Joined Jan 2011
16,917 Posts | 1,873+
Roughly 150 years before the return match decisively won by Alexander the Great, the Persians tried to subdue Greece but failed.
The first attempt was stopped at Marathon in 490 BC, the second one was stopped after 3 main engagements.. Thermopylae (of 300 spartans fame), Salamis (naval battle) and Platea (479 BC)
At the time the Persian empire was probably the largest entity in the world by any measure. It covered an area equivalent to roughly 70% of the USA -about 6 million square kilometers- from today's Pakistan to Egypt including Iran, Turkey, Irak and most of the middle east. Population estimate range from 30 to over 50 million (the world's population at the time was estimated at less than 150 million). The Greek world in contrast had less than 5 million citizens (upper estimate). Seemingly your typical David vs Goliath situation
Why then did the Persians fail ?
Possibilities:
- This was not a "life or death" struggle for the Persians and so (despite inflated claims by Greek propagandists) they invested only the amount of resources (men, ships etc..) that could be eventually paid back had Greece come under their control... (similarly although the US had the capability to send -say- 2 million men to Iraq, it only send about 200, 000..... higher numbers would have been too costly to support... not to the mention the political problems)
- The Persians were already over extended and their resources were needed to keep the Empire together... Hence the expeditionary force to Greece was limited
- The main Persian military strength lay in their cavalry (of which at the time the Greeks had none to speak of)....but the terrain in Greece did not lend itself to extensive use of cavalry (though its presence did create problems for the Greeks)
- The difficult terrain and the limited agricultural output in Greece proper made it very difficult to support extended military operations by large forces
What are your thoughts ?
The first attempt was stopped at Marathon in 490 BC, the second one was stopped after 3 main engagements.. Thermopylae (of 300 spartans fame), Salamis (naval battle) and Platea (479 BC)
At the time the Persian empire was probably the largest entity in the world by any measure. It covered an area equivalent to roughly 70% of the USA -about 6 million square kilometers- from today's Pakistan to Egypt including Iran, Turkey, Irak and most of the middle east. Population estimate range from 30 to over 50 million (the world's population at the time was estimated at less than 150 million). The Greek world in contrast had less than 5 million citizens (upper estimate). Seemingly your typical David vs Goliath situation
Why then did the Persians fail ?
Possibilities:
- This was not a "life or death" struggle for the Persians and so (despite inflated claims by Greek propagandists) they invested only the amount of resources (men, ships etc..) that could be eventually paid back had Greece come under their control... (similarly although the US had the capability to send -say- 2 million men to Iraq, it only send about 200, 000..... higher numbers would have been too costly to support... not to the mention the political problems)
- The Persians were already over extended and their resources were needed to keep the Empire together... Hence the expeditionary force to Greece was limited
- The main Persian military strength lay in their cavalry (of which at the time the Greeks had none to speak of)....but the terrain in Greece did not lend itself to extensive use of cavalry (though its presence did create problems for the Greeks)
- The difficult terrain and the limited agricultural output in Greece proper made it very difficult to support extended military operations by large forces
What are your thoughts ?