Secrets of Ancient Empires_5of5_The First Armies
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01:00Today, the origins of the heroic saga known to history as the Trojan Wars are wreathed
01:10in the nebulous mists of Greek antiquity.
01:15The facts behind the Trojan horse and the beguilingly beautiful Helen of Troy are tantalizingly
01:22vague.
01:25We will never really know what took place between the Trojans and the Greeks three thousand
01:30years ago.
01:33Was the fabulously beautiful Helen a real person?
01:37After ten years of bitter siege, were the defenders of Troy really deceived by a ruse
01:44as simple as the infamous wooden horse?
01:49For the long millennia, fact, fiction, and fantasy have become interwoven so that today
01:58it is about impossible to separate the reality on which the tales are based from the mythology.
02:07The entire episode may be no more than a poetic flight of fancy.
02:12On the other hand, the siege of Troy may really have been the place where the gods met men.
02:21Most of that evidence comes from Europe's most ancient literary work, Homer's masterpiece
02:27The Iliad.
02:30The Iliad is a colorful narrative full of allegory and symbolism with perhaps a faint
02:37origin in historical fact.
02:41Homer's Iliad is therefore a source of great value.
02:47It chronicles the troubled times that produced the Trojan War and tells the epic story of
02:54the men and gods played out on the plains of Troy.
02:59But in doing so, it tells us a great deal about Greek society at the dawn of civilization.
03:07Their values, their religious life, how they made war.
03:25Was this the face that launched a thousand ships and burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
03:31Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.
03:36These were the words of Marlow's Faustus, written in the 17th century.
03:42But Marlow was writing on the back of much, much older tradition.
03:48According to the legend, the cause of the Trojan War was the love affair of the beautiful
03:55Grecian woman Helen with Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy.
04:02Unfortunately, Helen was already married to the Spartan Menelaus, the brother of Agamemnon,
04:09ruler over Argos, whose spectacular tomb can still be admired nestling in the hillside
04:18near Megara.
04:21Menelaus and his brother were outraged and immediately planned terrible revenge for such
04:28an insult to their honor.
04:31The so-called Trojan War would be the result.
04:37But from the outset, the fickle gods of ancient Greece were to have their say.
04:44From Mount Olympus, Zeus and a whole pantheon of Greek gods looked down upon the affairs
04:51of men.
04:53These were not stern gods of other ancient peoples.
04:58They liked to have fun like the mortals they oversaw.
05:03Simple amusements like wrestling, courtship, and a constant meddling in the affairs of
05:20men were their main pursuits.
05:24Legend has it that even before he had completed the sea voyage home, Paris was warned against
05:31his actions by the sea god Nereus.
05:35He prophesied impending doom.
05:39But Helen was now deeply in love with Paris.
05:43Together they sailed for Troy.
05:47It was to have disastrous results.
05:54Menelaus and Agamemnon wasted no time in gathering together warships and armies from their allies.
06:02And among the soldiers were some of the greatest names in Greek mythology.
06:09The mighty Achilles and his greatest friend, Patroclus, Diomedes, Odysseus, King Nestor,
06:17and the giant Ajax.
06:20From the north of Greece, from Athens, Crete, and Rhodes, the greatest force ever seen set
06:27sail to avenge the humiliation of Menelaus.
06:31Today, the coastline, spectacular though it is, is peaceful and quiet, far removed from
06:40the hustle and excitement which would have been seen during the landings of the Greek
06:45fleet on its way to Troy.
06:49Stretched out before them, the Greeks could see the long hills beyond which the rivers
06:54Scamander and Simoa flowed across the plain.
06:59Here stood the magnificent city of Troy, a fortress besieged for 10 years, of which very
07:06little currently remains.
07:11The Greeks landed and built palisades around their ships to protect them from Trojan attacks,
07:18for the Trojans were not content just to stay behind their city walls and await their fate.
07:26A Greek prophecy had promised the Greeks that after nine years of fighting, they would,
07:32in the tenth year, emerge from the battle as the victors.
07:37Troy would then fall into their hands.
07:42The day when the Greek warriors would squeeze themselves into a wooden horse was a long
07:47way off.
