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109-771: During the Second Persian invasion of Greece , Thespiae's 700 hoplites remained with the Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae , fighting the Persians and allowing the Greek forces to retreat. It was one of the few Boeotian cities to stay loyal to Greece after the battle. Although Thespian hoplites are popularly depicted with dark cloaks and crescent shields, no evidence supports the historical accuracy of these items. In Ancient Greece, Thespiae rivaled Thebes and survived through

218-532: A Persian general known as Artabazus escorted Xerxes to the Hellespont with 60,000 men; as he neared Pallene on the return journey to Thessaly: "he thought it right that he should enslave the people of Potidaea , whom he found in revolt". Despite attempts to capture Potidaea by treachery, the Persians were forced to keep up the siege for three months. Then, attempting to use an unusually low tide to attack

327-540: A contingent to fight at Thermopylae , Thespiae sending a force of 700 hoplites who remained to fight beside the Spartans on the final day of the battle. In 1997, the Greek government dedicated a monument to the Thespians who fell alongside that of the Spartans . After the battle, Thebes was the final Boeotian state to side with the Persians, and in doing so they denounced both Plataea and Thespiae to Xerxes I as

436-509: A few hundred others. On the third day of the battle, the remaining Allies sallied forth from the wall to meet the Persians and slaughter as many as they could. Ultimately, however, the Allied rearguard was annihilated, and the pass of Thermopylae opened to the Persians. Simultaneous with the battle at Thermopylae, an Allied naval force of 271 triremes defended the Straits of Artemisium against

545-516: A full-scale invasion, it required long-term planning, stock-piling and conscription. It was decided that Xerxes' Pontoon Bridges were to be set up to allow his army to cross the Hellespont to Europe, and that a canal should be dug across the isthmus of Mount Athos (rounding which headland, a Persian fleet had been destroyed in 492 BC). These were both feats of exceptional ambition, which would have been beyond any contemporary state. However,

654-576: A hit-and-run attack on some Cilician ships, capturing and destroying them. On the third day, however, the Persian fleet attacked the Allies lines in full force. In a day of savage fighting, the Allies held on to their position, but suffered severe losses (half the Athenian fleet was damaged ); nevertheless, the Allies inflicted equal losses on the Persian fleet. That evening, the Allies received news of

763-464: A huge new army with which he meant to completely subjugate Greece; however, in 486 BC, his Egyptian subjects revolted, indefinitely postponing any Greek expedition. Darius then died while preparing to march on Egypt, and the throne of Persia passed to his son Xerxes I . Xerxes crushed the Egyptian revolt, and very quickly restarted the preparations for the invasion of Greece. Since this was to be

872-468: A journey of about 600 km (360 mi). It paused at Doriskos where it was joined by the fleet. Xerxes reorganized the troops into tactical units replacing the national formations used earlier for the march. The Allied 'congress' met again in the spring of 480 BC. A Thessalian delegation suggested that the allies could muster in the narrow Vale of Tempe , on the borders of Thessaly , and thereby block Xerxes's advance. A force of 10,000 Allies led by

981-518: A member of the league as long as Thebes had been. Following the Persian Wars , Thespiae provided two Boeotarchs to the league, rather than one; perhaps one for the city and one for the districts under its control. By the time of the Persian invasion of 480 BCE Thespiae's ability to field a substantial force of hoplites had changed. Thespiae and Thebes were the only Boeotian cities to send

1090-546: A novel political experiment that had grown out of the war, the union of Argos and Corinth. In what the Greeks called sympoliteia , the two cities had politically merged, granting all citizens joint citizenship . They were forced to separate, and the Thebans were required to disband their Boeotian league. Only Sparta's Peloponnesian League and helots were overlooked, as the Spartans, who were responsible for administering

1199-423: A spiked breastplate. Mount Helicon , believed to have been created by Pegasus , is found near the city. The Muses often dwelled on the mountain's sacred spring Hippocrene . The name "Thespiae" has contesting mythological origins between King Thespius , the city's legendary founder, and Thespia , a Naiad - nymph , abducted by Apollo . She was a daughter of the river god Asopus . According to Pausanias ,

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1308-519: A vassal as early as the late 6th century BC, but remained having autonomy and not fully subordinate yet. In 491 BC, Darius sent emissaries to all the Greek city-states, asking for a gift of " earth and water " in token of their submission to him. Having had a demonstration of his power the previous year, the majority of Greek cities duly obliged. In Athens, however, the ambassadors were put on trial and then executed; in Sparta, they were simply thrown down

1417-547: A well. This meant that Sparta was also now effectively at war with Persia. (Later, in order to appease Xerxes, who was about to launch the Second Persian invasion of Greece after succeeding his father, Darius, two Spartans were voluntarily sent to Susa for execution, in atonement for the death of the Persian heralds sent earlier by Darius.) Darius thus put together an ambitious task force under Datis and Artaphernes in 490 BC, which attacked Naxos , before receiving

1526-586: Is also known as the Peace of Antalcidas , after Antalcidas , the Spartan diplomat who traveled to Susa to negotiate the terms of the treaty with the king of Achaemenid Persia . The treaty was more commonly known in antiquity, however, as the King's Peace, a name that reflects the depth of Persian influence in the treaty, as Persian gold had driven the preceding war. The treaty was a form of Common Peace , similar to

