The most complete information guide about Athens, Greece
HISTORY
OF ATHENS
The Persian Wars
Cleisthenes’ new administrative reforms had a strong influence
on the composition of the army which was soon to be put to the
test.
The
Persian Wars, 490–479 BC, were a series of conflicts fought
between Greek states and the Persian Empire. The writings of Herodotus,
who was born about.484 BC, are a great source of knowledge of
the history of the wars. At their beginning, the Persian Empire
of Darius I included all of West Asia as well as Egypt. On the
coast of Asia Minor there were a few Greek city-states that revolted
against Darius' despotic rule. Athens and Eretria in Euboea (now
Evvoia) gave the Ionian cities some help but not enough and they
were subdued by the Persians. Darius decided to punish Athens
and Eretria by adding Greece to his vast empire. In 492 BC a Persian
expedition commanded by Mardonius conquered Thrace and Macedon
but its fleet was crippled by a storm.
A
second expedition, commanded by Artaphernes and Datis, destroyed
Eretria and then proceeded against Athens. The Persians encamped
32 km (20 miles) from the city on the coast plain of Marathon.
Here they were attacked and decisively defeated by the Athenian
army of 10.000 men aided by 1.000 men from Plataea. The Athenians
were heavily outnumbered but fought under Miltiades whose strategy
won the battle. They had sought the help of Sparta by way of the
Athenian courier Pheidippides, who covered the distance (241 km
– 250 miles) from Athens to Sparta within two days. The
Spartan forces however, failed to reach Marathon until the day
after the battle.
Pheidippides
and the Marathon run
The
traditional story tells that Pheidippides, an Athenian
messenger, ran the 42 km (26 miles) from the battlefield
by the town of Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek
victory over the Persians in the Battle of Marathon
(490 BC) with the word "Nenikékamen"
(We were victorious!) and died on the spot. Most accounts
incorrectly attribute this story to the historian Herodotus
who wrote the history of the Persian Wars in his Histories
(written ca.440 BC).
Sadly
for historical romance, the story is probably a myth.
If the Athenians wanted to send an urgent message to
Athens there was no reason why they could not have sent
a messenger on horseback. In any case, no such story
appears in Herodotus. The relevant passage of Herodotus
is:
"Before
they left the city, the Athenian generals sent off a
message to Sparta. The messenger was an Athenian named
Pheidippides, a professional long-distance runner. According
to the account he gave the Athenians on his return,
Pheidippides met the god Pan on Mount Parthenium, above
Tegea. Pan, he said, called him by name and told him
to ask the Athenians why they paid him no attention,
in spite of his friendliness towards them and the fact
that he had often been useful to them in the past and
would be so again in the future.
The
Athenians believed Pheidippides's story and when their
affairs were once more in a prosperous state, they built
a shrine to Pan under the Acropolis and from the time
his message was received they held an annual ceremony
with a torch-race and sacrifices to court his protection.
On
the occasion of which I speak - when Pheidippides, that
is, was sent on his mission by the Athenian commanders
and said that he saw Pan - he reached Sparta the day
after he left Athens and delivered his message to the
Spartan government. "Men of Sparta", the message
ran, "the Athenians ask you to help them, and not
to stand by while the most ancient city of Greece is
crushed and subdued by a foreign invader; for even now
Eretria has been enslaved and Greece is the weaker by
the loss of one fine city.".
The
Spartans, though moved by the appeal and willing to
send help to Athens, were unable to send it promptly
because they did not wish to break their law. It was
the ninth day of the month and they said they could
not take the field until the moon was full. So they
waited for the full moon and meanwhile Hippias, the
son of Pisistratus, guided the Persians to Marathon."
The
significance of this story is only understood in the
light of the legend that the god Pan returned the favor
by fighting with the Athenian troops against the Persians
at Marathon. This was important because Pan, in addition
to his other powers, had the capacity to instil a blind
fear that paralyzed the mind and suspended all sense
of judgment, pure panic.
Herodotus
was writing about 50 years after the events he describes
happened so it is reasonably likely that Pheidippides
is a historical figure. If he ran the 246 km over rough
roads from Athens to Sparta within two days, it would
be an achievement worthy of remembrance. Whether the
story is true or not, it has no connection with the
Battle of Marathon itself and Herodotus's silence on
the subject of a messenger running from Marathon to
Athens suggests strongly that no such event occurred.
The
first known written account of a run from Marathon to
Athens occurs in the works of the Greek writer Plutarch
(46-120). In his essay “On the Glory of Athens”,
Plutarch attributes the run to a messenger called either
Thersippus or Eukles. Lucian, a century later, credits
one "Philippides." It seems likely that in
the 500 years between Herodotus's time and Plutarch's,
the story of Pheidippides had become muddled with that
of the Battle of Marathon and some fanciful writer had
invented the story of the run from Marathon to Athens.
While
the marathon celebrates the mythical run from Marathon
to Athens, since 1982 an annual footrace from Athens
to Sparta, known as the Spartathlon, celebrates Pheidippides's
at least semi-historical run across 241 km of Greek
countryside.
The
Persians did not continue the war but Darius at once began preparations
for a third expedition so powerful that the overwhelming of Greece
would be certain. He died in 486 BC before his preparations were
completed but they were continued by Xerxes I, his son and successor.
The Athenians were persuaded by their leader Themistocles to strengthen
their navy and to wall the city. So Athens was fortified with
the Themistoclean Wall..
The
Persian danger led to the creation of the First Athenian League
in 478 BC. Originally, its members included the majority of the
cities of the Aegean islands and of the coasts of Asia Minor.
At the same time, the reinforcements of the fleet resulted in
the increase of landless free Athenians, given the fact that only
free citizens worked in the ships. This, combined with the political
changes brought about by Themistocles and Ephialtes (462 BC),
spread and consolidated the institution of democracy.
In
480, Xerxes reached Greece with a tremendous army and navy and
considerable support among the Greeks. The route of the Persian
land forces lay through the narrow pass of Thermopylae. The pass
was defended by the Spartan Leonidas; his small army held the
Persians back but was eventually trapped by a Persian detachment;
the Spartan contingent chose to die fighting in the pass rather
than flee. The Athenians put their trust in their navy and made
little effort to defend their city, which was taken by the Persians
(480 BC)
Shortly
afterwards, the Persian fleet was crushed in the straits off the
island of Salamis by a Greek force. The Greek victory was aided
by the strategy of Themistocles. Xerxes returned to Persia but
left a military force in Greece under his general, Mardonius.
The defeat of this army in 479 at Plataea near Thebes (now Thívai)
by a Greek army under the Spartan Pausanias with Aristides commanding
the Athenians and a Greek naval victory at Mycale on the coast
of Asia Minor, ended all danger from Persian invasions of Europe.
During the remaining period of the Persian Wars the Greeks in
the Aegean islands and Asia Minor, under Athenian leadership,
strengthened their position without seeking conquest.
The
Persian Wars made Athens the strongest Greek city-state. Much
smaller and less powerful than Sparta at the start of the wars,
Athens was more active and more effective in the fighting against
Persia. The Athenian heroes Miltiades, Themistocles and Cimon
were largely responsible for building the city's strength. In
490 BC the Greek army defeated Persia at Marathon. A great Athenian
fleet won a major victory over the Persians off the island of
Salamis ten years later.
The
powerful fleet also enabled Athens to gain hegemony in the Delian
League, which was created in 478–477 BC through the confederation
of many city-states. In succeeding years the league was transformed
into an empire headed by Athens. The city arranged peace with
Persia in 449 BC and with its chief rival, Sparta in 445 BC but
warfare with smaller Greek cities continued.