The Greek-Persian Wars

For a period of time, sometimes for long stretches or even repeatedly, a region can play a massive historical role due to its geographical location and geophysical strength. Persia became an empire, turning into a gigantic bridge between the Far East and the Mediterranean world. It was in King Cyrus that the conquering passion and the will for state-building awakened. As he fulfilled his imperial mission, smaller powers began to dwindle, and the Greeks of Asia Minor also became his victims. His successor, Darius, was an even better organizer and builder, uniting peoples and tribes in his provinces with the help of satraps. The Greeks of Asia Minor rebelled and, fearing punishment, sought help from the Greek world. Athens immediately sent twenty ships, all of which were lost. The city of Miletus was reduced to ashes, its inhabitants slaughtered or sold by the Persian governor's orders.
But Darius was not satisfied with such a minor revenge; Athens too had to be punished. To avenge the insult, the Persian Armada, after its first expeditionary fleet was scattered by a storm, set sail once again and landed at Marathon, forty-two kilometers from Athens. The Persian force was probably two and a half times the size of the Greek force. The battle became a historic turning point. The heavy Greek foot soldiers, the hoplites, charged forward, stunning the Persian archers with their speed. Behind overlapping circular shields, mostly impervious to the barrage of arrows, with leg armor for protection, in nearly invincible phalanx formations, and with three-meter-long spears weighing around thirty kilograms, it seemed as if the bronze wave rolling toward the invaders was a light-footed race. It is often explained by their inner momentum: free men defending their homeland attacked a heartless invading army of despotic masters, although they were excellent soldiers. The ten thousand free men were like athletes, raised from adolescence for this purpose, since the Olympics featured a "hoplite event," a foot race with heavy shields. Their dual superiority in defensive and offensive weaponry compensated for their numerical disadvantage. Their leader, Miltiades, fearing a Persian cavalry charge (which did not materialize), reinforced the flanks of the Greek army. When the enemy almost managed to push the weaker center of the Greek line, they were caught in a pincers from both sides. It was a characteristic ancient battle, with both sides suffering few casualties during the fight, but many losses afterward on the defeated side, as the swift-moving, small cavalry and lightly armed auxiliary troops began their slaughtering work. The victorious Greek army turned back and rushed to Athens to protect the city in case the Persian fleet appeared from the sea. But the fleet no longer had enough troops to attempt a landing. Among the hoplites at Marathon was Aeschylus, the later tragedian.
Of course, there would be a reckoning for this blatant act of treason. After Darius's death, his son Xerxes took up the task of revenge in a gigantic combined land and naval operation. Military and diplomatic preparations lasted for years, and involved winning over the smaller Greek states. Under his personal leadership, in the spring of 480 BCE, the massive force began to roll forward, aiming first to reduce Attica and Athens to mere rubble and then to annex all of Greece as a province. During the march, a bridge across the Dardanelles collapsed in a storm, and Xerxes had the sea scourged. The backbone of the Persian army consisted of elite bodyguards, known as the "ten thousand immortals," because the fallen were immediately replaced, keeping their numbers unchanged. But the majority of the army consisted of sons of conquered or voluntarily submissive peoples. The political advisor of Athens, Themistocles, was one of the most cunning Greeks. Correctly interpreting the ambiguous advice of the Delphic oracle, he ordered the rapid construction of swift-moving triremes, while the emptied city of Athens would be left as free prey for the enemy. After the Persian army, thanks to treachery, broke through the defense at the Thermopylae pass, they sacked Athens. During this sacking, the predecessor of the Parthenon, the Hekatompedon, the ancient temple, was burned down. Themistocles sent a traitor to Xerxes, convincing him that the Athenian fleet was about to flee from the narrow Salamis Bay. The Persians, then, squeezed their cumbersome ships into the pre-chosen battlefield, only to see the small Greek ships sink two hundred Persian vessels before Xerxes's eyes. The Greek loss was forty ships. At Salamis, among the free citizens serving in the military, was also an exceptionally trained soldier, Socrates. The following year, the Persian land army was defeated by the Greeks at Plataea. The Persian general Mardonius also fell on the battlefield.
The Persian threat dissipated, and the Great King never succeeded in acquiring the western part of the known world. Athens emerged as a naval superpower from this life-and-death struggle, becoming the queen of the seas since Salamis. However, fate also tempted the Athenians, and the victories spread the eastern god-king's disease: "My power is your servitude!" This led to the Peloponnesian War.

Cs. Szabó László "Görögökről", Európa könyvkiadó, Budapest, 1986