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ANCIENT WARFARE
Part III: Ancient Greek Military:
Battle of Salamis 480 BC
Battle of Thermopylae 480 BC
Battle of Plataea 479 BC
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The battle of Salamis, 480 BC.
After the first Persian wars an exceptional rich vein was discovered in the Attic silver mines of Laurium. This gave new opportunities for Athens. One group led by Aristides wanted the profits to be spread out over the population, as it was normal in those days, others who were led by Themistocles wanted something different. He was the only one who had correctly understood the message of the oracle of Delphi that Athens should be protected by a wooden wall: he debated that Athens should built a fleet of 200 triremes. He pointed out to the Athenians that a strong navy was crucial in their conflict with Aegina. Probably he realized that there was also the danger of a new Persian invasion, but he wisely did not mention this as it seemed far from likely at that time in the eyes of most people. This decision made Athens at once the biggest naval force in Hellas.
The forces.
| The Battle at Salamis, 480 B.C. |
| Persians |
Greeks |
| Fleet |
100-120 Phoenicia
75-90 Egypt
100 Ionian Greeks
50 Cyprus
20 Lycia
25 Karia
30 Cilicia
50 Others |
150 Athens
30 Aegina
20 Megara
50 Peloponesse
40 Corinth
20 Others |
| Total |
| 450-485 Triremes |
310 Triremes |
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The Persians realized that the only serious threat left was the Greek fleet. The Isthmus was an impressive defensive line but the Greeks were so outnumbered that it was only a matter of time before the last Greek army was destroyed the Persians reasoned. And without the Greek fleet to support them the Greek armies at land would definitely form no problem for the huge Persian army. A decisive sea-battle was needed Xerxes decided.
We know that the Persians did not have a standing fleet themselves. Until now they had mostly fought in Asia Minor, and a fleet was never needed. The Persians had focused on their land armies and neglected their seamanship. Luckily for them had they subjected the Phoenicians. These people were excellent sailors and had the knowledge to built vast vessels who could oppose the Greek triremes. The Persian fleet mostly consisted of Phoenician ships, but strangely enough they also used Asiatic Greek ships and sailors. They must have doubted the motivation of these troops to fight other Greeks, but they were used nevertheless. Maybe the real reason was that Xerxes thought that it was saver to take them with him instead of leaving them in Asia Minor. It was certainly not unlikely that the Greek colonies in Asia Minor would revolt once more when he was fighting in Hellas. Now he prevented this from happening, and he made sure that the Greeks did fight by holding their political leaders hostage in Asia Minor.
The Greek fleet consisted of 310 ships. All fine forces in Greek terms, but puny in the face of the fleet Xerxes had collected from all his empire. Athens, as strongest naval force in Hellas, was specialized in using the battering-ram while the Peloponessian fleet more relied on their infantry on the ships. The Greek ships were more maneuverable than the Persian ones as they did not have a high stern-post like the Phoenicians did. The benefit of a high stern-post was that archers could attack the oarsmen before the ships hit each other, but it also made the ship slower, more difficult to maneuver and less stable.
The commanders.
The Persians were still commanded by Xerxes. The Greek fleet was in the hands of Themistocles who had so successfully led the navy during the battle at Artemisium. This Athenian man was very rebellious in his youth but eventually he chose for a career in politics were his natural slyness was the most useful. Just like Miltiades before him he had complete confidence in his own judgment, and this way he managed to gain the trust of others. There was another resemblance with Miltiades: he was not the official commander during the battle, but he certainly was the architect of it.
Phase one: diplomacy and blackmail.
The citizens of Athens were determined to get revenge for the destruction of their loved city. Their allies had lost faith in a good ending of the war after the victories of the Persian army. The Spartans wanted to retreat to their Isthmus and let the navy fight on the open sea besides the Isthmus. It was Themistocles who was the only one who realized that the navy should not fight on open sea, but in the narrow strait of Salamis where it had retreated to. The battle of Artemisium had learnt him a valuable lesson: the Persian numbers would not count in a narrow strait, but they would count against them.