1635-656: The Acropolis were eventually defeated, and Xerxes then ordered Athens to be torched. The Acropolis was razed and the Older Parthenon as well as the Old Temple of Athena were destroyed. The Persians had now captured most of Greece, but Xerxes had perhaps not expected such defiance from the Greeks; his priority was now to complete the war as quickly as possible; the huge invasion force could not be supplied indefinitely, and probably Xerxes did not wish to be at

1744-522: The Balkan allies, at Eion on the Strymon river , and at Therme , modern-day Thessaloniki . There, food had been sent from Asia for several years in preparation for the campaign. Animals had been bought and fattened, while the local populations had, for several months, been ordered to grind the grains into flour. The Persian army took roughly three months to travel unopposed from the Hellespont to Therme,

1853-411: The Battle of Delium in 424 BC. It was excavated by the Greek archaeologist Panagiotis Stamatakis in 1882. Second Persian invasion of Greece Land forces : 80,000 –100,000 soldiers or less (modern estimates) Sea forces : 600 –1,200 ships (modern estimates) Total : 200,000 300,000–500,000 (modern estimates) The second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC) occurred during

1962-519: The Greco-Persian Wars , as King Xerxes I of Persia sought to conquer all of Greece. The invasion was a direct, if delayed, response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece (492–490 BC) at the Battle of Marathon , which ended Darius I 's attempts to subjugate Greece. After Darius's death, his son Xerxes spent several years planning for the second invasion, mustering an enormous army and navy. The Athenians and Spartans led

2071-529: The Hellespont , where he could threaten the trade routes along which the Athenians imported grain from the Black Sea region. The Athenians, mindful of their disastrous defeat in 404 BC, when the Spartans had gained control of the Hellespont, agreed to negotiate, and Thebes , Corinth , and Argos , unwilling to fight on without Athens, were also forced to negotiate. In a peace conference at Sparta, all

2180-699: The Roman Empire . In the history of ancient Greece , Thespiae was one of the cities of the federal league known as the Boeotian League . Several traditions agree that the Boeotians were a people expelled from Thessaly some time after the mythical Trojan War , and who colonised the Boeotian plain over a series of generations, of which the occupation of Thespiae formed a later stage. Other traditions suggest that they were of Mycenean origin . In

2289-580: The Serpent Column , also supports some of Herodotus's specific claims. The Greek city-states of Athens and Eretria had supported the unsuccessful Ionian Revolt against the Persian Empire of Darius I in 499–494 BC. The Persian Empire was still relatively young and prone to revolts among its subject peoples. Moreover, Darius was a usurper and had spent considerable time extinguishing revolts against his rule. The Ionian revolt threatened

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2398-482: The Siege of Sestos ), and therefore evidently felt that Herodotus's history was accurate enough not to need re-writing or correcting. Plutarch criticised Herodotus in his essay "On The Malignity of Herodotus", describing Herodotus as " Philobarbaros " (barbarian-lover), for not being pro-Greek enough, which suggests that Herodotus might actually have done a reasonable job of being even-handed. A negative view of Herodotus

2507-732: The Thirty Years' Peace which ended the First Peloponnesian War . By 387 BC, the central front of the Corinthian War had shifted from the Greek mainland to the Aegean , where an Athenian fleet under Thrasybulus had successfully placed a number of cities across the Aegean under Athenian control, and was acting in collaboration with Evagoras , the king of Cyprus . Since Evagoras was an enemy of Persia, and many of

2616-470: The deity most worshipped at Thespiae was Eros , whose primitive image was an unwrought stone. The city contained many works of art , among them the Eros of Praxiteles , one of the most famous statues in the ancient world; it drew crowds of people to Thespiae. It was carried off to Rome by Caligula , restored by Claudius , and again carried off by Nero . Another work by Praxiteles associated with Thespiae

2725-513: The 1st century BC in his Bibliotheca Historica , also provides an account of the Greco-Persian wars, partially derived from the earlier Greek historian Ephorus . This account is fairly consistent with Herodotus's. The Greco-Persian wars are also described in less detail by a number of other ancient historians including Plutarch, Ctesias , and are alluded by other authors, such as the playwright Aeschylus . Archaeological evidence, such as

2834-540: The Allies assembled the largest ever hoplite army and marched north from the Isthmus to confront Mardonius. At the ensuing Battle of Plataea , the Greek infantry again proved its superiority, inflicting a severe defeat on the Persians and killing Mardonius in the process. On the same day, across the Aegean Sea an Allied navy destroyed the remnants of the Persian navy at the Battle of Mycale . With this double defeat,

2943-636: The Allies received the news that Xerxes was clearing paths around Mount Olympus , and thus intending to march towards Thermopylae, it was both the period of truce that accompanied the Olympic games , and the Spartan festival of Carneia , during both of which warfare was considered sacrilegious. Nevertheless, the Spartans considered the threat so grave that they despatched their king Leonidas I with his personal bodyguard (the Hippeis ) of 300 men (in this case,

