1. War in Ancient Greece
Chapter 11
Section 1

2. Introduction
Warfare was frequent in ancient Greece. The quarrelsome city-states battled one another over land and resources.
In addition to all their minor conflicts, the Greeks fought three major wars in the 400s B.C.E. Twice they united long enough to defeat the Persian empire.
These periods of unity were brief. By the late 400s B.C.E., the Greeks were fighting a destructive war among themsleves.

3. The Persian Wars
After 546 B.C.E., Persia conquered the Greek city-states of Ionia in western Asia. The Ionian city-states were used to governing themselves, so they rebelled in 500 B.C.E.
To help them, Athenian soldiers burned the Persian city of Sardis. This enraged Darius, the Persian king. After his troops recaptured the Ionian cities, Darius set out to conquer Greece.

4. Darius Invades Greece
In 490 B.C.E., about 20,000 Persian soldiers sailed for Greece. They landed by the plain of Marathon, near Athens. This flat plain seemed like the perfect battleground for the Persian cavalry, or soldiers on horseback.
Although, Athenian infantry, or foot soldiers, rushed to Marathon, their situation still looked hopeless. The Athenians, unlike the Persians, had no archers or cavalry, and were outnumbered by about two to one.

5. Darius Invades Greece
Despite all the advantages the Persian’s had, the Athenians attacked the day after the Persian landing.
At dawn, Greek phalanxes raced across the plain, taking the Persians by surprise. In a panic, the Persians fled to their ships.
The unexpected victory at the Battle of Marathon ended the First Persian War.
In ancient times, a legend told of a messenger who died after running 26 miles to carry the news of the victory back to Athens. Ever since then the word “marathon” has been used to describe a challenging footrace.

6. Xerxes Attacks
Darius died before he could launch another attack. But his son, Xerxes (ZURK seez), was determined to defeat the Greeks, and begin the Second Persian War.
In 480 B.C.E., Xerxes assembled an invasion force of about 100,000 men. The Persian empire was the superpower of its day.
Because it controlled Egypt, Persia was able to add the Egyptian army to its ranks.
Although the Persians did not have a navy, they used the ships of the of the Phoenicians, who were part of their empire.

7. Xerxes Attacks
The Spartans moved north to block the huge army. Led by King Leonidas, a small Spartan force stopped the Persians at a narrow mountain pass called Thermopylae (thur MAHP uh lee).
The Spartans held off the invaders for days. Then, a Greek traitor showed the Persians another path through the mountains.
Attacked from both sides, the Spartans died heroically, in defense of Greece.

8. Victory for Athens
With no Greek army to stop them, the Persians now advanced on Athens. The Athenian leader Themistocles (thuh MIS tuh kleez) convinced Athenians to flee to nearby islands.
When the Persians reached Athens, they found the city almost empty. Xerxes burned Athens and sent his ships to pursue the Greek navy.
The Persians had 1,200 warships, three times more than the Greeks. Confident of victory, Xerxes had his throne placed on a hill to watch the naval battle in the Strait of Salamis.

9. Victory for Athens
But Themistocles had set a trap. He kept his Greek ships hidden until Persian ships filled the narrow strait.
Suddenly the Greeks attacked. They rammed the crowded Persian ships, splintering their hulls. By nightfall the strait was clogged with more than 200 broken Persian ships. The Greeks lost only about 40 ships.
The Battle of Salamis broke Persian naval power. After another defeat for Xerxes on land, the Persians returned home.

10. Athens Rivals Sparta
After defeating the Persians at Salamis, Athens enjoyed a “golden age.” The Athenian leader Pericles began rebuilding the city, which became famous for its art and learning. The wealth of and power of the city increased.
However, trouble was brewing. Greece now had two rival powers- Athens, with the strongest navy, and Sparta, with the strongest army.
Each wanted to be the supreme power in Greece. Their rivalry would lead to deadly conflict.

11. The Delian League
Soon after the Persian wars, Athens formed an alliance with other city-states. An alliance is an association of nations formed to achieve a goal.
Because Athens and its allies met together on the island of Delos, their alliance was called the Delian League.
Members promised to protect one another from Persia and provide ships or money for defense. This money was kept in the League’s treasury on Delos.