Themistocles' problems were to persuade his allies that this was what they had to do, and persuade the Persians that that was what they wanted to do. The problem of Sparta was quickly solved when he threatened that Athens would sail of with its navy and found a new city in the west if Sparta still demanded to fight on the Isthmus. Convincing the Persians to enter the strait of Salamis was more difficult, but Themistocles solved this in a genius way. He sent his best slave to Xerxes to tell him that the Greek navy was retreating to the Isthmus of Corinth to form a combined force with the army. This message sounded so reasonable to Xerxes that he ordered the Egyptian squadron of his fleet to block the strait of Megara. The remaining Persian ships stopped at the island of Psyttaleia and blocked the entrance to the strait of Salamis: the Greek fleet can not escape.
Phase two: the confusion of the narrows.
To give Xerxes the impression that they were actually retreating to Corinth Themistocles sent the Corinthian squadron of his fleet to the north at dawn. Their second goal was to make sure that the Egyptian squadron would not attack the Greeks in the rear in the heat of the battle. The Corinthian vessels raised their sails, which was normally only done when fleeing, to convince the Persians that victory was near. Little did Xerxes know that Themistocles kept a part of his fleet hidden in the bay of Ambelaki, while the main force was hidden behind the island Farmakoussai a little more to the north.
Xerxes commands his fleet to enter the strait in order to hunt down the fleeing Greek fleet. However, when the Persian fleet entered the strait the trap closed: the Aeginetans and Megarians rushed out of the bay of Ambelaki and attacked the Ionian ships which formed the rear of the Persian fleet. The battle begins when the stern of a Phoenician ship is ripped off the rest of the ship. The Greek main force suddenly appeared on the battlefield and the confusion among the Persians only increased.
The heavier Persian ships are no party for the fast and trained Greek triremes. On top of that changed the weather and the slow Persian ships lost even more speed and maneuverability in the rough water. The Phoenician battle-array fell apart when their admiral got killed, and the Persian fleet flees to the south chased by the Greek main force. As they pass the bay of Ambelaki, where the Ionian part of the Persian fleet was fighting the Aeginetans and Megarians, the Greeks end their chase and attack the Ionian ships in their back. They were no party for the Greeks and most ships got destroyed. The survivors struggled out of the narrows while they were hunted down by the Greeks until they reached Psyttaleai. The Persian garrison on the island got defeated by soldiers of the Greek navy while the Corinthian ships had managed to stop the Egyptian squadron that was encircling Salamis.
The results of the battle.
The Persians had lost 200 ships, while the Greeks only lost 40 triremes. There was more than enough reason for celebration on Salamis that night, and there was cause for celebration on Sicily as well where the Syrcusans had crushed the Carthagian advance at Himera. Themistocles had broken Xerxes' fleet and his nerve. Disillusioned he went back to Persia with a large part of his army, but the rest remained in Hellas. Xerxes' retreat can be seen as an cowardly act, but you must realize that the Persian kings normally made the decisive blows and let the rest to their generals. The battle of Salamis was definitely not the final blow as Xerxes had hoped, but the Persians could afford the losses much easier than the Greeks. Xerxes left a huge army under the command of Mardonius behind, and gave him the order to conquer the rest of Hellas. Hellas was still not safe...
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The battle of Thermopylae, 480 BC.
Darius died in 486 BC and had managed to punish the city Eretria for its role in the revolt of the Ionian Greek colonies, but Athens was still a thorn in his side. In fact, now there were even more reasons to destroy Athens. He already had started making new plans, but the goal of the mission would not be the sole destruction of Athens. Hellas had humiliated him, and with him the Persian empire so it had to be totally conquered. However, because of his unexpected death it was up to his son Xerxes to fulfill his plans.
Xerxes remembered very well what happened to the first expedition of his father: the fleet got destroyed during a storm at Athos and the army got stuck in a guerrilla with nomadic tribes in Thrace. He did not have to worry about Thrace as it was now part of the Persian empire, but the peninsula of Athos was always a dangerous place for a fleet. To make sure that everything would go according the plan he ordered his troops to dig a canal through Athos. This took them three years and at the same time he built a bridge over the Hellespont. The navy, drawn principally from Phoenicia and the subject Greek states in Asia Minor, accompanied the army along the coast of Thrace while it looked for a river that it would not drink dry. Herodotus tells us that the army consisted of 1750000 soldiers, but this number is absurd: 200000 might be nearer to the mark. The astonishing number of 1200 triremes formed the fleet.
