Hmm, yoda_daro claims that this is a test to determine their sexuality...
Instruction The frames of the film merge for us into continuous movement due to ...
Wars between the Persian Empire and the Greek policies (city-states) continued from 500 BC. e. to 449 BC e. They went down in history under the name of the Greco-Persian wars.
The actual reason for the Greco-Persian war was the intervention of the Greek cities in the internal affairs of the Achaemenid Empire, when Athens provided military assistance to the Greek cities in Asia Minor, which rebelled against the Persians. After the Persians managed to suppress the uprising in 493 BC. e. The king decided to deal with the Greeks. In the spring of 492, the Persian commander Mardonius set out on a campaign to conquer Greece, but his fleet of 300 ships was lost during a storm off Cape Athos. The campaign then had to be postponed.
490 BC e. - the Persian army under the command of Datis and Artaphernes by sea through the islands of Rhodes and Delos crossed to the island of Euboea and captured it. And from there they went to the shores of Attica and landed on the plain of Marathon.
490 BC e., September 13 - the Battle of Marathon took place, one of the most famous battles of antiquity. Then something happened that does not fit in the minds of the townsfolk. The army of the townspeople, the militias, was able to defeat the army of professionals. This may indicate the emergence of a new war strategy, which will subsequently be adopted by many countries and will operate successfully in many states of the ancient world, and in the Middle Ages.
So what happened under Marathon?
The Persian army captured the city of Eretria on the island of Euboea. Then the Persian troops landed in the northeastern part of Attica, on the Marathon plain near the small town of Marathon, which was 42 km from Athens.
The place was very convenient for the Persian cavalry, because it was a plain. The Persians had 10,000 horsemen and 10,000 archers on foot.
The Athenian commander Miltiades brought with him 11,000 hoplites, consisting of the city's militias. Hoplite is a heavy infantry warrior who was dressed in copper armor, had a helmet and a large heavy shield. Of the weapons with the hoplite was a sword and a long spear.
The Persians had excellent professional cavalry and lightly armed shooters (armed with bows and light sabers), whose task was to shower the enemy with a cloud of arrows before a horse attack and mix his ranks.
Miltiades built his phalanx at the entrance to the Marathon valley. On the right flank he placed the best part of his army of Athenian hoplites under the command of Callemarchus, and his left flank consisted of detachments of the Plataeans under the command of Aemnest. Miltiades immediately had to take care of his flanks, because the phalanx has one drawback - slowness. And so it was the flank attacks of the cavalry that were extremely dangerous. Therefore, it was necessary to reduce the number of ranks in the center and increase them on the flanks. The common front was up to 1 km long.
The presses placed the archers in the center, and concentrated the cavalry on the flanks. It was the right tactical decision. They needed to hit the enemy as quickly as possible with all the forces of their cavalry.
Miltiades understood this very well and therefore moved on the enemy with a quick march. This allowed him to quickly overcome the space, dangerous for the warriors because of the archers. Yes, and psychologically thundering armor and weapons, the Greeks had a strong impact on the morale of the Persians.
Troops have converged! The Persian infantrymen quickly broke through the weak center of the Athenian phalanx and it was only up to the cavalry. However, the cavalry was unable to penetrate the thickened flanks of the foot hoplites.
The Persian cavalry began to retreat. The flanks of the Athenian infantry engulfed the Persian center from two sides and this threatened complete defeat. Unable to stand it, the Persian infantry ran after the cavalry. The destruction was complete. In this battle, the Greeks lost 192 people killed, and the Persians 6,400 people.
The defeat at Marathon did not stop the Persians. 480 BC e. The Persian king Xerxes invaded Hellas. The very geopolitical position of the countries made this war inevitable. The Persians could not be sure of the tranquility of the Ionian Greek cities located on the coast of Asia Minor, while these cities were constantly provoked to revolt by Athens and the Greek island states. To leave them free meant to have a permanent "hotbed of tension" on their borders.
Political preparations for war began in 481. At that time, Xerxes arrived personally in Sardis and began negotiations with the Greek policies. Almost all the regions of Northern and Central Greece - Macedonia, Boeotia, Thessaly, Locris - gave a promise to obey the king. Argos, exhausted by his struggle with Sparta, chose to remain neutral. Most likely, the Argives would have joined the Persian army if it had reached the Peloponnesian peninsula, but to recognize themselves as an ally of the Persians, being surrounded on all sides by Spartan allies, would be just madness.
In the same year 481, a “general Greek” congress was assembled on the Isthmian Isthmus. In fact, this congress was only the conclusion of a defensive alliance between Sparta and Athens, providing for preventive action against the Persian allies in Greece.
The attempts of the Athenians and Spartans to prepare for war were far from satisfactory, they achieved little through diplomacy. The Thessalians were rather ambiguous, the Boeotian League also took a very pro-Persian position. Argos, due to enmity towards the Athenians and Spartans, remained neutral. Perhaps the only success can be considered joint pressure on Aegina, which was forced not to ally with the Persians.
In an attempt to prevent the Persian invasion, the Hellenes sent 10,000 hoplites to Thessaly to delay the Persians there and keep the Thessalians on their side. But these insignificant forces were not enough to defend all the mountain passes, and the hoplites sailed back by sea to the Isthmian Isthmus. The Thessalians, not hoping to win the war alone, recognized the Persian protectorate immediately afterwards.
More than 5,000 hoplites were sent to the Thermopylae Gorge, led by the king of Sparta, Leonidas. This gorge was blocked by a wall and in front of the wall there are streams specially launched from the mountains from hot springs. This position also had the advantage that the fleet, protected by the sea, did not make it possible to bypass the defenders from the sea. At this time, the Persian fleet was badly battered by a storm near Magnesia - the Persians lost about 400 ships.
After several unsuccessful assaults on the Thermopylae Pass, the Persians learned of a bypass path guarded by 1,000 Phocians. Due to a sudden attack, the Persians managed to throw them off the path and they went down to the valley. Most of the Greek army dispersed at this news, with Leonidas only 300 Spartans of the royal guard, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans remained (whom, according to some reports, Leonidas left by force as hostages). At first, they repelled enemy attacks from the front, then retreated to the hill at the exit from the gorge and defended themselves there from attacks from all sides. Leonid died there, for whose body there was a fierce fight, and all the other defenders of the passage.
Later, it was this battle that was widely advertised to such an extent that it became a model of courage and fidelity to duty. This event formed the basis of many books and films. Although in reality the Battle of Thermopylae was not at all a model of military art. After all, the Spartans fought with the Persians in a narrow passage, when at the same time they were not able to fight more than a few dozen people. But this battle was, without a doubt, of great moral and political significance for Greece.
Simultaneously with the breakthrough of the Persians at Thermopylae, a naval battle took place at Artemisium. The Greek fleet acted quite successfully, but the defeat of the ground forces forced the Greeks to retreat to Attica.
The Persian army, having passed Central Greece, invaded Attica. The Peloponnesians, who now made up almost all of the allies, proposed to withdraw to the Isthmian isthmus and defend the Peloponnese itself. The Athenians, however, who evacuated their population from Attica and transported children and women to Aegina and Salamis, insisted on giving the Persians a naval battle.
The Persians had already ravaged the entire territory of Attica and, having taken Athens, burned them. The Athenians were able to convince the allies to give battle. In the narrow strait between the island of Salamis and Attica, the skill of the Phoenician sailors who were in the service of the king of the Persians, the better quality and maneuverability of their ships could not have mattered. The Persian fleet was defeated.
At this time, the very expanse of the Persian state came to the aid of Hellas. A powerful uprising broke out in the northeastern, most significant regions of the state. Xerxes could no longer remain in Greece, especially since he had already fulfilled his formal task - to punish Athens for interfering in internal Persian affairs.
Therefore, he left in Greece only his commander Mardonius, leaving him just those troops that came from the rebellious satrapies and strengthened him with the Persians. The main Persian army, however, retreated unhindered.
Having wintered in Thessaly, the Persian commander Mardonius in 479 BC. e. moved back to Attica. Offering an alliance to the Athenians and being refused, he again ruined their lands. At sea, no active actions were taken. The remnants of the Persian fleet withdrew to about. Samos, the Greek, gathered at Delos. But both fleets were afraid to move forward.
At this time, the Spartan Pausanias, who commanded the army of the allies, fearing the withdrawal of Athens from the alliance, invaded Boeotia with the main forces of the Hellenes from the Peloponnese. Mardonius withdrew to the same place, fearing for his communications and not being able to supply the army in ruined Attica.
Mardonius prepared a fortified camp in Boeotia so that there was somewhere to retreat, if necessary, after the battle, and began to wait for the Hellenes to descend from the spurs of Cithaeron, where Pausanias stood up with the army.
The Persians had every opportunity to conquer the Greek cities and even to defeat Sparta!
The Greeks were completely unprepared for such a battle that Mardonius imposed on them! The harassment tactic worked great! And the Greeks could have been helped in this case only by cavalry, but it was not enough.
The Greeks suffered significant losses and could not go on to counterattack, fearing the Persian cavalry. The Megarians, who suffered the main losses, promised to leave their place in combat formation if they were not relieved. Of course, no one wanted to replace them with other detachments of the same helpless hoplites.
Only the Athenians were able to correct the situation, having drawn the proper conclusions from the battle of Marathon and having 200 Scythian archers and 300 horsemen. They sent both of these detachments to the aid of the Megarians. The maneuver turned out to be successful, the phalanx was covered, in addition, the Hellenes were helped by chance - near Masistius they killed a horse, and then killed him himself. The success or failure of battles sometimes depends on such trifles.
