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Ancient Greece: The Greco-Persian War

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Greece was the strongest country during its Classical Period. Even though they struggled against other strong country and had a civil war, they were peace at the end of the Classical Period. War is undoubtedly callous, but Greeks were not scared of death, they were warriors.

One of the first and most important war during 600BCE-200BCE is the Greco-Persian War. During 539BCE, the Persian tyrant Cyrus the Great who ruled Persia and most of the West Asia dilated their territory and captured Lydia and the coast of Anatolia. Cyrus increased the taxes among Ionians( Greek residents from Anatolia) and appointed Persian land lords to charge from Ionians. His son Cambyses supported Cyrus and captured even mot residential settlements from Greece and …show more content…
Cleomene was latter kicked out of Sparta because of the compunction of bribing, but then invited him back because he gathered nearly half of the force of Sparta. At the late 491BCE, Cleomene was found insane and suicided. During 490BCE, the Persians and the Greeks fought at the Bay of Marathon. This time, the Greeks had only 11,000 people fighting against Persia’s 25,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry, 100,000 armed oarsmen and sailors, 600 triremes, 50 horse-carriers, and 200 supply ships. The Greek general Miltiades instructed his force to fought from the side trapping the Persians in the middle. A man named Pheidippides became famous after he ran an entire 40 miles from the Bay of Marathon to Athens. At 486BCE, Egyptians under Darius’ reign revolted against the Persians. Darius perished while preparing for his preparing to march Egypt. The throne of Persia passed to Xerxes. The revolt of Egyptians had postpone the expedition of Greece. Xerxes crushed the Egyptian revolts and focussed his forces on Greeks. At 481BCE, Xerxes just like Darius sent ambassadors to ask greek states other than Sparta and Athens for food, but all other Greek …show more content…
In 480BCE, Xerxes began his second attack of Greece. The battle settled at Thermopylae because Thermopylae is an important route for the Persians to attack Greece. After 3 days of fighting, a local resident named Ephialtes betrayed Greece and lead the Persians to the mountain path which is just behind the Greek Allied Camp. The Spartan King Leonidas noticed and dismissed most of the forces leaving 2,000 warriors to fight against Xerxes’ 200,000 people force. At last, the 2,000 warriors lost and many died fighting. Since the Allied fleet was badly damaged, and since it no longer needed to defend the flank of Thermopylae, the Allies retreated from Artemisium to the island of Salamis. Athens’ population evacuated and left the Persians simply open to an invasion. The Persians depredated Athens and captured nearly the entire Greece. Even after Athens fell, the Allied fleet remained off the coast of Salamis, trying to lure the Persian fleet to battle. The navies met in the cramped Straits of Salamis. The Persian fleet became hindrance, so the Allies used this opportunity to sinking or capturing at least 200 Persian ships, therefore

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