At the same time Carthage invaded Sicily to prevent that the Greek colonies on this island would offer any help to Hellas. But Greek attempts to find help at any distance had already failed: Crete, Corcyra and Syracuse refused. In the north only Athens, Phocis, Thespiae and Plataea were prepared to fight, while Argos remained neutral in the Peloponesse. The 'Greeks who had the best thoughts for Greece', as Herodotus wrote, assembled at Sparta in 481 and later at Corinth in the spring of 480. The commercial island Aegina and Athens resolved their problems and an alliance under the leadership of Sparta was formed between the handful of cities.
It was obvious that the natural aspects of Hellas had to be used as much as possible in order to defeat the Persian army. The plan was to trap the army in a mountain-pass where its numeric advantage was of no use at all. Then maybe the fleet could also be trapped in a sea-strait where the maneuverable trireme had an advantage over the slow Persian vessels. Once the Persian fleet was destroyed, or spread out, it was not unlikely that army would be cut off from all supplies and forced either to retreat or to starve. The first choice was the Gorge of Tempe where the coast road to the south turns into north-western Thessaly, and a force of 10000 was sent to hold it. However, the Gorge of Tempe looked not very suitable as first line of defenses after closer examination because of its geographic vulnerability and the fact that the Aleuadae, one of the leading families in Thessaly, was possibly in favor of Xerxes. The Greeks retired south and northern Hellas was left to the Persians.
Two possible defensive lines remained: the narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae with the fleet in the adjacent north-Euboean strait, or at the Isthmus with the fleet a little to the north at Salamis. Athens was of course in favor of Thermopylae as retreating to the Isthmus meant leaving Athens to the Persian army. Sparta on the other hand wanted to retreat to the Isthmus in the Peloponesse because of the natural Peloponessian reluctance to fight for anything but their own. Athens was preparing for the worst scenario possible: a recently found tablet proves that Themistocles prepared plans for a decent evacuation of Athens. The final choice fell on Thermopylae nevertheless.
The commanders.
The Persian empire was in the hands of the son of Darius: Xerxes. Just like his father, and most of the high kings of Persia, was he a most excellent organizer but not a good general. The increased motivation of his troops when he was present at a battle was often diminished by his tactics. Darius had always been a strict and determined man, but Xerxes had moments that his bad temper made him make the wrong decisions. We know that he constructed a bridge over the Hellespont so that his army could cross it without any problems. The first attempt was destroyed during a storm, and Xerxes ordered his men to whip the waves to show his men that even the Gods of the waters were subjected to them. This shows us some of the nature of Xerxes.
Leonidas, one of the two Spartan kings, was the commander of the Greek force in the pass of Thermopylae. His actions during this battle are still seen as one of the biggest acts of heroism in the history of mankind. But he was not only a hero, he was most of all a capable and cautious commander. He was unselfish and very concerned with the men under his command: he knew that he would most likely get killed at Thermopylae and only accepted Spartans in his army who had a son who could take over the leadership of the family.
Phase one: the battle of Artemisium.
| The Battle at Artemisium, 480 B.C. |
| Persians |
Greeks |
| Triremes |
| 1200 |
271 |
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The fleet, primarily Athenian, had situated itself in the north-Euboean strait close to Artemisium and blocked it. Its purpose there was to support the army in the pass of Thermopylae, and to prevent that the Persians would attempt an attack from the sea on the Greek position in the mountains. Maybe they also hoped to test out their new triremes against the Persian fleet. The Persian army was primarily a land army: it did not even have a standing fleet. For its fleet was the Persian empire totally dependent on the subjected Phoenicians and other Asiatics. They also formed the core of the Persian fleet during this expedition and the Greeks knew that the Phoenicians had faster vessels than the Persians, and their seamanship was definitely superior to those of the native Persians. The Persian fleet was not only feared because of its size...