Shocked by the death of the commander, the Persian cavalry rushed to the attack, trying to save the body of their commander. They easily managed to overturn the Athenian horsemen and shooters, but when the phalanx approached the battlefield, the Persians retreated in front of the enemy's numerical superiority.
The Greeks, encouraged by the fact that they managed to leave the battlefield behind them, decided to go down from the spurs of Cithaeron and change the parking lot, since water supply was difficult at this place. The army crossed to the river Asopu, and the Persians did not interfere with them, celebrating mourning for Masiste.
The Hellenic army took up a new defensive position on the low hills in the Plataean region. The entire Greek army gathered there - 33,000 hoplites and 35,000 lightly armed warriors. They were opposed by the army of Mardonius - only about 14,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry. That is, there were many more Greeks this time.
For eight days, the two armies stood opposite each other, separated by the river. Asop. Then Mardonius, apparently having sufficiently explored the area, began active operations, he sent the cavalry to the communications of the Hellenic army, and this enterprise was immediately crowned with success. The cavalry managed to capture 500 food wagons heading towards the army. It was a success! Moreover, it was almost a victory!
Herodotus says that after this Mardonius, who began to be weary of idleness, decided to give the Greeks a battle. Two days after the capture of the convoy, the Persians continued to harass the Greeks with gunfire.
The position made it possible for the Persian horse archers to prevent the Hellenes from reaching the water, and they had to go for water to the source of Gargafia. So, in order to bring the Greeks to the last limit, it only remained to deprive them of water as well. Therefore, Mardonius decided to once again disturb the Greek army and ordered his cavalry to make a raid, wanting to provoke the enemy into battle or finally force them to withdraw from Boeotia. The raid was very successful, the Persian arrows again caused heavy losses to the helpless enemy, in addition, the Persians managed to fill up the source of Gargafia, from where the entire Greek army drew water.
Cut off from water and food, the Greeks decided at night to send half of their troops to Cithaeron to restore supplies, while the other half to retreat to Oeroe in order to have water. But instead of retreating to the appointed places at night, the Greeks, who stood in the center (6.2 tons of hoplites), almost fled, wanting to get rid of the Persian cavalry to Plataea. Many militias lost faith in victory over the Persians.
The Athenians and the Spartans with the Tegeans remained in place. It is clear that the Athenians still hoped for a battle - for them it was vital. It was an opportunity to turn the tide of the war.
The Spartans understood this too. They knew that the Persians would not spare them if they won. And if this battle is lost, then many cities will bow their heads before the king of the Achaemenid state. Sparta herself, alone, was doomed to defeat.
The generals of the remaining Greek troops decided to retreat to the Amomfaret stream and, apparently, made an appointment at the sanctuary of Demeter. The Spartans began to retreat there, and the Athenians advanced around the hills along the valley passing behind the former position of the Greek army, trying to join the left flank of the Spartans.
At this time, the Persian cavalry, not finding the Greek army in its place, headed through the hills. Mardonius, having learned that the Greek army retreated at night, of course decided that it remained only for him to pursue the exhausted enemy to complete a brilliant operation. And he played for broke!
He threw all his troops into the pursuit of the Spartans. And this step would be true if the soldiers of Sparta and Athens would finally despair. But they were still ready to fight and win.
The Spartans sent a messenger asking for help from the Athenians, asking them to send at least archers if the phalanx was too slow. But the Athenians did not even have time to send archers, because the Thebans and other Greek allies of Mardonius were already moving from the hills.
It was not difficult for the Athenians, stretched out in a marching column, to turn into a combat position, since they simply needed to turn to the left and double the ranks, turning 4 ranks of the marching position into 8 ranks of combat. Therefore, they quite calmly met the Thebans. The same, not seeing the Athenians in the valley, fell into the valley without any order, being sure that they only had to pursue. The outcome of this battle was a foregone conclusion, the Athenians were easily able to overturn almost all of the Greek allies of Mardonius.
The Theban cavalry became more famous in this battle than their infantry. The horsemen moved between the Hellenes of the right wing of Mardonius and the Persians proper. Descending into the valley, they passed between the Spartan and Athenian phalanxes. At this time, troops began to move into the bare center, fleeing at night to Plataea. Hurrying all the same to help the Spartans, about 10,000 Corinthians and other Hellenes flowed in a disorderly river through the valley. The riders crashed into this mass, and almost a third of the allied army was stopped and driven to Cithaeron.
But this significant success could no longer save the situation - the Athenians, having put their opponents to flight, hit the rear and flank of the victorious cavalry. They apparently cut off some of them from their own and completely killed them - these were 300 selected Theban aristocrats, brilliant cavalrymen.
Meanwhile, on the right flank of the Greek army, Mardonius, descending into the valley, found an army quite ready for battle instead of the retreating column of the Spartans. And with no more than 4,000 foot soldiers and 2,000 horsemen, Mardonius suddenly went out to 11,500 Spartans and Tegeans!
Mardonius ordered the infantry to deploy their shield fortifications and begin archery while waiting for the rest of the troops. The only correct action in such a situation. The Persians began to shower the enemy with arrows, and the Spartan Pausanias for a long time did not dare to attack them, waiting for the Greeks of the center to approach.
At this time, the Tegeans, tired of the Persian shooting, went on the attack and the Spartans were forced to support the allies. And just in time - Artabazus, the deputy of Mardonius, who commanded the rest of the Persians, did not have time to help his commander and 4,000 Median, Bactrian and Indian infantry did not have time to take part in the battle.
This commander was a very cautious commander. He moved slowly up the hills, eager to bring his troops into battle in perfect order. But the slopes of the hills turned out to be steeper than it seemed visually, And the soldiers of Artabazus were far behind the right and left flanks.
Soldered by their excellent discipline, the Spartans withstood the shooting of archers and reached the Persian infantry, but they could not overturn it with one blow. It came to hand-to-hand combat, in which the Persians, although they were stronger, but the twofold superiority of the enemy made itself felt. However, the battle hung in the balance, and a terrible massacre took place around the sanctuary of Demeter. At that time, no one had won the battle yet.
Mardonius also came to the aid of the Persian foot soldiers with the last reserve remaining with him - 2,000 horsemen. Their crushing attack was successful and it is not known how the matter would have ended, but Mardonius himself led the battle of his cavalry.
And the place of the commander is not in front of the detachment! Not! The commander must direct the battle, not put himself at risk.
As a result, Mardonius was killed in battle, almost 1,000 of his horsemen fell with him. The death of the commander turned out to be the very luck that turned to face the Greeks. The Persians fled. Artabazus, who remained in command in place of the slain Mardonius, saw that both of his flanks were completely defeated. And he began to retreat, and did not enter the battle.
The Spartans pursued them in the ranks, that is, rather slowly, which made it possible for the Persians to gain a foothold in the camp and fight back for quite some time. The camp was taken after the approach of the Athenians and with their help. Herodotus wrote that 3,000 people survived from the entire Persian army.
The losses of the winners were also quite significant. The Spartans lost 91 Spartans alone, not counting the perieks. Considering the number of wounded 10 times more, we get the number of 1,000 people.
Thus ended the largest and decisive battle of this Greco-Persian war.
GRECO-PERSIAN WARS (500-449 BC), wars between the ancient Greek city-states (polises) and Persia. Caused by the aggressive policy of the Persian kings of the Achaemenid dynasty (see Achaemenid state). After the absorption of Media, the defeat of Lydia and the conquest of Babylonia, the Persians continued their offensive to the west, starting to conquer the Greek cities. Under Cyrus II, they established themselves on the Asia Minor coast, subjugating the ancient Greek cities of Ionia and Aeolis (546), at the end of the reign of Cambyses II they established control over Samos (522), and under Darius I, as a result of the Scythian campaign, although they did not reach their intended goal ( defeat of the northern Black Sea Scythians), nevertheless extended their power to the zone of the Black Sea straits, Thrace and Macedonia (512). This led to the constraint of Greek trade, since the ships of the Phoenicians, subjects of the Persian king, now appeared in the Aegean Sea and the straits. The interests of the Asia Minor policies, which suffered from Persian exactions and arbitrariness of proteges of the Persians - tyrants, were especially infringed. In 500, a Greek uprising broke out in Ionia, a prelude to a more general conflict. It was suppressed by the Persians, and its center - the city of Miletus - was taken by storm and destroyed (494).
Although the Greeks of the metropolis provided purely symbolic assistance to the rebels (Athens sent 20 ships, and Eretria on Euboea - 5), the Persians understood that without the conquest of Balkan Greece, dominance over coastal cities would be fragile. Therefore, in 492, Darius I undertook the first campaign in Greece. A large Persian army, accompanied by a fleet under the command of Mardonius, moved north along the coast of Asia Minor, crossed the Hellespont and rushed further west. However, the Persian land army suffered significant losses from the attacks of the Thracians, and the fleet was badly damaged by a storm off Cape Athos (the southeastern tip of the Chalkidiki peninsula). All this forced Mardonius to stop the campaign. In 491, Darius I resorted to diplomatic pressure, sending embassies to the Greek cities demanding "land and water", that is, complete submission. In some communities of Thessaly and Boeotia, where the aristocracy was in power, this requirement was met, but in the leading Greek policies (Ancient Athens and Sparta), the Persian ultimatum was rejected, and the ambassadors were killed. In 490, a new Persian campaign against Greece followed, this time along a different route. A large fleet with a significant landing force (up to 20 thousand infantry and cavalry) under the command of Datis and Artaphernes sailed from Samos and, after an intermediate stop on the island of Delos, landed on the island of Euboea. The Persians captured and ravaged the Euboean cities, after which they landed on the northeastern coast of Attica, near Marathon. The landing site was chosen on the advice of the Athenian exile, son of the tyrant Peisistratus Hippias, who remembered the support of his father by the inhabitants of Diakria, the mountainous region where Marathon is located. The Athenian militia of about 10 thousand people rushed towards the Persians. On the day of the battle, command by common agreement was entrusted to Miltiades, who, using the striking force of the close formation of the Greek infantry, broke through the center of the Persian army and forced the Persians to retreat to their ships. The victory of the Greeks in the Battle of Marathon was of great moral and political importance, showing the strength of the Greek people's militia, the superiority of weapons, tactics and physical training of the Greek heavily armed warriors - hoplites and the vulnerability of the army of such a seemingly powerful Persian state.
