- What were the medical wars?
- Background to the medical wars
- Causes of medical wars
- First Medical War (492-490 BC)
- Second Medical War (480-479 BC)
- Third Medical War (479-449 BC)
- End of the Medical Wars and consequences
We explain what the medical wars between Greeks and Persians were, their causes, consequences and events of each one.
What were the medical wars?
It is known as the medical wars to a set of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire of Persia and the Ancient Greek Civilization, represented by the different city-states of the Hellenic world. Are wars they meant the end of the expansion of the Persian Empire towards the Mediterranean Sea, when being defeated by Greece.
These two powers of the time were very dissimilar to each other: while the Persian Empire of Cyrus II the Great was a Condition monarchist in expansion, the different cities The Greeks made up an archipelago, united by cultural affinity but politically and militarily independent.
The medical wars began in 490 BC. C. and culminated in 478 a. On the other hand, they were just one chapter in their long enmity, which culminated in the following century when Alexander the Great conquered and dissolved the Achaemenid Empire.
The name of medical wars, contrary to what at first glance seems to imply, has nothing to do with medicine. Rather, they were named for the name that the ancient Greeks gave to a region contiguous to Persia, the Half or the Mede Empire, whose borders were between Mesopotamia and the Caspian Sea.
The Greeks knew that their enemy was the Persian Empire, but even so they named these conflicts as the medical wars, that is, the wars against the Medes.
Background to the medical wars
The antecedents of the Medical Wars point to the Ionian Revolt, which was a rebellion of the ancient Greek cities that made up Ionia, that is, the central-western coast of Anatolia, today divided between Greece (the insular part) and Turkey ( the mainland).
These cities had been previously conquered by the Persians, and ruled with strategic caution, since the Persians at the same time supported the Phoenicians, traditional rivals of the Greeks.
In 499 a. C., these cities started a separatist revolution that had little support from Greek Hellas: only about 20 Athenian ships and some troops from Eretria. In consequence, it was defeated by the emperor Darius I, not without losing the city of Sardes, which was reduced to ashes by the Greeks.
After conquering the cities of Ionia one by one, it is said that the Persians swore enmity to the Athenians, and their expansion towards the Mediterranean borders gave them just the opportunity to execute a vengeance.
Causes of medical wars
The Persian Empire was an expansive power of the Asia, whose dominion over Ionia and other formerly Greek territories was a source of conflict and harshness. Furthermore, it caused a sense of imminent danger in the cities of Hellas.
It is said that Themistocles, Greek archon elected in 493 BC. C., considered necessary to fortify the coastal Greek positions and develop a great naval force. However, political rivals had other plans and opted for defense on the mainland.
For his part, the Greek historian Herodotus tells that the Persian emperor's antipathy towards the Athenians was legendary, constantly stirred up by his servants when sitting at the table. That is why he assigned his nephew Artaphernes and a Persian nobleman named Datis to plan the conquest of the Greek coasts.
This seems to be confirmed: shortly after, the Persians conquered the Cyclades and Euboea islands, Greek regions that supported the Ionian revolt.
First Medical War (492-490 BC)
The First Medical War began with the conquest of Eretria, the capital of Euboea, by the Persians, in retaliation for their participation in the Ionian revolt. From there the Persian troops marched to plains of Marathon, following the advice of the Athenian tyrant Hippias, who helped the Persians from his exile. The idea was to invade Athens making the most of the Persian cavalry.
This was the case in 490 BC. C. the famous battle of Marathon, in which the Athenians, instead of playing defensively, attacked the newly disembarked Persian troops. They inspired fear among the Persians and chased them to their own ships, eight of which were captured.
In all, the Persians suffered a disastrous 6,000 casualties, compared to 192 fallen Greeks, and had to retreat. The experience also served so that Athenians and Spartans signed an agreement of mutual protection against the obvious threat of the Persian Empire in 481 a. C.
Second Medical War (480-479 BC)
After the death of Emperor Darius I, his son Xerxes ascended the Persian throne, and from the beginning he prepared for a new invasion of Greece. His first gesture was to send emissaries to the cities of Hellas requesting a tribute in Water and land, as a gesture of submission that would later be taken into account.
It is said that the Athenians and Spartans preferred to throw the Persian emissaries into a well, assuring them that "you will have all the water and all the land you want." Xerxes' army, made up of between 250,000 and 500,000 men, set out for Greece in 480 BC. C. and crossed the sea, reaching the peninsula.
There, in a narrow pass between the mountains known as Thermopylae (“hot doors” in Greek) awaited them a detachment of 300 Spartan soldiers and 1000 from other nearby regions. Commanded by King Leonidas I, they were willing to contain the army as long as possible.
Thus, they allowed a Greek defense of its own to be established on the Isthmus of Corinth. This episode is known as the famous Battle of Thermopylae. which began with Xerxes' request that the Greeks drop their weapons and surrender in exchange for mercy. The answer he got was "Come and have them."
After five days of waiting, he opted for the numerical superiority of his army, made up mostly of light infantry, cavalry of archers and chariots, and a few elite soldiers known as the "immortals", personal guard of the king himself.
However, in that narrow gorge the troops were reduced to hand-to-hand combat, at the mercy of the long spears of the Greeks, having to fight one by one and suffering numerous casualties in each wave.
So they remained until a traitorous Greek, Ephialtes, led Xerxes' troops through a road that led to the rear of the Greeks. The road was defended by 1000 Phocidia who, despite their excellent defensive positions, cowered and allowed the Persians to pass.
Besieged in front and behind, Leonidas I and his 300, along with 700 hoplites from Thespians, remained in place until they died. However, they took around 10,000 Persian soldiers with them - a terrible blow to the morale of the invading army.
At Thermopylae, the battle of Salamis continued, in which the Greeks ambushed the Persian army. They evacuated Athens and allowed its sack by the invading troops.
In addition, they 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 the possible escapes and to engage in a naval battle for which the Athenians turned out to be much better prepared, despite their lower numbers.
The 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 a. C.
Third Medical War (479-449 BC)
The last chapter in the war between Greeks and Persians was under the command of the new Persian sovereign Artaxerxes, allied with the old Leader Greek Themistocles, who was in exile at the time. However, his plans were thwarted by Cimon, who led the Greek army into present-day Turkey.
The Greeks defeated the Persian army at the Battle of the River Eurimedon (467 BC). This great victory weakened the invading army and, after a few more years of war, forced it to accept the Peace of Callias, an agreement that ended the conflict forever.
End of the Medical Wars and consequences
The Medical Wars culminated in the signing of the Peace of Callias, in which the Persians undertook to desist from their plans of conquest and not to sail the Aegean Sea again. In exchange, they obtained permission for the Commerce with the Greek colonies of Asia Minor.
With this treaty the expansionist plans of Persia in the Mediterranean were put to an end forever. The Attic-Delica League was organized, uniting under the command of Athens the cities of the Hellas, organized against the common enemy.