King Leonidas Leonidas was the king of Sparta at one time. He is most famous for leading the three hundred Spartans against the Persian army. He lived in the Peloponnesus and the city state of Sparta. Leonidas had a major impact in his time; he led troops to eliminate Persians to defend Sparta. Doing this Sparta and Athens won the war against the Persians, but ended up losing to Rome.
Well, the war's losses caused much distress which led to a group of antidemocratic citizens to overturn the democracy in 411 B.C. Other citizens were not fond of this so they restored the democratic government. Athens continued to fight on and the end came during the last ten years of the war. This is because the actions had moved to the east, along the western coast of Anatolia and its islands; this was known to be the western boundary of the Persian Empire. The Persian Empire had sent money to help the Spartans build a strong navy.
How did the experience of the Ionian Revolt and the Battle of Marathon affect the Greek defense against the Persian invasion of 480 BC? The Ionian Revolt and the Battle of Marathon provided the Greeks with a vast experience of Persian tactics and the opportunity to review their own performance in warring with this power. Through the victory achieved at Marathon and the loss in Ionia the Greeks were able to use their knowledge of Persia to decide on who would lead their force, gave them the motivation to form alliances, enabled them to devise effective strategies for fighting the large Persian army and motivated far reaching naval reforms. The reactions of the Persians to the Greeks as a result of these two battles also prompted the Greeks into action, as they were more aware of this threatening foe. 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”.
The Peloponnesian War erupted from 431-404 BCE between the Spartans and the empire of the Athenians. Prior to this war the two enemies were allies against the Persians, but turned on each other. Reasons for this war were, power, greed, and treason between the two armies. Both of these powers wanted to be the most powerful and this caused a conflict amongst themselves. Athenians had been in previous wars and as time progressed it was clear that Athens had to be rebuilt, as the reconstruction process proceeded the Athenian empire began to dominate their allies politically and economically.
In 490BC, two armies faced each other across the plain of Marathon, 26 miles from Athens. On one side were 9,000 Athenians, supported by 1,000 men from Plataia. On the other were between 18,000 and 25,000 Persian warriors (including men from various parts of the Persian empire). The Persian army had come to conquer Athens, as a first step to taking over the whole of Greece, adding it to the already enormous Persian Empire. On the way to Marathon they had defeated several other Greek cities, killing the men, enslaving the women and children, and burning down the towns.
At the beginning of the period of interest, that is, the beginning of the 5th century Athens is one of the most powerful Greek city states attempting to gain support of other States. Through the Persian Wars they build up their reputation as a protector of the Greek states until near the end of the period where the Athenian empire is formed with allies becoming subjects to the more powerful Athens. Throughout this period Athens built alliances made enemies that led to Athens eventual downfall. The Ionian revolt in 499 BC can be seen as a first attempt by Athens to gain support from Greeks in Asia Minor as Athens provided assistance to the Ionian Greeks in liberating them from Persian occupation therefore allowing them to gain their autonomy back. At this time the Greek states were continually at war with one another and there was no unity between them.
The massive expansions made it so that Darius I’s empire was the largest the world has ever seen. The Romans expanded their empire much during the Punic Wars. In the First Punic War, Rome annexes Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. Rome conquers Spain, Macedonia, and Greek in the Second Punic War, and Egypt becomes a protectorate of Rome after the war. Paranoid of the constant rivalry with Carthage, Rome sieges it during the Third Punic War.
How could the Spartans have avoided the loss of their leading position in Greece? Sparta emerged as a political force around the 10th century BC, after the invading Dorians conquered the surrounding, non-Dorian population. Owing to its military strength and dominance, Sparta was recognized as the leader of the combined Greek during the bloody Greco-Persian wars. The social system of Sparta was unique in Ancient Greece, with strong focus placed on military excellence. This military strength helped Sparta defeat Athens and emerge victorious from the Peloponnesian War between 431-404 BC.
The battle fought there two and-a-half millennia ago has sent ripples through the corridors of time to the present day. While it was not as important as the other battles of the Graeco-Persian Wars in the driving out of the Persians from Greece, its cultural influences are wide-ranging. It immortalised the 300 Spartans who died in the pass1, and since then the Spartan myth has captured the imaginations of countless individuals. The most famous last stand ever made held up the vast army of the King of Persia for several days. It could be argued that without the time this bought the rest of Greece for preparations of the eventual defeat of the Persian expedition, Greek victory could not have been achieved.
The battle of Artemisium highlights Themistocles role in achieving victory for the Greeks. At Artemisium, it was Themistocles duty to send a naval fleet to attack the Persian navy, who were suspected to be sailing to Athens. this poved to be effective in the long term course of the war because it delayed the Persian fleet which meant that, “The Persians would not be able to divide their fleet and make raids against the Peloponnese for the purpose of creating divisions and seizing strategic points.”-Pamela Bradley. Furthermore if the Persians were able to launch raids in the Peloponnese this may have triggered Helot revolts as a possible alliance between them and Persia may have originated. 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.