today we're looking at the Greek Persian Wars
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videos the Persian wars were two separate wars fought during the 5th Century BC between the
expanding Persian Empire and the ancient Greeks both Wars resulted in Greek victories and would
include some of the most famous battles of the ancient world the Persian Empire which was based
out of modern-day Iran was one of the greatest empires of history with their empire spanning
three continents from Eastern Europe Northern Africa to Asia under the Persian ruler Darius the
Persian Empire had been consistently expanding in the region of ancient Greece was the next
to fall however the ancient Greek city-states of Greece would come together to defend their
territory as the city-states of Sparta and Athens joined forces to fend off the coming invasion
in 491 BC Darius sent representatives to Greece to demand their surrendered Persian rule the Greeks
responded by killing the representatives Darius then responded by sending over 600 ships and 25
000 men to invade the southern islands of Greece now Darius began to plan for
an invasion of the Greek mainland the Persian Force which estimates number to be close to 90
000 moved against the combined Greek forces which are believed to have been only around 20
000 strong despite the huge numeric disadvantage the highly disciplined hop-lite soldiers of Greece
proved to be a difficult adversary Greek hoplites were heavily armed infantry men that carried large
round bronze Shields long Spears and swords the hoplites were skilled in fighting in the
Phalanx formation in which they fought shoulder to shoulder with each soldier's large Shield
protecting himself and the soldiers next to him on the plains of marathon the Persians and Greeks
met in September of 490 BC the Persians fired thousands upon thousands of arrows into the Greek
army but had little impact as the arrows bounced off the Greeks large Shields the Greeks attacked
in their tight formations and were able to defeat the larger Force estimates are that over 6
000 Persians were killed while the Greeks suffered only around 200 lost Soldiers the Persians boarded
their ships and abandoned their Invasion Legend has it that a Greek named fidipides
ran the 26.2 miles from the battlefield back to Athens to deliver the news of the Victory
and that is where long distance running race is known as marathons take their Origins a decade
later the Persians returned to Greece again with ambitions of Conquering the region the new ruler
of Persia was Xerxes and he wanted to succeed where his father Darius had failed Xerxes sent
Representatives to all the Greek city-states demanding they pay him tribute as a sign of
submission to Persian rule many of the city-states did pay tribute in fear of the persian's massive
Army but city-states such as Athens and Sparta both executed the Persian Representatives with
Sparta throwing the representatives down a well when Xerxes received this news he began to move
his army toward the Greek mainland historical accounts of the size of Xerxes Army vary widely
with some saying there were close to eight hundred thousand Persians and others putting the number
close to two and a half million nonetheless their size greatly outnumbered the Greek forces at the
infamous Battle of Thermopylae it is said that 300 Spartan warriors led by their King Leonidas
lured the Persian army into a narrow pass where they were able to hold back the massive Persian
Force for three days before all being killed the Persians were able to move further into the Greek
mainland and even captured and destroyed much of the city-state of Athens the next major battle
took place at Sea in September of 480 BC where the Greek Commander the mysticles was able to lure the
Persian Fleet of 500 ships into the narrow Straits of Salamis here 300 Greek trirem ships slammed
into the Persians using their bronze tipped Rams to puncture and sink most of the Persian ships
Xerxes Navy was forced to retreat the Persians still held control of a large portion of the
Greek mainland but in August of 479 BC at the Battle of platia over one hundred thousand Greek
hoplite soldiers attacked a similar size force of Persians again the Greek Phalanx won the day and
the Persians were forced to retreat ending Xerxes Ambitions of conquering Greece the Greeks formed
the Delian League an alliance of city-states to ward off Persian Invasion some 30 years later in
449 BC the Greeks and Persians signed the peace of coleus which officially ended hostilities between
the two civilizations so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
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