Transcript Conflict in the Mediterranean

A Very Short History of Greek
Warfare
Round 1: Greeks vs. Persians
• 500 BC – Persians ran most of the known World
• Culture Clash!?!?
• Cyrus the Great (540 BC) took advantage of disunited
Greece
• Ionia (present day Turkey) was under Persian Rule
• Athenians couldn’t accept this and encouraged to
rebel!!!!
• Darius the Great invaded Greece in 490 BC
• Athenians defeated him at the Battle of Marathon
• Spartans were skipped out for a religious festival
Round 2: Greeks vs. Persians
•
•
•
•
•
Athens and the rest of Greece got off easy
Darius’s son, Xerxes was not as polite
250,000 men from the Persian empire
10,000 “immortals”
Floating bridge across the Hellespont
–
–
–
–
First one destroyed; engineers beheaded
Next, two bridges consisting of 300 bound ships
Hellespont: 1 mile long
Rope: 1 foot wide
Round 2: Continued
• Greeks became fearful
• Athens send envoys to Sparta and beg for an alliance
• Battle of Thermopylae
– Leonidas recruited 300 men to bodyguard Greek soldiers
– The Spartans held off a quarter million Persians for three days
• Themistocles
– persuaded the Athenians to let the Spartans lead the military
– privately persuaded the Spartans to let him run the navy.
– Persuaded Athens to evacuate the city
• Battle of Salamis
– Persian navy was completely destroyed
• Battle of Plataea
– Greek army united with 10,000 Spartans
Round 3: Greeks vs. Greeks
• Persian Wars ended in 479 BC
• Delian League was formed
–
–
–
–
An “alliance” against Persia
It eventually turned into an Athenian Empire
Strong navy; covered the Aegean Sea
Athens collected “tribute payments” from their “allies”
• Peloponnesian League was formed
– Sparta had to start their own “club”
– They had no navy
– Claimed total superiority on the ground
• Athens built huge stone walls around their city
In a nutshell: One side owned the sea, the other the land
Round 3: Continued
• Problems started in 433 BC
• Corinth (ally of Sparta) got into an argument
with Corcyra (a Corinthian colony)
• Corcyra went to Athens for help
• Corinth went to Sparta for help
To be Continued….