The Persian wars: a triumph or a defeat for the Greeks?
The Persian wars mark one of the most important pages in the history of both Western and Eastern civilisations. The conflict, which took place in the space of two decades, was a confrontation between two different, but not so distant, cultures. The Greeks found themselves facing what was the largest empire at the end of the Sixth and beginning of Fifth century, the Achaemenid empire. However, despite the immensity of the Achaemenid empire, the testimonies regarding this period of time are represented solely by a few Greek primary sources and, therefore, limit our understanding of the Persian wars as they provide a perspective which, in large part, is biased. As it is said, history is written by the winners not by those who are defeated. This is, in part, the reason why we consider the Persians to be the defeated ones in this conflict rather than the Greeks who, on the contrary, are recognised as the victors. On what grounds the Greeks were praised as the winning side? Could we argue that the Greeks, despite ending the war as winners, suffered the long-term consequences of this conflict more than the Persians ever did?
The two main works which influence our knowledge of the Persian wars are The Histories by the Greek historian Herodotus and The Persians by the renowned Greek tragedian Aeschylus. As J. K. Balcer points out in his article The Persian Wars against Greece: A Reassessment, both of these authors stress the Greek victories as inevitable and foreordained. The reasons of the defeat of the Persian army in this case were to be found in the “excessive Persian hybris and the despotic indifference to human dignity” which deeply contrasted with the Greek concepts of freedom and democracy. J. Peter Euben in The battle of Salamis and the origins of political theory asserts that the victory at Salamis was seen by the Greeks as the intervention of the jealous and justice-affirming gods in response to Xerxes’ impetuosity in wanting to bridge the Hellespont and “lash nature to his mortal aims”. The superiority of the Greeks in battle lied in their respect of the limits imposed by nature which Xerxes had failed to adhere to in wanting to bridge the Hellespont. Furthermore, whilst Aeschylus’ play celebrated Greek power, it also warned Athens that maintenance of its freedom as a city required its people to observe the boundaries which Xerxes violated. The defeat of the Persians, as we read in Inventing the Barbarian by E. Hall, was regarded by Athens both as an affirmation of Greek culture and collectivity and as a defeat of the demon of tyranny. The Persian empire was unified under the rule of one king, but its peoples were not united culturally because the empire was formed by people of different tongues and traditions. A.R. Burn in Persia and the Greeks states that according to Herodotus the Ionian revolt, considered by many the starting point of the Persian wars, was caused by personal griefs. Ionia resented the tribute the regions had to pay to the Persians but also the system of local government which gave power to tyrants employed by the Persians. This supports the idea of the profound differences between the two cultures, Greek and Persian and shows how the outcome of the Persian wars contributed to the invention of the barbarian myth, one of the main consequences of the Persian wars concerning the Athenian and Greek identity. Euben states that the Athenians became aware of their strength as deriving from their democratic ethos and culture rather than from their material power. One could argue therefore that the Persian wars were won by the Greeks because of their culture.
Both Aeschylus and Herodotus emphasise the magnitude of the Persian military forces in order to shine even more light on the extraordinary Greek actions that managed to defeat it. Although the Greeks are widely considered the winning faction of the conflict, they lost two battles, one by sea and one fought on the land. These were respectively the battles of Cape Arthemisium and Thermopylae which happened around the same time in 480 BC. Despite it being a Greek loss, the episode at Thermopylae has become known for the courage which led the Spartan leader, Leonidas, to resist with 300 of his fellow citizens even at the point when the outcome of the battle could be easily predicted. This helped delay the advance of the Persian army. At the same time the Greeks were also fighting at Cape Arthemisium where their opposition to the Persians crumbled rapidly. These Greek losses, however, were not decisive in terms of the outcome of the conflict. Rather, it was at Marathon, in 490 BC, and Salamis, in 480 BC, where overall Greek victory was sealed. The latter is considered particularly pivotal by Balcer. Thucydides, in his Peloponnesian War, during a speech of the Athenians to the Spartans indirectly states that it was the battle of Salamis which prevented the Persians from reaching the Peloponnesian region and destroying their cities. By contrast, Plato disregards the theory for which Salamis was a turning point in the conflict and believes it was the land battles not the sea fights that proved decisive. As he states in his Laws, the land battle of Marathon began the salvation of Greece while that of Plataea in 479 BC completed it. Therefore, under a purely military aspect, despite the fact that Greek and Persians won the same number of battles, the overall victory is attributed to the Greeks who managed to overcome the enemy’s force during both of the attacks considered crucial, Marathon and Salamis.
It is clear that most sources convey the Greeks as the victors of the Persian wars. However, in spite of the fact that the losses inflicted on the Persians affected them drastically and that the Greeks proved to be the strongest force, the opinion regarding the outcome of the conflict, if seen at a distance of several years, can be completely reversed. Almost fifty years after the defeat of the barbarians, the tensions between the two main powers in Greece, Sparta and Athens, exploded giving origin to what is considered by Thucydides “a greater war than any in previous history”. Not only did it exceed the Persian wars in length but, according to the historian, it caused incomparable suffering to the Greeks. In regard to the causes of the Peloponnesian wars, many scholars agree that these can be traced back to the Greek’s previous confrontation with the Persians. The victory of the Greeks against the Persians was widely regarded as a victory of Athens. As we read in Thucydides, the Athenians were aware that they had contributed to the result by producing the most ships, providing the worthiest generals and demonstrating uncompromising courage. They were the ones who were forced to abandon their homes and possessions and risk the fight. Their self-esteem rose as they became conscious of their value. With the establishment of the Delian league in 478 BC, founded with the aim to prevent a return of the Persians and liberate any Greeks still under the control of the Persian empire, Athens emerged as the dominant power in the region, establishing its hegemony. According to Thucydides the true origin of Athenian greatness is to be brought back to the battle of Salamis. Euben, in this respect, writes that “one could say that the power the threat [Salamis] called forth [was] the beginning of the end”. Nietzsche thought in fact that the danger the Athenians had faced during the battles against the Persians was too great and the victory too overwhelming. This further increased Athens’ desire to prevail among the Greeks, leading the city to confront itself with what had once been its ally, Sparta. Furthermore, Rhodes in The impact of the Persian Wars on classical Greece points out that, during the Peloponnesian wars, both Sparta and Athens turned towards their previous enemy, Persia seeking help from them. The former asking for economic support in order to defeat its enemy at sea, the latter to prevent this from happening.
In conclusion, although the only sources in our possession encourage us to take the victory of the Greeks in the Persian wars for granted, it is important to not be misled. The Persian wars produced no losers, or rather, the Greeks and the Persians were losers to the same extent. The Persians, having lost the two major battles and having to hand some of their conquered territories to the Greeks. In the same way the triumph of the Greeks became the cause of their downfall as it led to a war which was even more disastrous. The Greeks not only suffered the consequences of the Persian wars in the long term, but they also had to turn for help to the barbarians they had once defeated and thought they had permanently eliminated.
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