3052-631: The Archaic period, the Thespian nobility was heavily dependent on Thebes. This possibly reflected that land ownership was concentrated in the hands of a small number of nobles, creating difficulty in equipping an effective force of hoplites . Thespiae therefore decided to become a close ally of Thebes. The Thespians destroyed Ascra at some point between 700–650 BCE, and later settled Eutresis between 600–550 BCE. Thespiae also took control over Creusis , Siphae , Thisbe and Chorisae , probably some time in

3161-514: The Argives had been severely weakened in 494 BC, when a Spartan-force led by Cleomenes I had annihilated the Argive army in Battle of Sepeia and then massacred the fugitives. The allies had no 'standing army', nor was there any requirement to form one; since they were fighting on home territory, they could muster armies as and when required. Different-sized allied forces thus appeared throughout

3270-463: The Athenian fleet probably refused to join the Allied navy in the spring. The navy, now under the command of the Spartan king Leotychides , thus skulked off Delos , while the remnants of the Persian fleet skulked off Samos , both sides unwilling to risk battle. Similarly, Mardonius remained in Thessaly, knowing an attack on the isthmus was pointless, while the Allies refused to send an army outside

3379-444: The Athenian gains threatened Persian interests, these developments prompted Artaxerxes to switch his support from Athens and her allies to Sparta. Antalcidas , the commander of a Spartan fleet, was summoned to Susa , along with the satrap , Tiribazus . There, the Spartans and Persians worked out the form of an agreement to end the war. To bring the Athenians to the negotiating table, Antalcidas then moved his fleet of 90 ships to

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3488-409: The Athenians. But whichever of the two parties does not accept this peace, upon them I will make war, in company with those who desire this arrangement, both by land and by sea, with ships and with money. Ionia and Cyprus were abandoned to the Persians, and the Athenians were compelled to cede their newly-won territories in the Aegean. Equally significantly, the insistence on autonomy put an end to

3597-608: The Battle of Plataea, Herodotus tells us that rumour of the Allied victory reached the Allied navy, at that time off the coast of Mount Mycale in Ionia . Their morale boosted, the Allied marines fought and won a decisive victory at the Battle of Mycale that same day, destroying the remnants of the Persian fleet. As soon as the Peloponnesians had marched north of the isthmus, the Athenian fleet under Xanthippus had joined up with

3706-583: The Great, to take revenge for their ancestors. During the Hellenistic period , Thespiae sought the friendship of the Roman Republic in the war against Mithridates VI . It is subsequently mentioned by Strabo as a place of some size, and by Pliny as a free city, within the Roman Empire , a reward for its support against Mithridates. Thespiae hosted an important group of Roman negotiatores until

3815-414: The Greek resistance. About a tenth of the Greek city-states joined the 'Allied' effort; most remained neutral or submitted to Xerxes. The invasion began in spring 480 BC, when the Persian army crossed the Hellespont and marched through Thrace and Macedon to Thessaly . The Persian advance was blocked at the pass of Thermopylae by a small Allied force under King Leonidas I of Sparta; simultaneously,

3924-568: The Peloponessus. Mardonius moved to break the stalemate, by offering peace, self-government and territorial expansion to the Athenians (with the aim of thereby removing their fleet from the Allied forces), using Alexander I of Macedon as an intermediary. The Athenians made sure that a Spartan delegation was on hand to hear the offer, but rejected it. Athens was thus evacuated again, and the Persians marched south and re-took possession of it. Mardonius brought even more thorough destruction to

4033-606: The Peloponnesus would not be outflanked. According to Herodotus, after this loss Xerxes attempted to build a causeway across the straits to attack Salamis (although Strabo and Ctesias place this attempt before the battle). In any case, this project was soon abandoned. With the Persians' naval superiority removed, Xerxes feared that the Greeks might sail to the Hellespont and destroy the pontoon bridges. According to Herodotus, Mardonius volunteered to remain in Greece and complete

4142-421: The Persian fleet to battle. Partly as a result of subterfuge on the part of Themistocles, the navies finally engaged in the cramped Straits of Salamis. There, the large Persian numbers were an active hindrance, as ships struggled to manoeuvre and became disorganised. Seizing the opportunity, the Greek fleet attacked, and scored a decisive victory, sinking or capturing at least 200 Persian ships, and thus ensuring

4251-404: The Persian fleet was blocked by an Allied fleet at the straits of Artemisium . At the famous Battle of Thermopylae , the Allied army held back the Persian army for three days, before they were outflanked by a mountain path and the Allied rearguard was trapped and annihilated. The Allied fleet had also withstood two days of Persian attacks at the Battle of Artemisium , but when news reached them of

4360-400: The Persian infantry proved no match for the heavily armoured Greek hoplites, and the Spartans broke through to Mardonius's bodyguard and killed him. The Persian force thus dissolved in rout; 40,000 troops managed to escape via the road to Thessaly, but the rest fled to the Persian camp where they were trapped and slaughtered by the Allies, thus finalising their victory. On the afternoon of

4469-428: The Persian military systems, their logistical capabilities, the Greek countryside, and supplies available along the army's route. Modern scholars thus generally attribute the numbers given in the ancient sources to the result of miscalculations or exaggerations on the part of the victors, or disinformation by the Persians in the run up to the war. The topic has been hotly debated but the modern consensus revolves around