07:49Much time was to pass as the long struggle went on.
07:55So for nine years, the Greeks lay siege to Troy and many great battles raged back and
08:01forth across the plain.
08:09No side gave or expected mercy in this war of attrition.
08:14Corpses, their spilled blood staining the plain red, lay strewn between Grecian ships
08:21and the walls of Troy.
08:24Yet the fighting was relentless.
08:27The battle raged over the plain all day, only ending at nightfall.
08:35During the dark hours, a truce was arranged to allow both sides to collect and cremate
08:42their dead.
08:45The gathering went on throughout the night by the light of the fires.
08:50Bodies of friends and companions were retrieved from the carnage while the men wept openly
08:57at the ruined bodies of their country.
09:01With the death of the great heroes on both sides, a stalemate now ensued.
09:08The fighting was as bitter as ever, but neither side made any headway against the ferocious
09:15opposition.
09:23Quintus writes, so toiled they in the fight.
09:28The wind's breath rolled huge dust clouds up.
09:31The illimitable air was one thick haze as with a sudden mist.
09:37Earth disappeared, faces were blotted out, yet still they fought on.
09:43Each man whom so he met ruthlessly slew him, though his very friend it might be.
09:50In that turmoil, none could tell who met him, friend or foe.
09:58And then Odysseus had the idea for a deceit that was to make the war famous throughout
10:04succeeding generations.
10:09For three days they labored.
10:12When it was finished, it was an awe-inspiring sight, exquisitely carved and large enough
10:18to hold twenty men within its hollow body.
10:23Into this beast climbed some of the bravest among the Greek soldiers, fully armed.
10:31Odysseus, Diomedes, Menelaus, Philoctetes, and as many others as could fit into the horse's
10:39belly.
10:40And there, as Quintus reports, all in silence sat to its victory and death.
10:51There was nothing to stop them.
10:53The slaughter could begin.
10:56After ten years of frustration, no one was spared the Greek's wrath.
11:05Fires tore through the streets and consumed the fallen inhabitants where they lay.
11:14Prince Aeneas gathered a group of Trojans about him and rushed into the streets, slaying
11:19as many men as came within reach of his sword.
11:24King Priam's palace was inflamed as the prince ran in, only to see the king being murdered
11:30before his eyes.
11:33And there, sitting alone in the burning palace, in fear of her life, was Helen.
11:43Had it not been for Aphrodite staying his hand, Aeneas would have there and then ended
11:48the life of the woman who had brought this annihilation on the people of Troy.
11:55At every turn, the Greeks were before him, and everywhere he saw the women of Troy being
12:00led away to slavery and the treasures being taken for division among the victors.
12:17The barbarity of the sacking of Troy left even Hector's baby son dead in the ashes of
12:24his city.
12:32But the cause of all the wars survived.
12:36Helen was to be spared.
12:39She was brought back to Sparta to be reunited with and forgiven by Menelaus.
12:46One of the most mystifying battles that had ever taken place finally gave way to peace.
12:57But the infamy of a conflict that inspired poets to write lines such as these lives on,
13:04then dimmed more than 3,000 years later.
13:20But wherever the real site of Troy lies, thanks to the narrative of Homer, the story of the
13:27Trojan Wars belongs to all history.
13:54In the war between the two greatest city-states of the ancient world, there was to be no compromise,
14:10no mercy.
14:12It was to be a struggle for the domination of the western Mediterranean that could only
14:17end with the complete extinction of one through the victory of the other.
14:23In this fight to the death, many great men were to fall victim to the carnage of war.
14:29In the grim annals of history, many cities have been taken by siege and storm, the population
14:36slaughtered, their houses sacked, and their gods despoiled.
14:41But they rise again.
14:43We rebuild, repopulate, not so cartilage.
14:47Look at any modern atlas.
14:49People search in vain for that name.
14:53A once proud city, destroyed so completely it was never rebuilt.
14:59That chilling fact speaks volumes for the savagery of this conflict and the bitterness
15:04of the foe.
15:06For almost a hundred years, the conflict flared, engulfing land and people as the armies surged
15:13back and forth on the insatiable quest for power and land.