The military failures of the Persians led to revolts in Egypt and Babylonia. Darius I, busy suppressing them, died (486), and it was his son and successor Xerxes who had to put down the rebellions. The latter, however, did not abandon his intention to conquer the Greeks and, having put an end to internal unrest, began preparing a new invasion of the Balkans. A huge army was assembled (according to ancient estimates, undoubtedly exaggerated, up to 1700 thousand infantry, 80 thousand cavalry and 1200 ships). For the speedy transfer of troops to Greece, pontoon bridges were built across the Hellespont, warehouses with provisions were prepared on the Asia Minor and Thracian coasts. Diplomatic training was added to the military preparation: Xerxes entered into a military alliance with Carthage, the strongest maritime power in the Western Mediterranean, and the parties agreed to attack the Greeks from two sides - from the east and west. By the spring of 480, the preparations were completed and a huge armada under the command of Xerxes himself set off on a campaign against Greece.
The Greeks, in turn, were preparing to repel the enemy invasion. Athens showed a particularly great initiative: at the suggestion of the leader of the Athenian democracy, Themistocles, the income from the Lavrian silver mines was used to build new warships (according to one version - 100, according to another - 200), and on his own initiative, a congress of representatives of the Greek states was convened in Corinth, which proclaimed the creation of a pan-Hellenic military alliance with a common council and united armed forces, the command of which was entrusted to Sparta. Initially, the Allies were going to protect the mountain passes from Macedonia to Northern Greece, near the Tempe Gorge, where up to 10 thousand hoplites were sent. However, the unreliability of the Thessalian communities, leaning towards the Persians, forced the allies to retreat and take up position at the passes from Northern Greece to Central Greece, near the Thermopylae Gorge. At the same time, the Greek fleet took up a position at the northern tip of Euboea, at Cape Artemisium, to repulse the Persian fleet. The Greeks at Thermopylae were commanded by the Spartan king Leonidas, who had about 7 thousand hoplites at his disposal. For three days, the Greeks steadfastly repelled the Persian attempts to break through Thermopylae, but when the Persian detachment managed to reach the rear of the Greek army by a detour, Leonid sent back most allied contingents, and he himself, with 300 Spartans and a small number of other volunteer soldiers, remained to defend Thermopylae to the end. Surrounded by the Persians, they all died, but their heroic death served as an example of courage for the Greeks. Simultaneously with the land battle at Thermopylae, the naval battle at Artemisium took place. The Greeks successfully repulsed the attacks of the Persian fleet, but when the position at Thermopylae was broken through, the Greek fleets retreated to the shores of Attica. Passing through Phokis and Boeotia, the Persian army invaded Attica. In the face of superior enemy forces, the Athenians decided to evacuate women, children and the elderly to the Peloponnese, and mobilize all combat-ready men (citizens and foreigners living in Athens) into the fleet. At the insistence of the Athenians, the allies decided to give the Persians a battle at sea. The battle took place near the island of Salamis in September 480 and ended in a complete victory for the Greeks. Around the same time, the Sicilian Greeks inflicted a crushing defeat on the Carthaginians at Himera (on the northern coast of Sicily). Fearing for his communications, Xerxes returned to Asia with most of the army, but, not wanting to admit his defeat, he left a large detachment (probably up to 300 thousand people) under the command of Mardonius for the winter in Boeotia and Thessaly.
In 479, Mardonius again invaded Attica, and again the Athenians had to leave their city. Mardonius entered into negotiations with the Athenians, trying to persuade them to an alliance with the Persians, but they remained faithful to the common Greek cause. Meanwhile, a large Greek militia, numbering 110 thousand people, gathered in the Peloponnese, which, under the command of the Spartan Pausanias, moved through the Isthmus to Boeotia. Fearing being locked up in Attica, Mardonius also moved with the army to Boeotia. Here, at Plataea, a grandiose battle took place, in which Mardonius died, and his army was completely defeated. At the same time, the Greek fleet won a new victory over the Persian fleet off the coast of Asia Minor, at Cape Mycale.
Having won victories at Plataea and Mycale, the Greeks achieved a decisive turning point in the war with the Persians. The war itself acquired a different character: from a defensive one for the Greeks, it turned into an offensive and predatory one. After the actual withdrawal from the war of Sparta, which, as a land power, was not interested in overseas operations, the leadership of military operations passed to Athens. They led a new military-political association - the Delian Union, formed in 478/477, or the First Athenian Maritime Union, which included island and coastal, mainly Ionian, policies. The Union launched an active offensive against the Persians with the aim of finally ousting them from the Aegean and freeing the Greek cities of Asia Minor from their power. In the 470s, the Persians were expelled from the Thracian coast and from the zone of the straits and the cities of Asia Minor were liberated. In 469, the Persians were once again defeated by the Athenian commander Cimon in sea and land battles at the mouth of the Eurymedon River (off the southern coast of Asia Minor). The attempt of the Athenians to achieve more by supporting a new uprising of the Egyptians ended in failure: the Persians managed to destroy the Greek fleet in the Nile Delta and crush the uprising in Egypt. However, in 450/449 Cimon once again defeated the Persians in a naval battle near the city of Salamis in Cyprus, after which both sides began peace negotiations. According to the Peace of Kallia (named after the Athenian representative Kallias), concluded in 449, the Persians actually admitted their defeat in the war with the Greeks. From now on, Persian ships were forbidden to sail into the Aegean Sea, and no troops could be within three days of travel from the coast of Asia Minor. The Aegean Sea finally became the inland sea of the Greeks, and the Greek cities of Asia Minor gained freedom and independence.
The reasons for the victory of the Greeks in the wars with the Persians were the superiority of their socio-economic and political system, the ancient civil society over the Eastern despotism. The highly developed craft of the Greek cities provided their troops with first-class weapons and ships for those times. The advantage of the Greeks in military tactics was also obvious both on land, where the cohesive formation of the Greek hoplites (phalanx) prevailed over the masses of irregular Asian infantry, and at sea, where the skill of the Greek helmsmen and the maneuverability of the Greek triremes equipped with rams (ships with three rows of rowers) knew no equal. Finally (and perhaps most importantly), the Greek warriors, who received a harmonious upbringing of free people and full of patriotism, both physically and morally surpassed the Persian warriors, recruited for the most part from areas subject to the Persians and not interested in the enterprises of the Persian kings. .
The victory of the Greeks in the wars with the Persians was of world-historical significance. It delivered to the Greek cities large material values in the form of war booty, including a lot of slave prisoners of war, opened trade routes and access to sources of raw materials and markets, in particular in the Black Sea region, and provided the ancient society with the opportunity for further development.
Source: Herodotus. History in nine books. L., 1972; Plutarch. Comparative biographies. 2nd ed. M., 1994. V. 1-2 [biographies of Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon].
Lit.: Will Ed. Le monde grec et l'Orient. R., 1972. Vol. one ; Burn A. R. Persia and the Greeks: the defense of the West, 546-478 B. C. 2nd ed. L., 1984; Dandamaev M. A. Political history Achaemenid state. M., 1985; Strogetsky V. M. The problem of the Kallia world and its significance for the evolution of the Athenian maritime union // Bulletin of ancient history. 1991. No. 2; Balcer J. M. The Persian conquest of the Greeks, 545-450 B. C. Konstanz, 1995; Hammond N. History Ancient Greece. M., 2003.
The wars began with the uprising of the Ionian Greek cities (on the western coast of Asia Minor) under Persian rule in 499 BC. Sparta refused the call of the Ionians for help, but the Athenians, who feared that their former tyrant Hippias (he was then in Asia Minor and nurtured plans to return) would not receive support from the Persians, decided to intervene and sent 20 ships. Together with the Eretrians from the neighboring island of Attica, Euboea, the Athenians helped the rebels capture and burn the capital of the Persian satrapy Sardis in 498 BC, but this detachment was soon withdrawn, and by 494 BC. the uprising was crushed (however, the rebels managed to achieve some concessions).
As a retaliatory measure in 492 BC. Darius I, king of the powerful Persian Empire, sent his son-in-law Mardonius at the head of an army and navy through the Hellespont (modern Dardanelles) to Greece. At the foot of Mount Athos (the peninsula of Akta, protruding into the Aegean Sea from the north), the fleet was wrecked, and the ground army was forced to return.
Intending to punish Athens and Eretria for burning Sardis, in 490 BC. Darius sent a new fleet into the Aegean under the command of Datis and Artaphernes, who were accompanied by Hippias.
Marathon.
