Greco-Persian War

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Greco-Persian War

SLIDESMANIA.COM

Time Travel – Back to 529 BCE

●Back to the Achaemenid
Empire, which was
founded by King Cyrus

●Cyrus rallied a bunch of
varied nomadic groups
to conquer
Mesopotamia.

Multiple Choice

Who is the founder of the Achaemenid Empire?

• King Darius

• Xerxes the Great
• Alexander the Great
• King Cyrus

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Cyrus’s successor,
King Darius, extended
the Persian Empire
east to the Indus
Valley, west to Egypt,
and north to Anatolia
** this northern push
will matter soon!

Sometimes King Cyrus is
known as the King of Kings or Cyrus the Great

Life in the Achaemenid Empire:

●

Persians allowed conquered kingdoms to keep their kings and
elites, so long as they pledged loyalty to the Persian Empire and
paid (shockingly low) taxes.

●

Persians practiced Zoroastrianism

●

Allowed religious freedom among the regions they conquered

●

Zoroastrianism rejected slavery, so very little slavery existed in
Achaemenid Empire

Multiple Select

What did the Persians allow the conquered kingdoms to keep?

• Language and culture.
• Government and economy.
• Land and resources.
• Customs, laws, and religions

Now let’s talk about the Greeks

●

Greeks operated in a system of city-states.

●

Each city-state had its own form of government, ranging from
democracies to monarchies

●

At this time, the people of Greece identified themselves members of
their city-state, not as Greek citizens.

Multiple Choice

Which is the best definition of a Greek city-state?

• A self-governing city and its surrounding territory.
• A city with a strong military and its surrounding fortresses.
• A city with a large population and its surrounding suburbs.
• A city ruled by a king and its surrounding villages.

That is, until the
GRECO-PERSIAN

WAR!

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In 499 BCE, King Darius
attempted to conquer a
region in the North
called Ionia

Remember when I said this northern conquering would come back? Here it
is!

Ionia had some
Greek city-states,
even though it
was close to
Persia.

Hotspot

Identify Ionia on this map.

What war?

●In a confrontation in 490 BCE (called the Ionian Revolt), the Ionians
called out to Athens for help against the Persians.

●Athenians pledged their support AND ASKED OTHER GREEK
CITY-STATES FOR HELP

●The Greeks defeated the Persians in the Ionian Revolt

●King Darius (and later his son, Xerxes) of Persia was spooked. He didn’t
want other places to rebel against the Persian Empire.

●So he waged a war against Athens, starting the Greco-Persian War.

Multiple Choice

Why did the Greeks win the Ionian Revolt?

• Support from Athens and Eretria
• Financial support from Persia
• Strong military tactics
• Superior weaponry

Open Ended

Why did Kings Darius and Xerxes want to start the Greco-Persian War after losing the Ionian Revolt?

SPOILER ALERT!

The Greeks won the Greco-Persian war because, in part, they united each
city-state.

After the war, the Greeks felt united, identifying themselves not as
Athenian or Ionian or Eritrean, but instead as GREEK.

This established the “Golden Age of Greece”

So what?

One of the great symbols of Greece is
the Parthenon, a temple built in the
5th century to honor Athena, the
goddess of wisdom, democracy, and
justice

It was built to commemorate the
Greek victory over the Persians.

Fill in the Blanks

Multiple Choice

The Parthenon was built to honor which Greek goddess?

• Artemis
• Aphrodite
• Athena
• Hera

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Herodotus

Why do we know all of this? Because a Greek
historian, Herodotus, told us.

What’s the problem with that? Well, Herodotus is
Greek, not Persian. All our Persian information is lost.

So when we learn about this war, remember that
every time someone mentions how good the Greeks
were or how bad the Persians were, we’re only
hearing it from one side – the winner’s.

Open Ended

Why do we have to be careful about hearing only Herodotus's side of the story when learning about the Greco-Persian War?

So what’s next for us?

There were 5 major battles in the Greco-Persian War.

You are tasked with researching your assigned battle.