15:19But when the end eventually came, it would be terrible in its finality.
15:25Rome's obsession with the struggle was reflected in the popular phrase uttered by Cato,
15:31Delenda est Carthago, Carthage must be destroyed.
15:37For their part, the Carthaginians were equally dedicated to the fight.
15:43Their greatest general, Hannibal, summed up the importance of the conflict.
15:48We have accomplished nothing till we have stormed the gates of Rome, till our Carthaginian
15:53standard is set in the city's heart.
15:59The campaigns against Carthage were the first which the Romans had fought outside of Italy.
16:04In 264 BC, Rome had not yet begun to scale the heights of world domination, but they
16:11would, and it is the victor who writes history.
16:16The war between Rome and Carthage has therefore come to be known by the name the Romans called
16:22it.
16:23They named the Carthaginians Poenai, or Phoenicians.
16:27The long series of wars that these people fought and ultimately lost are therefore known
16:33as the Punic War.
16:36It was a conflict in three distinct stages, which began in 264 BC and finished 82 years
16:43later with the grand finale, annihilation of Carthage, an event which was to be a turning
16:50point in Western history, the birth of the Roman Empire.
16:56This was the last of the great struggles between the city-states which characterized warfare
17:02in the ancient world.
17:04Through the defeat of Carthage, Rome established herself as the undisputed and unrivaled leader
17:11of the civilized world.
17:14As always, economic factors lay behind the causes of the war.
17:19Carthage was the dominant trading nation in Africa.
17:22Rome had just begun her rise to prominence in Europe.
17:26As long as Carthage remained the principal player in Africa, there was an uneasy but
17:31peaceful relationship between the two cities.
17:35Since Carthage began to cast her eyes enviously towards Europe, the course towards war had
17:41been set.
17:43As a base from which to expand her trading empire, Carthage had established an impregnable
17:49military base on the island of Sicily.
17:54The Carthaginians realized that the Roman presence in Sicily would upset the delicate
17:59balance of power.
18:01Sicily immediately began a large-scale buildup of troops, mercenaries from Liguria, Cisalpine
18:07Gaul, and Spain.
18:09Sicily was therefore destined to become the site where fighting first broke out between
18:13the two nations.
18:16These were the first blows in a war which would spread to engulf the known world and
18:20lead to the death of a city.
18:24As the Carthaginian base at Agragentum grew in scale, Roman reaction was typically swift
18:30and determined.
18:31The Roman legions descended on the Carthaginians and dealt them a savage blow.
18:37But the island was not to be so easily conquered.
18:41Due to her mastery of the sea, Carthage was able to reinforce her troops on Sicily by
18:47sea.
18:48It was obvious that whoever controlled the sea lanes controlled the course of the war.
18:55As one might expect, the start made by the Romans in the drive for domination of the
19:00sea was inauspicious.
19:03The first few encounters made the Roman navy look as green and inexperienced as in reality
19:09it was.
19:11But ultimately, this new force would bring to an end the Carthaginian command of the
19:15seas that had endured for centuries.
19:19The years of Carthaginian naval invincibility were about to be shattered.
19:24The first steps on the road to the destruction of a city had begun.
19:30After the initial setbacks, the Roman navy began to win the first few small engagements.
19:36This was enough to fuel the desire to take the battle into the very heart of enemy territory,
19:43Africa itself.
19:46These early successes at sea hid a greater threat for the Romans on land.
19:51Their forces were commanded by the Roman consul, Attilius Regulus, a man whose arrogance
19:57was eventually to destroy Roman gains in Africa.
20:02He would allow victory to be plucked from his grasp.
20:05By his foolishness, he would prolong the life of the doomed city he had come to destroy.
20:12The Roman armies landed on the inhospitable shores of North Africa.
20:17From here, they could easily build a threat to Carthage.
20:20To show they meant business, they swiftly took possession of the town of Klupea.
20:26With 15,000 infantry and 500 cavalry, Regulus began the march towards Carthage, plundering
20:33and laying waste the land as he progressed.
20:38Within a short space of time, Tunis fell into the hands of the Romans.
20:43Carthage and Carthaginian morale was now effectively at its lowest point.
