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CHAPTER 1
The War Begins
The sack of Sardis. It was Athenian involvement in the destruction of this Persian provincial capital that led to the Persian invasion.
The actual spark that started the war between the Greeks and Persians came in 499 BC, almost 20 years before the climactic Thermopylae Campaign. The underlying tensions had, however, been growing for some time.
At this period, Greece was not restricted just to the modern country of that name. Greek-speaking cities and states were scattered from southern Italy and Sicily in the west across to what is now Turkey in the east. Nor were the Greeks united. Far from it. The Greek peoples were divided into a large number of states ranging in size from a few hundred citizens up to those that numbered hundreds of thousands among their populations. Each state was independent of all others and hostilities were as usual as friendships.
Each Greek state was free to choose its own form of government. Some were ruled by kings or military strong men, others by groups of nobles and a few were democracies. Slavery was common, even in the democracies, and society was far more rigid and hierarchical than in the modern western world. There was, however, an underlying recognition that the Greeks were a people sharing a single culture that marked them out from all others, who were generally dismissed as barbarians.
In 546 BC the powerful Persian Empire conquered the land of King Croesus of Lydia, in what is now western Turkey. Many of the smaller Greek states around the coast of Asia Minor, the area then known as Ionia, had recognised some form of overlordship by Croesus. The Persians took over this relationship. At first all was well, as the Persian monarchs made no attempt to enforce taxes or obligations on their new Greek subjects that were either novel or onerous. But gradually things changed.
In 522 BC a coup took place within the Persian Empire. The details of exactly what happened are shrouded in propaganda, but the result was clear. The throne was seized by Darius, a remote cousin of the previous monarch. Darius was a bureaucrat of genius. He thoroughly modernised the administration of the Persian Empire, introduced a standardised coinage for the first time and set about ensuring that he drew the maximum benefit from his various possessions. However, he came from an agricultural society in which all wealth derived from crops and livestock. He did not understand how commerce and trade worked, nor how to tax it without damaging the wealth-producing elements.
Inevitably the self-governing Greek states on the periphery of the Persian Empire began to feel the impact of Dariusā reforms. Darius not only created a new basis for taxation, but was fearsomely efficient at collecting it. Those states that proved recalcitrant about paying found the Persian army on their doorstep. Dariusā usual tactic was to abolish whatever form of government the Greek state had and replace it with dictatorship by a Greek he could trust. The Greeks denounced this arrangement as the rule of tyrants. Unlike the modern implications of the word, this did not imply that the rule of the tyrant was cruel or despotic, merely that it was illegal.
In 499 BC a wave of rebellion swept across the Greek states of Ionia. The tyrants were expelled or executed, as were local Persian officials and tax collectors. The Ionian Greeks sent messengers to the other Greek states asking for help against the Persians and offering the rewards of plunder as an inducement. Athens rallied to the cause, sending a powerful naval squadron and some soldiers. The high point of the Ionian Revolt, as it is known, came when the Greek insurgents captured the Persian provincial capital of Sardis. The town was looted and burned.
The success of the revolt was short-lived. Once Darius mobilised the vast resources of the Persian Empire, it was only a matter of time before the Ionian cities were recaptured. In 494 the rebel fleet was defeated at the Battle of Lade, whereupon the rough alliance that had held the various Greek states together fell apart. Each state rushed to make the best terms it could with the Persian monarch, who used the proud title of King of Kings. Darius did not allow every rebellious state to make peace. An example was made of Miletus, the first state to rise, which was sacked and burned.
When Darius learned that Greeks from outside his empire had helped the rebels, he was furious. Unable to wreak his revenge on them for the time being, he took a symbolic arrow and dedicated it to his god, Ahuramazda ā Darius was like most Persians of the time a Zoroastrian. He shot the arrow westward and made a solemn pledge to take his revenge on the Athenians. To keep his vengeful frame of mind alive, Darius ordered one of his servants to whisper in his ear āMaster, remember the Atheniansā every time he sat down to dinner.
In 492 Darius was ready to take action. He sent his son-in-law Mardonius with a powerful army to conquer Thrace. This the able young soldier did with skill and speed, though he had the misfortune of seeing his naval support fleet almost wiped out by a storm as it rounded the cape of Mount Athos.
