Reasons for Greek Victory Essay

Essay

Account for the Greek victory during the Persian wars

Fundamentally, the reasons for Greek victory during the Persian wars can be condensed into three key categories.  Firstly, unprecedented Greek Unity.  Secondly, the supremacy of Greek weaponry and technology, over the Persian forces.  Finally, the predominance of Greek leaders when compared to the based incompetence of the Persian Generals.

The most fundamental reason for Greek victory in the Persian war was the unprecedented unification of Greek city states.  Whilst in the modern era we see Greece as a single entity.  In the 5th century, Greece was a geographical entity rather than the political entity that it is now.  In the 5th century there were dozens of independent and rivalling city states.  This means that the great feat achieved by the Hellenic League in 480BC was to unify the 31 independent city states who voluntarily bound themselves together.  In fact, Herodotus recounts, that at Plataea, Pausanias commanded troops from 24 different states.  The hubris of the Athenian state was set aside in 481BC to accept Spartan leadership, even though they had every right to enforce their dominance over their Lacedemonian allies.  As Herodotus argues, this was the single most important reason for a Greek victory, as every city state fighting together was what won the battle of Plataea, and ultimately decided the Persian war in favour of the Hellenic League of Greek city states.  There have been many modern historians who have brought the reliability and accuracy of Herodotus’ writing into question, such as Raphael Sealey who suggests that Herodotus “largely exaggerated” all his descriptions of Greek unity, as its perspective is unequivocally Greek.  However, there is direct archaeological evidence that describes the extent of Greek Unity in 481BC.  The 8-metre-high Serpent Column which stood before the temple of Apollo in Delphi was forged by all the members of the Hellenic League from bronze items taken from the Persians following the battle of Plataea.  Inscribed in this column is the 31 names of all the Greek City states that voluntarily entered the Hellenic League of Greek city states.  Conversely, the Persian forces were not unified.  They were a heterogenous collection of soldiers from colonies all over the Persian empire, many of whom had no vested interest in the outcome of the war barring survival.  This is best evidenced by the accounts of Xerxes’ actions when dealing with his troops.  Herodotus reports that Xerxes’ ordered his men to whip and brand the water that had washed away his bridge.  Some historian’s attribute this to the hubris of Xerxes.  Rather, it is evidence of Xerxes only method of communication to his troops, many of his hired mercenaries couldn’t speak the same language, hence Xerxes had to play a god like figure, who controlled nature itself to convince his men to fight.  Furthermore, there is a further account by Herodotus who recounts that Xerxes when confronted with a senior general requesting that his son not go in to battle with the Persian forces for risk of his death.  Xerxes immediately had him cut in half, and ordered each half be placed on each side of the gate for all his army to walk between.  This was obviously the only method Xerxes could use to get his men to fight.  A contrasting image to the account of Aeschylus who reports Athenian and Spartan warriors volunteering themselves for death and glory.  Therefore, it was this contrasting unity that was the key reason for an Hellenic victory and a Persian defeat in the Persian wars of 480BC.