First, the Persians sailed to Eretria and, after a six-day siege, captured the city. In the meantime, the Athenians sent the runner Pheidippides to Sparta with a request for help, but the Spartans replied that, due to a religious festival, they would not be able to speak until the full moon. Then 10,000 heavily armed Athenian infantrymen, to whose aid only 1,000 Plataeans came, occupied a narrow valley overlooking the Marathon plain not far from the coast, where, as expected, the Persian fleet was to stop on the way to Athens.
The Athenian strategists chose Miltiades as commander-in-chief because he was familiar with the military tactics of the Persians, who expelled him in 493 BC. from Thrace. Now Miltiades waited, remaining in place, while the infantry and cavalry of the Persians (about 30 thousand people) landed on the shore. The Persians were protected by thin armor, they were armed with bows and short swords. When the arrows of the enemy began to hit the Greeks, Miltiades ordered them to attack - running, in order to remain as little as possible under a hail of arrows. The Persians, not ready for hand-to-hand combat, retreated to their ships, having suffered heavy losses (about 6400 people were killed), 192 people were killed among the Athenians and Plataeans. An attempt to attack Athens by surprise from the harbor of Falera ended in failure, and the Persians returned to Asia. The Athenians built a high mound in honor of the dead, which is still visible on the battlefield at Marathon. They then, following the advice of the prominent Athenian politician Themistocles, set about building a fleet. Themistocles calculated that Greece was too small to feed the army of the conquerors, and therefore, if the fleet providing communications was destroyed, the enemy army would have to leave.
Thermopylae and Salamis.
When Darius died, his son and successor Xerxes was unable to immediately march because of the rebellion in Egypt, but the Persians began to prepare a new invasion. Since they had to move again through the northern part of the Aegean Sea, food warehouses were built in Thrace, a canal was dug through the isthmus near Mount Athos, a floating bridge was built across the Hellespont (a crossing point from Asia to Europe); finally, a land army of about 100,000 men and a fleet of 1,000 ships were assembled.
This time Athens and Sparta marched together. Their strategy was to keep the Persian army in the north until both fleets were in battle. Therefore, the Spartan king Leonidas, with 6,000 Greeks, occupied the mountain pass of Thermopylae, while Themistocles, at the head of an allied fleet of about 300 ships, waited for the Persians at Cape Artemisium, the northern tip of Euboea.
In the summer of 480 BC Xerxes invaded Thessaly with his huge army. His warriors died by the thousands at Thermopylae, a narrow passage between the mountain range and the sea, until a Greek traitor showed them a secret path through the mountains. When Leonidas learned that the Persians were about to attack him from the rear, he released most of his Greek allies and fought to the death at the head of 300 Spartans and several hundred Thespians.
Meanwhile, a storm forced Themistocles to leave Artemisius. The Persians entered Athens and burned the city. However, two months earlier, most of the Athenians had been evacuated to Troezen in the Peloponnese. Themistocles and the Spartan commander Eurybiades deployed a fleet in the bay of the island of Salamis, adjacent to Athens. By cunning, as if avoiding battle, they lured the Persians into a narrow strait, where they destroyed the Persian fleet.
The final victory of the Greeks.
Xerxes had to retire to Asia, but he left an army of 80 thousand people in central Greece. The following year (at the end of August 479 BC), these forces, led by Mardonius, were destroyed at Plataea in southern Boeotia by a combined Greek army of 40 thousand people, commanded by the Spartan commander Pausanias. According to legend, on the same day the allied Greek fleet defeated the Persians at Mycale, a cape on the coast of Asia Minor, and the remnants of the Persian troops were defeated there on land. As a result, in the next two decades, most of the Greek population of Asia Minor was liberated from Persian rule.
1. Causes of the Greco-Persian warriors. their periodization. The formation of Greek policies, accompanied by violent socio-political upheavals, was completed by the end of the 6th century. BC e. The internal situation in Balkan Greece stabilized, economic life revived in numerous policies, the political position of the middle strata of citizenship was strengthened, and conditions were created for the development of culture.
However, at the end of the VI century. Don. e. Greek policies began to threaten the neighboring powerful state of the Achaemenids. The vast Persian monarchy recovered from the severe upheavals and internecine wars that broke out after the death of Cambyses. With a series of economic and military-administrative reforms, Darius I managed to strengthen the internal and external position of the Persian Empire, which at the end of the 6th century turned into. BC e. into a world power.
Having captured the Greek cities of Asia Minor and the islands of the eastern part of the Aegean Sea, the Persian ruling elite began to develop plans to conquer the policies of Balkan Greece. For a world power with a colossal military-economic potential for that time, unlimited financial resources, a huge trained army, the conquest of small, moreover, warring Greek policies seemed an easy task and at the same time a tempting goal. The Greek policies were developed trade and craft cities, quite populated, with a high culture and therefore could bring various benefits to the Persian treasury and the ruling elite. In addition, the capture of the Balkan Greece was important from a strategic point of view, since it gave the entire Eastern Mediterranean into the hands of the great king.
The Persians posed a threat to the Balkan policies to their very existence, their outlined path of development as polis organisms with an intensive economy, an active political life of citizens, with an original lifestyle and culture.
So, the aggression of the Persian state, fueled by the apparent weakness of the victim, on the one hand, and the natural need for the protection of the very foundations of their existence on the part of the Greeks - these are the deepest causes of the Greco-Persian wars that shook the Eastern Mediterranean in the first half of the 5th century. BC e. and had a huge impact on the development of Greek society and its culture.
That is why the imminent war of the Greek policies with the Persian state was considered not as an ordinary military clash, but as a struggle between two worlds. During the Greco-Persian wars, the fate of the Greek policies was decided. This predetermined the severity of military clashes, led to the mobilization of all military and economic resources, all social and political institutions warring parties.
The war of the Greeks with Persia dates from 500-449 BC. BC e., that is, this is one of the longest military clashes in world history. Usually in scientific literature it is customary to call the struggle of the Greeks with the Persian state Greco-Persian
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wars because military operations were not conducted continuously, but the order of military campaigns, more or less prolonged, fell apart. There are five such military campaigns:
1. 500-494 BC e.- the uprising of Miletus and the Greek cities of Asia Minor against the Persian yoke.
2. 492-490 BC e. - the first invasion of Persian troops into the territory of the Balkan Greece.
3. 480-479 BC e. - Xerxes' campaign against Greece - the climax of the Greco-Persian wars.
4. 478-459 BC e. - change in the nature of hostilities, the transition of the strategic initiative to the Greeks, the liberation of the Greek cities of the islands of the Aegean Sea and Asia Minor from the Persians. Strengthening Athenian military power.
5. 459-449 BC - military expedition of Athens and their allies to Egypt and the end of the Greco-Persian wars.
2. The uprising of Miletus and the Greek cities of Asia Minor. The Greek cities of Asia Minor were captured by the Persian king Cyrus in the 40-30s of the 6th century. BC e., and at first the Persians adhered to a relatively mild policy towards the Greeks, did not burden them with taxes, interfered little in their internal life, and encouraged their trade with the cities of Asia Minor and other areas of the vast Persian state. However, under Darius, there was a tightening of Persian policy towards Greek cities. The desire to centralize management led to constant interference in the internal affairs of the Greeks, in many cities power was transferred to Persian henchmen - tyrants subordinate to the satrap of Asia Minor. Cities were subject to taxes and duties. Darius I had a clear preference for Phoenician merchants, which caused serious damage to the interests of the Greeks. In the Greek cities of Asia Minor, dissatisfaction with Persian domination was accumulating, which was further fueled by the plans of the Persian elite to conquer the Balkan policies.
Miletus, the largest Greek city in Asia Minor, was the first to rebel against the Persians. In 500 BC. e. the Persian protege Aristagoras, relying on the intensified anti-Persian sentiments, found it possible to lead the patriotic forces. He resigned the power of the tyrant, restored the functioning of polis institutions and called on the inhabitants of Miletus to an armed uprising against the Persians. The example of Miletus was followed by other Ionian cities, which expelled the royal henchmen - tyrants - and the Persian garrisons where they were. The rebellious cities entered into an alliance to conduct a joint struggle against the Persians. Messengers were sent to all the cities of Asia Minor with a proposal to join the uprising. This call was supported by all the cities of Asia Minor from Byzantium and Chalcedon to Pamphylia and Cyprus. Aristagoras, who at first found himself at the head of the uprising, went to Balkan Greece for help. However, here his mission turned out to be practically fruitless: Sparta refused to help, and only Athens sent a small squadron of 20 warships (five ships were sent by the city of Eretria).
The rebellious cities created a single command. The militia of the rebellious cities in the summer of 498 BC. e. attacked Sardis, the residence of the Asia Minor satrap, destroyed the city, although they could not take the Acropolis, where the satrap Artafren took refuge with the garrison. The following year, the allied Greek fleet defeated the Phoenician squadron near Cyprus. The uprising grew and began to pose a serious threat to Persian domination throughout Asia Minor. Darius understood the danger of the situation and took the most decisive measures. In Asia Minor were transferred to-
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additional military contingents, which, together with the garrisons existing in Asia Minor, were combined into two large armies, which began to fight the rebellious cities on the extreme flanks of the uprising. First, the Greek cities of Cyprus and the southern part of Asia Minor were brought to submission, then the rebellious policies in the Black Sea straits (Byzantium, Chalcedon, Abydos, Lampsak, etc.). The ring around the center of the Greek uprising of Ionia and Miletus was gradually shrinking. The union of the rebels, in itself rather loose in organizational terms, began to disintegrate. The Persians did not spare gold and generous promises for those who left the ranks of the rebels, and their "agitation" was a certain success. The Persians managed to inflict a sensitive defeat on the Greeks near the city of Ephesus. By 495 BC. e. the Persians gathered a huge fleet of Phoenician ships (there were about 600 of them) and inflicted a severe defeat on the allied fleet, drawn up to protect Miletus, at the island of Lada. The center of the uprising, Miletus, was besieged by the Persians, after almost a year of siege, it was taken in 494 BC. e. and brutally destroyed, the inhabitants killed or sold into slavery. Soon all other rebellious Greek cities were brought to submission.
