The Drama that was The Persian Wars! Quiz

Answer: The Ionian Revolt

The Ionian Revolt occurred in 499 BC due to the tyrant of Miletus, Aristogoras, inciting revolt among the Ionian cities. How did an event that happened so long before the Persian Wars affect its course? Well, the role that Athens and Eretria played in this revolt was what gave Darius the motivation to invade Greece in the first place! In fact, according to J.B Bury & Russell Meiggs ('A History of Greece'), this was "the proximate cause for the Persian expeditions against Greece." Turns out Darius didn't take too kindly to Athens and Eretria burning down his Winter palace at Sardis, and so vowed to have his revenge on Athens and Eretria in the near future. Well, can't blame him can we?

Answer: Miltiades

We can give Miltiades a fair bit of credit for the Greek victory at Marathon - while the Athenians were divided over whether to defend Athens or to just plain run, Miltiades convinced the Athenians to defend the city outside it so that they could fall back on Athens if flight was necessary. Miltiades was also perceptive enough to notice when the Persian cavalry was shifted onto the Persian ships, due to the Persians hoping to launch a surprise attack on Athens by sea.

The cavalry had posed a serious threat to Greece because the Greeks had none and because Marathon was a suitable battleground for cavalry, thus Miltiades was quick enough to take advantage of the situation instead of waiting for the arrival of promised Spartan help!

Answer: They were delayed by their Karneia festival

According to Herodotus (author of 'Histories'), the Spartans agreed to send help to Marathon but "could not march until the moon was full" in accordance with the rules of their Karneia festival. Due to the Spartans' serious approach to religion, the Athenian generals were tying themselves in knots over whether to initiate a battle with the Persians in case of medism in the Greek army or whether to wait for the Spartans.

It's a good thing they didn't wait because the Spartans arrived three days after the Battle of Marathon! According to A.R Burn (author of 'Persia and the Greeks') however, the Spartans actually DID contribute to the Greek victory because their "good will" in deciding to mobilise forced the Persians to hurry their operations, and so "did exert a real and important influence on the campaign." Not bad for doing nothing, hey?

Answer: He needed to destroy the relationship between Athens and Sparta

There was no need to destroy the relationship between Athens and Sparta when Greece was disunited anyway and were easy prey - That's what Xerxes reckoned anyway! According to V. Ehrenberg (author of 'From Solon to Socrates'), "the conquest of Greece was a task inherited from Darius but fervently taken up as his own by Xerxes" - not only did Xerxes feel that he had to extend the empire because of pressure to emulate his ancestors' territorial conquests, but Darius' need for revenge was inherited too! In fact, Darius had been preparing for another invasion of Greece when he died quite untimely, so it was up to Xerxes to take up the task. Don't ignore Mardonius, Xerxes' cousin, either - Herodotus states that Mardonius badgered Xerxes to "punish the Greeks who are guilty of injuring us without provocation." Mardonius also had ambitions to become satrap of Greece, apparently, and was after an adventure!

Answer: Sparta

Well, it was a toss up between Athens and Sparta, the two natural leaders of Greece, and Sparta came out on top because the allies had already decided that they didn't want to submit to Athenian leadership. Athens swallowed her pride and yielded to the decision because according to Herodotus, she knew that a quarrel "would mean the destruction of Greece." So much for disunity among the Greeks - not only did Athens not press the issue, but the states also decided that all disputes would end between them, which meant the end of dispute between Athens and her old enemy, Aegina. Now that took guts!

Answer: Thermopylae

The Pass of Thermopylae was perfect because it was so narrow! The Greeks knew that they were hopelessly outnumbered by the Persians, so what better way to overcome this then to choose geographical locations that favoured small armies rather than large ones? Since Thermopylae was so narrow, it meant that the Persians were restricted from sending huge amounts of soldiers against the Greeks at one time. Additionally, according to C. Hignett (author of 'Xerxes' invasion of Greece'), Thermopylae was the "gateway into Greece proper" and needed to be defended!

