3.4, The great collision of Europe and Asia - the Greco-Persian War
(This article is adapted from " Must-know Asian History " published by Lao Ba in 2017)
Chapter 3, Section 5 (Total Section 14)
As mentioned in the previous lecture, in the second half of the 6th century BC, the First Persian Empire emerged in West Asia. In a few decades, it expanded into a super giant covering an area of millions of square kilometers and spanning three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa. But then, the invincible Persian Empire finally met its strongest opponent, the ancestors of European civilization - the ancient Greeks.
Although ancient Greece was not one of the four ancient civilizations, their early development was slightly slower than ancient Babylon and ancient Egypt . By the 6th century BC, ancient Greece had surpassed the Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt and reached the peak of development. The economy, culture, science, and politics of ancient Greece were all-roundly prosperous, and its influence spread all along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Asia Minor and Egypt had already been "Greek" before they were conquered by Persia.
Take the military alone. Although Greece is divided into many city-states and its power is scattered, making it difficult to gather as large a force as the Persians, the Greek army is well-equipped and its technology and tactics are quite mature. When the two major civilizations of Europe and Asia collide, it is difficult to say who will win.
The war first started in Asia Minor. There were many Greek colonial city-states in Asia Minor, and they launched a rebellion against the Persian Empire. Darius conquered these city-states one by one with ease.
Then it’s time to take action on mainland Greece. In 492 BC, Darius sent troops to conquer Greece. Who knows that people are so unlucky that even if they take a mouthful of cold water, their teeth will be clogged. This large army encountered a big storm halfway, and most of the fleet was sunk, so they had to retreat.
In 490 BC, Darius sent troops for the second time and successfully landed in Greece. On September 21, the two sides fought in the plains of Marathon northeast of Athens. The Persian side had 25,000 troops, while the Greek side only had 11,000 troops, mainly from Athens. However, the main weapons of the Persian army were bows and arrows and scimitars . The Greek heavy infantry wore bronze helmets, breastplates and shoulder armors. Other parts of the torso were covered with scale armor, which made it difficult for bows and arrows to penetrate. The weapons of the Greeks were spears up to three meters long. Many Persian soldiers could not reach the enemy and were stabbed into candied haws. In addition, the Persian general made a command error and concentrated the main force in an attempt to break through the center. The Greek army took the opportunity to retreat from the center and advance on both wings. As a result, the Persian army was surrounded on three sides, and finally its formation collapsed and finally fled in defeat. This time the troops were dispatched but failed again.
Darius died a few years later.
After the son of Darius, Xerxes I , succeeded to the throne in 485 BC, which was the end of China's Spring and Autumn Period , he inherited his father's last wish and recruited troops and horses and prepared food and grass in various territories of the Persian Empire. In 480 BC, Xerxes led hundreds of thousands of troops and thousands of warships to attack Greece in a mighty manner. I thought that this time it would be a killing of a chicken with a sledgehammer, and I would be able to capture it with ease.
Ancient Greece, under the leadership of Athens and Sparta , organized a coalition to fight head-on. The Persian army wasted no time at first and occupied the northern part of the Greek peninsula. Then they moved southward by land and water. At Thermopylae, a dangerous pass in central Greece, they encountered more than 7,000 Greek coalition troops. Headed by the Spartan King and 300 Spartan warriors. Although the Persian army was outnumbered, the terrain of Thermopylae was difficult, with mountains to the west and swamps leading to the sea to the east. The only passage in the middle was not enough for two carriages to run parallel to each other. Such terrain is very conducive to the Greek army's persistence. The Persian army rolled forward like a sea tide. However, when the overwhelming army arrived in front of Thermopylae, it was squeezed into a long and narrow current by the mountains to the west and the swamps to the east. It could not surround or attack from a flank, and could only attack head-on. Pushing, the superior force could not be used at all, and they could only rush forward one by one and let the Greeks slaughter them. After fighting for several days, the Persian army lost tens of thousands of people and was still unable to advance. Moreover, the Persian navy was attacked by the Greek combined fleet and encountered a storm, causing heavy losses. Xerxes was so frustrated that he considered retreating.
