Kholod. This article discusses the political propaganda used by the Persian Empire during their war with Alexander the Great. Most people would immediately think that the propaganda was used directly towards Alexander. However, the Persians directed their propaganda towards the Greeks. They did this because their success depended a great deal on the Greek’s position.
King Xerxes I of Persia personally witnessed his naval fleet being destroyed. Historians cite that the Greeks had about 366 ships while the Persians commanded a naval fleet of about 720 ships (Bradford,
With the Balance of Power destabilising, which, according to Thucydides, is the only means to achieve peace, the growth of power in Athens caused the Spartans to feel more and more insecure and thus they started to prepare to defend themselves. This very much reflects the realist point of view, as it argues that without a Balance of Power there can be no peace and it also shows how easily the balance can be dis-rupted so that it causes a war. Thucydides that war may be justified on grounds of pursuit of the national interest and in order to achieve peace at last. However, there are differences as to what is a ‘legitimate’ national interest. Where for political realism everything that is in the interest of the state and can be achieved by
From 430-426 B.C., an epidemic disease wiped out thousands of Athenians, including Pericles, 429 B.C. Without Pericles' guidance, the
It was fought at the pivotal point in the conflict when things were looking grim for Greece, with Athens abandoned and only the Peloponnese remaining free. The engagement was supposed to be an easy victory for the Persians: their ships were better-designed and more numerous. Their crews were also more experienced and better-trained. However, it was Greek tactics and Persian over-confidence that changed the course of the battle, the result of which was thought by many to be a foregone
If this were to have occurred then the Greeks alliance with the Spartans could have potentially been lost, as the Spartans may have withdrawn from the war. This would have had a significant impact on the strength of the Greek army as the Spartans intimidated the Persians after the battle of Thermopylae and they also had a skilled military tactics. Also by having Greeks navy roaming the shores of Athens it complicated the Persians tactics, as they were not
The plan of the prominent Athenians had however already been put into motion and as the emissaries were finding out that they were not going to get the Persian gold they had been promising, the political clubs in Athens were organising for a vote to abolish the democracy. Thucydides does mention some terror tactics being used such as the murder of political opponents but he does not put too much stress on the subject. With the prominent Athenians now aware that the original proposal to establish an oligarchy and pursue the war with Persian gold is not going to happen they change their plans and instead establish an oligarchy of the four hundred backed up by an assembly of the five thousand and promising to pursue the war with their own private fortunes. Using the power of the organised political clubs and most probably intimidation the motion was passed and Athens then became an oligarchy. In 404/3 the Athenians also voted to abandon the democracy but instead of the vote being influenced by political clubs and intimidation by various Athenians it was
However, his dream of burning Athens to the ground would not be realized, and this lust for revenge would be passed down to his son Xerxes. In 480BC, Xerxes assembled the largest army the ancient world has ever seen. With around 300,000 men, he marched towards Greece with a navy following closely behind. As Xerxes marched toward Athens, they were met with a combined Greek force of 300 Spartans and 4000 free Greeks defending a narrow pass, nullifying the numerically superior Persian force. At the same time, the Persian navy attempted to sail behind the Greek forces and box them in.
The involvement of Athens and Eretria in the Ionian revolt according to Ehrenberg “put Athens into the center of the unfolding story of the Persian wars”. Herodotus agrees, stating that the dispatch of the ships from Athens and Eretria was “the beginning of the evil for both Greeks and barbarians.” The conflict brought about strong feelings from Athens toward Persia that were carried into future battles. Herodotus records that “the whole episode was probably most important for the later attitudes which it engendered.” The Greeks were motivated into defending their land from the Persians after seeing the fate of the Greeks in Ionia. They knew that if they were conquered according to Ehrenberg that “the freedom of the Greek states would be lost.” Public support in Athens against Persia was gained due to the fate of Miletus. Many Athenians felt that more help should have been provided to protect the cities destruction.
Despite war being one of the most immoral, barbaric, and most appalling of all human creations, the Greeks did the impossible, by successfully portraying war as something of beauty, patriotism, freedom and self-sacrifice. Therein lays a reason the significance of the Battle at Thermopylae. That one battle not only captured the spirit of the Greeks, more specifically the Spartans, in three days but became a turning point of the art of war. But the Battle of Thermopylae more importantly defended the very future of the modern