20:49All Regulus had to do was to maintain an effective siege, starve the defenders into submission,
20:56and the war would be over.
20:59Rome would have her first great victory overseas.
21:06But at this period of deep despondency for Carthage, a Greek mercenary arrived in Africa.
21:13Almost single-handedly, he would reverse the military situation.
21:17His name was Xanthippus.
21:22The Roman position in North Africa was in great shape, but despite the bright portents
21:27of an impending victory over the Carthaginians, the year 255 BC was to prove one of the blackest
21:35in Roman history.
21:36To save themselves from a long siege and eventual starvation, the Carthaginians needed to defeat
21:44the Romans in a set-piece battle on the dusty plains outside their city.
21:50The Romans had no need to accept battle and had merely to keep the Carthaginians bottled
21:55up in their city.
21:57But in his vanity, Regulus, the Roman commander, allowed the Carthaginians to come out and
22:03fight.
22:04He was confident his legions would destroy them utterly.
22:08With the help of Xanthippus, the Carthaginians would prove him wrong, tragically wrong.
22:15The reason?
22:16A new and terrifying weapon of war, the elephant.
22:23On the advice of Xanthippus, the Carthaginian levies were drawn up in the center and on
22:28the left wing, with heavily armed Greek mercenaries on the right wing.
22:33In front of each wing, a mixed force of horsemen and light-armed mercenaries were placed.
22:39And in front of the entire force was a line of war elephants.
22:45The Romans, unused to the sight of elephants in battle, were naturally nervous of these
22:50terrifying monsters.
22:52The nervous men deepened their lines, making them shorter.
22:57Taking advantage of the uncertainty in the Roman ranks, the Carthaginian light cavalry
23:02charged forward and routed their Roman counterparts.
23:07Unnerved by the sight of the elephants, the Roman cavalry may well have been glad to flee
23:12the field.
23:14The Carthaginians then wheeled in over the legions who were now being trampled by the
23:19elephants.
23:21Those who avoided the elephants came face to face with the unbroken lines of Carthaginian
23:26levies advancing towards them.
23:29On that hot day, they were butchered on the spot.
23:33Only 2,000 of the Romans managed to escape.
23:37A mere 500 were taken prisoner, including Regius.
23:41The rest perished.
23:44The humiliation which Rome had received at the hands of Xanthippus fueled their desire
23:49for revenge.
23:51Robbed of her sea power, Rome struck back, near to home, on the old killing fields of
23:57Sicily.
24:01Despite much bitter and protracted fighting, neither side was able to turn the situation
24:06in Sicily to their advantage.
24:09And for the next eight years, until 242 BC, the two adversaries pinned one another down
24:16on the northeast of the island in a constant but unproductive series of skirmishes, raids,
24:23and sea battles.
24:25After 22 years of war, the Romans were still no closer to ultimate victory.
24:32Hannibal became commander-in-chief of the Carthaginian army in 221 BC, and success was
24:39his from the outset.
24:42He masterminded the storming of a city belonging to the Romans at Seguntum in Spain after an
24:48eight-month siege.
24:50Goaded beyond restraint by this new young upstart, Rome declared war again in 218 BC.
24:58In a swift and decisive move, Hannibal embarked on his epic march from Spain to Italy.
25:05The pages of history were about to be altered forever.
25:12In the first of his major battles, the Italian campaign, he inevitably emerged as the victor.
25:19At the River Trebia, he skillfully used his knowledge of the topography to enable him
25:24to slaughter the Roman legions.
25:28Town after town fell to Hannibal and his Celtic warriors, but the Roman armies facing him
25:33on the field could not pin him down to another major battle.
25:38Crucially, he did not make the lightning strike on Rome, which would surely have won victory
25:43for Carthage.
25:45Instead, he besieged Tarentum.
25:48This was to prove the largest city to fall to Hannibal.
25:52Its capture further reduced the waning Roman influence in the heel of Italy, but it was
25:59not Rome.
26:02By 211 BC, the moment arrived that all Rome had been dreaded.
26:07Hannibal was finally marching on Rome, and this was to be a turning point in the war.
26:17It is said that he who hesitates is lost.
