Herodotus and the Greco-Persian Wars: Thermopylae to Mycale

This course deals with the second Persian invasion of the Greek mainland under Xerxes (480 BC). It therefore deals with some epic events and figures - the last stand of the 300 Spartans under Leonidad at Thermopylae. The burning of the Acropolis. Join clever Themistocles as he leads the vastly outnumbered Greek ships to victory in the naval battle of Salamis. You will watch the great land clash at Plataea and witness the final destruction of the Persian fleet at Mycale. These battles paved the way for Athens to not only establish its own hegemony in the Aegean but lead the Greek world in those developments of philosophy, politics, art, and literature.  The century that followed the Persian Wars would be among the most culturally fertile in history. It saw Pericles lead Athens to both democracy and imperial glory. It saw the building of the Parthenon and the sculptures of Phidias. The vibrant Athenian democracy saw the emergence of the study of rhetoric in the education of the sophists.  It included the growth of Attic tragedy with Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Eurpides. It saw philosophers like Anaxagoras and the incomparable Socrates, who changed the course of philosophy, leading to Plato and Aristotle. It is not too much to say that the battles that saved Athens and Greece in the Persian Wars made possible the whole future development of Western civilization.