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4578-460: The Persian navy into the narrow Straits of Salamis, where the huge number of Persian ships became disorganised, and were soundly beaten by the Allied fleet. The Allied victory at Salamis prevented a quick conclusion to the invasion, and fearing becoming trapped in Europe, Xerxes retreated to Asia leaving his general Mardonius to finish the conquest with the elite of the army. The following spring,

4687-625: The Persian triremes by nationality: Herodotus also records that this was the number at the Battle of Salamis, despite the losses earlier in storms off Sepia and Euboea, and at the battle of Artemisium. He claims that the losses were replenished with reinforcements, though he only records 120 triremes from the Greeks of Thrace and an unspecified number of ships from the Greek islands. Aeschylus , who fought at Salamis, also claims that he faced 1,207 warships there, of which 1,000 were triremes and 207 fast ships. Diodorus and Lysias independently claim there were 1,200 at Doriskos. The number of 1,207 (for

4796-474: The Persians arrived at Thermopylae in mid-August, they initially waited for three days for the Allies to disperse. When Xerxes was eventually persuaded that the Allies intended to contest the pass, he sent his troops to attack. However, the Greek position was ideally suited to hoplite warfare, the Persian contingents being forced to attack the phalanx head on. The Allies thus withstood two full days of battle and everything Xerxes could throw at them. However, at

4905-464: The Persians, as did many cities to the north of the pass of Thermopylae when it seemed help was not forthcoming. A second strategy was therefore suggested to the Allies by Themistocles . The route to southern Greece (Boeotia, Attica and the Peloponnesus) would require the army of Xerxes to travel through the very narrow pass of Thermopylae . This could easily be blocked by the Allies, despite

5014-422: The Persians. Directly before Artemisium, the Persian fleet had been caught in a gale off the coast of Magnesia , losing many ships, but could still probably muster over 800 ships at the start of the battle. On the first day (also the first of the Battle of Thermopylae), the Persians detached 200 seaworthy ships, which were sent to sail around the eastern coast of Euboea . These ships were to round Euboea and block

5123-437: The Spartan polemarch Euenetus and Themistocles was thus dispatched to the pass. However, once there, they were warned by Alexander I of Macedon that the vale could be bypassed by at least two other passes and that the army of Xerxes was overwhelming; the Allies therefore retreated. Shortly afterwards, they received the news that Xerxes had crossed the Hellespont. The abandonment of Tempe meant that all of Thessaly submitted to

5232-513: The Thebans, the Thespians were exiled from Boeotia and they arrived in Athens along with the Plataeans seeking aid. But they still sent a contingent to fight against the Spartans at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE. The Boeotarch Epameinondas allowed the Thespians to withdraw before the battle, along with other Boeotians who nursed a grudge against Thebes. Not long after the battle Thespiae

5341-543: The act to madness. The principle of autonomy proved to be a flexible tool in the hand of a hegemonic power. The King's Peace was not successful in bringing peace to Greece. Pelopidas and companions liberated Thebes in 379 by assassinating the Laconizing tyrants. After the Spartan campaign against Olynthus in 382-379 BC, general fighting resumed ( Boeotian War of 378 to 371 BC) with the revived Athenian naval confederacy and continued, with intermittent attempts to restore

5450-609: The belligerents agreed to the terms laid down by Artaxerxes. The most notable feature of the King's Peace is the Persian influence it reflects. The Persian decree that established the terms of the peace, as recorded by Xenophon , clearly shows this: King Artaxerxes thinks it just that the cities in Asia should belong to him, as well as Clazomenae and Cyprus among the islands, and that the other Greek cities, both small and great, should be left autonomous [ αὐτονόμους ], except Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros; and these should belong, as of old, to

5559-706: The campaign was delayed one year because of another revolt in Egypt and Babylonia . In 481 BC, after roughly four years of preparation, Xerxes began to muster the troops for the invasion of Europe. Herodotus gives the names of 46 nations from which troops were drafted. The Persian army was gathered in Asia Minor in the summer and autumn of 481 BC. The armies from the Eastern satrapies was gathered in Kritala, Cappadocia and were led by Xerxes to Sardis where they passed

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5668-677: The campaign. These numbers are discussed fully in the article for each battle. Having crossed into Europe in April 480 BC, the Persian army began its march to Greece. Five major food depots had been set up along the path: at White Headland on the Thracian side of the Hellespont, at Tyrodiza in Perinthian territory, at Doriskos at the Evros river estuary where the Asian army was linked up with

5777-640: The chief advisor of Xerxes in naval matters. In effect, the Sidon fleet held a position of primacy among the naval forces of the Achaemenid Empire at that time, providing the best ships in the fleet, even before the fleet of Artemisia of Halicarnassus or the Egyptians. The Phoenicians furnished a fleet of 300 ships, "together with the Syrians of Palestine". Herodotus gives a detailed breakdown of

5886-417: The city. According to Herodotus, Mardonius "burnt Athens and utterly overthrew or demolished whatever wall or house or temple was left standing". Mardonius now repeated his offer of peace to the Athenian refugees on Salamis. Athens, along with Megara and Plataea, sent emissaries to Sparta demanding assistance, and threatening to accept the Persian terms if not. The Spartans, who were at that time celebrating