The uprising from the very beginning was doomed to failure, since the military and economic potential of two dozen cities and a world power was incommensurable, and there was no help from the Balkan policies. However, the suppression of the uprising required a lot of effort and time from Darius. For almost six years, the Greeks waged an unequal struggle with the Persians, inflicting sensitive blows on them.
3. The first Persian invasions of Balkan Greece (492-490 BC). After the suppression of the uprising of the cities of Asia Minor, Darius I considered the moment favorable for the implementation of his long-standing strategic plans to conquer the policies of the Balkan Greece. He had a significant army, which had just defeated the rebellious Greeks, owned a strategic initiative, had such a "legitimate" pretext for the invasion as the punishment of Athens and Eretria, who helped the Ionians. On the contrary, fear and confusion reigned in the Balkan states.
In Asia Minor, a strong expeditionary force of about 30 thousand people and a large fleet of about 600 ships were formed. The son-in-law of the king, a talented military leader and diplomat Mardonius, was placed at the head of this army. The goal of the campaign of Mardonius was to conquer the Greek cities in the straits and on the northern coast of the Aegean Sea, to subjugate the Thracian tribes, Macedonia and, if the situation turned out to be favorable, to invade the territory of Greece itself and capture Athens. Mardonius also sought to strengthen his rear, in particular, to prevent the possibility of a new uprising in Asia Minor. By his order, tyrants who had compromised themselves in the eyes of the population were deposed, and polis authorities were restored in the cities.
In 492 BC. e. Mardonius sent his army across the Hellespont (modern Dardanelles), which began to capture the northern coast of the Aegean Sea. A fleet of supplies, equipment and provisions accompanied the ground forces. The Persians managed to subdue the coastal Greek cities, the southern Thracian tribes, the island of Fasos, and the Macedonian king Alexander expressed his obedience. However, near Cape Athos, the Persian fleet got into a storm and was destroyed on the coastal rocks. According to Herodotus, 300 ships and about 20 thousand people perished.
Having suffered such losses, Mardonius was forced to withdraw the remnants of his army to Asia Minor. Despite the failure of the campaign of 492 BC. e. in general, for which Mardonius was removed from command, the Persians succeeded
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to gain a foothold in the northern part of the Aegean and create a foothold for the future.
The failure of the first campaign did not change the plans of Darius, and he again began to prepare for the invasion of Greece. A new selective army of up to 20 thousand people and a large fleet were formed. An experienced military leader Datis and the king's nephew Artafren were placed at its head. Their adviser was the former tyrant Hippias, expelled from Athens, who knew the local conditions well and had his supporters in Athens. The Persians took into account the complexity of the bypass movement around the northern coast of the Aegean Sea and made a bold, albeit risky decision - to transport the army by ship directly from Asia Minor to Attica and defeat Athens on the move. This decision was risky, since it was very dangerous to transport large masses of infantry and especially cavalry on low-capacity and slow-moving ships. Overloaded ships could easily fall prey to even light sea waves and attacks by enemy ships.
Military preparations were preceded by diplomatic preparations. In 491 BC. e. Persian ambassadors were sent to all the policies of Balkan Greece demanding complete obedience (demanding "land and water"), or at least neutrality in a future war. Many Greek policies of the islands (for example, the islands of Aegina), Thessaly, Boeotia obeyed this demand, Argos declared its neutrality, but the most powerful Greek states, Sparta and Athens, categorically rejected the demands. The Spartans threw the ambassadors into the well, offering to take "land and water" there themselves, and the Athenians overthrew the ambassadors from the cliff. The assassination of the ambassadors made any negotiations impossible. The Greeks were preparing for war.
After waiting for calm weather, Datis and Artafrenes, observing extreme caution, transported their army to the island of Euboea, where they captured and destroyed Eretria, and enslaved its inhabitants. After the conquest of Euboea, the Persians landed in the northeastern part of Attica - near the town of Marathon, located 42 km from Athens.
In all likelihood, the plan of military action against Athens was drawn up on the advice of Hippias. On the wide plain of Marathon, the Persians could calmly and conveniently position their army and use excellent cavalry. Having a well-fortified camp, the Persians could freely devastate the whole of Attica. From Marathon, Athens could be attacked by land, and a large Persian fleet could round Cape Sunius and attack Athens from the sea. It was this combined attack of the fleet from the sea and the land army from the depths that brought the Persians success in taking Miletus in 494 BC. e.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that Hippias had his supporters in Athens itself, who campaigned in favor of the Persians. In addition, among the Athenian command there was no agreement on the plan for conducting military operations. Some of the strategists adhered to a wait-and-see passive tactic and offered to confine themselves to the defense of Athens. To top it off, the Athenians were denied immediate help by Sparta, because these days a religious festival was taking place there.
In these extreme circumstances, the talented commander Miltiades came to the fore. At the end of the VI century. BC e. he was the ruler of Thracian Chersonesos, he often clashed with the Persians and knew well the peculiarities of the Persian military organization, its strengths and weaknesses. In 490 BC. e. Miltiades was one of the strategists and proposed a plan for the conduct of hostilities, which ultimately led the Athenians to victory. Miltiades wanted to get ahead of the Persians and impose his
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stepping tactics. He convinced his fellow strategists not to sit out in weakly fortified Athens, but to lead the entire army to Marathon and give a decisive battle there. September 12, 490 BC e. the famous Battle of Marathon, which entered the history of ancient military art, took place.
Two different systems of military organization collided on the Marathon Plain: the ancient Greek phalanx, consisting of heavily armed hoplite infantrymen, and the scattered formation of the Persians. The best in the Persian army were the famous cavalry and skilled archers.
Using the features of the terrain, Miltiades built a phalanx (only 11 thousand people) not in the way that was usually done by the Greeks, 1000-1200 soldiers along the front and 8 ranks deep, but stretched it by reducing the density of rows in the center so so that the flanks rested on the neighboring hills, which protected the Greeks from being surrounded and attacked by the Persian cavalry. To give greater maneuverability, the phalanx was divided into three parts: the left flank, center and right flank, which could act independently.
In order to neutralize the actions of the Persian shooters, the Greeks ran the last 100 meters before approaching the enemy. The battle developed according to the plan proposed by the commander: the Persian cavalry could not bypass the Greek flanks and participated in the battle practically little. During the battle, the Persians managed to push the weakened center of the Athenians, but on the flanks the Greeks, having overturned the Persians, turned around and hit the center. The victory was complete, more than 6 thousand enemy soldiers remained on the battlefield, the Athenians lost 192 hoplites.
Immediately after the battle, a runner was sent to the city of Athens with the joyful news of the long-awaited victory. He ran to the agora and with the exclamation of "Victory!" dropped dead to the ground. In memory of this episode, a marathon distance of 42 km 192 m was established at the Olympic Games - the distance from the battlefield to the Athenian agora.
Using the stay of the entire Athenian army away from Athens, the Persians made an attempt to capture the unarmed city from the sea, transporting the soldiers on ships, but Miltiades foresaw this move as well. Immediately after the victory at Marathon, the Athenian army returned to Athens in a forced march before the arrival of the Persian fleet there. The Persian squadron stood on the road for some time and, realizing the futility of the siege, went to the shores of Asia Minor. Thus, this Persian attack on Balkan Greece ended in complete failure.
The Athenian victory at Marathon was of great moral and political significance. She showed the superiority of the Greek military organization, the strength of small Greek policies. The famous Persian army, which, moreover, had almost a double superiority in forces, was utterly defeated by the civilian militia. It became clear to the Persian king that the conquest of Hellas would require the mobilization of huge funds, a great effort of all the forces of the Persian state.
4. Campaign of Xerxes. Darius I, realizing that his military and political prestige had been dealt a severe blow, began preparations for a new invasion of Greece with redoubled energy. However, his death in 486 BC. e., and then the outbreak of uprisings in Babylonia and Egypt prevented the new king, the son of Darius, Xerxes, from completing these preparations. But, having restored relative calm in his vast power by 483 BC. e., Xerxes energetically began direct military and diplomatic preparations for a decisive campaign against Greece. From all over the empire, military contingents were drawn to Asia Minor, a fleet was built, equipment, food and supplies were prepared. Since transportation
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huge army, a direct route through the Aegean Sea, was impossible, they approved the "Mardonius route" - a longer but reliable detour along the northern coast of the Aegean Sea. Here, on the lands conquered by Mardonius, including Macedonia, which recognized the Persian protectorate, warehouses were built to supply the great army. To protect oneself from the accidents of sailing along the Cape Athos, replete with whirlpools and reefs (it was here that the large Persian fleet died in 492 BC), a 2-kilometer canal was dug at the base of the Akte peninsula for the passage of ships.
A thorough diplomatic preparation of the campaign was carried out. Not sparing gold for bribery, the Nerses won support from a number of aristocratic policies in Thessaly and Boeotia. Argos declared his neutrality, which was beneficial to the Persians. To prevent possible assistance from the policies of Magna Graecia, Xerxes agreed with Carthage to intensify hostilities in Sicily, which fettered the forces of the Western Greeks.