26:21Hannibal was now to suffer the consequences of that sage advice.
26:26His hesitation was to have grave consequences for him and his city.
26:31The wheel of fortune was about to turn against him.
26:35He had missed his chance.
26:38Rome was once again gathering her military strength.
26:42Instead of assaulting Rome, Hannibal turned aside from its great walls.
26:47It is a moment in history historians will debate forever.
26:51Once more he felt a plunder and devastated the surrounding countryside.
26:56Hannibal, it seemed, had lost the masterful touch that was the hallmark of the initial
27:03years of the campaign.
27:05He was never to regain the momentum of the early successes.
27:10Little by little, the Romans began to gain the upper hand, recapturing territory they
27:16had lost to Hannibal.
27:18Inexorably, the tide was turning.
27:21The Romans now had the initiative, and Hannibal's responses were like those of a tired boxer
27:27in the last round of a world title bout.
27:32Hannibal was pushed back and back until he was hemmed into the port of Brutii.
27:37From there, he quietly slipped out and set sail for Africa.
27:43Only a fitting end for an expedition that had begun so triumphantly and made the world
27:48tremble.
27:51On to the stage now stepped the great new Roman general, Scipio.
27:55He was determined to carry the war to the heartland of his enemy.
28:00Scipio set sail for Africa in 204 B.C. for what was to prove the decisive expedition
28:07in the Second Punic War.
28:10It was he who masterminded the encounter that was to bring ultimate victory to Rome.
28:16The great battle at Zama fought in 202 B.C.
28:22For a proud nation like Carthage, for whom war had been a way of life for so long, an
28:27unjust peace did not come easy.
28:30The humiliating terms of peace reached at the end of the Second Punic War cut to the
28:34very soul of her people.
28:38The re-emergence of the fighting spirit of Carthage was to signal the beginning of the
28:43Third Punic War.
28:45But it was the end for the once great city-state.
28:49The reality was that war was inevitable anyway.
28:53Rome now sought the death of Carthage, the only way she could see to end the rivalry
28:57forever.
28:58The Carthaginians finally gave Rome the excuse she needed when she went to war with one of
29:04her neighbors.
29:06Despite doing all in their power to try to comply with Rome's wishes, the Carthaginians
29:11could not meet the unreasonable demands of the Romans.
29:15A Carthaginian delegation to the Senate began to understand the danger from Rome the moment
29:21they heard the chilling address.
29:23Bear with fortitude the final commands of the Senate.
29:28Surrender Carthage to us and retire anywhere you like within your territory, provided that
29:34it is at least ten miles from the sea.
29:36We have decided to raise your city to the ground.
29:41Faced with the prospect of complete annihilation, the proud Carthaginians would not yield without
29:46a struggle.
29:48They declared war on Rome and set about a hurried re-armoring.
29:54In an eerie parallel with the event in Germany before World War II, soon they were mass-producing
30:00shields, swords, missiles for catapults, spears and javelins, and as many catapults
30:05as they could.
30:07The Romans still believed Carthage to be almost defenseless.
30:11They believed that a simple assault would be sufficient to take the city.
30:16Taking their leisure, the Roman army arrived and camped in front of the defenses, but it
30:21was not to be as simple as they imagined.
30:26Three attempts to take the city were repulsed.
30:29Using a huge battering ram, the Romans smashed their way through the outer defenses, but
30:34a determined counter-attack by the Carthaginians threw them back.
30:39These attacks and counter-attacks dictated the course of a protracted war which would
30:44drag on for the next three years.
30:47Finally, in 146 BC, Scipio was in a position to deliver the final blow to the city.
30:54And when it came, it brought with it the most brutal and bloody street fighting recorded
30:59in ancient history.
31:02Scipio ordered that all houses should be burned, and this brought new horrors.
31:07The old, sick, and infirm perished in the flames, while the living and the dead were
31:12piled into holes to make the roads passable.
31:17After seven gruesome days, the Carthaginian commander Hasdrubal surrendered.
31:24With the fiery spirit which had made the Carthaginians worthy adversaries, his wife, in disgust,
31:30cursed her husband as a coward and traitor.