5995-511: The command of the Spartan regent Pausanias , stayed on high ground above Plataea to protect themselves against such tactics. Mardonius ordered a hit-and-run cavalry attack on the Greek lines, but the attack was unsuccessful and the cavalry commander killed. The outcome prompted the Allies to move to a position nearer the Persian camp, still on high ground. As a result, the Allied lines of communication were exposed. The Persian cavalry began to intercept food deliveries and finally managed to destroy

6104-441: The confrontation. Thebes was a major absentee and was suspected of being willing to aid the Persians once the invasion force arrived. Not all Thebans agreed with this policy, and 400 "loyalist" hoplites joined the Allied force at Thermopylae (at least according to one possible interpretation). The most notable city actively siding with the Persians ("Medised") was Argos , in the otherwise Spartan-dominated Peloponnese. However,

6213-524: The conquest with a hand-picked group of troops, while advising Xerxes to retreat to Asia with the bulk of the army. All of the Persian forces abandoned Attica, with Mardonius over-wintering in Boeotia and Thessaly. Some Athenians were thus able to return to their burnt-out city for the winter. They would have to evacuate again in front of a second advance by Mardonius in June 479 BC. According to Herodotus

6322-443: The contradictions in the ancient sources. A later influential historian, J. B. Bury, calls Herodotus's numbers "wholly fabulous" and judges that the Persian land forces may have been 180,000. A major limiting factor for the size of the Persian army, first suggested by Sir Frederick Maurice (a British transport officer) is the supply of water. Maurice suggested in the region of 200,000 men and 70,000 animals could have been supported by

6431-418: The decision was taken, under the guidance of the politician Themistocles, to build a massive fleet of triremes that would be necessary for the Greeks to fight the Persians. The Athenians did not have the man-power to fight on land and sea; therefore combatting the Persians would require an alliance of several Greek city states. In 481 BC Xerxes sent ambassadors around Greece asking for earth and water, but making

6540-520: The disaster at Thermopylae, they withdrew to Salamis . After Thermopylae, all of Euboea , Phocis , Boeotia and Attica fell to the Persian army, which captured and burnt Athens . However, a larger Allied army fortified the narrow Isthmus of Corinth , protecting the Peloponnesus from Persian conquest. Both sides thus sought a naval victory that might decisively alter the course of the war. The Athenian general Themistocles succeeded in luring

6649-572: The elite young soldiers in the Hippeis were replaced by veterans who already had sons). Leonidas was supported by contingents from the Peloponnesian cities allied to Sparta, and other forces that were picked up en route to Thermopylae. The Allies proceeded to occupy the pass, rebuilt the wall the Phocians had built at the narrowest point of the pass and waited for Xerxes's arrival. When

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6758-523: The end of the second day, they were betrayed by a local resident named Ephialtes who revealed to Xerxes a mountain path that led behind the Allied lines. Xerxes then sent his elite guards, the Immortals on a night march to outflank the Allies. When he was made aware of this maneuver (while the Immortals were still en route ), Leonidas dismissed the bulk of the Allied army, remaining to guard the rear with 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, 400 Thebians and perhaps

6867-415: The fate of Leonidas and the Allies at Thermopylae. Since the Allied fleet was badly damaged, and since it no longer needed to defend the flank of Thermopylae, they retreated from Artemisium to the island of Salamis . Victory at Thermopylae meant that all Boeotia fell to Xerxes; the two cities that had resisted him, Thespiae and Plataea , were captured and razed. Attica was also left open to invasion, and

6976-458: The festival of Hyacinthus , delayed making a decision for 10 days. However, when the Athenian emissaries then delivered an ultimatum to the Spartans, they were amazed to hear that a task force was in fact already marching to meet the Persians. When Mardonius heard that the Allied army was on the march, he retreated into Boeotia, near Plataea, trying to draw the Allies into open terrain where he could use his cavalry. The Allied army however, under

7085-460: The figure of 200,000 or 300,000–500,000. Nevertheless, whatever the real numbers were, it is clear that Xerxes was eager to ensure a successful expedition by mustering overwhelming numerical superiority by land and by sea, and also that much of the army died of starvation and disease, never returning to Asia. Herodotus tells us that the army and navy, while moving through Thrace, was halted at Doriskos for an inspection by Xerxes, and he recounts

7194-403: The final reckoning, both sides were prepared to stake everything on a naval battle, in the hope of decisively altering the course of the war. Thus, it was that the Allied fleet remained off the coast of Salamis into September, despite the imminent arrival of the Persians. Even after Athens fell to the advancing Persian army, the Allied fleet still remained off the coast of Salamis, trying to lure

7303-476: The first time, a chronicler set himself to trace the origins of a conflict not to a past so remote so as to be utterly fabulous, nor to the whims and wishes of some god, nor to a people's claim to manifest destiny, but rather explanations he could verify personally". Some subsequent ancient historians, despite following in his footsteps, criticised Herodotus, starting with Thucydides . Nevertheless, Thucydides chose to begin his history where Herodotus left off (at

7412-406: The fringe of his empire for so long. Thermopylae had shown that a frontal assault against a well defended Greek position had little chance of success; with the Allies now dug in across the isthmus, there was therefore little chance of the Persians conquering the rest of Greece by land. However, if the isthmus's defensive line could be outflanked, the Allies could be defeated. Such an outflanking of

