War in ancient Greece
Greek warfare: hoplite soldiers (Chigi Vase, ca. 650 BC) Wars were very common in ancient Greece. The Greeks lived in little city-states, each one like a small town in the United [...]
Greek warfare: hoplite soldiers (Chigi Vase, ca. 650 BC) Wars were very common in ancient Greece. The Greeks lived in little city-states, each one like a small town in the United [...]
Greek hoplites and democracy - a Corinthian helmet from the 600s BC Hoplites needed armor When the Greek city-states turned to this new hoplite way of fighting, it meant that each man [...]
Ancient Greek soldiers - Greek hoplites in a phalanx formation (Chigi Vase, ca. 650 BC) Before the hoplite phalanx In the Bronze Age, and in the early part of the [...]
Phoenician ship In 480 BC, the Persian king Xerxes was attacking Greece. Things looked very bad for the Greeks, when the Greek navy, under the command of the Athenian general Themistocles, wrecked the Persian fleet [...]
A story from the historian Herodotus: Stone statues of Kleobis and Biton Herodotus: "Father of History" Who was Herodotus? People sometimes call Herodotus the "father of history." Classical Athens More [...]
Thermopylae The Spartans fought the Persians at the mountain pass of Thermopylae for three days, while the other Greek soldiers got safely away to the south. At the end of three [...]
Map of Greece showing where Thermopylae is The Persians are coming! The Greeks heard that Xerxes and the Persians were coming. They disagreed about what to do. The Spartans and Corinthians [...]
Gold coin of Xerxes (or another Persian king) After the Athenians beat the Persians in the First Persian War, at the battle of Marathon, the Persians left the Greeks alone for [...]
Battle of Marathon: The plain of Marathon The First Persian War The Persians were attacking Greece! They landed at Marathon in the fall of 490 BC. When the Athenians heard [...]
Darius I, from the Behistun Inscription in Iran - First Persian War Darius wants revenge After the Ionian Revolt of 499 BC, the Persians and their king Darius wanted to [...]