12. The Delian League
The Delian League had about 150 members. All of the allies were supposed to be equal. However, Athens was by far the most powerful member.
Athenian ships protected Greek traders and travelers. By building an alliance of city-states that bordered the Aegean Sea, Athens was able to protect its grain supply that came from the Black Sea.

13. The Delian League
Athens ran the Delian League as if it were its own empire rather than an alliance of equals. The Athenians brought some cities into the League by force and blocked others from leaving.
When the city-state of Naxos tried to leave the alliance, Athens attacked them and forced them to stay.
The arrogant behavior of the Athenians angered other League members. Rather than asking city-states to contribute ships, Athens requested money. Athens used the money to builds its navy.

14. The Delian League
Athens continued to collect these funds even when there was no fighting with Persia. Athens also forced League members to use Athenian currency instead of their own.
In 454 B.C.E., Athenian leaders moved the League’s treasury from Delos to Athens. Soon after, money from League members was used to rebuild Athens.
Some of this money went to constructing the Parthenon, the great temple of Athena that stood on the Acropolis. Other members of the Delian League came to resent this use of the League’s funds.

15. The Peloponnesian League
The Spartans had already formed their own alliance on the Peloponnesian Peninsula. It is known today as the Peloponnesian League.
Like Sparta, other members of the Peloponnesian League feared the power of Athens and its style of government.
In contrast to democratic Athens, Sparta and most of its allies were oligarchies.

16. The Peloponnesian League
In 433 B.C.E., Sparta’s Peloponnesian League and Athens Delian League came into conflict.
That year, Athens placed a ban on trade with Megara, a member of the Peloponnesian League.
This angered Sparta and its allies, who prepared for war. Athens and its allies did the same. Both sides were confident of a quick and easy victory.

17. The Peloponnesian War
War between the two Greek alliances broke out in 431 B.C.E. Known as the Peloponnesian War, the conflict lasted on and off for 27 years.

18. The Siege of Athens
The Peloponnesian War began when an army led by Sparta marched into Athenian territory.
Pericles, the leader of Athens, instructed farmers living in the Athenian countryside to move inside the walled city for safety.
The Spartans settled down around Athens for a long siege. The goal of a siege is to force the enemy to surrender by cutting off its food and other supplies.
Athenians had prepared for just such an even, however. They had built two long walls to line the four-mile road that connected Athens to its port city. While these long walls stood, Athenians could receive supplies by sea.

19. The Siege of Athens
Supplied with food by ship, the Athenians held out for more than a year. Then, a plague, or contagious disease, broke out in the overcrowded city.
Thousands of people died in Athens. Among the dead was Pericles, who had led Athens during its golden age.
To avoid catching the disease themselves, the Spartans left the region around Athens.

20. The Siege of Athens
Regardless of the plague, the war dragged on. Sparta, with its powerful army, and Athens, with its strong navy, found it difficult to defeat each other.
Athens sent ships to attack Spartan-allied cities in Sicily, an island that is now part of Italy. Sparta seemed near defeat until it won some important victories.
In 421 B.C.E., both sides agreed to a truce, or an agreement to stop fighting, while they discussed peace terms.

21. Athens Surrenders
Within a few years, however, the truce was broken. Athens launched another invasion of Sicily. With help from Sparta, the Greeks of Sicily destroyed the Athenian forces.
Athens was now desperately weakened. The Persians saw a chance to deal Athens a fatal blow. They gave money to Sparta so it could build its own powerful navy.
With this new fleet, Sparta defeated the Athenian navy at the Battle of Aegospotami in 404 B.C.E.. After that, Sparta attacked Athens itself.

22. Athens Surrenders
Once again, the Athenians resisted. But with its new navy, Sparta was able to keep food from reaching Athens by sea.
Without a food supply, the Athenians began to starve. The following year, the city of Athens was forced to surrender.
The peace terms were harsh. The Athenians were forced to demolish the Long Walls. Sparta even made the Athenians give up their democratic government.

23. Athens Surrenders
Although democracy was soon restored, Athens had lost its power.
The Peloponnesian War hurt all the city-states. Thousands of Greeks were slaughtered. Cities were destroyed. Governments fell. Trade dropped. Yet, the constant feuding continued.
Throughout the 300s, the Greeks persisted in fighting amongst themselves, ignoring the growing threat of powerful Macedonia, a northern kingdom that would soon unite them by force.