Western Civilization - History Of European Society

Ancient Greece to the End of the Peloponnesian Wars37

They could hold land in their own right and were capa-
ble of dealing with hostile and rebellious helots. Their
courage, like that of the Spartan men, was legendary.
In spite of their military virtues, the Spartans were
not an aggressive power until late in their history. The
constant threat of helot insurrection made them wary
of foreign entanglements, and Spartan policy was tradi-
tionally defensive and inward-looking. This changed in
the course of the fifth century B.C. when the Persian in-
vasion and the subsequent expansion of Athens forced
them to take a more active role. They would eventually
be drawn into a fatal rivalry with the Athenians, whose
army was inferior but whose superior navy and greater
wealth made them formidable antagonists. The story of
those struggles forms the political background of the
Greek classical age.

The Persian War

The Greeks developed their unique civilization in large

part because for centuries they were isolated from the

turbulent politics of the Asian land mass. That isolation

came to an abrupt end in the Persian War of 499–479

B.C. (see map 2.1). The tiny states whose competition

with one another had long since become traditional

now faced the greatest military power the world had

yet known.

The Persians were an Indo-European people from

the Iranian highlands who emerged in the sixth century

B.C. as the dominant power in the vast region between

Mesopotamia and India. By the end of the sixth century

B.C. the ruling elite had adopted Zoroastrianism, a reli-

gion preached by the prophet and reformer Zoroaster

0 100 200 Miles

0 100 200 300 Kilometers

WALLSLONG

PHALERUM WALL

ACROPOLIS

PIRAEUS

Cep

hisu

s

SaronicGulf

0 1 2 Miles

0 1 2 3 Kilometers

Athens

Sicily

415-413 SyracuseB.C.

The Peloponnesian Wars

Sparta and its allies

Athens and its allies

Persian Empire

Neutrals

Persian War battles

Invasion route of

Xerxes's army

Invasion route of

Xerxes's navy

CorinthGulf of

Aegean

Sea

Ionian

Sea

Propontis

Sea of Crete

Hellespont

Sparta

Corinth

Delphi

Thermopylae

480 B.C.

Plataea

479 B.C.

Eretria

Salamis

480 B.C. Miletus

Athens

Marathon

490 B.C.

Lesbos

Chios

Delos

Corcyra

Euboea

Crete

Melos

Samos

Naxos

Potidaea

Amphipolis

422 B.C.

Sardis

Aegospotami

405 B.C.

Thasos

PELOPONNESUS

ATTICA

MACEDONIA THRACE

THESSALY

IONIA

BOEOTIA

ASIA MINOR

MAP 2.1

Greece in the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars