Tough Love – Life in the Spartan Army The Spartan Army was the military force of Sparta, one of the leading city-states of ancient Greece. Sparta created one of the toughest and most disciplined armies in the world. Their soldiers were trained from being infants to be tough and obedient to their laws. Sparta enjoyed a period of supremacy after the Peloponnesian War until they met their first defeats against Iphicrates of Athens and Epaminondas of Thebes. The troops were citizens known as the Spartiates, the superior social class of Sparta; the others were the Helots, who were slaves and the Perioeci who were the upper-slave-class.
Although, trade and financial advantages were often the most prominent, yet hidden cause of conflict in the Greek World. The Sicilian Expedition overwhelmingly demonstrates that the Economy was of major importance to Athens, which directly led to a large scale conflict. Athens sailed Thousands of miles to Sicily as they misbelieved the Island was full of treasures which the local towns possessed. Also, Sicily was in a advantageous position, being close to the African and Italian coast, which would help enhance Athens’s wealth. Although it can be argued that Alcibiades initiated the invasion, Athens’s would not have led a costly campaign to Sicily just because of one man.
The Battle of Marathon The Battle of Marathon is significant not only to the Greeks, but the whole world. At the beginning of their fight, the Greeks had won a stunning victory. This was a battle no one will forget. It was only the first of many battles between the Greeks and the Persians. It all started when King Darius decided to conquer the tiny Greek city states of mainland Greece.
Beginning in sixty six AD with Jewish uprisings under Rome and ending with the destruction of Jerusalem in seventy AD the first Jewish War was a prolonged massacre of the Jews in their homeland, had the Jewish Diaspora not spread the Jews over the known world the Romans might have eradicated the entire religion. The Babylonians in five hundred and eighty seven BC scattered the Jews thus bringing chaos and division within the religion. Years later in sixty six AD the Jews living in Israel revolt against their Roman rulers. Over the assuming four years the Romans obliterated the Jews and destroyed their capital. Without the Diaspora the Romans might have crushed the entire Jewish religion by devouring the revolts and their siege of Jerusalem.
Alexander started his campaign for the world with 37,000 men, 5,000 of which were cavalry. The king pushed east towards Asia Minor in 334 BCE and had the first confrontation and victory against the Persian Empire at The Battle at Granicus River. By 333 BCE, the western half of Asia Minor was controlled by Alexander. At the Battle of Issus, the Persians outnumbered Alexander and his men. The numerical advantage the Persian’s had was cancelled out because the battle was on a narrow piece of land.
He was born in 356 BC and as we know the largest empire at that time was the Persian Empire (to the right). Macedon was a small kingdom on the edge of the Persian Empire. Alexander was just like his father, strong and ambitious. Philip spent most of his life conquering the cities of Greece, to his South. By the time Alexander was 18 years old fought with his father, controlling the left wing of the army during the battle at Chaeronea.
The Greek army decisively defeated the more numerous Persians, marking a turning point in the Greco-Persian Wars. The Battle of Marathon in 490 BC was the result of Persian revenge, after the Greek city-states of Athens and Eretria involved themselves in the Ionian Revolt from 499-493 BC. According to modern historian, Peter Green, the Persians sought to attack Athens with a fighting force of approximately 25, 000 men, of both foot soldiers and cavalry. The Athenians had to bring together their whole hoplite force to defeat the Persians. The Persian force was nearly double that of the Greeks, however due to Miltiades’ reliable expertise on Persian warfare, he was aware that the most elite soldiers would fight in the centre with the weaker ones at the wings.
It is well assumed that without the Coalition of the Greek states the Greeks could not have won the Persian war "the Greek achievement in the wars was amazing. Under the threat of Persian conquest a group of cities, many hostile to and jealous of one another, joined in a Hellenic league in order to present a united front against the invader." - Sidney Fine. Sparta’s involvement in as a founding member of the league gives good evidence to the extent of the Spartan significance in the war. “Ten years later, the battle at
Its great fleet would secure the empire against revolts from within and attacks from without and take the offensive to raid the Peloponnesian coast. Meanwhile, The Periclean strategy also had weaknesses. He was too fearful of the effect that high casualties would have on public sentiment in a democracy, if he had conducted more aggressive offensive military actions. He had not seen the opportunities for combined land and naval actions to bring a higher intensity of war to Spartan territory with little risk in order to hasten the effect of the attrition on Sparta. The defect essentially was that the Athenian people's morale proved unequal to the strain, and, after his death, rushed into
After the Death of Cyrus, his son Cambyses took power and was later succeeded by Darius the Great who was the first to step into European land, the kings of Persia all had a role in conquering more than there predecessor and that’s exactly what Darius had in mind. Consequently this had Darius order his army to capture Scythia forwarding through Thrace. The Campaign was a tragedy for the Persians; the Persians were to retreat all the way to Thrace, leaving around 80,000 soldiers with the