7521-415: The ground to the east and south are covered with foundations. In 1882, the remains of a communal tomb ( polyandrion ) , including a colossal stone lion, were discovered on the road to Leuctra . The tomb contains both cremated remains, associated with an in-situ pyre, and seven inhumations. The tomb dates from the second half of the 5th century BC, and is usually identified as that of the Thespians who fell at

7630-458: The integrity of his empire, and Darius thus vowed to punish those involved (especially those not already part of the empire). Darius also saw the opportunity to expand his empire into the fractious world of Ancient Greece. A preliminary expedition under Mardonius, in 492 BC, to secure the land approaches to Greece ended with the re-conquest of Thrace and forced Macedon to become a fully subordinate kingdom part of Persia. It had previously been

7739-405: The internal workings of the congress or the discussions during its meetings. Only 70 of the approximately 700 Greek cities sent representatives. Nevertheless, this was remarkable for the disjointed Greek world, especially since many of the city-states in attendance were still technically at war with each other. The majority of other city-states remained more-or-less neutral, awaiting the outcome of

7848-555: The invasion was ended, and Persian power in the Aegean severely dented. The Greeks would now move to the offensive , eventually expelling the Persians from Europe, the Aegean Islands and Ionia before the war finally came to an end in 449 BC with the Peace of Callias . The main source for the Great Greco-Persian Wars is the Greek historian Herodotus . Herodotus, who has been called the 'Father of History',

7957-414: The isthmus required the use of the Persian navy, and thus the neutralisation of the Allied navy. In summary, if Xerxes could destroy the Allied navy, he would be in a strong position to force a Greek surrender; this seemed the only hope of concluding the campaign in that season. Conversely by avoiding destruction, or as Themistocles hoped, by destroying the Persian fleet, the Greeks could avoid conquest. In

8066-528: The late sixth century. The Thessalians invaded Boeotia as far as Thespiae, more than 200 years before Leuctra (according to Plutarch), c.  571 BCE , which might have given Thespiae the impetus to join the Boeotian League. But elsewhere Plutarch gives a date for the Thessalian invasion as shortly preceding the Second Persian War . Herodotus suggests that Thespiae had been

8175-496: The line of retreat for the Allied fleet. Meanwhile, the Allies and the remaining Persians engaged in the late afternoon, the Allies having the better of the engagement and capturing 30 vessels. That evening, another storm occurred, wrecking the majority of the Persian detachment which had been sent around Euboea. On the second day of the battle, news reached the Allies that their lines of retreat were no longer threatened; they therefore resolved to maintain their position. They staged

8284-540: The myth of Heracles , where he helped free it from the Lion of Cithaeron . As a reward, he was granted a night with each of the fifty daughters of king Thespius . The town was similarly plagued by a serpent, the Thespian Dragon, to which it sacrificed a youth every year. The Dragon was eventually slain by a man named Menestratus , who, wanting to save his lover Cleostratus , let himself be swallowed while wearing

8393-573: The names of six major commanders and 29 myriarchs (leaders of a baivabaram , the basic unit of the Persian infantry, which numbered about 10,000-strong ); this would give a land force of roughly 300,000 men. Other proponents of larger numbers suggest figures from 250,000 to 700,000. The size of the Persian fleet is also disputed, though perhaps less so. According to Herodotus the Persian fleet numbered 1,207 triremes and 3,000 transport and supply ships, including 50-oared galleys ( Penteconters ) (πεντηκοντήρ). Tetramnestos , King of Sidon , served as

8502-522: The number must have been lower by the Battle of Salamis. Other recent works on the Persian Wars reject this number—1,207 being seen as more of a reference to the combined Greek fleet in the Iliad —and generally claim that the Persians could have launched no more than around 600 warships into the Aegean. The Athenians had been preparing for war with the Persians since the mid-480s BC, and in 482 BC

8611-509: The numbers of troops found to be present: Herodotus doubles this number to account for support personnel and thus he reports that the whole army numbered 5,283,220 men. Other ancient sources give similarly large numbers. The poet Simonides , who was a near-contemporary, talks of four million; Ctesias gave 800,000 as the total number of the army that assembled in Doriskos. An early and very influential modern historian, George Grote , set

8720-462: The only Boeotian states to side with the Greeks. After the city was burned down by Xerxes, the remaining inhabitants furnished a force of 1,800 men for the confederate Greek army that fought at Plataea . During the Athenian invasion of Boeotia in 424 BCE , the Thespian contingent of the Boeotian army sustained heavy losses at the Battle of Delium . In the next year, the Thebans dismantled

8829-461: The only spring of water available to the Allies. The Allied position now undermined, Pausanias ordered a night-time retreat towards their original positions. This went awry, leaving the Athenians, and Spartans and Tegeans isolated on separate hills, with the other contingents scattered further away, near Plataea itself. Seeing that he might never have a better opportunity to attack, Mardonius ordered his whole army forward. However, as at Thermopylae,

8938-456: The outset only) is also given by Ephorus , while his teacher Isocrates claims there were 1,300 at Doriskos and 1,200 at Salamis. Ctesias gives another number, 1,000 ships, while Plato , speaking in general terms refers to 1,000 ships and more. These numbers are (by ancient standards) consistent, and this could be interpreted that a number around 1,200 is correct. Among modern scholars some have accepted this number, although suggesting that

