Second Persian Invasion of Greece

History

Second Persian Invasion of Greece

Reviewed by:

Nafeez Khan

Introduction to Second Persian invasion

During the Greco-Persian war, the second Persian invasion of Greece occurred when King Xerxes I aimed to conquer all of Greece from 480 to 479 BC. The second Persian invasion was a delayed but direct repercussion of the first Persian invasion in the battle of Marathon in 492–490 BC which ended with the will of Darius I to vanquish Greece. Xerxes, after the death of his father, has spent several years planning for the second invasion by assembling a large troop of army and navy. The Greek resistance was led by the Spartans and the Athenians. Though almost all the states of Greece remained neutral or submissive towards Xerxes, about one-tenth of the Greece states came together as an alliance to support Spartans and Athenians against the Persian force.

In the spring of 480 BC, the second Persian invasion of Greece took place when the troops entered Greece by crossing the Hellespont and then moving forward to Thrace and Macedon till Thessaly. The troops of Persia that were marching forward were blocked by a small allied force of Greece under the command of King Leonidas I of Sparta and at the straits of Artemisium, the Persian fleet was blocked by another allied group. These allied groups held back the Persians for almost three days on the battlefield of Thermopylae, before the Persian troops over manoeuvred the Greek troops from the mountain paths and the allied mountain guard was eventually captured and executed. Also at the Battle of Artemisium, the allied forces resisted the Persian troops for two days before they received the news of the disaster at Thermopylae and therefore they withdrew to Salamis.

The Persian army captured the burning Athens along with the allied states like all of Euboea, Phocis, Boeotia and Attica fell to the Persian army. However, the narrow Isthmus of Corinth was immediately fortified by the Greek allies thus able to protect the Peloponnesus from Persian conquest. The course of the war was altered as both the rivals witnessed a naval victory where many of the Persian ships were disorganized and thus was easily defeated by the opposite allies. The victory could not be concluded after the win of the allies at Salamis and the Persian King Xerxes eventually retreated to Asia with the fear of being trapped in Europe. He left behind his general Mardonius to finish the conquest with the other elite army. He was later defeated in the battle of Plataea where the Greeks again proved their superiority.

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Background of the Second Persian Invasion of Greece

The unsuccessful Ionian revolt was supported by the Greek city-state of Athens and Eretria against the Persian Empire of Darius I in 499–494 BC. The Persian empire was prone to a revolt among its subjected people as it had a relatively young empire. Moreover, Darius was a totalitarian leader of Persia and most of his life he spent a lot of time putting an end to a revolt that arose against his rule. The Ionian revolt has challenged the integrity of his ruling and thus he wanted to teach all of them a lesson especially those who were not part of his empire already. He also saw the invasion as a golden opportunity to expand his empire into the fractions of the city-states of Greece. A small expedition that was carried out under the governance of Mardonius, in 492 BC, to acquire the lands that were approaching Greece later ended in the recapturing of the Thrace. Thus it forced Macedon to fully become a part of the Persian empire.

Thus in 491 BCE, Darius sent his ambassador to all the Greece city-states proposing the gift of “earth and water” by submitting them to the Persian empire. Very well aware of his display of power in the previous war many of the Greek city-states had agreed to submit themselves to the empire. But only Sparta revolted by putting the ambassadors on the trial and then executing them by simply throwing them into well. This was the time when it declared its state of war against the Persian emperor. Thus in 940 BCE, under Datis and Artaphernes, the emperor put an extensive troop on command. Thus before receiving the submission of the other Cycladic Islands, they attacked Naxos. Then it moved and destroyed Eretria. Finally, it landed at the bay of Marathon and attacked Athens where a heavily outnumbered Athenian army was waiting for them. Later the Persian army withdrew themselves to Asia after the remarkable victory won by Athens.

Second Persian War Timeline

The second Persian War timeline is as follows:

Place	Year of event	Summary of event
Naxos	502 BCE	an attack by the Persians on the large island of Naxos resulted in the revolts by Ionian settlements occupied by the Persians in Asia Minor. The expansion of the Persian empire to occupy Greek settlement in Asia Minor and the success of the Ionian revolt has given courage to the Greeks to revolt against Persian expansion.
Asia Minor	500 BCE	The first revolt began which was in the Green Ionian regions of Asia minor.
Sardis	498 BCE	The Persians who were led by Eritrean and Athenian along with Aristagoras conquered Sardis. Greece was defeated by Persian forces and the city was burnt. The Athenian involvement in the Ionian revolt ended.
Nexos	492 BCE	The inhabitants of the island fled when the Persians invaded. Persian burnt the settlements and it was marked as the first invasion of the Persians into Greece territory.
Marathon	490 BCE	With the Victory of the Athenes, the first Persian invasion of Greece ended.
Thermopylae, Salamis	480 BCE	At the battle of Thermopylae, the combined Greek force was defeated by the Persians led by Xerxes in their invasion of Greece for the second time. Persian overran most of Greece as Athens fell. But in the battle of Salami which is a large island west of Athens, the combined navy force of Athenes beat the Persians. Xerxes retreated to Asia.
Plataea	479 BCE	Retreating the Persian army from their defeat in Salamis was camped in Plataea where they were again badly defeated by the Collective Greek force. The Persian force was led by Mardonius.
Delian League	478 BCE	The Delian League was formed by the combined efforts of the Greeks against the Persians. Many of the Greek city-states were alienated by Sparta Action. They recombined together as allies under Athens. This was marked as the start of the Athenian empire.
Eion	476 to 475 BCE	Cimon the Athenian general has captured the stronghold of the Persians which was a place where they stored all their supplies and huge stores.
Caria	468 BCE	In a series of land and sea battles with the Persians, General Cimon freed many of the coastal areas of Greece.
Prosopitis	456 BCE	When the Greek forces arrived to support the local Egyptian rebellion in the Nile River Delta, they were surrounded by the remaining Persian force and were badly defeated. This was marked as the end of the expansion of the Delian League under Athenian leadership.
Peace of Callias	449 BCE	Though hostilities ended several years earlier, a peace treaty was signed between Persia and Athens.

FAQs on Second Persian Invasion of Greece

1. Who won the second Persian war?

Routing was completed. The Greeks lost 192 soldiers where the Persians lost 6400 soldiers. The rest of the others have escaped and fled. Later they sailed at once to surprisingly attack the Greek force but the combined Athenian force already was present to face the Persian troops.

2. Name the person who defeated Sparta.

General Antipater who led the largely Macedonian army marched to its relief and badly beat the force led by the Spartans in a pitched battle.