The following year, the King of Kings sent envoys to the Greek states in what is now Greece. Each state was asked to deliver to Darius a small box of earth and a flask of water as tokens that they acknowledged the Persian King of Kings as their overlord. Some Greek states, cowed by the sheer military might of the Persian Empire did so, others prevaricated and delayed sending a reply, hoping that Darius was not really serious. The Athenians kicked the envoys out without ceremony. At Sparta, the strange, proud and ferocious Spartans threw the envoys into a well and told them to get the earth and water for themselves.
In 490, Darius sent an invasion fleet under the command of a nobleman named Datis to destroy Athens. The Persian force captured a few islands along the way, and landed on the southern end of the island of Euboea to establish a forward base. They reduced the previously impregnable cities of Eretria and Carystus in less than a week. From Euboea, the Persians landed at Marathon ready to march on Athens. They never made it.
Led by Miltiades, the Athenian army, supported by some local allies, attacked first. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Athenians won the battle and killed some 6,400 Persians for the loss of just 192 citizens ā though no doubt some non-citizens died as well. It was a remarkable victory. The Persians retreated back across the sea. It was clear, however, that the Persians would come back. The questions were when, where, and how to defeat them.
At first the victory of Marathon seemed to show that the way to ensure victory was to rely on the heavily armoured hoplite infantry, which had composed most of the victorious army at the battle. However, one faction in Athenian society disagreed. Led by a talented young orator of humble background, named Themistocles, this faction thought that the Persian expedition of 490 had been merely a fraction of the military might of the Persian Empire. They argued that if Darius mobilised his entire resources, not even the combined armies of all Greece could defeat him. However, they reasoned, logistical supply would be a key weakness of any such massive Persian invasion. Dariusā supply lines would inevitably involve merchant shipping. Cut those supply lines and the Persian invasion would be stopped.
Themistocles argued constantly that the prime need of the Athenian state was to increase the size of the navy. In this he had the support of the poorer citizens, who could expect to earn good wages from the state as oarsmen and sailors, but was opposed by the richer citizens who had to pay the taxes. The deadlock was broken in the autumn of 484.
Athens had some small silver mines at Laurium. These were leased to a private company which paid a percentage of the bullion extracted to the state. As 484 came to a close the miners suddenly and unexpectedly broke into a new seam of ore that was breathtakingly rich and large. In the first year of production the new seam produced five tons of silver, and expansion was under way. Suddenly the Athenian treasury was overflowing. After some complex intrigue and political manoeuvring, Themistocles got the money allocated to shipbuilding. Athens would have its fleet.
The Laurium strike came not a moment too soon. Disturbing news was reaching the Greeks on the mainland of events in the Persian Empire. Darius had died in 485 and his son, Xerxes, had been kept busy touring to ensure the loyalty of his subject peoples and their governors. But in the spring of 482 Xerxes sent messengers galloping out across his vast empire. They had orders to put the complex, but superbly efficient bureaucracy of his father into motion. Weapons were to be made and transported to the city of Susa. Food supplies were to be gathered together, packed into storage containers and likewise sent off to Susa. By spring 481 vast quantities of all sorts of military necessities were ready and waiting on the pleasure of Xerxes, King of Kings.
Now fresh riders went out putting the mobilisation of the armies of the Persian Empire into operation. All across the Empire the men liable for military service were called up and informed of the orders of the Great King Xerxes. Each unit had its own instructions, but by far the largest mustering was to take place at Sardis. There could be no doubt now as to the target for all these careful preparations. The long delayed invasion of Greece was about to start.
As news reached Greece that Xerxes was gathering an army at Sardis, Sparta took the lead. The two kings, Leotychides and Leonidas, sent heralds to every state and city in Greece summoning representatives to attend a conference to be held in the autumn of 481. At this point there was no formal agenda, nor any firm proposals. The meeting was intended simply to discuss the situation.
The meeting was at first intended to meet in Sparta, but was then moved to the Isthmus of Corinth. The move was probably prompted by Themistocles of Athens who rightly reasoned that it would be better to hold the gathering on relatively neutral ground. We donāt know exactly which states sent representatives, but it is certain that the majority of mainland states did attend, as did many representatives from the islands.