Answer: False

You'd think that the Greeks would, right? Wrong, considering the command was Sparta's! The pass was defended by King Leonidas of Sparta, 300 Spartans and about 7000 other reinforcements. Not much, considering the Greeks were able to gather over 13000 troops in the Battle of Platea! Why didn't the Greeks give Thermopylae their all? Well, it could be argued that the Spartans didn't think Thermopylae would fall so quickly, so didn't reinforce Leonidas in time. Alternately, they may have disliked the plan to defend Thermopylae, preferring instead to defend the Isthmus in the interests of the Peloponnese and Sparta.

Herodotus blames the Karneia festival (that again!) and the Olympics for Sparta's delay to "march with all the troops at her disposal," but it COULD be argued that Sparta knew that defending Thermopylae was futile, so limited the amount of troops she sent in order to minimise her losses. Burn concludes rather bluntly though that "the cold fact was that Leonidas was left too long, insufficiently supported." That's what you get when you're as conservative and pondering as a Spartan!

Answer: Themistocles

It was the far-sighted genius of Themistocles which saved Greece in the Persian invasion of 480-479 BC! Thucydides states that as early as 493 BC, Themistocles was fortifying the Piraeus from possible Persian attack. After 490 BC, while most Athenians believed that the Battle of Marathon meant the end of the Persian threat, according to Plutarch (refer to 'The rise and fall of Athens: Nine Greek lives' and check out his Life of Themistocles): "Themistocles however believed that it was only the prelude to a far greater struggle" because "he sensed the danger while it was far away." Themistocles was convinced that Athens' future lay in her naval power, not her army, which couldn't hope to compete with Sparta's.

He convinced the Athenians to use a new supply of silver to build an extra 100 triremes, which, according to Herodotus, "saved Greece by forcing her [Athens] to become a maritime power"...

Answer: Compensation of 100 obols was to be given to each citizen for evacuating in such short notice

Well, eight drachmae was given to any citizen who embarked but not 100 obols! Themistocles showed his fore-sightedness yet again by recalling ostracised individuals, to ensure that there could be no risk of these individuals from joining the Persians in order to be restored to power - medism was always a danger, shown through Ephialtes turn-coating the Greeks at Thermopylae. Recalling ostracised individuals could also mean that "all Athenians may in unity ward off the barbarian", according to the Troezen inscription.

This part of the Themistoclean decree thus provided for the return of Xanthippis and Aristides, who would play significant roles in the defense of Greece. Also, by sending Athenian women and children to Aegina, this showed just how dedicated the Greeks were when it came to accepting unity - who could have ever predicted Athenians being sheltered by their Aeginetan enemies in their time of need?

Answer: He sent a letter to Xerxes hinting at Greek treachery and withdrawal

Aristides in a dress? Highly amusing, but... heh, no. Themistocles sent a letter to Xerxes hinting that the Athenians were willing to switch sides in the battle, and added that "the Greeks are at daggers drawn with each other." (Herodotus.) Burn believes that the aim of this was to make the Persians enter the strait of Salamis in full force, "confidently and impetuously." This meant that the Persians, confident of victory beforehand, would rush on in and their commanders wouldn't be able to control them or get them out of the strait again, thus creating utter confusion! Clever, no?

Answer: Aeschylus

Aeschylus wasn't just an eyewitness, he was in the battle! Not surprising then, that he'd want to write a play on his near-death experience titled quite originally, "The Persians." Aeschylus observed the faintly comical failure of the Persian strategy - the Persians, as predicted, charged into the narrow strait of Salamis, driven by winds which made it difficult to manouvre.

The fleet became cramped and disorganised as a result, and according to Aeschylus, the ships then "fouled each other with their rams." That cut a lot out of the Greeks' workload! Although it is acceptable to quote/refer to Aeschylus in essays or projects, BEAR IN MIND that 'The Persians' was written for an Athenian audience, consisting of many who actually fought at Salamis, so Aeschylus would've had in mind the need to glorify the Greek victory while to downplay the Persians. Also, since 'The Persians' is a tragedy, Aeschylus would've been forced to manipulate historical fact do make it conform to the tragic cycle in which a protagonist (Xerxes) suffers Nemesis (ill-doing) from the Gods for his acts of Hubris (pride). If you're going to quote Aeschylus, be sure to acknowledge his unreliability, as well as the fact that he was an eye-witness!

