War and Conflict - Ancient History: Greece

The aggressors in the Trojan War were the Mycenaean Greeks, who sailed across the Aegean Sea to invade the wealthy city of Troy (which was located in modern-day Turkey). The Mycenaeans were most likely motivated by the desire for plunder and personal gain (contrary to the popular account).

The Trojan War is wrapped in mystery and legend. The finding of a domed citadel by Schliemann, that could have been seen by Homer in his time, proved that Troy did exist and appeared to have been destroyed in battle. The Trojan War Epics written by ancient writers, including Homer, in the first century BCE are based on oral tradition and the heroics and escapades of the Greek gods and goddesses. Virgil wrote the Aeneid to give the Roman Empire a sense of dynasty through its hero Aeneas, a Trojan soldier, who led his soldiers to Carthage before arriving in Rome to establish the Roman Empire. Virgil’s poem has a very loose relationship to the Trojan War as it is a work meant to inspire Romans. But it has no bearing on the Greek civilizations.

Agamemnon is the fictional king of the Greeks in Homer’s The Iliad. He leads the ancient Greek forces across the Aegean Sea and attacks the city of Troy.

Agamemnon was the fictional king of the ancient Greeks in Homer’s The Iliad. He starts the Trojan War after Helen of Troy, the wife of his brother Menelaus, elopes with Paris, the son of the Trojan king. There is some historical evidence to suggest that Agamemnon may have been a real person, but general historical consensus is that he was a fictional creation of Homer’s, based on a semi-mythological figure who lived in the fourteenth century BCE.

The Battle of Marathon caused the First Persian Invasion to come to a close, so that would be the best choice. The Battle of Thermopylae was a last stand from the Second Persian Invasion and had no ties to the First Invasion, so it would not be a good answer. The Punic Wars were a series of wars fought between Rome and Carthage and they did not involve the Greeks or the Persians, so it would not be a good answer. The Battle of the Bulge was a famous battle from World War I, so that would not be a good answer here. Lastly the Battle of Waterloo was one of Napoleon's most famous defeats, so it would not be a good choice here either.

The First Messenian War was fought between Messenia and Sparta in eighth century BCE. It ended in victory for the growing Spartan state and the subjugation of the Messenian people as slaves in Spartan society.

Athens was ruled by a series of tyrants for much of the sixth century. Beginning with the rule of Pisistratus and continuing with his son Hippias and his brother Hipparchus. Hippias became paranoid and oppressive as a result and lost the support of the Athenian people. In 508 BCE the Athenian nobility encouraged the Spartans to invade and overthrow Hippias. The Spartans, following the direction of the Oracle at Delphi, duly obliged.

Hoplites were infantrymen in Archaic and Classical Era Greek armies. They fought in tight-knit formations, called phalanxes. They were armed with full metal body armor, a helmet, a long bronze or iron spear, and a sword.

The Ionian Revolt took place from 499 to 494 BCE. The Ionians were Greeks who lived in Anatolia and had recently been conquered by the mighty Persian Empire. They revolted against Persian tyranny and sent emissaries to Athens asking for help. Athens came to the aid of the Ionians, but the revolt was crushed anyway. Apparently, King Darius of Persia was so incensed by the Athenians betrayal (as he saw it) that he resolved to destroy the city-state.

The Battle of Himera was part of the Carthaginian invasion of Sicily in 480 BCE. At the time, Sicily was part of the Greek-speaking world and the powerful city-state of Syracuse was located there. The Carthaginians invaded Sicily at the same time as the Persians were invading mainland Greece. The Battle of Himera ended in victory for Syracuse and the defeat of the Carthaginian expeditionary force.

Leonidas is perhaps the most famous of Sparta’s many kings and military leaders. Leonidas led the famous Spartan stand at Thermopylae - where three hundred Spartans faced off against a Persian army numbering in the tens of (possibly hundreds of) thousands.

Tyrtaeus was a Spartan poet who probably lived in the late seventh century BCE. His poems focused on emphasizing Spartan martial prowess and on encouraging young Spartans to fight with strength and honor against the Messenians in the Second Messenian War. Tyrtaeus is an example of Spartan artistic endeavor — which was generally focused on promoting Spartan social values and obedience to the law.

Hostility between Sparta and Athens first began in the late sixth century, when Sparta sent an army to intervene on behalf of the Athenian aristocracy, who feared the loss of their power. The Spartan soldiers were turned back by the Athenian people, who fought to defend their city and the democratic reforms enacted by Cleisthenes. This created a natural and long lasting animosity between the two city-states. Their rivalry would dominate the next few hundred years of Greek history.

Darius landed an invasion force on mainland Attica (near the village of Marathon) during the first assault of the Persian Wars. The Athenians, with their allies the Plataeans, made a heroic stand against a much larger force and forced the Persians to withdraw. This was a source of great pride for the Athenians who never let the Spartans forget that they had been absent.

The Battle of Thermopylae is the famous “last stand of the 300” whereby a small group of Spartan soldiers held off the massive Persian army by forcing them to fight in a very tight space. The Battle of Salamis was an important naval victory for the Greek city-states against the Persian navy. Although the Persian navy was much larger, the Greeks were able to neutralize this advantage by forcing the Persians to fight in the narrow straits off the coast of the island of Salamis.

The land battle of Plataea and the naval battle of Mycale took place at approximately the same time in 479 BCE. They both ended in decisive victories for the ancient Greeks and brought to an end the attempted Persian conquest of the Greek mainland.

The Second Messenian War was fought in the second-half of the seventh century BCE. It was fought between Sparta and Messenia and ended in total victory for the Spartans. The Messenians were enslaved in large numbers and brought to Sparta to live and work as helots (communally owned slaves) in Spartan society.

Thebes and Athens became military rivals during the late Archaic and early Classical eras because the Athenians supported the rights of the Plataeans (a smaller city-state located several miles south of Thebes) to live independent and free of Theban dominance. This rivalry was important because it led to the Thebans supporting the Persian Empire when it attempted to invade Athens.

Gelon was the ruler of Syracuse at the time of the Greco-Persian Wars. He, like many other rulers at the time, was a tyrant with near-absolute power. During the invasion of mainland Greece, by the Persian King Xerxes, in 480 BCE, he was asked to assist the Greek resistance. At the time Syracuse was one of the wealthiest and most powerful Greek city-states and their assistance would have been very useful. Gelon, however, demanded full control over all Greek forces and when the Athenians and Spartans refused he withdrew all offers of support and left the rest of Greece to defend itself.