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I am Das, the great king, king of kings, king in Persia. By the grace of Ahura, Mazda, these nations are subject to me. Persia, Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt, Ionia, Armenia, Capidoshia, Partha, Bactria, Sagdiana, Gandara, Cyia. All respected my laws. All that was commanded by me was done. These words were written in old Persian, Elomite, and Aadian on the crags of Mount Behiston in what is now western Iran. They frame a colossal relief of the king of kings, one foot planted on a rebel's corpse, a hand outstretched toward Ahura Mazda. The realm of Das I, which extended from Sudan to Usbekiststan, was larger than the Roman Empire at its height. The king's projects matched the scale of his
domains. He built a predecessor of the Suez Canal in Egypt, completed the 1600 mile royal road from Susa to Sardis, and constructed much of the vast ceremonial center we know as Pipilus. Craftsmen from every part of the empire. A contemporary inscription mentions Greeks, Lydians, Babylonians, and Egyptians were recruited to build the palaces of Pepilolis. Along the steps leading up to the Apadana, the great reception hall, teams of sculptors carved the so-called tribute reliefs, which show delegations from 23 nations bringing gifts to the king. Among the supplements are eight
men in short-sleeved tunics carrying folded garments. vessels and what appear to be skain of wool. These are Ionians, Greeks from the east side of the Aian, subject to the Persians since the reign of Cyrus the Great. A few years after the tribute reliefs were carved, the Ionians rose in rebellion against Das, beginning the Greco Persian Wars. The story of that epic struggle which pitted a coalition of squabbbling citystates against the most powerful empire the world had yet seen is almost always told from the Greek perspective. Let's try, however, to imagine a Persian view of the conflict.
Duras had begun expanding his empire westward long before the Ionian revolt. He had conquered Thrace, roughly modern Bulgaria. He had made Macedonia a Persian vassel. He had sent a reconnaissance mission to map the coasts of mainland Greece. It was probably only a matter of time before Das invaded the Greek mainland. But the fact that the Athenians sent a small force to aid the rebellious Ionians gave the king a convenient Casus belly. Four years after the end of the Ionian revolt and in the wake of an initial campaign halted by storms, Das sent an invasion fleet across the Aian. The primary targets were the wealthy islands of the Cichlides. Only after these had
been captured did the Persians move on to their secondary objective, punishing the Athenians. Duras hoped to defeat the army of the Athenian democracy and force the city to accept Hippius, its former tyrant, as a Persian puppet ruler. In the event, of course, the Athenians defeated the Persian expeditionary force at Marathon. But from Das's perspective, this was only a minor setback. Now master of the Aian, he immediately began to plan a more ambitious campaign against mainland Greece. Death intervened. Das's throne and planned invasion passed to his son Xerxes. In our Greek sources, Xerxes is the lesser son of a great father, destined to be laid low by hubris. The man was doubtless more complex than that myth.
Whatever personality flaws he may have had, Xerxes moved ruthlessly and effectively to crush revolts in Egypt and Babylonia before turning his attention to Greece. Herododus, whose histories are our most important source for the Persian wars, claims that Xerxes was initially reluctant to attack the Greeks. Even if he was, he had no real choice. Marathon had to be avenged. His father's plans had to be honored. A successful war of conquest would massively enhance his reputation. Even marching through his western territories at the head of an army would help to stabilize that restless region.
Xerxes logistical arrangements for the invasion were superb. Huge supply caches were established along the line of March. A canal was cut through the rocky Aos peninsula. Two pontoon bridges assembled from 674 ships were thrown across the helispont. Over those bridges in the spring of 480 BC, Xerxes led an army meant to terrify Greece into submission. Herodotus gives the wildly inflated figure of 3 million soldiers. Something like 100,000 is more likely. At the center of this host was the empty chariot drawn by eight white horses that symbolized the presence of a Hura Mazda.
Xerxes rode behind followed by his elite guard of 10,000 immortals. The king of kings had no reason to expect a difficult war. No Greek Polus had an army remotely capable of matching his. Although Athens, Sparta, and a collection of smaller cities had formed a league to oppose him, many Greeks had refused to join. As his army approached, city after city defected. Even the Oracle of Delelfi began to give openly pro-Persian prophecies. As anyone who has seen the movie 300 will be aware, the standard thermopoly meant to delay Xerxes advance did not end well for the Greeks. nor did the simultaneous naval battle at Artemisium. After being welcomed by the powerful city of thieves, the Persians marched on Athens, which they captured and burned.
The Athenians, having taken refuge on the island of Salamus, staked the survival of their city on the wooden walls of their ships. Xerxes had no need to attack the Greek fleet at Salamus. If he had simply blockaded it, as some of his advisers suggested, he could have waited until the ramshackle Greek coalition fell apart. But the king, needing a spectacular victory to justify his expedition, sent his ships into the narrows between Salamus and the mainland. And there, unable to maneuver, they were rammed and sunk by the hundreds. The Persian army remained intact after the battle of Salamus. But with his fleet crippled, Xerxes invasion was lambbound. If he wanted to attack the Pelpineese,
he would have to assault the isness of Corinth, fortified and defended by the Spartans. As Thermopoly had shown, that was unlikely to be pleasant. In any case, Xerxes had already achieved his main objectives. Athens had been destroyed. Most of Greece was conquered. There was no need to risk more of his prestige. Xerxes withdrew to Sardis in what is now western Turkey, leaving most of his army behind to complete the conquest of Greece. The decisive engagement took place the following year. Like Selamus, the battle of Platia was from the Persian perspective unnecessary. If the Persian commander had waited a bit longer, the Greek coalition would almost certainly have fallen apart. But
like Xerxes and likely acting on Xerxes orders, he chose the hazards of battle. At Platia, Herododus says the Greeks and Persians were evenly matched in courage. The heavier armor of the Greek hoplights, however, won the day. The Persian commander was killed along with thousands of his soldiers. The survivors fled north. The Persians, as Thusidities said, had lost the war through their own mistakes. For the Greeks, and especially for the Athenians, the Persian wars were a pivotal culture-defining moment. The Greeks imagined that they were equally consequential for Xerxes.
The chorus of Esc's Persians describes the great king's laws no longer being obeyed, his tribute no longer being collected, his power at an end. But in fact, with the exceptions of minor territorial losses in Thrace and Ionia, the Persians suffered no lasting setbacks from their conflict with the Greeks. For a century and a half, Persian kings continued to rule almost the entirety of the vast realm that had been claimed by Das. It would take the Macedonian war machine and history's greatest general to bring the Persian Empire down. Nearly half a millennium after Alexander, the Roman Order Diosum met a man from Persia. This man, he said, told him that Xerxes had won the war with the
Greeks. He had defeated the Spartans at Thermopoly, burned the city of Athens, imposed a tribute on Greece, and returned victorious to Asia. Perhaps this was how the Greek wars had always been regarded in the Persian heartland. A minor campaign in a distant and barbarous land. You can join me on a minor campaign in a distant land this spring when I'll be following Alexander the Great across Turkey. Follow the link in the description to learn more. You'll also find links there for my tours to the Roman ruins of Spain and the Bay of
Naples. There's a new Rome in review video about the comedy Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Forum. Check it out on the Tolen Zone Patreon, also linked in the description. On my travel channel, Scenic Roots to the Past, I'm continuing my exploration of Greece's most iconic sites. And on Tolden Stone Footnotes, you'll find new episodes of my podcast. Thanks for watching.
