Was the Persian invasion of Greece REALLY that defining a moment

Greece becoming a center of Mediterrranean commerce and technology to the point it could support a large navy and heavy infantry like the hoplites was the turning point. The invasion by Persia demonstrated that Greece was different from the other ancient civilizations.

>>3150160
Yes, the story of Themistocles out smarting the Persians at the Battle of Marathon was a defining moment for western civilization, especially for the populist pro democratic tendencies of what is considered "western civilization"

>>3150214
>>3150172

You're both making the same mistake -- assuming Greece was a unified state and not a bunch of city-states that greatly differed in terms of governance. Athens saw a rise in status in power after the Persian Wars, only for it to get BTFO by Sparta. In the long term, Athenian """democracy""" died and Greece was ruled by monarchs for thousands of years.

It's western romanticism to view the Persian Wars as one between democracy and eastern slavery and tyranny. Mardonius ousted the Greek tyrants in Anatolia and established democracy. The Achaemenids were renowned for their respect for local traditions and gave its subjects autonomy, so long as they remained loyal to the king.

not really, the persians generally left existing governments in place but just required tribute and soldiers, so they probably would've left the governments of the greek states in place. The whole reason the ionian revolt started in the first place because the leader of miletus wanted to get closer to darius and then failed spectacularly

>>3150160
Yeah, the Greece never practiced slavery.

>>3150160
Yes...

It showed without a doubt the incredible gap between the whitman's IQ and the inferior brown turd's IQ.

It showed white intellectual superiority without a shadow of doubt, it was the defining moment of western (white) civilization

Did the Persian fear the white warrior?

>>3150160
No it's only a big deal to us retroactively. The Greeks had no concept of "Western civilization", that's a retcon. Additionally, the Greeks were always fighting each other; they were never really a cohesive empire at all. During the Persian invasion, it was really mostly Athens and Sparta doing most of the work. You even had some Greek states siding with the Persians.

>>3150260
b8

>>3150260
>>3150302
Herodotus literally says the Persians have the same skin colour as Greeks do during summer.

>>3150160
>Was it really freedom vs. slavery
Yeah, but in this case it was the Greeks who were slavers. Zoroastrianism forbade slavery, and while it wasn't as dominant in the Persian empire at this point as it's made to be, there weren't any significant "unfree" classes of people in the Persian empire like there were in say, Sparta or Athens.
The meme of Persians being slavers comes from a mistranslation of the name of the Persian nobility, bandakā which meant "belt-wearers" (as in knights, vassals) but Greeks thought they were bound slaves (the word "bound" is of course a cognate to "bandaka")

>western civilization vs. eastern
The concept didn't exist back then. But the Western world owes much to the Persians. Christian-based morality was in turn based on Persian concepts, same with the divine right of kings, and the idea that a ruler should provide moral and religious authonomy to his various subjects. Xenophon's "Cyropaedia", describing Cyrus' virtues as a leader was an influence on the Founding Fathers for instance.

>>3150227
>died and Greece was ruled by monarchs for thousands of years.
>People unironically believe this
When was Greece conquered by Rome like year 100? AD?

>>3150449
amazing post, really shows the high quality discourse on this board