Answer: False

No way! That's what the Greeks liked to believe was the case, because it reaffirmed the superiority of Greeks over 'barbarians', and glorified the Greek victory no ends. If you don't believe me, read Aeschylus' 'The Persians' and you'll see! The truth was that the glorification of the victory detracted away from the real reason for Xerxes' flight - according to Bury, Xerxes fled so quickly because "the real danger lay not in Attica but in Ionia." Remember the first Ionian revolt? Well, a second one was potentially around the corner because the Ionians could take the opportunity of the Persian defeat to throw off the Persian yoke yet again! I'd run pretty fast if I were Xerxes, wouldn't you?

Answer: Athens threatened to withdraw from the war

Sparta was proving herself more exasperatingly conservative than even Athens could handle - Herodotus states that there was tension between Athens and Sparta preceeding the Greek march to Boetia where the rest of the Persian army were residing. He blames this tension on Sparta's self-interested policy of refusing to move beyond the Isthmus.

It pays to consider Sparta's point of view - it's possible that Sparta was detained by her harvests (hey, all Greek states have their own lives, afterall!) or a dangerous coalition of pro-Persian states in the Peloponnese.

It could also be suggested that Sparta was aware of the advantages that the terrain of Boetia had for the Persian cavalry, and weren't too eager to throw herself against such odds. At any rate, according to Burn, "It took Athens' threat to withdraw from the war to turn the scale at Sparta." Another factor which contributed to frightening the Spartans into mobilising was the prospect of Athens being defeated or coerced by the Persians (Mardonius had already been making overtures to Athens to turncoat!) which meant that her naval power would become Persia's to use against the Peloponnesians. Yikes!

Answer: The Spartans' discipline and the errors of the Persian tactics

After the tension between Athens and Sparta, the Spartans were able to redeem themselves in this battle by proving why they were the most powerful military force in Greece! According to Bury, "The battle was won simply and solely by the discipline and prowess of the Spartan hoplites." (That's Bury's opinion - there were other factors!) The Spartans remained disciplined and in control, hiding behind their shields despite the heavy onslaught of Persian arrows and then charged at Mardonius, managing to kill him. Why was this important? Because of the extreme weak point of Persian tactics - if the Persian leader/king died or fled, then the Persian forces would either flee with the King or fall into disarray.

The Greeks didn't have this problem - take Thermopylae for example, when King Leonidas was among the first to be killed. Did the Greeks stop fighting? No! Some even kept fighting with their hands and teeth when they lost their swords! It was evident then, that one of the reasons why the Greeks were able to end the Persian invasion of mainland Greece was because their discipline and strategy were superior to those of the Persians. If you want further examples of Persian military defeats due to their unrectified tactic, have a look at the campaigns of Alexander the Great in which the Persian King fled not once, but twice against Alexander which saw his army flee with him, and their terrible tactic greatly enabled Alexander to conquer their entire empire! Can you see how serious this error was, in the Battle of Platea, and later down the track? This is thus a perfect example of one of the reasons why the Greeks expelled the Persian threat!

Answer: The Ionians revolted against the Persians

Well, it was bound to happen some time! After Salamis, the remnants of the Persian navy withdrew to Samos where, according to Herodotus, "they remained to guard against a possible Ionian revolt." There wasn't much that the Persians could do about it though - when the Spartan King Leotychides arrived at Mycale to do battle with the Persians who had withdrawn to the mainland, he was told by a chance informant that the Ionians were ready to revolt so long as they had sufficient backing. Leotychides thus sailed up and down the coast proclaiming freedom for the Ionians if they would only revolt. Whether or not this did the trick or whether the Ionians planned it all along, during the battle the Ionians suddenly switched sides and started attacking their Persian masters. Thus, according to Herodotus, "this day saw the second Ionian revolt from Persian dominance." Whew! That's enough Persian Wars for one day. Hope you enjoyed the quiz! :)