Special Sub-Topic: The Persian Wars Click Here To Play: The Persian Wars

What we know about the Persian Wars all comes from one source, a Greek historian alternately known as the father of history and as the father of lies. What was his name?

Herodotus. Herodotus was born around 484 BCE in Halicarnassus, but he lived most of his life in Athens as a resident alien - a metic. Although others before him had written 'histories', these had largely been simply stories of past events (like Homer's 'The Iliad') instead of efforts to EXPLAIN the past. This is why Herodotus is so often called the Father of History - his failure to meet the standards of modern scholarship and objectivity, however, earns him the title 'Father of Lies.' He died around 420 BCE, in the midst of the Peloponnesian War.

The Persian Wars began when the Greek inhabitants of conquered cities began revolting against their Persian rulers beginning in 499 BCE. These cities were a part of what territory (now part of Turkey) conquered by Cyrus II?

Ionia. The other three areas are all on the main Greek peninsula. The cities of Ionia - including Miletus, Ephesus, Chios, and Samos - had accepted Persian rule for several decades, as the Persian strategy was to allow conquered lands to keep most of their independence. But around 500 BCE, as radical new political ideas like democracy swept through Greece, the Ionian cities suddenly found Persian rule unacceptable and rebelled.

What mainland Greek cities initially tried to protect the rebels from Persian vengeance?

Athens and Eretria. Yes, there is a Greek city named Eretria, not to be confused with the nation of Eritrea that won its independence from Ethiopia in the 1990s. Although these cities sent both fleets and armies to aid the Ionians, King Darius I of Persia was able to brutally suppress the rebels by 494 BCE - and the support of the Athenians and Eretrians was the perfect excuse for the Persians to invade Greece.

The Persians began to march towards Greece in 490 BCE, under the command of Darius I. Did they face united Greek resistance?

n. Because Persia was interested in attacking only those Greek city-states which had supported the Ionians, the other Greek cities did not feel particularly threatened. We must also remember that the Greek cities had never been united and frequently fought amongst themselves - so that some Greeks were relieved by the attack on their neighbors. Because of this, the only city-state to stand with Athens and Eretria against the Persians was the small town of Plataea.

The Persians met their first defeat in 490 on the plain of Marathon. What experienced soldier - formerly part of Darius's army - led the Greeks to victory on that day?

Miltiades. Before the Battle of Marathon, the Persians had already sacked the city of Eretria, and they did not expect much resistance from the Athenians, whose forces they greatly outnumbered. After a week of dissent and anxiety as they watched the Persian encampment only a mile away, the Greeks finally decided to make an unprecedented move: Athenian and Plataean hoplites (heavily armored infantrymen with interlocking shields) rushed across the plain to attack the Persians in formation, at a run. The collapse of the Persian flanks allowed the Greeks to trap the center, and within a few hours the Greeks had managed to defeat a much larger army.

The next Persian assault on Greece came years later, in 480 BCE. By this time the Persian crown had been inherited by what son of Darius I?

Xerxes. The Persians' second assault on Greece was delayed both by the unexpected death of Darius I in 486 BCE and by other issues that arose over their enormous empire. When the assault finally did come, it was motivated more out of a desire to stabilize the western borders of Persia than out of vengeance for Marathon.

The new alliance of Greek city-states against the Persian invasion was headed by what city-state?

Sparta. Sparta was a natural choice for this leadership role, as its population was highly militarized. Although the Greek city-states were far more unified for the second Persian War than for the first, some cities still sided with the Persians against their neighbors. Thessaly, Argos, and Thebes were among these.

Since the Persians still possessed the advantage of numbers, the Greeks sought to hold them at a place narrow enough that this advantage would be neutralized. What mountain pass did they choose?

Thermopylae. At Thermopylae, a relatively small number of Greek hoplites was able to hold back thousands of advancing Persians for days - until Greeks allied with Xerxes showed the Persians a mountain trail that would let them attack the Greeks from the rear. Leonidas, a Spartan king, sent his Greek allies home to fight another day, while he and the other 300 Spartans held the pass as long as they could before they were killed. Their legendary bravery bought their allies time, as did the heroic efforts of the smaller - but heavier and better-armed - Greek navy in the nearby strait of Euboea.

Soon afterwards, while the Persian army burned Athens and sacked the surrounding countryside, the Athenian general Themistocles was able to lure the Persian fleet into a narrow strait nearby, where they were soundly defeated in what naval battle?

Salamis. This battle largely ended the Persian Wars. Xerxes fled home with most of his armies, leaving a small force behind to inflict whatever casualties and damage it could. This force was defeated by a Spartan-led coalition at Plataea in 479.

Clean-up operations after the wars, including the liberation of Greek cities in modern-day Turkey, were handled by an alliance led by Athens. What was this alliance called?

Delian League. The members of the Delian League - which did not include Sparta - were supposed to pay funds towards the common effort. These funds eventually went to a treasury on the sacred island of Delos, but when the treasury was moved to Athens, it became clear that the alliance had become an empire, with Athens's 'allies' as its subjects. While the League was successful in freeing Ionia and removing the Persians from the Aegean Sea, many found Athenian rule more distasteful than Persian rule. It was the building of the Athenian Empire through the Delian League, with all the accompanying power shifts, that led to the Peloponnesian War less than fifty years later. I hope you've enjoyed this quiz!