Ancient Persia: Military History (inc. Wars, Battles, Treaties, etc.) and Notable Events (inc. Natural Disasters, Diseases, Destructions of Cities, etc.)

546 BCE - Battle of Thymbra (All Facts)

• Battle in which King Cyrus the Great and the Persians defeated King Croesus and the Lydians

• Battle in which Persians and Medes laid siege to the city of Sardis which the Lydians hid behind

546 BCE - Siege of Sardis (All Facts)

• On the 14th day of this siege, one of Cyrus the Great’s soldiers noticed a Lydian drop his helmet off a section of Sardis’s city walls and then hastily come down to retrieve it

• The Persian soldier carefully observed the Lydian soldier’s route back up the wall and determined that that particular area was not as high as previously believed

• On the 15th day of this siege, a small Persian force led a surprise attack along that particular section of the wall and within a matter of hours, the namesake city fell to the Persians

• At the end of this siege, King Croesus of Lydia was captured and originally sentenced to death, but King Cyrus the Great showed mercy upon him and spared his life, making him one of his most trusted advisors

525 BCE - Battle of Pelusium (All Facts)

• Battle in which Cambyses II and the Persians fought against and defeated Amasis and the Egyptians

• As a result, Cambyses II became King of Egypt

500 BCE - 448 BCE - Greco-Persian Wars (All Facts)

• Fought between the Persians of the Achaemenid Empire & Athens and the Delian League

  • Wealthy Greek cities on the coast of Anatolia were laid to waste by the Persians

  • Caused by Persian expansion into Anatolia, which disrupted old trading links Greece had with Egypt and in which the Persians installed puppet rulers

• City-states in Greece were being drawn into a struggle between burgeoning Greek democracy and eastern despotism, by which the event could be viewed (similar to the Cold War dichotomy of western capitalism and eastern communism)

• Ended with the Peace of Callias, in which Persia agreed to stay out of the Aegean; it lasted for 40 years

499 BCE - 493 BCE - Ionian Revolts (All Facts)

• Series of revolts in Ionia against their Persian overlords which began the Greco-Persian Wars

• Ionia’s inhabitants were aided by Athens and Eretria

• Not only did the rebels overthrow their Persian overlords, but they attacked and burned the provincial Persian capital of Sardis

• However, the victory was short-lived and the Persians would eventually come back and destroy Ionia including the city of Miletus

494 BCE - Battle of Lade (All Facts)

• Major win for the Persians against the Greeks during the Greco-Persian Wars

• Battle in which the Milesian revolts against the Persians were brutally suppressed, ending the Milesian revolts against the Persians once and for all

• The Persians inflicted a severe defeat on Greek rebels in this battle in Miletus

  • The city was razed to the ground and its population was deported to Mesopotamia

• Event which is depicted in Phrynicus’s stage play called “The Sack of Miletus”

490 BCE - Battle of Marathon (All Facts)

• Major loss for the Persians against the Greeks during the Greco-Persian wars

• Battle during the first Greco-Persian War / Persian invasion of Greece

• Battle in which Miltiades and the Athenian Greeks fought against Datis and the Persians under Darius the Great during the first Persian invasion of Greece and emerged victorious due to their wit and speed

• Battle in which Miltiades

  • Had heard that the Persians had withdrawn some of their cavalry to the ships to prepare for an attack on Athens from the sea

    • So he chose that time to attack, relying on surprise, speed, and a three-pronged assault across a wide front

    • His forces ran towards the Persian archers, getting underneath their arrows

    • At first, the Persians broke through in the center and pursued him and the Athenians inland

    • The two armies on the flanks, however, defeated the Persian flanks and made a concerted attack on the main force from the rear

    • They then captured seven Persian ships

    • Some 6,400 Persians were killed while the Athenian army’s losses numbered fewer than 200

480 BCE - Battle of Thermopylae (All Facts)

• Major win for the Persians against the Greeks during the Greco-Persian Wars

• Battle during the second Greco-Persian War / Persian invasion of Greece

• Led by the Spartan Leonidas, who was the commander of the 300 Spartans and 7K Greek forces holding the namesake pass; he and his men had withstood the attack of the Persian hordes onto Sparta for two days

