3/7/13

Today was our long mod and we watched the video. I found it really interesting especially today. The video was mainly about Themistocles and the battle against Persia. So here is a summary of went happened:
The Persian army grew very big under the reign of Xerxes, who was now the king of Persia. The first thing Xerxes wanted to do was avenge his father and destroy Athens. The Athenians grew panicked, seeing how powerful the Persians were and realizing that they were the first and biggest target. In the Athenians panic they turned to the gods. They sent a few people to Delphi, where a priestess would read an oracle about what the Athenians fates would be. Myth was the god Apollo spoke through this priestess in Delphi, who was the most famous oracle of the Greek world. It was known as the center of the world. Greeks would come from far far away just to get one reading and in some cases people from outside of Greece would come to get a reading. The Athenians received bad news from their first reading. The reading said they were doomed and they needed to leave. News got back to Themistocles, who was the leader of Athens, and he sent more people for a second reading. The second reading said they needed to rely on the wooden wall to gain victory. The people did not understand and assumed they were doomed and began to panic again, but Themistocles saw it differently. He told the Athenians, this means we need to turn to the triremes, which were huge boats armed by tons of men who used brute strength to row the boat and ram into other boats. The Athenians then formed a clever plan under the instructions of Themistocles. The women and children were evacuated to Troizon, and the men stayed to arm the ships. A messenger was then sent to Xerxes, and he acted like a traitor. He gave Xerxes false information about the Athenians saying they were weak and if the Persians wanted to crush them they needed to go on boats through the Straits of Salamis. Xerxes was so excited about this news he didn't even think twice. So the Persians did just as the messenger said to do. But once they got there the Athenians were not unprepared, they were lined in wall of triremes. The Athenians crushed the Persians, and destroyed 200 of their ships. After that the women and children and men returned back to Athens where they made compromises with other Greek city-states to form the Delian League. Athens was the main power in the league and they made the government democracy. In the end of the video the unexpected happened. There was an annual vote for who was to be ostracized each year. Shockingly the people ostracized Themistocles. Humiliated and hurt Themistocles wandered from Greek city-state to city-state. He died in exile in Persia.