9047-433: The overwhelming number of Persians. Furthermore, to prevent the Persians from bypassing Thermopylae by sea, the allied navy could block the straits of Artemisium . This dual strategy was adopted by congress. However, the Peloponnesian cities made fall-back plans to defend the Isthmus of Corinth should it come to it, while the women and children of Athens were evacuated en masse to the Peloponnesian city of Troezen . When

9156-676: The peace, had no wish to see the principle of independence applied there. The single greatest effect of the Peace was the return of firm Persian control over Ionia and parts of the Aegean. Driven back from the Aegean shores by the Delian League during the 5th century, the Persians had been recovering their position since the later part of the Peloponnesian War of 431 to 404 BC, and were now strong enough to dictate terms to Greece. They would maintain this position of strength until

9265-637: The rebuilding of the Theban walls on the condition that the words Destroyed by Alexander, Restored by Phryne the courtesan were inscribed upon them. In the Greek Anthology , it is written that on an altar in Thespiae there was a tripod dedicated to the " Zeus the Thunderer" ( Ancient Greek : Ἐριβρεμέτῃ ). The tripod was set up for the Thespiae soldiers who went and fought in Asia, with Alexander

9374-572: The refoundation of Corinth in 44 BCE. Pausanias wrote that Thespians dedicated at Olympia a statue of Pleistaenus (Πλείσταινος), son of the Eurydamus (Εὐρυδάμος), who was the general against the Gauls . Thespiae bore importance in numerous myths , despite not being a major Greek city. Notably, Narcissus was a Thespian youth who, after gazing upon his reflection in a pool, fell in love with himself, leading to his demise. It also appeared in

9483-461: The remaining population of Athens was thus evacuated, with the aid of the Allied fleet, to Salamis. The Peloponnesian Allies began to prepare a defensive line across the Isthmus of Corinth, building a wall, and demolishing the road from Megara , thereby abandoning Athens to the Persians. Athens fell a first time in September 480 BC. The small number of Athenians who had barricaded themselves on

9592-418: The rest of the Allied fleet. The fleet, now able to match the Persians, had first sailed to Samos, where the Persian fleet was based. The Persians, whose ships were in a poor state of repair, had decided not to risk fighting and instead drew their ships up on the beach under Mycale. An army of 60,000 men had been left there by Xerxes, and the fleet joined with them, building a palisade around the camp to protect

9701-451: The rest of the Spartan allies were defeated by the Boeotians. After Nemea , Thespiae became an ally to Sparta and served as staging point for Spartan campaigns in Boeotia throughout the Corinthian War. The city became autonomous as stipulated in the King's Peace of 386 BCE which resolved the Corinthian War, and maintained autonomy until 373 BCE. In 373 BCE Thespiae was subdued by

9810-488: The rivers in that region of Greece. He further suggested that Herodotus may have confused the Persian terms for chiliarchy (1,000) and myriarchy (10,000), leading to an exaggeration by a factor of ten. Other early modern scholars estimated that the land forces participating in the invasion at 100,000 soldiers or less, based on the logistical systems available to the Ancients. Munro and Macan note Herodotus giving

9919-592: The second Persian invasion of Greece was over. Moreover, the threat of future invasion was abated; although the Greeks remained worried that Xerxes would try again, over time it became apparent that the Persian desire to conquer Greece was much diminished. Peace of Antalcidas The King's Peace (387 BC) was a peace treaty guaranteed by the Persian King Artaxerxes II that ended the Corinthian War in ancient Greece . The treaty

10028-436: The ships. However, Leotychides decided to attack the camp with the Allied fleet's marines. Seeing the small size of the Allied force, the Persians emerged from the camp, but the hoplites again proved superior and destroyed much of the Persian force. The ships were abandoned to the Allies, who burnt them, crippling Xerxes' sea power, and marking the ascendancy of the Allied fleet. With the twin victories of Plataea and Mycale,

10137-417: The submission of the other Cycladic Islands . The task force then moved on Eretria, which it besieged and destroyed. Finally, it moved to attack Athens, landing at the bay of Marathon , where it was met by a heavily outnumbered Athenian army. At the ensuing Battle of Marathon, the Athenians won a remarkable victory, which resulted in the withdrawal of the Persian army to Asia. Darius therefore began raising

10246-567: The time of Alexander the Great ( r.  336 – 323 BC ). As Mikhail Gasparov states in his book Greece for Entertainment ( Занимательная Греция ), "Artaxerxes had succeeded where Xerxes had failed ; the Persian King was giving orders in Greece like it was his, and without bringing in a single soldier at that." In short, the treaty placed Greece under Persian suzerainty. A second effect of this "most disgraceful event in Greek history", as Will Durant characterized it,

10355-458: The tone by expressing incredulity at the numbers given by Herodotus: "To admit this overwhelming total, or anything near to it, is obviously impossible." Grote's main objection is the supply problem, though he does not analyse the problem in detail. He did not reject Herodotus's account altogether, citing the latter's reporting of the Persians' careful methods of accounting and their stockpiling of supply caches for three years, but drew attention to

