Essay Question

My essay question will be "What happened during the Persian War and how did the Greeks defeat such a large army?" The first paragraph in my essay will mention information about the Persians and their reasoning for wanting to conquer Athens. The Persians were ruled by The Great King Darius under a tyranny and wanted to conquer Athens because it would allow them to gain more power than one of the most successful city-states in Greece. The next paragraph will be about the first Greek win. When the Persians attacked for the first time, the Greeks were outnumbered 2:1. However, they were still able to defeat the Persians and kill 6,000 in the battle. The third paragraph will talk about Themistocles and his plan to defeat the Persians if they attacked again with more power. Themistocles created the trireme which helped improve Athens' navy. This was a large, heavy duty ship that could smash into other ships and destroy them. However, the ship was expensive. But, a vein of silver in Greece helped pay for them. The fourth paragraph will be about the events in the next major battle of the Persian war. After Darius, king of Persia, died, Xerxes took the throne and vowed to defeat Athens. He created a very strong army with almost two million soldiers. The Athenians were very outnumbered, it seemed like they had no chance of defeating the Persians. Everyone in Athens had to evacuate to Troezen and Salamis so they would be safe. However, the Athenians had a plan. They sent a fake Greek traitor to tell the Persians false information about the Greeks being discombobulated and scared, causing them to put down their guard and sneak attack the Persians, destroying 200 of their ships. The final paragraph will be about the after effects of the Persian war, the ostracization of Themistocles, and the forming of the Delian league.