By 481 BC. e. preparations were completed, a huge Persian army, numbering at least 150-200 thousand people (Herodotus, greatly exaggerating the strength of the Persians, calls a fantastic figure of 5.28 million people), a powerful fleet of 1200 ships of various classes were ready for the invasion. Emphasizing the campaign, this largest army of antiquity was led by the king of kings Xerxes himself. A terrible, deadly threat hung over Hellas.
In Greece, too, they were preparing for war, achieving the military-political unity of numerous and often warring policies and consolidation within the policies themselves, on the one hand, and the expulsion of pro-Persian elements and various opposition forces, on the other. Naturally, the military power of each policy was increased, various plans were developed to repel Persian aggression.
By 481 BC. e. in Balkan Greece, civil strife was stopped and a military alliance of 31 policies of Greece was concluded at the congress in Corinth. The armed forces and the fleet were united, exhibited in the maximum number, the Spartan kings were placed at the head of the combined army and fleet as the most experienced military leaders.
The political life of Athens at that time is best reflected in the sources. Athens was an irreconcilable enemy of the Persians, and the Persian kings were preparing to invade Hellas under the pretext of a place for Athens. After the Marathon victory, the Athenians took decisive measures to fight the pro-Persian elements, primarily supporters of the exiled tyrant Hippias, the closest adviser to the Persians in the Battle of Marathon. Using the procedure of ostracism introduced by Cleisthenes, the Athenians expelled the most influential supporters of the Peisistratids (Hipparchus, son of Harmas, and Megacles, son of Hippocrates). On the issues of strengthening the military power of Athens in the National Assembly, a struggle broke out between supporters of a political group led by Themistocles and another, led by Aristides, a participant in the marathon battle. Themistocles called for strengthening the maritime power of Athens. He put forward a program for the construction of a strong navy with 200 of the fastest ships - triremes, the expansion of the Athenian harbor, the construction of port buildings and the constant training of ship crews. The implementation of the naval program of Themistocles involved offensive operations and active foreign policy the Athenian state. To implement this program, it was supposed to use the income from the Lavri silver mines,
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increasing them by more active exploitation mines. Themistocles' program had not only a military, but also a political aspect. Its implementation raised the political role of the lower strata of Athenian citizenship, representatives of the fourth property division according to the Solon class division - the Fetes. Feta did not have the funds to purchase expensive hoplite equipment and could serve mainly in the navy. That is why Themistocles' program met with objections from the wealthy sections of the Athenian landowners, whose interests were represented by Aristides. He sought to strengthen the hoplite army, build defensive fortifications around Athens and pursue a more passive foreign policy.
By the end of the 80s of the 5th century. BC e. Themistocles' faction was victorious, his political opponent Aristides was ostracized, and Themistocles' naval program began to be vigorously pursued. Its successful implementation was facilitated by such a democratic reform of the Athenian political system, as the introduction of lots in the selection of senior officials in Athens - the archons. If earlier they were elected by open vote, the results of which the aristocracy could influence through dependent persons by bribery and other means, then after 487 BC. e. 500 candidates were elected from all 10 territorial phyla, from which nine supreme magistrates-archons were chosen by a blind lot. However, striving to join forces on the eve of the Persian invasion, the Athenians allowed all those ostracized to return to the city, including Aristides, who, forgetting past strife, along with Themistocles, took an active part in the hostilities that soon unfolded.
The large Athenian fleet, made up of the finest ships of the time, commanded by trained crews, complemented the excellent Spartan heavily armed infantry. Together with the militias and courts of other allied policies, Hellas had impressive forces to repel the Persian invasion.
In the early spring of 480 BC. e. began the great campaign of Xerxes to Hellas. The Persians crossed over two pontoon bridges across the Hellespont Strait, and the crossing was not without a curiosity: a strong current and a wave destroyed one pontoon bridge. The enraged Xerxes, as a typical oriental despot, who considers himself the master of not only people, but also the elements, ordered to punish the waters of the Hellespont with scourges, and shackles were thrown into the water to pacify him. The builders of the bridge were beheaded. We had to build a new bridge.
According to a pre-prepared route, the Persians successfully passed the entire Thracian coast and Macedonia. The Greeks initially intended to keep the defense at the narrow entrance to the Tempe Valley (Northern Thessaly) and even sent a 10,000-strong detachment there, but, fearing a betrayal of the Thessalian aristocracy sympathetic to the Persians, they left defensive positions and retreated,
The narrow Thermopylae Gorge was chosen as a new defensive line, along which the only road from Thessaly to Central Greece passed. Defensive structures were built here - a wall, towers (their remains were discovered by archaeologists). A combined detachment of 7.2 thousand hoplites headed here, including 300 Spartans led by their king Leonidas. At the same time, a strong Greek fleet of 270 triremes took up positions near the northern tip of the island of Euboea at Cape Artemisium. The defense of Thermopylae and the battle at Artemisium pursued limited goals: to test the combat readiness of the Persians, on the one hand, and on the other, to rally the alliance in a joint battle
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Greek cities and incite hatred for the invaders. So far, there could be no question of a decisive battle, both on land and at sea - the forces of the Greeks were too insignificant compared to the army of Xerxes. The set goals were achieved. The defense of Thermopylae has become a symbol of the merciless and sacred struggle for the independence of Greece. In the combat episode at Thermopylae, the best aspects of the Greek military organization appeared in all their splendor. A huge Persian army for four days stormed the Greek positions, defended by a small detachment. Things got to the point that, frightened by the heroic actions of the Greeks, the Persian soldiers refused to go on the attack and, by order of the king, they were driven forward with whips. Xerxes was forced to bring into battle his famous guard, the so-called "immortals", which was done on very rare occasions. But the "immortals" could not bring down the Greeks from their positions. Leonid proved to be a brilliant tactician. He skillfully used local conditions and skillfully built his defenses. In battle, the Greeks used maneuvering, false retreats back, after which they again lined up in a phalanx and delivered crushing blows to the advancing enemies.
Xerxes was indignant, but all was in vain. A paradoxical situation arose: the most prepared and largest Persian army could not do anything with a small Greek detachment. Xerxes was rescued by a Thessalian traitor. For a large sum, he showed a bypass road and led the Persians to the rear of the defenders of Thermopylae. Considering further defense pointless, Leonid, in order to save most of the remaining soldiers, ordered them to withdraw. Only the Spartans remained at the battlefield, whom the law forbade to retreat from the battlefield. Warriors from the cities of Thespius and Thebes voluntarily joined them. After a heroic resistance, they all fell in battle, and it became clear that in Hellas Xerxes would meet equally valiant defenders.
Subsequently, a monument was erected over the burial of the Spartans - a sitting lion, on the pedestal were engraved the words composed by one of the best poets of the time, Simonides:
O traveler, tell all the citizens of Lacedaemon:
Here we lie in the grave, honestly fulfilling the law.
The heroic death of the defenders of Thermopylae in 480 BC. e. has become a symbol of military courage in world history.
Simultaneously with the defense of Thermopylae, a naval battle broke out at Cape Artemisium. The battle lasted for three days, but neither side was successful. After the death of Leonidas, the Greek fleet departed from Artemisium and, together with the ships of other policies, stood near Athens opposite the island of Salamis.
Having passed the Thermopylae gorge, a huge Persian army flooded into Central Greece. Attica was sacked. Since the city of Athens had no
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strong defensive structures and was not adapted to a long siege, its inhabitants were evacuated to the city of Troezeny in Argolis and to the neighboring island of Salamis. The complex task of evacuating, accommodating and supplying refugees from Athens was taken over by the aristocratic Council of the Areopagus, whose influence on state affairs greatly increased. Abandoned by the inhabitants of Athens, they were captured by the Persians and put on fire.
Despite the capture of Central Greece, including Athens, the main military forces of the Greeks, the allied army and navy were saved. According to the original plans, the Greeks with the whole army were to defend the Isthmus of Corinth, where powerful defensive structures were erected. That is why the Spartans insisted on the transfer of the allied fleet concentrated in the Salamis Strait closer to the land army. However, the Athenian leaders, and above all Themistocles, proposed a different plan: to give a decisive naval battle in the narrow Strait of Salamis, where the fast and maneuverable Greek triremes would have an advantage over the bulky and slow ships of the enemy. And the naval victory, according to the Athenians, could dramatically turn the fate of the entire war.
Xerxes himself, in turn, considered a decisive naval battle in this moment highly desirable because he had an almost double superiority in the number of ships, he considered their Phoenician crews to be quite experienced in maritime affairs. In addition, the Greek fleet was cut off from the ground forces, while the Persian ships closely interacted with the main army.
In an effort to persuade the Spartans to a decisive battle, Themistocles applied the following trick. A scout was sent to the Persian camp, who gave Xerxes supposedly secret information about the impending withdrawal of the Greek fleet from Salamis. Believing these reports, and they could correspond to reality, Xerxes ordered to occupy the exits from the Salamis Strait and thereby block the Greek fleet. The battle became inevitable. It happened on September 28, 480. As Themistocles expected, the fast and maneuverable Greek ships, perfectly navigating in the shallow waters of a narrow strait, broke the stubborn resistance of the Persians and destroyed almost their entire huge fleet.