Storm had already wrecked many Persian ships on their way down and the Spartan Eurybiades and the Athenian Themistocles, who commanded the Greek fleet together, felt that they had a chance to stop the exhausted Persian fleet. However, the Persians were determined to break through the Greek blockade as otherwise their fleet could no longer sail up with the army along the coast. Xerxes decides to risk a frontal attack on 271 Greek triremes, even while he knew that the narrow strait diminished his numeric advantage. The serious naval engagements were indecisive, but even that was encouraging for the Greeks. The Persians had to retreat to open sea, and Xerxes was forced to sent a squadron of 200 triremes to encircle the island of Euboea and catch the Greeks in the rear. However, a furious storm destroyed most of these vessels. Like the famous historian Herodotus wrote: 'God thus doing his best to equalize the opposing forces'.
Phase two: the drama of Thermopylae.
| The Battle at Thermopylae, 480 B.C. |
| Persians |
Greeks |
| Infantry |
| 200000 |
7000 |
| Cavalry |
| 20000 |
None |
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The hesitations of the Spartans throughout the Persian wars could have been disastrous, but now they finally showed what they were made off. Small expeditions had shown that an attack on the Persian army in the plains would equalize suicide, so their king Leonidas had chosen Thermopylae very well. During 2500 years this place has changed very much, but in 490 it was the only way to southern Hellas. Leonidas positioned 7000 hoplits in this small pass between the mountains and the sea, and 1000 to guard the most vulnerable branch road. The activities of the Greek fleet did not only split the Persian fleet from the Persian army, but it also prevented that Xerxes could land behind Thermopylae and attack this position in the rear. There was no other option for Xerxes left: he had to go through Thermopylae.
Xerxes ordered his corps d'elite, the 10000 Immortals, to attack the Greek stronghold. This elite unite was called the Immortals as before a battle people were assigned to immediately take in the place of a fallen person. This way the strength of the unit was always the same. Leonidas' men held out magnificently for two days against the best that Xerxes could sent at them, and they would have probably continued this for several more days if a traitor would not have shown the Persians an ill-guarded mountain track. The 1000 men who had to guard this path could not stop the sudden attack and were forced to retreat higher into the mountains. The Immortals could now move round on Leonidas' rear. When he heard of this he sent everybody home except his famed 300 Spartans and the men from Thespiae. The Thebans also stayed, but not because they wanted too: they were an insurance that Thebes would not collaborate to the Persians. All but the Thebans, who did surrender, fought and died. It was almost a victory.
The results of the battles.
The Persians could now march freely through the pass of Thermopylae and entered southern Hellas. The citizens of Athens had already been evacuated to the nearby island of Salamis when the Persians attacked Athens. The few defenders of Athens were all killed and the city was burnt down to the ground. However, two lessons had been learnt: that the Greek ships and sailors were adequate and the Greek hoplite was supreme. The problem was that the army had only one defensive line left: the Isthmus of Corinth. As a result of this was the independence of Hellas in the hands of the small fleet.
Leonidas left a young son, Pleistarchos, behind. This child became one of the two kings of Sparta, but a regent was assigned because of his age. This person was a cousin of Leonidas: Pausanias. He would play an important role in the last phase of the Persian wars.
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The battle of Plataea, 479 BC.
The Persian fleet was stopped at Salamis, but the Persians still controlled northern Hellas. Xerxes had gone back to Persia, but he had left behind a huge army to control northern Hellas, and to destroy the last Greek armies. The situation did not look very hopeful for Hellas, and it became even worse when Boeotia decided that it was saver to collaborate with the Persians instead of fighting them. In face of this the unity of Salamis began to look a little hollow.
Again there was a disagreement between Athens and Sparta. Sparta believed that it was safe for the time being now the Persians did not have a fleet anymore to protect and provision them. That is why Sparta felt quite safe behind their Isthmus wall. Like always they were not in favor of an offensive war as they feared a revolt of their helots, but Athens insisted on an attack on the Persian army. Athens had a good reason for this: the Athenians wanted their homes back in security. It took a long winter of bitter argument before Athenian threats were effective. The Greeks formed an army and marched into Boeotia under the leadership of the Spartan Pausanias.