10464-565: The town from sea, the Persian army was caught by the returning tide, many drowning and the survivors being attacked by the Potideans in boats. Artabazus was thus forced to lift the siege, and return to Mardonius in Thessaly with the remnants of his men. While besieging Potidea, Artabazus also decided to besiege Olynthus , which was also in revolt. The town was held by the Bottiaean tribe, who had been driven out of Macedon . Having taken

10573-489: The town, he massacred the defenders and handed over the town to the Chalcidian people. Over the winter, there seems to have been some tension between the Allies. In particular, the Athenians, who were not protected by the isthmus, but whose fleet were the key to the security of the Peloponnesus, felt hard done by. They demanded an Allied army march north the following year. When the other Allies failed to commit to this,

10682-458: The union but simply calls them "οἱ Ἕλληνες" (the Greeks) and "the Greeks who had sworn alliance" (Godley translation) or "the Greeks who had banded themselves together" (Rawlinson translation). Hereafter, they will be referred to as the 'Allies'. Sparta and Athens had a leading role in the congress but interests of all the states played a part in determining defensive strategy. Little is known about

10791-448: The very deliberate omission of Athens and Sparta. Support thus began to coalesce around these two states. A congress of states met at Corinth in late autumn of 481 BC, and a confederate alliance of Greek city-states was formed. This confederation had the power to send envoys asking for assistance and to dispatch troops from the member states to defensive points after joint consultation. Herodotus does not formulate an abstract name for

10900-459: The walls of Thespiae on the charge that the Thespians were pro-Athenian, perhaps as a measure to prevent a democratic revolution. In 414 the Thebans aided the Thespians in suppressing a democratic revolution. In the Corinthian War , Thespiae was initially part of the anti-Spartan alliance. At the Battle of Nemea in 394 BCE, the Thespian contingent fought the Pellenes to a standstill while

11009-576: The winter. Early in spring it moved to Abydos where it was joined with the armies of the western satrapies. Then the army that Xerxes had mustered marched towards Europe, crossing the Hellespont on two pontoon bridges . The numbers of troops that Xerxes mustered for the second invasion of Greece have been the subject of endless dispute because the numbers given in ancient sources are very large indeed. Herodotus claimed that there were, in total, 2.5 million military personnel, accompanied by an equivalent number of support personnel. The poet Simonides , who

11118-547: Was a campaign in 382 BC to break up the federalist Chalcidian League in northeastern Greece, as violating the autonomy principle of the Great King's decree. On the way there, in 383 the Spartan commander Phoebidas , invited by a pro-Spartan faction, seized the Theban Kadmeia (the Theban acropolis) and left a Laconophile oligarchy supported by a Spartan garrison ; even the pro-Spartan Xenophon could only attribute

11227-400: Was a contemporary, talks of four million; Ctesias , based on Persian records, gave 800,000 as the total number of the army (without the support personnel) that was assembled by Xerxes. While it has been suggested that Herodotus or his sources had access to official Persian Empire records of the forces involved in the expedition, modern scholars tend to reject these figures based on knowledge of

11336-496: Was a statue of the Cithaeronian Hera . Citizens of Thespiae are called Thespians. The common noun thespian meaning "actor" comes from the legendary first actor named Thespis , and not the city. Both Thespis and Thespiae , however, are derived from the noun θέσπις ( théspis , meaning 'divine inspiration'). Remains of what was probably the ancient acropolis consists of an oval line of fortification, while

11445-718: Was an Aphrodite , after which the Venus of Arles is thought to have been modeled. There was also a bronze statue of Eros by Lysippos . The Thespians celebrated the Erotidia ( Ancient Greek : Ἐρωτίδεια ) meaning festivals of Eros . The Thespians also worshipped the Muses , honored by a shrine in the Valley of the Muses and celebrated in a festival in the sacred grove on Mount Helicon. Clement of Alexandria writes that at Thespiae there

11554-662: Was born in 484 BC in Halicarnassus, Asia Minor (then under Persian overlordship). He wrote his 'Enquiries' (Greek— Historia ; English— (The) Histories ) around 440–430 BC, trying to trace the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars, which would still have been relatively recent history (the wars finally ending in 450 BC). Herodotus's approach was entirely novel, and at least in Western society, he does seem to have invented 'history' as we know it. As Holland has it: "For

11663-597: Was passed on to Renaissance Europe, though he remained well read. However, since the 19th century his reputation has been dramatically rehabilitated by archaeological finds that have repeatedly confirmed his version of events. The prevailing modern view is that Herodotus generally did a remarkable job in his Historia , but that some of his specific details (particularly troop numbers and dates) should be viewed with skepticism. Nevertheless, there are still some historians who believe Herodotus made up much of his story. The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus from Sicily, writing in

11772-405: Was razed by Thebes and its inhabitants expelled. At some point later the city was restored. In 335 BCE, the Thespians joined in an alliance with Alexander the Great in destroying Thebes. The famous hetaera ( courtesan ) Phryne was born at Thespiae in the 4th century BCE, though she seems to have lived at Athens . One of the anecdotes told of her is that she offered to finance

11881-478: Was the establishment of Sparta in a formalized position at the top of a Greek political system enforced by the Great King. Using their mandate to protect and enforce the peace, the Spartans proceeded to launch a number of campaigns against poleis that they perceived as political threats. Near at hand, they forced the city of Mantinea in Arcadia, to disband into its constituent villages. The largest intervention

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