31:34Rather than enter upon a life of slavery, she killed her two children and threw herself
31:40into the flames of her burning city.
31:44For ten days, the fires raged.
31:48When the inferno subsided, Carthage had been wiped from the political map of the world.
31:54On the hot, dusty plains of Asia Minor, a small band of Greek warriors was preparing
32:17to do battle against a huge Persian army.
32:22They were about to strike the first blows in a revolt against the oppressive, tyrannical
32:27rule of the Persians.
32:32By doing so, they had little idea they would embark on the most important and desperate
32:38series of battles in ancient history.
32:43It was to change forever the course of European history.
32:50The invincible Persian Empire would ultimately be brought to its knees in the first great
32:56ideological conflict fought between a brutal empire on the one hand and a freedom-loving
33:02democratic people on the other.
33:06This legend still endures today as the Persian War.
33:17The Greeks were a seafaring people, and over the years they established a number of colonies
33:23in Ionia.
33:25At first, these colonies enjoyed the protection of the Lydian Empire, which the Greeks were
33:31happy to accept.
33:34But with the fall of the Lydians, the overlords were replaced by the Persian Empire, a harsh
33:40and unforgiving master whose heavy-handed rule soon found disfavor with the Greeks,
33:46traditionally used to more enlightened government.
33:51Unlike the later Roman Empire, the Persian Empire was not a single unified state.
33:58It was more a confederation of states, all bound together by allegiance to the Persian
34:04King.
34:05All of them, including the Ionian Greeks, were obliged to supply the Persian King with
34:11troops as well as taxes.
34:17In 500 BC, the Greeks finally revolted against Persian rule.
34:22Under the leadership of Aristagoras, they declared their independence and appealed for
34:28help from the European Greek states.
34:32The first state to respond was Athens, then the strongest and most important Greek state.
34:39The Athenians duly provided a large contingent of men and ships, and with their help the
34:46rebels took the offensive, advancing from Ephesus to Sardis.
34:54The Athenians, fighting away from home, naturally grew reckless.
34:59With complete disregard for the consequences, they plundered and burned the Persian city
35:05of Sardis.
35:07This unexpected escalation led to the swift recall of the Athenian contingent, but even
35:14without their help, the revolt afterwards spread successfully all along the coast and
35:20south to the Greek colonies on the island of Cyprus.
35:25Continued Persian control was now in the balance.
35:32Eventually the growing revolt was viewed with some alarm in the Persian capital, Susa.
35:38It was clearly getting out of hand.
35:41As the local forces were clearly unable to contain the outbreak, the Persian King Darius
35:47summoned the huge imperial contingents of Asia Minor and the Phoenician navy for a heavy
35:53counteroffensive.
35:56Faced with sudden overwhelming odds, the Greeks' advance was quickly rolled back, and within
36:02four years the revolt had been completely crushed.
36:07Now it was time for Darius to repay the Athenians.
36:12Methodically moving from island to island and securing control of the Aegean Sea, the
36:19Persians moved closer in.
36:21Naxos and Choristos were captured and sacked, and Eritrea betrayed after a week-long siege.
36:28Now Athens itself was threatened.
36:34The Greek commander Militaiades hastily mustered all his available men and dispatched a fast
36:40runner to Sparta, requesting assistance.
36:47The Spartans were noted warriors, but they were superstitious and unexpectedly announced
36:53that for religious reasons they could not possibly march until after the next full moon.
36:59This meant a delay of at least a week, during which time almost anything could happen.
37:08Almost their only help came from the tiny state of Plataea, which promptly sent several
37:12hundred volunteers.
37:15Effectively, Militaiades was on his own.
37:19Undaunted, he marched his whole force of some 10,000 hoplites down to the plain of Marathon.
37:29As soon as his men were deployed, Militaiades opened the attack, taking his men forward
37:34at a brisk trot in order to minimize the casualties from the archers.
37:40As anticipated, the Persian center put up a strong resistance and soon forced back the
37:46Athenian hoplites.
37:48But on the flanks, the Persians gave way.
37:52The lightly equipped archers were no match for the heavy phalanxes of hoplites and were
37:57soon utterly routed.