The commanders.
The Persians were no longer commanded by there high king Xerxes as he had returned to Persia: Mardonius was now in command. Mardonius was the son-in-law of the father of Xerxes, Darius, and was in command of the fleet that was destroyed at the peninsula of Athos. Darius was clearly not satisfied with the achievements of Mardonius during this first expedition as he was not part of the next expedition against Hellas. However, Mardonius was a capable leader who knew what he was doing. Xerxes noticed this and restored his position in the Persian command. The early departure of Xerxes was even a good thing for the Persians as Mardonius was a much better commander than Xerxes ever was.
Pausanias was in command of the Greek combined forces. The Spartan king Leonidas left a young son, Pleistarchos, behind after his heroic death at Thermopylae. Sparta had a very peculiar form of government and the constitution said that there should be two kings to prevent that one of them would abuse his power. In reality one of the kings was much more important than the other one. Pleistarchos would become this important king, but he was much too young so a regent was installed for the time being. This man was Pausanias, a cousin of the hero Leonidas. Just like Leonidas was Pausanias a capable leader who had knowledge of tactics, and who knew how to correctly value the weaknesses of his army and those of the hostile army. Unfortunately did he not have the same goals as Leonidas as history will learn us.
Phase one: skirmish in the foothills.
| The Battle at Plataea, 479 B.C. |
| Persians |
Greeks |
| Hoplits |
| 38000 |
40500 |
| Peltasts |
| None |
70000 |
| Cavalry |
| 10000 |
None |
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Both parties had chosen their positions very well. Mardonius had chosen the battlefield at Plataea, south of Thebes, because the plains at the south and west of his camp are very suitable for his cavalry. Like always did the Persians have a large number of horsemen, while the Greek did not have any, so Mardonius' strategy was build around this type of unit. Pausanius realized this, and the danger of the fast Persian cavalry, so he installed himself in the foothills south of the Persians where their cavalry could not do much damage.
None of the parties really felt like leaving their position in order to attack the enemy, so both of them waited. Of course neither the Greeks nor the Persians could wait forever. The gigantic Persian army was bound to get problems with their provisions at some stage now their fleet had retreated. The Greeks had the same problem, but they had it right from the start of the battle. Pausanias remained cool however and kept his army in the foothills of the mountain Cithaeron. It is Mardonius who made the first attack.
The Persian cavalry left their fortified encampment and galloped through the plains, crossed the river Asopos, and attacked the Greeks in the foothills. Mardonius knew that this was a dangerous move, but he hoped to lure down into the plains where the remainder of his army could finish the job. The Greeks however were prepared, and determined to maintain their strong position. The Persian cavalry did not manage to break the Greek formations, and got into serious problems. Mardonius is wise enough not to use his main force to help the cavalry, and ends his attack. When the Persians are back in their camp they realize that they have lost many brave men, including their commander. Mardonius came to the conclusion that his cavalry could not be used for a charge as long as the Greeks stayed in the foothills, but he could still use them to cut the Greeks off from their provisions.
Phase two: entering the plains.
The water reserves of the Greeks decrease with every day and Pausanias is forced to change his position. He moves his army into the plains, and marches around Plataea where he is much closer to the Asopos ridge where there is plenty of water. He knows that he is much more vulnerable now he is in the plains, but at least a small row of hills between him and the Persians prevents a frontal attack of the Persian cavalry. Mardonius still does not attack as he hopes that the lack of food will weaken the Greeks some more, especially after his cavalry had stopped a Greek convoy of 500 wagons. His supplies on the other hand are also decreasing because the Greeks managed to cut off his supplies with guerilla activities.
The next three days several skirmishes took place between the Greeks and the Persian cavalry. None of these small conflicts was won by a party, but the Persians gained a small victory: they managed to poison the water supplies of the Greeks. Pausanias waited for ten more days but after that he had no longer a choice, the Greeks had almost ran out of supplies. Luckily for the Greeks remained Pausanias remarkably cool and did he refuse to attack the Persians. Such an attack on the Persian fortifications would have been disastrous for the Greeks, but the alternative was certainly not without any danger either. He wanted to retire to a position which was closer to his old position. There would be enough water at this new position, it would give him more protection from the mountains, and the Greek convoys no longer would need to cross the plains in order to reach the Greek army.
