Wake Forest
November 26, 2014
The Persian war which is also known as the Greco-Persian war is one of the most famous and well known war in history. There were four major battles between the Greeks and the Persians that made up the Persian/ Greco-Persian war. The battle Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea were the four major battles in the Greco-Persian war. Each of the four battles were fierce and amazing and there victory on both sides.
The battle of Marathon is a battle that took place in 499 B.C, and ended in 449 B.C. This was the first battle between Persia and the Greeks. The Persians were planning to attack from the Greek Plain of Marathon. The Greeks had 10,000 soldiers compared to the Persia’s 20,000 soldiers. Because of this disadvantage the Greeks had brains not to attack right away. Instead they waited until the Persian commander got impatient and sent his troops out by boat to attack the Greeks. There the Greeks were waiting to attack. The Persians were unable to defend their selves and therefor they were easily defeated and the victory went to the Greeks
The battle at Thermopylae was the second battle that happened during the Greco-Persian war it took place during 486 B.C. Even though the Persians were defeated at Marathon they still came back for more, this time with a different strategy and a new ruler named Xerxes. Soon the Greeks heard about the invasion, Sparta and the 29 other city-sates joined forces to fight Persia. But what the Greeks didn’t know was that Persia had a secret weapon which was a Greek traitor who led them to a close spot to attack the Greeks. The Persians decided to attack by water. But they needed a way to distract the Athens. They sent some of their troops out to attack the Greeks while the rest stayed behind boarding boast and heading off to where the Athens was staying. The Greeks and Persians fought to death but in the end the Persians won the battle at Thermopylae.
The battle at Salamis was the third battle during the Persian war which took place around 480 B.C. Even though the Greeks lost the battle at Thermopylae they devolved new plans to defeat the Persians. The Greeks built about 200 ships that were smaller, faster, and better built boats than the Persians. Since the Persians boat move slower they were an easy target for the Greeks to hit. And because the Greek boats where faster it was harder for the Persian boats to hit the Greek boats. Even though the Greeks had smaller numbers than the Persian they were able to overcome this disadvantage by having better ships.
The battle at Plataea was the final and last battle that made up the Persian war which took place during 479 B.C. This was Persia’s second time invading Greece. Sparta and the 29