HELP with persian wars (1 Viewer)

[lemon-ice-tea]

hi i got this essay Q : discuss the reasons for the greek victory and persian defeat in the persian wars.. i got these points : method of war, troops, landscape. so far. can any one help or add points thanks

 

[agentcheeseball]

The leaders and who were the ones on the greek side who had greater knowledge on persian war tactics then persian's knowledge on greek's war tactics. I would also bring into the fact that I think the Greeks felt more strongly upon fighting the Persians off as it was their freedom at stake which they cared about so highly in comparison to the scattered divisions of the Persian armies who only went on war because they were ordered too. Defiantely bring their armour differences into the dicussion as well.

 

[RandomTomGuy90]

hi i got this essay Q : discuss the reasons for the greek victory and persian defeat in the persian wars.. i got these points : method of war, troops, landscape. so far. can any one help or add points thanks

- Supirior Tactics
- Good fortunes (when Darius' first invasion fleet was destoryed off Mt Athos pennisular)
- Persian complacency and underestimating the Greeks
- Greece was gifted with leaders at the time who made the big calls (Miltiades, Thermistocles, Pericles, Kimon, Aristides etc)
- Better armour, thicker, as well as longer spears
- Better knowledge of homeland
- Desire for freedom will always cause a man to fight better than a man who was forced to be there
- Greeks managed to unify (even though barely)
- Persian errors (eg. forgetting to bring cavalry to Marathon, leaving them on ships)
- The size of Xerxes' army, the cost and the difficulty in maintaining an addequte supply line
- Greek Pride and an obsession with being honurable and manly

I hope this helped

 

[12jewel]

also:
- the Persian ships and army were too closely interdependant.
- Persian size was mentioned already, but not the problems of communication in a multi-national force.
- Many Persian commanders were killed
- Persian admirals had little experience in naval combat
- Persians were in Greece too late to make another attack soon after Salamis (I think it bcame winter so they had to wait awhile to attack again)
- to add to RandomTomGuy90's point on being forced to be there, look at Herodotus 7.223 where it talks of the Persian soldiers being whipped to force them into battle at Thermopylae.
-Themistocles had encouraged a navy to be built for Athens which wuld be essential for defence and at Salamis. He also tricked the Persians into battle at Salamis, thus also forcing the Greeks to fight there and not closer to the Peloponnese, according to Herodotus 8.74 onwards.

 

[SpankyTheHippo]

Also the fact that many of the Persian ships were destroyed in storms.