In impotent fury, Xerxes watched from the shore the destruction of his ships. The destruction of the Persian fleet dramatically changed the military situation. Greek ships could now cut all communications with Asia Minor, destroy pontoons
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bridges over the Hellespont and put the land army in a difficult position. Therefore, Xerxes changes plans for a military campaign. With a significant part of the army and the remnants of the fleet, he returns to Asia. In Central Greece, a select corps remained, led by an experienced Mardonius.
Mardonius withdrew his troops to Boeotia, friendly to the Persians, reorganized them and in the spring of the next 479 BC. e. recaptured and sacked Athens. Near Cape Mycale, a reserve army and fleet were being prepared, which were supposed to insure the actions of Mardonius. In 479 BC. e. the Greek allied command developed a plan for a combined strike and destruction at the same time of both the land army of Mardonius in Boeotia and the reserve base at Mycale. The allied Greek militia under the command of the talented Spartan commander Pausanias gathered in Boeotia and, near the city of Plataea, forced a decisive battle on Mardonius (479 BC). The Battle of Plataea, one of the largest land battles of antiquity, is an example of the military art of Ancient Greece. Mardonius had a select 70,000-strong army, the Greek allied militia was no less. During the battle, examples of military cunning, tactical talent and skillful maneuvering of large masses of infantry were shown. Both commanders - Mardonius and Pausanias - lined up troops in fortified positions, and each sought to lure the enemy out of the fortifications, forcing them to strike the first blow. The cavalry of Mardonius managed to discover and fill up the sources of water supply of the Greeks, to intercept the wagons with food and thus put their army in a difficult position. Unable to remain in his fortified positions, Pausanias makes a risky and completely unexpected maneuver for the enemy. In the dead of night, he ordered his center, consisting of the hoplites of the allied cities, to withdraw from their positions, retreat 20 km to Plataea and gain a foothold there. Then he began to retreat along different roads, but keeping in touch with each other, the right flank occupied by the Spartans, followed by the left flank occupied by the Athenians. In the morning, when the Persians discovered the empty camp of the Greeks, Mardonius ordered his soldiers to withdraw from their positions and move to Plataea, and he himself, at the head of a select vanguard and cavalry, hastily rushed to pursue, as he believed, the enemy retreating in disorder. This is what Pausanias was waiting for. As soon as the first Persian horsemen appeared, the Spartans deployed the phalanx and met the Persian vanguard with all their might. At the decisive moment of the battle, the Athenians arrived in time, and the Persians were scattered. Mardonius also fell in battle. When the rest of the Persian army approached, it was not difficult for the Spartans and Athenians to defeat the army deprived of its commander. The rearguard of the Persians under the command of Artabazus did not have time to approach the battlefield. Having learned about the complete defeat of the main part of the army, Artabazus hurried with his corps to Asia Minor. The battle of Plataea ended with the complete defeat of the selected army of Mardonius. On the same day, an allied squadron led by the Spartan king Leotychides and the Athenian strategist Xanthippus attacked the Persian reserve base near Cape Mycale and, with a combined attack from sea and land, destroyed a strong Persian army and burned most of the Persian ships.
The battles at Plataea and Mycale were a brilliant end to the intense struggle of the Greeks with the army of Xerxes. After her death, the great king no longer dreamed of conquering free Hellas, the military power of the Persian monarchy was so shaken that the king had to think about how to keep his state from disintegration.
In the hostilities of the Greek policies with the Persian state, a radical
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noah turn. The strategic initiative passed to the Greeks. Having repulsed the attack on Balkan Greece, the Greeks set themselves new tasks: the liberation of the cities of the western part of Asia Minor and the straits from Persian domination.
5. Organization of the Delian Symmachy (the first Athenian maritime union). The liberation of the Greek policies of Asia Minor and the straits from Persian domination. The repulse of the Persian invasion became possible thanks to the unification of the Greek policies and, above all, Sparta, Corinth and Athens. This association of forces was caused by the mortal danger from Persia. But after the decisive victories of the Greeks in 480-479. BC e. and the elimination of the Persian threat, disagreements began to appear between the allies on a number of military-political issues. Sparta was not interested in distant campaigns, especially those where the navy became the decisive force. The constant social danger from the side of the helots, the lack of a fleet, the orientation towards landowning aristocratic circles determined the limited nature of Sparta's foreign policy. Athens, on the contrary, was an energetic supporter of an active policy of conquest. The emerging predominance in the social and political life of democratically minded trade and craft strata of citizenship, a large, well-equipped fleet, together with a strong hoplite militia, dictated a different policy.
Socio-political differences were exacerbated by a dispute over the fate of Asia Minor and island cities being liberated from Persian rule. Sparta imposed a policy of harsh punishments, up to the relocation of residents to other places, while the Athenians adhered to a soft policy, up to being included in the pan-Greek union as equal members. In the context of these serious disagreements, Sparta weakened its activity, in fact, withdrew from the all-Greek union created in Corinth in 481 BC. e. On the contrary, Athens became the center of attraction for the remaining members of this union, and new members also sought to enter it, mainly from among the liberated island and Asia Minor cities.
Interested in the further development of hostilities and the complete ousting of the Persians from the Aegean region, the Greek cities, led by Athens, sent their representatives to the island of Delos and entered into a new alliance, which was called the Delian Military Union (symmachy). The Delian symmachy became a stronger association of Greek cities because almost all allies shared the main goals of foreign policy, were interested in rapid economic development, many of them had the same type of democratic structure. The strength of the Delian League is also due to its thoughtful organization. The allies had a common treasury and united armed forces: the army and the navy. The main affairs of the union were decided by a council of representatives of all the policies included in it. However, already from the moment of the founding of the Delian League, a strong predominance of Athens was indicated in it. Athens was the richest and largest policy in Greece, they took the brunt of the war with the Persians, its politicians had great authority throughout Greece. It is not surprising that the allies very soon entrusted all affairs, the treasury and the armed forces to the Athenians. Instead of supplying the allied army with the required number of ships and hoplites, the allies preferred to contribute the appropriate amount of money, allowing the Athenians to spend it on the maintenance of additional contingents of Athenian hoplites and naval crews. Athens thus had at its disposal
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significant financial resources (460 talents) for the maintenance of an impressive fleet and land army (up to 200 triremes, 40 thousand crew and rowers, 10 thousand hoplites and 1 thousand horsemen). Therefore, the Delian Symmachy is usually called the First Athenian Maritime Union.
Enlisting the support of the allies, Athens began energetic military operations against the Persians, who still remained in many points of the Aegean coast, on the islands and in the straits.
Sparta watched with concern the strengthening of Athenian military power, and tensions between Sparta and Athens grew. In order to protect themselves from the threat from the land, the Athenians decided to create a new defensive system around Athens, making the city an impregnable fortress. Under the leadership of Themistocles, over several years, a complex system of fortifications was built around Athens, including a ring of city walls, the so-called long walls (about 5 km) protecting the road from Athens to the port of Piraeus, and, finally, fortifications around Piraeus. Thus, Athens could withstand any prolonged siege, since the possibility of a safe and uninterrupted supply of the city from Piraeus was provided. After the construction of defensive structures, Themistocles' popularity increased even more and caused sharp discontent among the Athenian aristocracy, grouped around the Areopagus, and even part of the democrats, to whom Themistocles' huge authority seemed incompatible with democratic principles. In 471 BC. e. Themistocles was ostracized and given shelter to the Persian king Xerxes, against whom he had fought so successfully in the recent past. In Athens, the political influence of Kimon, the son of Miltiades, the winner of the Persians at Marathon, increased.
In the 70s of the 5th century. BC e. the Athenians, under the leadership of Cimon, captured a number of islands in the Aegean Sea (the island of Skyros, etc.), firmly entrenched themselves on the Thracian coast at the mouth of the Strymon River, where there were rich gold mines, in Byzantium and a number of other cities in the straits. Many cities of Ionia and Caria became part of the Delian Symmachy. The Aegean Sea basin was cleared of Persian garrisons and pirates and became a safe place for trade and navigation. Cimon and the Athenian allies made far-reaching plans to conquer cities in southern Asia Minor. The aged Xerxes made an attempt to stop the expansion of the Athenians. At the mouth of the Eurymedon River in Pamphylia, a large Persian fleet (about 350 ships) and a strong land army of several tens of thousands of people were concentrated. The Persians were waiting here for the Phoenician squadron of 80 ships, in order to then start a campaign against the Greeks in the Aegean Sea. This was a serious threat to Athenian dominance.
Kimon developed and carried out an operation unexpected for the enemy to destroy these accumulating big forces Persians. The entire Athenian fleet and land army were concentrated near Cnidus. In order to accommodate the largest number of hoplites on ships, their design was improved: a second deck was built, the upper deck was expanded with additional outbuildings. From Cnidus, the Athenians secretly transferred their fleet and infantry to the city of Phaselis (on the border of Lycia and Pamphylia). From here, the Athenian ships unexpectedly attacked the main Persian forces. Taken by surprise, the Persians tried to avoid the battle and withdrew their fleet to the mouth of the Eurymedon River, under the protection of their infantry standing on the shore, but, pursued by the Athenians, were forced to fight. In the ensuing battle, the Persian fleet, in front of the infantry standing on the shore, was defeated, 150 ships
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destroyed, and 200 captured by the victors.
Having sunk the enemy ships, Cimon landed the hoplites on the shore, imposing a battle ground forces Persians. In a many hours of bloody battle, in which many Athenians died, the Persian army was utterly defeated. The indefatigable Cimon leads the fleet into the open sea towards the Phoenician squadron of 80 ships and destroys it. This triple victory of Cimon at the Eurymedon (469-468 BC, the date is not exactly established) over a superior enemy is another brilliant example of Greek military art, skillful and complex maneuvering, destroying the enemy army in parts. Rich booty, many valuables fell into the hands of the winners. With these funds, Kimon carried out a number of buildings in Athens, partially compensated for expensive military preparations, and 20 thousand prisoners were sold into slavery.
