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The Athenian Empire Dawns - 479 B.C.

Only a scant remnant of the Persian force escaped to the heights of Mycale, where they made good their retreat to Sardis, where Xerxes had already made his way back before they entered the city.

Xerxes is interested in woman than regaining Asia MinorFar from mustering his forces and heading straight out to meet the Greek forces, Xerxes was more interested in covorting with women in his palace. All plans to expand westward thwarded by the Greeks at Plataea, Xerxes seems now to have holed up at Sardis and not interested in keeping the Greek forces in check from running amuck along the Ionian coastline. But always trying to put down any acts of revolt that always seemed to pop up throughout the empire.

Meanwhile the Greeks had left Mycale and made way to the Hellespont to destroy the bridges that joined Europe to Asia. But on their arrival there, they discovered that the bridges had already broken up because of high winds.

Here now Leotychides and the Peloponnesians said that they wanted to return home. Athens however understanding the vaccum that had been caused by the defeat of the Persians pressed on their advantage and layed seige to the city of Sestos on the Chersonese which was still under control of the Persians.

After a while of laying siege to Sestos the Athenian forces began to murmur that they were being kept abroad for too long. Their captain Xanthippus would hear nothing of it until the city fell or the Athenian people ordered them to return home, so the soldiers patiently bore the sufferings. Inside, the city fell apart, with food running out and no help to come, infact the surrounding cities had already defected to Athens, the Sestos leaders knew that time was running out. During the night the leaders went over the wall, and the next day the Athenians took control of the city.

With the Greek victory at Mycale the story from Herodotus has come full circle. The 'Histories' end with the year 479 BC. The Greeks have all but removed the influence of Persia over Europe and the Agean is now firmly in Greek hands, including the Asia Minor coastline. (See Note#2)

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Back over on the Italian side with the end of the Battle of Himera and the complete destruction of the Carthaginian invasion force. Gelo found himself lord of Sicily, which he continued to help to prosper until his death in 478 B.C. His brother Hiero I then became tyrannt of Syracuse.

The Etruscan civilization which was a indigenous people of mainland Italy were trying to expand and they went to war against the Greek colony in Campania. The Greeks went to Hiero I for help, which he offered. This lead to the naval Battle of Cumae. To which the Etruscan were defeated, ensuring Greek influence in Italy for some time to come.

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Building the wallsA year after the Persian invasion failed, the Athenians began to rebuild their walls and to make Piraeus a major harbor, pushed onwards by that 'champion of sailors' Themistocles. A Spartan embassy, alarmed by Athenian power, suggested that they cooperate in tearing down the fortifications in Greece (Note#1). Instead, Themistocles was sent to Sparta as a delaying tactic until the Athenians had built their walls. Denying the rumours about the wall in Athens, he proposed to the Spartans that they send some officials to inspect the walls themselves, to which they did. Secretly, he got the Athenians to hold the ambassadors up, long enough for the walls to be completed. Once word reached Themistocles that the walls were ready, he openly told the Spartans what he had done. Irate at being tricked, he was dismissed from Sparta.

On his arrival back to Athens, Themistocles had a new plan but couldn't let it be well known. The assembly said that if Aristeides approved the plan, they would allow it. Stangley, he wanted to set fire to the Greek arsenal so that Athens would become master of Greece; but Aristeides told the assembly that although nothing could be more advantageous to Athens, nothing would be more unjust; so Athenians, trusting Aristeides, refused to follow Themistocles' plan.

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The Spartan Pausanias led a contingent back towards Ionia with the intentions of trying to win over some of the cities back for Sparta. However, not all went well, his heavy handedness and almost pirate like approach didn't go to well with the newly free Ionian cities. While they had just broken the shackles from Persian they were not interested in joining in with the thuggery that Sparta was imposing.

Seduced by power and Persian ways, Pausanians' dictatorial manner forced the cities to ask Sparta directly, to stop him and they went on to ask Athens for assistance in taking control of the coast. Pausanias was recalled to Sparta to stand trial while the diplomacy and fairness of the Athenian leader Aristeides the Just won the Ionians over to the Athenian side. In Sparta, Pausanias was found not guilty of any of the major crimes against him, but he wasn't given orders to return to the area, another group of Spartans were issued those orders but upon their arrival found out that the cities of the coast were not inclined to conceded to them the supremacy. Sparta gave up any further idea for those cities, they were happy to finally be over the Persian wars, and were satisfied of the competency of the Athenians for the position, and of their friendship at the time towards them.

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The Athenians, had Kimon as admiral with Aristeides the Just in Asia Minor, doing all they could to remove any further Persian influence along the coast lines. Since the Persian king had removed himself from Europe, and the rest of the Persian forces were defeated at Plataea, their allies had started to undermine Persian control and slowly they started to revolt from Persian dominance. With so much trouble trying to keep under control what they already had, the Athenians faced little organised resistance when besieging Persian controlled towns. Ever relenting, Kimon was always hot on the heels of the retreating Persian forces, before the barbarians could take breath and recover themselves, he was already at work, and places either revolted against Persia, voluntary gave up, or were forcible taken, either way the Persian forces continually moved further and further away from the Asia Minor coastline. The Ionian cities in Asia Minor and several of the island cities, Samos, Lesbos, and Chios, revolted from the Persians. However, not all embraced the new Delian League with open arms.

Kimon moved his forces towards Sestos, they still held a Persian garrison, and were not looking to give up the town.

cont:...Seige of Sestos

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Note#1. The reason for this was that it would limit Persia from enterting Hellas again and fortifying itself into a city. This strategy though plays into Spartan hands as they were masters of land battles at this stage. And no city walls would mean they could enter any city they wished to.

 

Note# For a page yet to be written. About money and how it worked in Greece at that time.

Note#2: Also in 479 B.C., Ephialtes the Greek traitor who informed Xerxes of the pass around Thermopylae according to Herodotus was killed for an apparently unrelated reason by Athenades of Trachis. He had fled to Thessaly because of the Spartan bounty on his head. Ephialtes (lit. "he who jumps upon") is rather appropriately the Greek word for "nightmare," and the mythological giant Ephialtes was sometimes considered the demon of nightmares.