The World

Darius disappeared into the vastness of Russia and Ukraine, chasing the Scythians. Like later invaders, he was bewildered by the scale of the steppes, tormented by the freezing winter and frustrated by elusive enemies who avoided pitched battle and withdrew, drawing him deeper into hostile territory. Whatever disasters befell him here, he survived and in 511 BC made it back to Persia, lucky not to have become a drinking goblet. He left 80,000 troops under Bagavazda¯, his cousin, who swerved southwards towards Macedonia; its king, Amyntas, submitted. But the Persian envoys abused Macedonian women: the king’s son Alexander killed the offenders and the feud was healed only when Amyntas married his daughter to Bagavazda¯’s son.

This was the beginning of the duel between the two families that would define the next three centuries. Amyntas’ Argeads, who claimed descent from Macedon, a nephew of Hellen, founder of Greece, and from Hercules, had ruled their realm since about 650. The Macedonians, rough, bearded mountaineers living in a state of perpetual feud in forested highlands under a semi-barbaric monarchy, were not regarded by Athenians and Spartans as fully Greek. Later when Amyntas’ son Alexander tried to compete in the Olympic Games, reserved for true Greeks, his qualifications were challenged; he was forced to cite his mythical genealogy – and then went on to win the race.

Darius had conquered the richer Greeks of Ionia; only Sparta and a sprinkling of city states, led by Athens, remained independent. The Ionian Greeks, who provided much of the Persian fleet but smarted under Darius’ taxes, now rebelled and burned Sardis. They were suppressed, but the western Greeks had helped them.

In 491, Darius, now in his sixties, dispatched his son-in-law Mrduniya (Mardonius), son of the greatest of the Seven,^* to conquer Greece. Mrduniya crossed the Hellespont in command of 600 ships and an army, co-opting King Alexander I of Macedon. The Persians were surprised when Athens and Sparta, feeling perhaps for the first time the bond of Greekness, combined to resist. When Mrduniya was wounded in Thrace, Darius promoted his other nephew Artafarna. Landing on the Marathon Plain, the Persians faced only the hoplites of Athens – the Spartans were late – but the Greeks routed them. After Marathon, the Athenians instituted a novelty to control the dominance of their paladins: voters could secretly write a politician’s name on a pottery shard (ostrakon) to sentence him to exile – ostracism – for ten years, providing at least 6,000 votes were cast.

Marathon was a minor setback for Darius who at sixty-four decided to lead a second invasion – while promoting Xerxes, who boasted, ‘Darius my father made me the greatest after himself.’ In October 486, Xerxes smoothly succeeded his father, then, advised by Alexander of Macedon among others, crossed the Hellespont on a bridge of ships to invade Greece with 800 ships and 150,000 troops, including Indians, Ethiopians and many Greeks. The Athenians abandoned Athens and led by the Spartan king Leotychidas retreated southwards to defend the Corinthian Isthmus – but they left a rearguard under the other Spartan king, Leonidas, whose allies persuaded him to delay the Persians at the narrow pass of Thermopylae with 300 Spartans – and several thousand Phocians and helots (forgotten in most accounts). Xerxes watched as his Immortals were slaughtered in the narrow defile, until a Greek traitor revealed a path round the Greek rear. The Persians surprised Leonidas at dawn. ‘Eat a good breakfast,’ said jaunty Leonidas, ‘for tonight we eat in the underworld’ – and then they fought to the death.^* Xerxes advanced towards deserted Athens, its people evacuated to Salamis island by their fleet. Xerxes’ fleet closed in on the Greek ships moored between Salamis and the mainland. His Greek vassal, Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus, a woman who commanded her own fleet, warned against fighting Athenian sailors in a confined space and advised a blockade. But convinced that the enemy navy would disperse and that anyway victory was inevitable, Xerxes ordered an assault, his fleet soon lured into the narrows. Seated on a silver throne, he watched admiringly as the Ionian Greeks smashed the Spartan ships with swashbuckling Artemisia in the thick of the fighting – ‘My women are men, my men are women,’ he exclaimed – but the Athenians, commanded by Xanthippos, one of the Alcmaeonids, then broke out, destroying 200 ships. Xerxes had to watch one of his brothers killed and cast into the sea. Furiously he executed his Phoenician admirals. But Salamis was not decisive. His army was undefeated, 600 ships battle ready. ‘Return to Sardis,’ Mrduniya advised Xerxes, ‘and take the greater part of the army. Leave me to complete the enslavement of the Greeks.’ After burning Athens, Mrduniya advanced on the allied forces, which he harassed with cavalry.