Wars of the Ancient Greeks

Today I finished my PDP on Wars of the Ancient Greeks, here's the summary:

Mountainous terrain made travel and communication difficult throughout Greece and led to the creation of isolated city-states. These civilizations’ Independent development and differing organizational structures resulted in opposing ideology exemplified by democratic Athens and the military oligarchy of Sparta. From the writings of Homer, Thucydides, and other ancient Greek scholars it is apparent that ancient Greece is marked by war between city-states and invaders alike. Greek warfare was dominated by the “hoplite” -- the Greek infantryman armed with a spear (doru) and shield (aspis). Hoplites would form ranks, lock shields, and project spears out through the first rank as they advanced. This “phalanx” formation made a frontal assault by the enemy nearly impossible. The hoplite phalanx was a dominant military formation as long as all the soldiers were well trained and willing to hold the line.

Some of the major wars, battles, and conflicts fought by the ancient Greek are as follows. The Trojan War (1250 B.C.) was waged on the city of Troy after Helen of Sparta was kidnapped and is among the most important in Greek mythology. The Persian Wars (490-480 B.C.) were a series of conflicts between the Greek world and the Persian Empire that culminated in the Athenian and Plataean defeat of the Persians in the Battle of Marathon. The Peloponnesian War (441-404 B.C.) was fought between the Athenian Empire and the Peloponnesian League, which included Sparta and Corinth. The 27-year-long war had a six year truce in the middle and ended with Athens’ surrender. The campaigns of Alexander the Great (331-323 B.C.) conquered much of the world known to the ancient Greeks including Persepolis, the capital of the Persian Empire.