After the brilliant victory of Cimon at the Eurymedon, the power of Athens and their predominance in the Delian League increased. Attempts by two islands - Naxos (469 BC) and Thasos (465 BC) - to leave the union in protest against the strengthening of Athens were decisively suppressed. Sent Athenian squadrons tore down the walls of their city fortifications, the cities of the allies reimbursed the expenses incurred by the Athenians, they were forbidden to have their own fleet and forced to pay additional amounts to the allied treasury.
6. Increasing tension between Athens and Sparta. The military expedition of Athens to Egypt and the end of the Greco-Persian wars. The successes of Athens in the fight against the Persians in the 60s of the 5th century. BC e., the strengthening of the role of Athens in the Delian Union was due to the growth of the political influence of the middle part of Athenian citizenship, that is, those strata that constituted the social support of the democratic order. The Athenians provided direct and indirect support to the democratic elements to the detriment of the aristocratic in many allied cities. Naturally, this development of events caused the growing dissatisfaction of the aristocratic Sparta, who usually supported the oligarchic institutions in Greece. 60s BC e. characterized by growing tensions between Athens and Sparta. It seemed that a military clash was inevitable. But it was prevented. The fact is that in 464 BC. e. happened in Sparta strong earthquake, which caused great destruction and confusion among the Spartans. The helots did not fail to take advantage of this. They raised an uprising, fortified themselves on Mount Itome, and from there made devastating raids on the possessions of the Spartans. Under these conditions, the Spartans could not even think about any war with Athens. On the contrary, frightened, they turned to Athens for help. This appeal of Sparta to its political opponent is a vivid example of the commonality of the social positions of the aristocracy and democratic circles of citizenship of the Greek policies in the face of social danger. The influential Areopagus, the agitation of the head of the Athenian aristocrats, the laconophile Cimon, convinced the National Assembly to send a strong Athenian detachment to Sparta. However, when this detachment arrived in Laconia, the Spartans managed to localize the uprising on their own, and therefore they sent the Athenian hoplites back. The Athenians considered this attitude towards their help an insult, and this only aggravated the hostility between Athens and Sparta. The failure of the campaign in Sparta led to the discrediting of Cimon himself, and he was soon subjected to exile through ostracism. Taking advantage of the favorable situation, the head of the democratic grouping in Athens, Ephialtes, decided to deal a decisive blow to the political prestige of the Areopagus, which had greatly increased under the conditions of the Persian war. To
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to discredit this influential body politically, a number of members of the Areopagus were first brought to trial on charges of corruption, and in 462 BC. e. the Athenian popular assembly passed a law according to which the Areopagus was deprived of political levers of power, and this stronghold of the Athenian aristocracy began to play its original role as the guardian of public morality and religious traditions, which also provided him with sufficient influence in society.
The democratization of state life was accompanied by the activation of Athenian foreign policy. But all this led to a sharp aggravation political relations with Sparta. A military clash became inevitable when the Spartans largely put down the helot uprising. In 457 BC. e. a strong Spartan army of 11,500 hoplites, together with their allies from Boeotia, inflicted a sensitive defeat on the 14,000th Athenian militia at Tanagra. But in the same year, in the second battle at Oenophytes, the new Athenian army defeated the allies of Sparta, the Boeotians, and restored its political influence in Central Greece. Developing success, the Athenians forced the surrender of their old enemy - neighboring Aegina. Soon the Athenians took possession of Troesena, and the Athenian fleet cruised freely around the Peloponnese, attacking vulnerable points in the south and west (the so-called first, or Small, Peloponnesian War).
The military operations of Athens and their allies were not only against Sparta. Another important front was the struggle against the Persians, which entered its final stage.
The defeat of a large Persian fleet and land army under Eurymedon not only gave the Greek cities of southern Asia Minor and Cyprus under Athenian influence, but also shook Persian domination in the Eastern Mediterranean in general, where separatist movements in the satrapies revived. The situation was aggravated by dynastic struggle. In 465 BC. e. as a result of palace intrigues, Xerxes and his eldest son were killed, and the younger son Artaxerxes came to the throne. The separatist forces in Egypt took advantage of the situation. In 460 BC. e. an uprising broke out, led by a representative of the Libyan aristocracy Inar. The falling away of such a wealthy satrapy as Egypt would put the Persian kingdom in a difficult position and could initiate its political disintegration. The Athenians decide to provide generous assistance to Inar. In 459 BC. e. a well-equipped squadron of 200 ships and 20 thousand soldiers was sent to help the Egyptian rebels. The Athenian squadron entered the mouth of the Nile and rose to the capital of Egypt, Memphis. Interacting with Inar, the Athenians inflicted several defeats on the Persian satrap and captured Memphis. However, in 455-454. BC e. the new Persian army sent to Egypt managed to defeat the rebels, and then the Athenian fleet. The death of large Athenian forces in the swamps of the Delta greatly shook the Athenian military power and political prestige. The Athenians feared uprisings and the discontent of the allies. Under the pretext that the allied treasury, stored in the temple of Apollo on the island of Delos, could be captured by the Persians or pirates, the Athenians unilaterally transferred it to the treasury of the temple of Athena. From that time on, the allied treasury began to be regarded in fact as part of the Athenian treasury proper, and allies from members equal to Athens, to a certain extent, as subjects. That is why the fact of the transfer of the allied treasury from Delos to Athens in 454 BC. e. is considered a milestone in the transformation of the Delian symmachy into the Athenian arche (power).
The restoration of Persian rule in Egypt and the defeat of the Athenians changed the political situation in the Eastern Mediterranean in favor of Persia. But
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the forces of Athens, which had the vast resources of the Athenian maritime union with sovereignty, were still very large. Lucky Cimon again (he was returned from exile) organizes an expeditionary army to support the Egyptian rebels and the Greek cities of Cyprus besieged by the Persians. In 450-449 years. BC e. hostilities are concentrated in Cyprus. Kimon succeeded in defeating a strong royal fleet near the city of Salamis, capturing a number of Cypriot cities. In an effort to revive the separatist movement in Egypt, Kimon sent 60 warships there. But these plans were not destined to come true. During the siege of one of the Cypriot cities, Kimon died, and the Athenian squadron was recalled back. This recall meant that the Athenians renounced their claims to the Eastern Mediterranean, where the power of the Persian king was fully restored. 449 BC e. was the last year of the long Greco-Persian wars. The Athenian aristocrat cousin of Aristides and a close relative of Cimon (he was married to his sister), Callias, was sent to Cyprus to make peace with the Persians. The terms of the Peace of Callia (449 BC) ended the Greco-Persian wars and sealed the Greek victory. The Persian king recognized the independence of all the Greek cities of Asia Minor, pledged not to conduct military operations against them, not to send a navy into the Aegean Sea and the straits. The Greeks undertook obligations not to interfere in the affairs of the Eastern Mediterranean and Egypt.
Soon after the Peace of Kallia, there was a lull in hostilities between Athens and Sparta, and in 446 BC. e. the so-called Little Peloponnesian War ended with a Thirty Years' Peace. After several decades of intense military clashes, both in Greece itself and with the great Persian power in Hellas, a more or less stable order was established. Favorable opportunities for economic and cultural development were created.
The Greco-Persian wars ended in complete victory for the Greeks. What are the reasons for their victorious outcome? Why were the small Greek cities, which occupied an insignificant territory, besides having a different socio-political organization, able to defeat a world power that had a powerful military and economic potential, united by the centralized power of the king and his administrative apparatus? Several such reasons can be given.
During the Greco-Persian wars, the Greek socio-economic and political system, the polis organization of society, involving an intensive income-generating economy, prosperous middle strata of citizenship, republican institutions, turned out to be more viable, more advanced, progressive than the cumbersome Persian socio-political system. The activity of the internal political struggle in the Greek city-states in conditions of military danger, as it turned out, did not weaken the internal strength of the city-state organisms, but gave it a more conscious and organized character, while under the cover of external blind submission to the power of the great king, deep separatism of individual satraps was hidden, which could appear at any moment.
An important reason for the victory of the Greeks was the achievement of unity of action between the leading policies at the decisive moment of military clashes, in particular the unification of the forces of Sparta, Corinth and Athens. The combined forces of the Greeks militarily, if inferior to the Persians in the number of people and equipment, then surpassed them in the quality of their organization. The tactics of a cohesive, well-trained phalanx, able to skillfully ma-
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neurirovat during the battle, consisting of heavily armed hoplites clad in armor, turned out to be much higher than the loose formation of the Persians. The Greek hoplite defended his homeland, his shrines, the land of his ancestors, and therefore had much higher morale and fighting qualities than the forced soldiers of the Persian king, who sometimes had to be driven into battle with whips. The conscious death of the Spartans and other Greeks at Thermopylae - best to that example. At the crisis moments of the war, talented generals and politicians came forward among the Greeks. Miltiades, Pausanias, Themistocles, Cimon enriched the ancient military art, creatively developing all the possibilities inherent in the Greek military organization.
The victory over the strongest enemy had a huge impact on the development of all areas of the socio-economic, political and cultural life of the ancient Greeks, contributed to the highest flourishing of ancient Greek civilization in the 5th-4th centuries. BC e.