At night Pausanias starts this maneuver which he makes look as if they are fleeing. He sent his inexperienced troops towards the new position while the more experienced fighters stayed behind to prevent a possible Persian attack on the retreating forces. Unfortunately lost the different Greek units contact because of the difficulties and the confusion of this maneuver at night. The inexperienced troops get lost and most of them form their camp in front of the city walls of Plataea. At dawn the experienced Greek left and right wing retreat towards Plataea to reunite with the other fighters.
Phase three: Mardonius attacks.
Mardonius sees that the Greek army is split up, and he got the impression that his enemy was retreating because of political problems. His advisors had told him that it was definitely not unlikely that the Greek Poleis would argue about the tactics after a while, and that they would retreat to their own cities. They also knew that it was not really in the Greek nature to cooperate with other cities. Mardonius had even invested a lot of diplomacy and conspiracy in the hope to achieve this goal. However, the Greek disorganization had a tactical nature, and when the Persian army attacked they were surprised by the Greek resistance.
The Athenians who had formed the left wing of the army were still in the plains at the moment of the attack, and they were pushed back by the Persian cavalry. The inexperienced troops who were already at Plataea noticed this and moved forwards to help their Athenian friends. Mardonius on his turn attacked the Athenians and the fresh troops with a Boeotian phalanx, who had collaborated with the Persians.
At the right wing the Greeks were also in a difficult position as the Spartan phalanx was attacked by Mardonius himself with his cavalry and Persian foot soldiers. The Spartans manage to stop the Persian attack as they could focus on the Persian foot soldiers as they were already in the foothills. The Corinthian hoplites, and their Peloponessian allies, quickly left the protection of the city walls of Plataea and stormed forwards towards the Spartans. Mardonius commanded his troops to shoot all their arrows at the enemy, and the Greeks are forced to take cover behind their shields.
This was the moment Pausanias had been waiting for. The Thegians, followed by the Spartans, charged forward and managed to push their way out of the mess of this bloody battle towards complete victory. The Persian left wing is split up after the Spartans had killed Mardonius, and the Persian battle-array starts to fall apart. The Persian center, under the leadership of Artabazos moves forward but they can only conclude that their army is collapsing. He orders to blow the horn for the retreat, and crosses the Asopos ridge while he is being pursued by the Spartans. At the same time the Athenians manage to defeat the Boeotians with the help of the reinforcements.
The Spartans did not have the equipment to attack a fortress but after they had destroyed the Persian left wing they were so convinced of their own invincibility that they attacked the Persian fortress nevertheless. The rest of the Greek army had caught up with the Spartans, and joined in on the attack on the Persian encampment. The fortress got destroyed and only a few Persians managed to get away. The victory was complete.
The results of the battle.
Another, and even bigger, Persian army in Hellas had refused to acknowledge the leadership of Mardonius and was already retreating towards the Hellespont at the time of the battle. The Greeks took Thebe, which was the leader of the collaboration of Boeotia with the Persians, after a short siege and killed all political leaders. A large part of the Persian treasures, which they had hoped to use to solve the problems with their provision, fell in the hands of the Greeks thanks to this victory. On the same day the Greek fleet had quickly crossed the Aegean and landed on the Ionian coast at Mycale. They routed the Persians who opposed them, and destroyed the remains of the Persian fleet. This way the Aegean was in the hands of the Greeks again, and the Ionian Greeks who were forced to serve in the Persian army choose the side of the Greeks and helped them during the last battles. Ironically enough an Ionian revolt had formed the start and the end of the Persian wars..
Pausanias attempted to establish Spartan power over Hellas after the battle at Plataea, and even collaborated with his former enemies, the Persians, in an attempt to realize his dream. The other Greeks found out about this conspiracy and Pausanias was killed in an unhonourable way.
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Next Tuesday, continuation of Ancient Greek Military:
Mercenaries
Struggle for Hegemony
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