38:00Keeping his men well in hand, Militaiades left the pursuit to his own skirmishes and
38:06turned on the Persian center.
38:09Hemmed in on three sides with a great salt marsh to their backs, Artaphrones and his
38:15men fought their way back, step by bloody step.
38:20The Athenian skirmishes had already worked their way behind them, blocking the narrow
38:25passage between the marsh and the sea, cutting the Persians off from their ships.
38:31Hundreds perished here or in the great marsh, but Artaphrones' own contingent kept their
38:36heads and fought their way straight down onto the beach, where they were eventually
38:41lifted off by their ships.
38:45The Greeks had won the battle and afterwards made the inflated claims as to the numbers
38:51of enemy dead, customary in ancient times.
38:55But the fact remained that they had only defeated and not destroyed the Persians.
39:02Now they had to march and block the threatened landing at Phaleron.
39:07By the time they had done that, they would surely be too exhausted to face the Persian
39:12cavalry in a stand-up fight.
39:15They therefore had to reach the bay in time to meet the Persians as they landed on the
39:20beach.
39:21And as the military saying, familiar to generals down the ages goes, catch them with their
39:26feet wet.
39:29By a miraculous march, the Athenians succeeded in doing so, but only just.
39:36Unfortunately for the Persians, when they did arrive, they were so battered and demoralized
39:42by their earlier defeat and the march to the new battle site that they were quite incapable
39:47of establishing a beachhead.
39:50Dattis reluctantly ordered a strategic withdrawal back across the Aegean.
39:56Dattis had been saved.
40:00There was to be no respite for the beaten Persians.
40:03The Greeks promptly responded by launching a counteroffensive aimed at regaining control
40:09of the Aegean islands.
40:12Taking the war to the Persians, even in their beaten state, was beyond the limited resources
40:17of the Greeks.
40:20And within a very few years, they were facing a renewed Persian attack.
40:25This time, led by Darius' son.
40:31The mighty army of Xerxes was intended to force the complete subjugation of Greece once
40:37and for all.
40:39By the spring of 480 BC, Xerxes had crossed the Hellespont, that narrow stretch of water
40:46which separates Europe from Asia, and was pushing southwards into Thessaly.
40:53The Greeks, as usual, were divided among themselves.
40:57The Spartans argued that central Greece was indefensible, and that they should fall back
41:02to defend the Isthmus of Corinth.
41:05This idea was, of course, deeply unpopular with those Greeks who lived north of the Isthmus,
41:10and in particular, the Athenians.
41:13They argued that the sacrifice of northern and central Greece would be pointless, since
41:19there was nothing to prevent the Persians from effecting an amphibious landing south
41:24of the Isthmus.
41:26All the same, it was recognized that Thessaly was impossible to defend, and so the Greeks
41:32decided to make their famous stand at Thermopylae.
41:38At first, all went according to plan.
41:42Xerxes halted in the plain of Malia and waited for his supply ships to catch up.
41:47Then, after four days, he moved forward again, launching a probing attack against the Greek
41:53position in the middle gate.
41:56It very soon became obvious that the Greeks had picked their ground well.
42:02The Persian cavalry could not operate in the pass, and Xerxes' infantry were too lightly
42:07equipped to make any impression on the heavily armed hoplites.
42:14A second attack on the following day proved equally unsuccessful, but then the fortunes
42:19of war deserted the Greeks.
42:24The whole of Greece now lay open to the Persians, and after a short resistance, Athens was plundered
42:31and burned.
42:33Having abandoned their city before the Persians arrived, the Athenian army took refuge on
42:38the nearby island of Silamus.
42:42What was left of the Greek army hastily fortified the Isthmus of Corinth, after all, in a last-ditch
42:48attempt to keep the Persians out of the Peloponnesus.
42:53Both sides knew that the outcome of the war would depend on the coming battle between
42:58the Greek and Persian navies.
43:02The battle which was to decide the war took place near Athens, in the narrow channel between
43:07the mainland and the island of Silamus.
43:12As they moved deeper into the channel, the Persians began to run into difficulty.
43:18The channel narrowed dramatically so that fewer than twenty triremes could draw up abreast.
