Greek Warfare
Persian Wars, Peloponnesian War, and Alexander the Great

2. Greek Warfare Hoplite – armed men
Large 3 foot shield (Hoplon) protected his left side
The other side was protected by the hoplite’s shield to the right.
Thrusting spear 6 – 8 ft long (2 sided)

3. Battle Formations Phalanx – line of hoplites 8 men deep
Shields interlock, march forward

4. Greek Phalanx

5. Phalanx holding the line at Thermopylae

6. Persian Wars 499 – 479 BCE
Written by the first Greek historian, Herodotus
Defined the word History = Investigation
Stories are embellished
Allies – States that agree to help each other against a common enemy
Athens, Sparta and other Greek city-states
Persians – Iranian tribe that conquered Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Egypt, and parts of India and Europe.
Excellent archers

7. Persian Empire: 525 B. C. 7

8. Ionian Revolt
546 BCE, Persians conquered Greek settlements in Ionia (Turkey)
Forced to pay taxes and serve in the Persian army
499 BCE, Ionians asked Greeks for help.
Tattooed a secret message in a slave’s head and sent him to Greek mainland.
Sparta refuses, Athens helps briefly, then leaves
Persians destroy Ionian city of Miletus

10. Post Ionian Revolt
Persian King Darius decides to conquer Greek mainland.
Sends messengers to ask for submission
Asked for Greek earth and water
Athenians and Spartans threw them into pits and wells telling them to, “take what they wanted.”
This meant war.

12. Battle of Marathon
King Darius sails an army of 20,000 + cavalry (crash at Mt. Athos)
Land on the plain of Marathon.
Facing 10,000 Athenians led by Miltiades.
Miltiades attacks while horses are out to pasture
Dead: 192 Athenians vs. 6,400 Persians
Persians sail to Athens
Messenger runs 26.2 miles to Athens to prepare for Persians. Tells them, “Nike!” then drops dead
Athens ready for Persians

15. Battle of Thermopylae
Darius’ son, Xerxes gets 180,000 troops to invade Greece.
Army marched over floating bridge over the Hellespont
10,000 troops dig canal for Navy to avoid Mt. Athos
Greeks debate defensive strategies
Athens – navy
Spartan King Leonidas led the army

16. Battle Sight Today
In ancient times the coastline was where the modern road lies, or even closer to the mountain

17. Battle of Thermopylae (cont.)
Thermopylae is a narrow pass between the mountains and the sea north of Delphi
6,000 Greeks drove back 180,000 Persians
Greek traitor, Ephialtes tells Xerxes the back route to surround Greeks
Leonidas knows its over, sends army home
300 Spartans stay to delay the Persians
Fight to the death
“Arrows will blot out the sun.” “We will fight in the shade”

18. Animated View of Thermopylae

19. Illustration of the Battle

20. Post Thermopylae Athenians heard of slaughter and fled.
Athens destroyed.

21. Battle of Salamis Athenian Navy set a battle site at Salamis
Again, narrow channels
Greeks sent a loyal slave to Xerxes. Told him an Athenian general wanted to change sides. Convinced him to attack immediately.
Greeks retreated, before attacking
Led them into the channel.
Greek ships armed with rams in the front sunk 300 Persian ships.
Greeks lost 40 ships

23. End of the Persian Wars Xerxes attacked next spring
Spartans feared Athenians would make peace after the destruction of their home.
Athens declared “common brotherhood with Greeks.” They would fight!
479 BCE Battle of Plataea
80,000 Greek hoplites destroyed the Persian army. No more threat!
Greeks lost thousands, city of Athens, but they rebuilt.

24. Golden Age of Athens
479 – 431 BCE Athens was the artistic and cultural center of Greece.
Parthenon was pinnacle of architecture
Theatre of Dionysus
The Agora was the home of philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
Olympic Games to honor Zeus
All funded by The Delian League

25. Alliances Between City-States
After the Persian War, Sparta and Athens started to mistrust each other.
The Delian League included Athens and other city-states on the Aegean coast and on islands in the Aegean Sea.
The Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta, included most of the Peloponnesus peninsula and Macedonia.

26. Peloponnesian War
The rivalry between the two city-states erupted in the Peloponnesian War, which Sparta won.
Fighting made the Greeks weak and vulnerable.

27. Macedonia Philip II of Macedonia sees weakness in Greeks.
Philip conquers most of Greek mainland
His son, Alexander takes throne at age 20
Studied under Aristotle as a youth.
Alexander wants to fulfill Philip’s goal of conquering the Persians
Invades Asia Minor first
If they fight, their city is destroyed. If they surrender, they get to keep gov’t and leaders

28. Alexander the Great
Philip's son Alexander (later called “the Great”) combined the Greek and Macedonian armies into a massive fighting force
In 334, he crossed into Asia Minor. In the next 10 years he conquered the entire Persian Empire, which included eastern Mediterranean countries as far as Egypt and extended inland as far as India.
After Alexander died in 323 B.C. his empire was divided—but he had planted Hellenistic culture throughout the eastern Mediterranean region.

29. Alexander’s Empire 323 B.C.E. 29

30. Hellenistic Kingdoms
Egypt under the Ptolemies
(323–30 B.C.),
Syria under the Seleucids
(312–64 B.C.)
Macedonia and Greece under the Antigonids (276–168 B.C.).
Greek culture flourished in the new Hellenistic cities such as Antioch in Syria, and Alexandria in Egypt. 30