A question mark hangs over King Alexander I of Macedon, both at this meeting and throughout the campaign. The powerful kingdom of Macedon lay to the north of Greece, astride the route that Xerxes would follow on his invasion. The Greeks did not regard the Macedonians as being true Greeks, but neither were they classed as barbarians. The lowland areas of Macedon had adopted Greek culture and language. The ruling family, the Caranids, were believed to be descended from the ancient hero Heracles, which made them distant cousins of the Spartan kings. It is likely that a message was sent to Alexander, but equally certain that he did not attend. (This Alexander, incidentally, was an ancestor of Alexander the Great, who was the third Alexander to sit on the throne of Macedon.)
Alexanderās position was as ambiguous as the Greek view of his kingdom. When Darius had been preparing to attack the Scythians, he had sent ambassadors to King Amyntas of Macedon to request help. Strangers to the northern kingdom, the ambassadors managed to insult the ladies of the court. Alexander, then a rash young man, lost his temper and killed the Persian ambassadors. Only prompt action by his father, Amyntas, and the pressing need of Darius for allies averted a war. When he came to the throne, Alexander maintained close links to Greece. He even competed in a race at the Olympic Games, coming second. Alexander had, however, wasted no time in sending the symbolic gifts of earth and water to Darius, and then to Xerxes. In return he was allowed to rule his kingdom as an effectively independent monarch.
Now that the Persian monarch was marching against Greece, Alexander had to choose. It was typical of this wily ruler that he managed to keep on side with both Persians and Greeks. Publicly he sided with Xerxes, providing every assistance that was asked of him. Privately, he kept in touch with the Greeks and sent them messages and advice when he could. It is likely that he had a representative at the meeting held at Corinth, but took no active part.
Other states leant further toward the Persian invaders than Macedon. Those in Thessaly would be the first truly Greek states to be invaded by the advancing Persian host. The most powerful royal family of Thessaly, the Aleuadae, had long enjoyed good relations with the Persian Empire. They had been offered good terms by the King of Kings, so it is likely that they had already decided to side with Xerxes, or to āmediseā as the Greeks termed it. But not every city in Thessaly was ruled by the Aleuadae and even in areas under the control of that family there were other factions. Many of these opposed submitting meekly to Xerxes.
Thessaly sent representatives, though how many is unclear. They came to the isthmus meeting to gauge the likelihood of victory over Persia. More particularly to see if the fighting men of the Peloponnese and Attica would be willing to march north to defend Thessaly. Further south the cities of Boeotia looked to powerful Thebes as their leader. It was widely believed that Thebes favoured coming to terms with Xerxes while this was still possible. No representatives from Thebes are known to have attended the conference.
It was in southern Greece that the opposition to Xerxes was strongest. Athens and Sparta had no real choice in the matter. The total destruction of these two states was the declared purpose of the invasion. For them the question was not whether to fight, but how to fight. The cities of Arcadia and Achaia would almost certainly follow the lead of Sparta, while others would follow Athens.
The powerful city state of Argos sent no representative to the conference. The lack of its fighting men and warships would be a serious blow to the Greeks. Worse, the city stood south of the Isthmus of Corinth, putting it in a position to stab any defence in the back and give victory to the Persians. Argos had been involved in years of intermittent warfare against Sparta. She might choose to aid Xerxes to defeat her local foe, she might stay neutral or she might be induced to join the defence. It was clear that the attitude of Argos would be crucial, but with no representatives present it was impossible to find out what that attitude was.
Also absent was Corcyra, modern Corfu. This was a rich and populous state which had one of the largest war fleets in the Mediterranean. Like Argos, the attitude of Corcyra was important but there was nobody at the conference to speak up. Likewise, Crete had sent nobody to the meeting.
The discussions got underway at last, and continued for some days. There was a great deal of squabbling and debating. Nevertheless some serious decisions were taken, apparently on the insistence of Themistocles and the Spartan kings. First, all quarrels between the states which had sent representatives had to be put on one side until the Persians had been dealt with. The Athenians led the way by patching up their differences with Aegina. Second, it was agreed that any Greek state that sided with Persia would be stripped of one tenth of its wealth once the war was over.
Then came the difficult subject of agreeing a genuine military alliance. Promises could be made easily enough, and were, but actually ...
