Battle of Salamis 480 BC (Persian Invasion of Greece) DOCUMENTARY

It is hard to overstate the importance of the ancient Greeks to human civilization especially in regards to freedom and democracy But there was a critical moment that threatened this freedom at the beginning of the fifth century BC as the Greeks tried to stop a Persian invasion This long conflict saw a chain of desperate clashes including a decisive naval battle at Salamis So without further ado, let's delve into the events that led to this dramatic clash By the 8th century BC Greece had finally moved beyond the Dark Ages caused by the fall of Mycenaean civilization Greek policies were forming into city-states and two of them Athens and Sparta became the most prominent the Greek city-states of Asia Minor were having a more difficult time and by 560 BC they were conquered by the Lydian Empire that was not the end of it to the east Cyrus the Great began his conquest of Mesopotamia in 553 BC and by 547 BC he reached Cappadocia thus becoming a new neighbor of Lydia Closest the king of Lydia attempted to strike against Cyrus in the same year, but failed in his campaign and a year later Lydia was conquered along with all of its Greek cities They became the satrapies of the a commended Empire of Cyrus and tyrants were installed in most cities to keep them in check In mainland Greece this process was happening in Reverse as many city-states overthrew their tyrants becoming Democracies that would be a cornerstone of the future conflict Darius the great continued the a commended conquests and moved into Europe By 500 BC the race was conquered and Macedonia vas alized However the situation in Asia Minor was not stable and in 499 BC the leader of the city-state of millet us called Aristagoras Started a revolt against Darius and many other cities joined him. He also received support from Athens and Eritrea This alliance managed to take the central Persian city in the region Sardis But was pushed back and defeated near Ephesus Despite this setback Revolt spread the Persians responded by sending a new fleet and winning against the Greeks at ladder in 494 BC The rebellion was quelled the very next year In 492 BC Darius launched a campaign into Greece as retribution This invasion had some early success But was decisively defeated by the Athens led alliance in the famous Battle of Marathon in 490 Darius planned a second invasion, but a revolt in Egypt prevented that The Greeks used this respite well and formed a larger alliance with Sparta and Athens in leading roles The son of Darius Xerxes the first was then able to move forward with a new invasion in 480 BC a commanded forces gathered in Sardis and crossed Hellespont in April The invading army continued towards the Macedonian border with a large Navy flanking it Initially the Greek plan was to defend in the veil of temper, but that would have left most of the mainland undefended against the amphibious invasion Instead the land forces of the Greek cities Consisting of five to ten thousand troops, led by spartan king leonidas blocked off the pass of thermopylae to the east a 300 trireme strong allied Navy under Athenian command closed off the Straits of Artemisium Persian forces arrived in the area by late August Their army had around 200 thousand warriors while the Navy consisted of a thousand or so triremes Before the Persian fleet reached the Greeks a storm broke out and almost a third of their ships perished The Persians attempted to send a portion of their navy to the south to circle around you Bowyer and surround helena's However one more storm sunk these vessels The first two days of the land battle in film awful life were going according to the plan of Leonidas But by the third day the Persians outflanked is Troost The King sent away the majority of his contingent and stayed behind with his Spartans thespians Thebans and helots Although he and his companions were killed during the third day this sacrifice allowed at least half of the army to retreat at the same time the Greeks led by Themistocles were attacked by the Persian Navy and despite the fact that losses on both sides were equal the Greeks did not have the resources to defend any longer as the passage at Thermopylae was lost the Straits of Artemisium had no strategic importance and their mystical ease ordered a retreat by the middle of September Xerxes Occupied Athens and for mystical ease had to fall back even further to the island of Salamis where he received some reinforcements He now had 378 ships under his command Athens was now under Persian control, and they were able to use the harbour her Reyes Soon their 700 ships blocked off the open sea Themistocles knew that there was no retreat and formed up his Navy the Athenians were on the Left Peloponnesian ships were on the right and Spartans Corinthians and other contingents were in the center the Persian fleet consisted of ships, built and manned by the Egyptians Phoenicians and the Greeks of Asia Minor Xerxes did not need to fight this battle as he was well supplied his advisors were Suggesting to stay in the open waters and wait for the Greeks to try and break out The Greeks were outnumbered at least two to one and any attempt to fight on the high seas would be catastrophic Xerxes sent a small group to take the island of sight a Lea while Egyptian auctions of the Navy Which had suffered most of the damage at Artemisium were left behind to cover other exits around the island of Salamis In the morning the Persian fleet entered the Straits of Salamis with Phoenicians on the right Ionian x' on the left and other greeks in the center Early in the morning the Corinthian ships moved back Persian commanders thought that the Greeks were in a panic and ordered the navy forward the Greeks moved their ships further backwards Imitating a retreat and the Persians reformed into a diamond formation to attack the enemy center Still the Straits were very narrow and now there was not enough space for the Persian vessels to maneuver The Greek retreat was indeed just a trap For mr. Cleese knew the weather conditions and gave the order to counter-attack right when the wind changed The wind was now blowing from the east and that sped up Greek ships while slowing down their opponents This allowed the Greek ships to attack in a narrow front and as their vessels were heavier the Persians were stopped in their tracks becoming bunched together the diamond formation also did not help as it allowed the Corinthians to shifts to the left flank and attack the Persian, right As some Persian commanders were killed early in the battle most of their Navy was left without higher command The Greeks also were dominating in the boarding actions as their heavy hoplite A's were easily defeating the light Persian infantryman The other Persian lines did not have enough road to help and had to slowly retreat from the Straits under increasing pressure from the Greek flames Xerxes watched the battle from his throne sat on a nearby mountain But couldn't do anything to change the course of this engagement the Persians lost around 300 ships and although they still had a few hundred more the invasion was in disarray Xerxes retreated to Asia to avoid being trapped in Europe He left a land army to fight on but it was defeated in 479 BC during the Battle of Plataea At the same time the Persian Navy was defeated yet again at my collar in Ionia Xerxes and his descendants did not attempt to conquer Greece again and 150 years later Alexander the Great conquered the echo mehnat realm While creating this documentary we used the series of lectures called understanding Greek and Roman technology from Professor Steven Ressler provided by the sponsor of this video the great courses plus This very detailed twenty four part series covers the most important inventions and technologies of Antiquity and is essential if you want to learn more about the vessels that took part in this battle You can subscribe to the great courses plus to get access to the vast library of 8,000 lectures on history of science literature and other subjects from top-notch professors from the best universities in the world The great courses plus will even give you one month of free access if you subscribe through the great courses plus comm Slash kings and Generals or the short link in the description This video was narrated by me officially Devin stop by my channel for some narrative Let's Plays This is American Phoenix's channel, and we will catch you on the next one You

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Keywords: salamis, world history, documentary film, animated documentary, war - topic, history, historical, bazbattles, epic history tv, Historia Civilis, rome, ancient battle, top 10, strategy, tactic, total war rome, kings and generals, lesson, study, educational, history lesson, bbc documentary, extra credits history, greek, persian, full documentary, thermopylae, 300, leonidas, sparta, athens, marathon, plataea, xerxes, darius, themistocles, kosovo, alexander, invasion, greece, battle of salamis, documentary

Id: 7uhoDZtA9PQ

Length: 11min 6sec (666 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 24 2017