43:25Already half the Persian squadrons had been pulled out of the front line because there
43:29was no room for them.
43:31Now a change in the weather made the problem even worse.
43:37Thus far, both sides had been moving in a flat calm, but now the wind rose sufficiently
43:43to create a significant swell.
43:46The slow, sleek Greek triremes rode it well, but the Phoenician ships stood much higher
43:52in the water and carried a much larger complement of men.
43:56In a straightforward stand-up fight, the Phoenicians may have enjoyed an advantage, but in the
44:02confined space of the channel they had great difficulty in keeping station and soon began
44:08to run foul of each other.
44:10This was the moment the Greeks had been waiting for, and their triremes leapt forward through
44:15the water.
44:16At first, the Persian center held and the Ionian Greeks put up a surprisingly spirited
44:22fight, but the Phoenicians were soon in trouble and began backing off.
44:28As more ships were still coming up behind them, the confusion only increased, and in
44:33the end, many of the Phoenician vessels took the easy way out and ran themselves aground.
44:41Understandably dismayed by this unexpected reverse, the Persian center gave way.
44:48Persian losses in the battle are unknown, though they were probably much less than the
44:52200 ships claimed by the Greek historian Herodotus.
44:56Nevertheless, it was by any standards a decisive victory, and with half his navy destroyed,
45:03Xerxes was in no condition to renew the fight.
45:07Indeed, without an effective navy, it would be impossible to invade the Peloponnese.
45:13Reluctantly, Xerxes ordered a withdrawal back to the Hellespont.
45:21The general consensus was that it was better to allow the Persians to escape than to trap
45:27a starving and increasingly desperate army on Greek soil.
45:31It was to prove a disastrous decision.
45:35Xerxes, on the other hand, was understandably anxious to minimize the effects of his defeat.
45:42A complete withdrawal from Greece might well inspire renewed revolts, and so a substantial
45:48part of his army was left in Thessaly under a general named Mardonius, with instructions
45:55to renew the offensive if at all possible.
45:59Nothing if not enterprising, Mardonius extended his brief, promptly moved south, and mounted
46:05a raid on Athens.
46:07In this, he was spectacularly successful.
46:10His troops burnt the newly rebuilt city.
46:14He then retired at a leisurely pace into the plains of Boeotia and waited for them
46:19to come looking for him.
46:22The Athenians and Spartans duly marched north under the command of a Spartan general named
46:28Pausanias, and found the Persians camped at Plataea.
46:32Here was to be the site of the last great encounter.
46:37For a week, both sides engaged in minor skirmishes, and gradually the Persians gained the upper
46:43hand.
46:44Their cavalry launched raids deep behind the Greek lines, cutting their supplies, while
46:50on the plain itself, Mardonius' men gradually forced the Greeks away from their water supply.
46:57At length, the Spartan commander, Pausanias, ordered the withdrawal under cover of darkness.
47:04But by now, the volatile Greek allies were bickering among themselves, and the withdrawal
47:09almost turned into disaster.
47:12And from that near disaster sprang the seeds of victory.
47:17Feeling he could not lose against the much reduced Greek force, Mardonius immediately
47:22sent the Boetians to engage the Athenians and keep them pinned down, while he mobilized
47:27his full strength against the Spartans.
47:31But by sheer courage, the Greeks held out.
47:35The small army was not to be moved.
47:38A bitter struggle then followed, in which the Spartans managed to stabilize their position
47:43with a counterattack.
47:45Meanwhile, by a supreme effort, the Athenians managed to rout the Boetians and pursue them
47:51into the Persian camp.
47:53At this point, Mardonius himself was killed.
47:57At his death, his men lost heart and gave way.
48:03As a result of this great victory at Plataea in 479 BC, the Greeks were finally able to
48:09expel the Persians from Thessaly.
48:12Greece was saved.
48:17But the Persian wars did not end there.
48:20For many years afterwards, troops loyal to the Persian Empire held out in Thrace.
48:25Again, disunity among the Greek states prolonged the war, and instead of final victory, within
48:31a few short years, Greece was to descend into the anarchy of the Peloponnesian Civil War.