  • The contours of the narrow pass and the fighting skill of his men enabled him to repel the enemy with great loss

  • Additionally, the Straits of Artemisium had held off the Persians for some time

• For several days, the Persians attacked from the front in an effort to distract them while “The Immortals” went on a different path through the mountains to outflank the Greek position

• However, on the second day, a Greek traitor named Ephialtes revealed the existence of a mountain path to the Persians which would enable them to take the Greeks in the rear

  • When scouts came to Leonidas with the news of Ephialtes’ treachery, he knew he was doomed

  • His force was only 4,000 strong and was there to await reinforcements that were not coming due to a religious celebration

• He and his men died as only Spartans could: sword in hand, glorying in battle, defying death, seeking only honor

  • Despite Leonidas and his men’s heroic stand in the mountain pass, the Persians, under Xerxes I, won the battle and conquered Thessaly

• As a result of the Persian victory, the road to Athens was thus cleared for Xerxes and his grand army

480 BCE - Battle of Salamis (All Facts)

• Most important loss for the Persians against the Greeks during the Greco-Persian wars

  • It effectively thwarted the Persian invasion of Greece

• Battle during the second Greco-Persian War / Persian invasion of Greece which

  • took place in the narrow strait between the namesake island and Greek mainland

  • Themistocles and the Greeks, outnumbered, achieved a stunning victory over the larger Persian fleet led by Xerxes, effectively halting the Persian invasion of Greece

  • This is because they knew the waters and winds of the area far better than the Persians, and thus could use this knowledge to their advantage

• Battle whose end saw the waters of the namesake strait littered with the wreckage of Persian ships and bodies of King Xerxes’ sailors

  • The Persians lost 200 ships

  • The Greeks lost only 40 ships

• Battle in which the Persians split their forces and in the confused melee that ensured, their ships were rammed by the 200 Athenian triremes which sent 200 Persian ships to the bottom and made the remaining ships and men flee to the Bay of Phalerum

• Battle won by cunning, bravery, and seamanship

  • The Greeks tricked the Persians into believing that they had the Greek fleet bottled up in the straits, but when the battle started it was the Persians who ended up trapped

  • Much credit was given to the Corinthian sailors who headed north into the Bay of Eleusis and deceived Xerxes’ commanders into thinking they were running away and then turned and struck at the Persians with great ferocity

    • Some Greeks thought the Corinthians were actually genuinely retreating only to be stopped by the appearance of a mysterious ship sent by the gods to order them back into battle

      • This story reflects the disunity of the Greeks prior to the battle, when it was obvious that many of the commanders feared for the safety of their own cities while they were absent as opposed to the incoming Persian fleet

• The Greeks, despite being victorious, were as divided as ever when it came to tactics and strategy, with debates lasting well into the night during the battle

  • In the end, Themistocles prevailed and sailed out

• After their defeat at this battle, the Persians tried but failed to negotiate a treaty of alliance with the Athenians against the rest of the Greek world; in which the Delian League was established in response a year later

479 BCE - Battle of Platea (All Facts)

• One of the two final battles during the second Greco-Persian War / Persian invasion of Greece, it was a major loss for the Persians against the Greeks during the Greco-Persian Wars

• Battle in which Pausanias and the Greeks defeated Mardonius and the Persians

  • Mardonius and the Persians and their Theban allies had better cavalry but Pausanias and the Greeks had better infantry

  • The Greeks kept receiving reinforcements, so Mardonius sent his cavalry to attack the Greek supply lines

  • The phalanxes of heavily armed Greek infantry, among whom the Spartans, as usual, distinguished themselves, slaughtered the Persians, who were ultimately demoralized when the Greeks killed Mardonius

  • This psychological blow caused the Persians to begin to retreat

  • By the end of the battle, only 3,000 Persians remained alive

• After the Battle of Salamis, Xerxes withdrew his main force to Anatolia to protect his lifeline, the bridges across the Hellespont, but left behind a force of 50,000 troops under Mardonius to continue the war

