Medical Wars

We explain what the medical wars between the Greeks and Persians were, their causes, consequences and events of each one.

What were the medical wars?

The medical wars were a set of military conflicts between the Achaemenid Persian Empire and the city-states of the Ancient Greece. They meant the end of the expansion of the Persian Empire through the Mediterranean Sea after being defeated by Greece.

These two powers of the time were very different from each other: while the Persian Empire founded by Cyrus II the Great was an expanding monarchical state, the Greek cities were independent states with their own forms of political organization (such as democracy in Athens and oligarchy in Sparta) but united by cultural affinity.

The medical wars began in 492 BC. C and culminated in 449 BC. c Three periods are usually recognized: the First Medical War (492-490 BC), the Second Medical War (480-479 BC), and the Third Medical War (478-449 BC). On the other hand, they were just one chapter in the long enmity between these two cultures, which culminated in the following century when Alexander the Great conquered and dissolved the Achaemenid Empire.

The name medical wars has nothing to do with medicine. On the contrary, were named after the name that the ancient Greeks gave to a region adjacent to Persia, Average whose borders were between Mesopotamia and the Caspian Sea, and which was part of the Persian Empire.

The Greeks knew that their enemy was the Persian Empire, but they named these conflicts the Persian Wars, that is, the wars against the Medes, since in ancient times the Median Empire dominated a large part of that region of Asia.

See also: Punic Wars

Background to the medical wars

The antecedents of the Persian Wars are found in the Persian expansion through the eastern Mediterranean and the Ionian revolt. The Ionian Revolt was a rebellion of the Greek cities that made up the region of Ionia, that is, the central western coast of Anatolia, today divided between Greece (the island part) and Turkey (the mainland part).

These cities had previously been conquered by the Persians and governed with relative tolerance, but at the same time the Persians supported the trade of the Phoenicians, traditional rivals of the Greeks.

In 499 BC C., the Ionian cities began a rebellion against Persian domination which had little support from mainland Greece: just about twenty Athenian ships and some troops from Eretria. Consequently, they were defeated by the Persian emperor Darius I, although they managed to destroy the city of Sardis, capital of the Persian satrapy of Lydia.

After reconquering the cities of Ionia one by one, the Persians decided to send an expedition against the Athenians, given that they had supported the Ionian rebels, and in turn expand their expansion westward.

Causes of medical wars

The Persian Empire was an expansive power in Asia, whose dominance over Ionia and other formerly Greek territories was a source of conflict. Besides, had plans to expand westward which caused a feeling of imminent danger in the cities of Hellas (the Greek region itself).

For its part, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, Following Athens' support for the Ionian rebellion, the Persian emperor's antipathy toward the Athenians had been exacerbated. That is why he entrusted his nephew Artaphernes and a Persian nobleman named Datis with planning the conquest of the Greek coasts.

First Medical War (492-490 BC)

The First Persian War began with a failed Persian invasion attempt in 492 BC. C., which was followed by the conquest of Eretria, capital of Euboea, in retaliation for his participation in the Ionian revolt. From there the Persian troops marched to the plains of Marathon, according to the advice of the ancient Athenian tyrant Hippias, who helped the Persians from their exile. The idea was to invade Athens, making the most of the Persian archers and cavalry.

So It occurred in 490 BC. C. the famous battle of Marathon in which the Athenians, instead of adopting a defensive strategy, attacked the newly landed Persian troops and chased them to their ships.

According to Greek tradition, 6,400 Persian soldiers died in the Battle of Marathon, compared to just 192 Greeks killed whose ashes lie under a memorial mound. The experience helped the Athenians and the Spartans establish an agreement of mutual protection in 481 BC. C. to face the threat of the Persian Empire.

After the Battle of Marathon, the Athenian archon Themistocles found it necessary to fortify Greek coastal positions and develop a large naval force. Although his political rivals had other plans and opted for defense on land, Themistocles managed to build a fleet of two hundred ships which was of great importance during the second medical war.

Second Medical War (480-479 BC)

After the death of Emperor Darius I, his son Xerxes ascended the throne of the Persian Empire and from the beginning he prepared to attempt a new invasion of Greece. His first gesture was to send emissaries to the cities of Hellas, except Athens and Sparta, to request “land and water,” a symbol of submission. The Greek cities that opposed it joined with Athens and Sparta in a coalition led by the Spartans.

Xerxes' army, consisting of around 200,000 men and a thousand ships, set out for Greece in 480 BC. c crossed the sea and reached the peninsula. There, in a narrow pass between the mountains known as Thermopylae (“hot gates” in Greek), a detachment of three hundred Spartan soldiers and six or seven thousand from other nearby regions awaited them. Commanded by King Leonidas I, they were ready to contain the Persian army.

to this episode It is known as the Battle of Thermopylae. After three days of waiting, Xerxes opted for the numerical superiority of his army, composed mostly of light infantry, cavalry, archers and a few elite soldiers known as the “immortals”, the king's personal guard. However, the long spears of the Greeks caused them numerous casualties.

Thus they fought until Ephialtes, a Greek who betrayed the Spartan king, led Xerxes' troops through a road that led to the rear of the Greeks. The road was defended by a thousand Phocidians (originally from Phocis) who could not stop the passage of the Persians.

Most of the Greek troops withdrew but Leonidas along with his 300 Spartans and 700 hoplites from Thespiae remained in place until they died. The Persians were then able to advance south. In any case, despite being defeated, the Greeks caused the death of around 20,000 Persian soldiers throughout the battle.

The sacking of Athens continued after the Battle of Thermopylae which had already been almost completely evacuated, and the Battle of Salamis, in which the Greeks ambushed the Persian navy. The Greeks leaked to the Persian troops the supposed secret that the Greek fleet would flee that night. Thus they forced Xerxes to divide his fleet to close possible escapes and a naval battle ensued for which the Athenians turned out to be much better prepared, despite their smaller numbers.

Persian casualties were innumerable and were repeated on the mainland shortly after, in the battle of Plataea, where they were again defeated. Thus, the Persians were forced to leave Greece in 479 BC. c

Third Medical War (478-449 BC)

The last episode of the war between the Greek cities and the Persian Empire took place under the command of Athens, which in 478 BC. C. founded the Delian League. They were a series of confrontations during the final years of Xerxes' reign and the early years of his successor, Artaxerxes, possibly allied with the ancient Greek leader Themistocles, who was in exile at the time.

The Athenian general Cimon led the Greek army to modern-day Türkiye, where he managed to liberate the Greek cities on the coast after defeating the Persian army in the battle of the Eurymedon river around 467 BC. C. This great victory weakened the Persian army and, after a few more years of war, forced him to accept the Peace of Callias in 449 BC. c an agreement that ended the conflict.

End of the medical wars and consequences

The medical wars culminated with the signing of the Peace of Callias, by which The Persians promised to abandon their plans of conquest and never sail the Aegean Sea again. In exchange, they obtained permission to trade with the Greek colonies in Asia Minor (Anatolia). For their part, the Greeks pledged not to meddle in the territories controlled by the Persian Empire.

With this treaty The expansionist plans of the Persian Empire in the Mediterranean were put to an end. The Delian League continued to exist until 404 BC. C., when the Peloponnesian War that pitted Athens against Sparta concluded.

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References

• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2024). Greco-Persian Wars. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/
• Cartwright, M. (2016). Persian Wars. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/
• Jara Herrero, J. (2021). The medical wars. Greece facing the Persian invasion. The Sphere of Books.