War,+Ships+and+Sparta

War, Ships and Sparta

Whom did the Greeks fight?
The Greek states often fought each other. Sparta and Athens fought a long war, called the Peloponnesian War, from 431 to 404 BC. Sparta won. Only the threat of invasion by a foreign enemy made the Greeks forget their quarrels and fight on the same side. Their main enemy was Persia. The wars against Persia lasted on and off from 490 to 449 BC. The Persian kings tried to conquer Greece and make it part of the Persian Empire. In the end, it was Greece which defeated Persia, when Alexander the Great defeated the Persian Empire in the 330s BC.

Fighting in formation
The backbone of the Greek army was the hoplite. He was a foot-soldier, and his weapons were a long spear and a sword. He also had a round shield. Hoplites fought in lines or ranks. Eight to ten ranks made a formation called the phalanx. Each soldier held his long spear underarm. Enemy soldiers saw only a mass of spears and shields, that was hard to break through - and hard to stop once it started moving forward. Lots of phalanxes massed together became like a giant human tank. The Greeks had archers and cavalry, but it was the phalanx that won many famous battles.



What armour did Greek soldiers wear?
A hoplite had to pay for his armour, unless his father was killed in battle. Then he was given his father's weapons and armour. Rich men had metal armour, shaped to the chest, but others wore cheap armour made of linen cloth. Layers of cloth were glued together, to make a tough, bendy jacket, which could be covered with metal plates. A Greek soldier carried a big round shield, made of wood and metal. On his legs he wore metal guards, called greaves. On his head he wore a metal helmet, often with a crest on top. The crest was usually made of horsehair, and stuck up to make the soldier look taller and fiercer.

The Battle of Marathon
The Battle of Marathon was a famous Greek victory against the Persians. About 10,000 Greeks, mostly from Athens, fought an army of 20,000 Persians led by King Darius. The Greeks surprised their enemies by charging downhill straight at the Persians. Marathon is remembered for the heroism of a Greek named Pheidippides. Before the battle, he'd run for 2 days and nights - over 150 miles (240 km) - from Athens to Sparta to fetch help. Then he fought at Marathon. After the battle, he ran 26 miles (42 km) non-stop to Athens, but died as he gasped out the news of victory. The modern Marathon race is over the same distance as his epic run from Marathon to Athens.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPinrH-akvc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPinrH-akvc

Greek ships
Greek ships had sails, and were pushed along by the wind. Small trading ships usually stayed close to the shore, so the sailors did not get lost. Before a voyage, the sailors prayed to the sea god Poseidon, for a safe journey. Greek warships had oars as well as sails. The largest warships had three banks of oars and were called triremes. A trireme needed 170 men to row it - one man to each oar. It had a long narrow deck that soldiers could run along and fight from. The oarsmen sat underneath the deck. <span style="background-color: #fcfdf2; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em;"> Archaeologists have measured the remains of ship-sheds where Greek ships were built, to work out how big they were. A trireme was about 35 m/115 ft long. <span style="background-color: #fcfdf2; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em;">

<span style="background-color: #fcfdf2; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em;">How did Greeks fight at sea?
<span style="background-color: #fcfdf2; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em;">In a battle, the triremes tried to get close to the enemy ships and if possible crash into them. A trireme was steered by long steering oars at the stern or back of the ship. The captain ordered the ship to steer straight at an enemy ship. Fixed to the front of the trireme was a sharp metal-covered point or ram. When the trireme struck the side of an enemy ship, the ram smashed a hole in the wooden planks. Water flooded in and the damaged ship either sank or had to be beached on the nearest shore. The trireme's soldiers sometimes jumped onto a damaged ship and captured it.

Famous Greek Battles

<span style="background-color: #fcfdf2; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em;">The Battle of Salamis
<span style="background-color: #fcfdf2; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em;">The greatest sea battle in Greek history was at Salamis (an island not far from Athens ). It was fought in 480 BC between the Greeks and the Persians. A large Persian fleet of about 500 ships sailed into a narrow strait at Salamis. The Persian king Xerxes watched from a throne set up on the shore, expecting an easy victory. However, the Persians got trapped in narrow channels, and they were attacked by about 380 Greek ships. 200 Persian ships were sunk or damaged, and hundreds of Persians were killed. It was a great victory for the Greeks.

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<span style="background-color: #fcfdf2; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em;">The 300 Spartans
<span style="background-color: #fcfdf2; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em;"> Sparta's most famous battle was Thermopylae. The year was 480 BC. A huge Persian army was trying to invade Greece. Barring the way at the mountain pass of Thermopylae were 300 Spartan soldiers led by King Leonidas, along with a few hundred other Greeks. <span style="background-color: #fcfdf2; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em;">The Spartans' brave fight lasted three days. One story says that after they broke their swords, the Spartans fought the Persians with their bare hands and teeth! In the end, Leonidas and his Spartans lay dead. The Persians marched on to capture Athens. But soon afterwards the Greeks defeated the Persian fleet at the sea battle of Salamis.

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<span style="background-color: #fcfdf2; font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em;">If you have internet at home you might like to also watch this (1.5 hours long) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8MF6I9Tw4

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/