  • Mardonius ravaged the countryside, setting fire to Athens and then retreated to Boeotia to force the Greeks to fight in a country more suitable to his tactics in which he could employ his numerical superiority in which the Greeks could only field a limited number of men

  • Despite these disadvantages, the Greeks still triumphed having met the Persian army outside the namesake city at the foot of Mount Cithaeron and, despite some initial setbacks against the Persian cavalry, inflicted a terrible defeat on Xerxes’s army

• Cleverly, the Greek armies, against heavy odds, overthrew the Persian base at Plataea in southern Boeotia

• Despite the victory, however, Persia still remained a threat to Greece

• Prior to this battle, the Persian general Mardonius tried negotiating with the Athenians but this failed

479 BCE - Battle of Mycale (All Facts)

• One of the two final battles during the second Greco-Persian War / Persian invasion of Greece, it was a major loss for the Persians against the Greeks during the Greco-Persian Wars

• Saw the combined Greek city-states defeat and destroy the Persian fleet and take the namesake Ionian city

  • This battle was thus a turning point in the Greco-Persian War because it put the Persians on the defense for the first time

449 BCE - Peace of Callias (All Facts)

• Treaty signed between the Delian League (Athenian Empire) and Persia (Achaemenid Empire) that ended the Greco-Persian Wars

• It acknowledged Athenian supremacy in the Aegean

• Lasted for 40 years

• Was the first compromise treaty between Achaemenid Persia and a Greek city

• Athenians agreed not to attack Persian territory so long as the Persians acknowledged the autonomy of all Ionian cities

460 BCE - Battle of Papremis (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Egyptians, with the help of Greeks, defeat the Persians

• Was part of the Wars of the Delian League

• Initially, Athens sent a fleet to support an Egyptian revolt against occupying Persian forces

• In response, the Persians mobilized an army of 300K men in Egypt

• This culminated in the battle, in which the Persians put the Greeks to flight, where they took refuge on an island in the Nile River delta sustaining heavy losses, but upon which they lost a number of men to the Egyptians

• However, the Egyptian victory was short-term, for the Persians came back in 454 BCE and annihiliated the Greek troops sent to support the Egyptian rebels, and thus took control of Egypt once and for all

401 BCE - Battle of Cunaxa (All Facts)

• Battle in which Cyrus the Younger, son of Darius II, challenges Artaxerxes II for the throne

  • Cyrus the Younger hired Greek mercenaries to help him, the most famous of which are the “Ten Thousand” recorded in Xenophon’s “Anabasis” of which he was a part

394 BCE - Battle of Cnidus (All Facts)

• Battle in which Artaxerxes II and his naval forces defeated Pharnabazus II and the Spartans in Caria, taking Spartan possessions on land

334 BCE - Battle of Granicus River (All Facts)

• Major loss for the Persians against Alexander the Great and the Greeks during Alexander the Great’s Conquest of Asia, it was the first of their three major battles

  • Took place near the Sea of Marmora

• Alexander the Great defeated the field army of the Persian satraps of Anatolia, which defended the river crossing

  • With only 13 troops of horse, he plunged into the swiftly-running waters and with a fake attack on the Persian left caused the enemy to weaken it center, where the main Greek blow came

• Was the first battle of the war in which the phalanx was used

  • The close formation of long spears behind a wall of overlapping shields that characterized the phalanx devastated Persian lines

• After this battle, the Persians were forced on the defensive in the cities that remained under their control in the region

  • By its end, Alexander the Great had control of Persian Anatolia

333 BCE - Battle of Issus (All Facts)

• Major loss for Darius III and the Persians against Alexander the Great and the Greeks during Alexander the Great’s Conquest of Asia, it was the second of their three major battles and featured the first encounter between Darius III and Alexander the Great

• Darius III is put to flight and Alexander captures his camp and family, sleeping in the Persian kind’s tent on the night of his victory there

331 BCE - Battle of Guagamela (All Facts)

• Major loss for the Persians against Alexander the Great and the Greeks during Alexander the Great’s Conquest of Asia, it was the third of their three major battles

• After the battle, Babylonia and Susa surrender to him