Persians are also lucky. There was a Greek who became a traitor and told Xerxes that there was a path that could cross the mountains and return to the south of Thermopylae. Xerxes immediately sent elite troops across the mountains and surrounded Thermopylae at dawn, attacking from all sides, and finally wiped out the three hundred Spartan warriors. But here, the Persians lost 20,000 troops, and two brothers of King Xerxes of Persia also died in the rebellion.
After occupying Thermopylae, Xerxes marched forward, occupying many city-states in central Greece, and captured the city of Athens. But the Athenians had already left by boat. He was disappointed when a report came suddenly, saying that the Greek combined fleet was found gathering in the Gulf of Salamis to the west of Athens. Xerxes was overjoyed and immediately ordered the navy to pursue him. The Gulf of Salamis has two exits, the east and west. Xerxes sent the Egyptian fleet around Salamis to block the western exit. The main force, nearly a thousand warships, rushed in from the opening on the east to destroy the Greek fleet in one fell swoop.
On September 23, 480 BC, the fleets of both sides launched a decisive battle in the Gulf of Salamis. The Greeks only had more than 300 warships, while the Persians had nearly a thousand. King Xerxes of Persia thought he had a chance to win, so he ran to the hills by the sea to set up a tent, and asked the officials who wrote history to bring paper and pen with them, preparing to drink and have fun while watching the Persian navy the Greek navy all Annihilate.
The ships on both sides soon started fighting. Persian ships were tall, but not as strong as Greek warships, and they were not as agile. Moreover, the Persian fleet was recruited from all over the territory, and it was difficult to unify political orders. The Greek ships shuttled back and forth on maneuvers. Some used the sides of their ships to violently break the long oars of the Persians, and some used the angle of their bows to ram through the belly of the Persian warship.
During the melee, the Athenian fleet on the left wing of the Greek army suddenly looked like it was about to escape. The Persian right-wing fleet rushed forward to intercept them, each one scrambling to be the first, and the formation became even more chaotic. The Athenian fleet suddenly responded, turned its bow and pounced. Soon, the Persian right-wing fleet was beaten to pieces, many ships were sunk and damaged, and the rest fled in a hurry, and the Persian central fleet was also disrupted.
Then, the Athenian fleet quickly rotated clockwise, circled back to the rear of the Persian left wing fleet, and attacked from the front and back. The Persian navy itself was a ragtag group of people from all ethnic groups. Seeing the critical situation of the war, many ships turned around and fled. Even the navy commander ordered his flagship to flee. In the end, Persia sank more than 200 warships and captured more than 50 ships. Xerxes stood on the mountain, looking at the heavy losses of his warships, and couldn't help crying.
The naval battle of Salamis became the turning point of the entire Greco-Persian War. Xerxes traveled thousands of miles on an expedition to Greece. Once the navy was defeated, he would no longer be able to maintain his supply line and was worried about being cut off by the Greek navy. So he had to lead his army to retreat.
The next year, 479 BC, the Persian army went south again and burned the city of Athens again. However, they were immediately defeated by the 30,000 Greek coalition forces. The main general was killed in the battle, and the Persian army was forced to completely retreat to Asia.
From this year onwards, the Persians retreated steadily, and the Greek coalition in turn regained the lost ground. The Greco-Persian War continued for about thirty years, basically with the Greeks attacking and the Persians retreating. The Greeks gradually seized the islands and coastal areas in the Aegean Sea, and even Egypt was threatened. In 449 BC, Persia was forced to sign a peace treaty with Greece, giving up control of the Aegean Sea, the Hellespont and the Bosporus ( the Black Sea outlet), and recognizing the independence of the Greek city-states on the west coast of Asia Minor.
The Greco-Persian War became a key point in the transformation of the Persian Empire from prosperity to decline. Not only was Persia abandoned by the Greeks and stopped its westward expansion into Europe, but it also suffered serious losses. Domestic opposition forces took the opportunity to cause trouble, and even Egypt became independent for a time. The governors of various places no longer obeyed the orders of the imperial court, but dominated their own territories. In the Persian palace, there were frequent conspiracies and bloodshed. Xerxes I died of assassination. However, this huge empire can still hold on for a while. We will talk about the final outcome of Persia later.
Just as the Persian Empire and Greece in West Asia were fighting in full swing, India in South Asia was unwilling to be left alone and also came up with a rather strange thing. Let’s talk to you about the caste system in India in the next lecture.
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