HELLAS:NET - History

Xerxes was afraid that the fleet would get damaged again in a storm so he ordered his troops to dig a canal through the peninsula of Athos. This took three years, and during these years he also constructed a bridge over the Hellespont. The Persian army would march again through Thracy towards northern Hellas while the fleet sailed up with them to protect and provision them. At the same time Xerxes invaded Sicily to prevent that they could offer any help to Hellas. The Greeks also assembled their forces. The Spartan king had the command over about 40.000 hoplites, and more light armed troops, while the Spartan admiral had 366 ships under his command. All were fine troops, but puny in the face of the 200.000 Persians warriors and 1000, mostly Phoenician, ships. The size of this Persian army is still legendary.

The Persian Wars was one of the rare occassions when most Greek cities forgot their internal struggles and formed a Greek alliance.

Greek defensive lines.

The Greeks knew that they were majorly outnumbered and based their strategy on this. It was obvious that the natural aspects of Hellas had to be used as much as possible in order to defeat the Persian army. The plan was to trap the Persian army in a mountain-pass where its numeric advantage was of less account, and where the Persian fleet could not launch any attacks in the back of the Greeks. Then maybe the fleet could be destroyed in a sea-strait where the manoeuvrable trireme had an advantage over the less experienced Persian fleet. Once the Persian fleet was destroyed, or spread out, it was not unlikely that the huge army would be cut off from all supplies and forced either to retreat or to starve.

The first choice for a defensive line was the gorge of Tempe and 10.000 hoplites were sent to it. Closer inspection learned that the Boeotians could not be trusted, and that the geographical situation was not optimal. Two other lines remained: the pass of Thermopylae where the fleet could block the adjacent north-Euboean strait, or the Isthmus of Corinth with a fleet at the north of Salamis. Sparta was far from optimistic about the first plan and made plans to retreat to the Isthmus. Even Athens was preparing for the worst scenario possible. A recently found tablet proves that Themistocles prepared plans for a decent evacuation of Athens.

Athens demanded that the defences would be formed at Thermopylae as otherwise Attica would easily fall in the hands of the Persians. The Spartan king positioned himself with 7000 men in the narrow pass in 480 BC, while the fleet formed its defences near Artemisium. The battles at sea remain indecisive, but Leonidas held out magnificently for two days against the best Persian troops. Then they could not hold it any longer, and all of them were killed.

The balance tips to the other side.

Now the Persian troops did not only control northern Hellas, but they also could march into Attica and take Hellas. Luckily the Athenian population had already been evacuated to the island Salamis. Finally the Persians had their revenge, and Athens was destroyed. Themistocles realised that their only hope was the fleet, but that they should not fight a battle at open sea. With a fake message he managed to lure his Persian opponents in the small strait of Salamis where they were destroyed by the Greek triremes. At the same time in the east the Syracusans had crushed the Carthaginian army, sent by the Persians, during the battle at Himera.

Xerxes went home with his fleet, but left most of his army behind under the command of Mardonius with the instructions to conquer the remains of Hellas. The Athenians wanted an offensive war as they wanted Athens back, but Sparta felt saver behind their Isthmus wall. Finally a battle took in 479 place at Plataea, situated at the south border of Boeotia. This battle was more characteristic than Salamis for battles in those days: chaotic. Primarily the Spartans forced their way through the enemy, and the Greek won the battle.

At the same time the Greek fleet had sailed over the Aegean and destroyed the remains of the Persian fleet and the Persian army at the naval base Mycale in Asia Minor. The Ionic Greeks who were forced to serve in the Persian army choose the side of the Greeks, and helped them during these last battles. This way an Ionic revolt formed the start and end of the Persian wars. The Greeks would not lose territory again, what they would lose however was the internal unity.