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希腊的 “黑暗时代”
提起希腊，我们的第一反应就是美丽的爱琴海和影响了西方两千年的希腊文明以及那些瑰丽的希腊神话。可你知道吗？希腊也有一段 “黑暗时代” （Greek Dark Ages），正是在那段Dark Ages中，诞生了欧美历史上最璀璨的着作之一——荷马史诗。因此，希腊的黑暗时代又被称为荷马时代（Homeric Age）。那是一段怎么样的历史呢，为什么 “黑暗” 呢？
Reading in a single sitting 一口气读完这段历史
The Greek Dark Age or Ages (1100 BC–800 BC) are terms which have regularly been used to refer to the period of Greek history from the presumed Dorian（多里安人）invasion and end of the Mycenaean（迈锡尼）Palatial civilization around 1200 BC, to the first signs of the Greek city–states in the 9th century BC. These terms are gradually going out of use, since the former lack of archaeological evidence in a period that was mute in its lack of inscriptions (thus “dark” ) has been shown to be an accident of discovery rather than a fact of history.
The archaeological evidence shows a widespread collapse of Bronze Age（青铜时代）civilization in the eastern Mediterranean（地中海）world at the outset of the period, as the great palaces and cities of the Mycenaean’ s were destroyed or abandoned. Around this time, the Hittite（赫梯） civilization suffered serious disruption and cities from Troy（特洛伊）to Gaza（加沙）were destroyed. Following the collapse, fewer and smaller settlements suggest famine and depopulation. In Greece the Linear B writing of the Greek language used by Mycenaean bureaucrats ceases. The decoration on Greek pottery after ca 1100 BC lacks the figurative decoration of Mycenaean ware and is restricted to simpler, generally geometric styles (1000–700 BC). It was previously thought that all contact was lost between mainland Hellenes and foreign powers during this period, yielding little cultural progress or growth; however, artifacts from excavations show that significant cultural and trade links with the east, particularly the Levant coast, developed from 900 BC onwards, and evidence has emerged of the new presence of Hellenes in sub–Mycenaean Cyprus and on the Syrian coast at Al Mina.
With the collapse of the palatial centres, no more monumental stone buildings were built and the practice of wall painting may have ceased; writing in the Linear B script ceased, vital trade links were lost, and towns and villages were abandoned. The population of Greece was reduced, and the world of organized state armies, kings, officials, and redistributive systems that offered security to individuals disappeared. Most of the information about the period comes from burial sites and the grave goods contained within them. To what extent the earliest Greek literary sources, Homeric epics (8th–7th century) and Hesiod’ s（赫西奥德，希腊诗人）Works and Days (7th century) describe life in the 9th–8th centuries remains a matter of considerable debate.
The fragmented, localized and autonomous cultures of reduced complexity are noted for such diversity of their material cultures in pottery styles (conservative in Athens, eclectic at Knossos), burial practices and settlement structures, that generalizations about a “Dark Age society” are misleading. Tholos tombs are found in early Iron Age Thessaly and in Crete but not in general elsewhere, and cremation is the dominant rite in Attica（阿提卡，古希腊的一个地方）, but nearby in the Argolid it was inhumation. Some former sites of Mycenaean palaces, such as Argos（阿哥斯）or Knossos（克诺索斯）, continued to be occupied; other sites’ experienceing an expansive “boom time” of a generation or two before they were abandoned, James Whitley has associated with the “Big–man social organization”, based on personal charisma and inherently unstable: he interprets Lefkandi in this light.
Some regions in Greece, such as Attica, Euboea（埃维厄岛）and central Crete（克里特岛）, recovered economically from these events faster than others, but life for the poorest Greeks would have remained relatively unchanged as it had done for centuries. There was still farming, weaving, metalworking and potting in this time, albeit at a lower level of output and for local use in local styles. Some technical innovations were introduced around 1050 BC with the start of the Proto–geometric style (1050–900 BC), such as the superior pottery technology, which resulted in a faster potter’ s wheel for superior vase shapes and the use of a compass to draw perfect circles and semicircles for decoration. Better glazes were achieved by higher temperature firing of clay. However, the overall trend was toward simpler, less intricate pieces and fewer resources being devoted to the creation of beautiful art.
During this time the smelting of iron was learnt from Cyprus（塞浦路斯）and the Levant, exploited and improved upon, using local deposits of iron ore previously ignored by the Mycenaeans: edged weapons were now within reach of less elite warriors. Though the universal use of iron was one shared feature among Dark Age settlements, it is still uncertain when the forged iron weapons and armour achieved superior strength to those that had been previously cast and hammered from bronze. From 1050 BC many small local iron industries appeared, and by 900 almost all weapons in grave goods were made of iron.
The distribution of the Ionic Greek dialect in historic times indicates early movement from the mainland of Greece to the Anatolian coast to such sites as Miletus（米利都）, Ephesus（以弗所）, and Colophon, perhaps as early as 1000 BC, though the contemporaneous evidence is scanty. In Cyprus some archaeological sites begin to show identifiably Greek ceramics, a colony of Euboean（埃维亚岛）Greeks was established at Al Mina on the Syrian（叙利亚）coast, and a reviving Aegean（爱琴海）Greek network of exchange can be detected from 10th–century Attic Proto–geometic pottery found in Crete and at Samos（萨摩斯）, off the coast of Asia Minor（小亚细亚）.
从约公元前1200年至公元前800年，多利安人入侵、迈锡尼文明灭亡、最早的希腊城邦开始崛起、荷马史诗等最早的希腊文写作出现……这就是 “黑暗时期” 的大致轮廓。在这一时期，希腊的文明世界开始衰落，迈锡尼人雄伟的宫殿被摧毁或是遗弃，希腊语停止被书写，陶器只有简单的几何装饰。人口急剧减少，国际贸易逐渐丧失，与其他文明的联络也消失了，导致社会文化等的全面停滞。希腊先民在经济、文化的 “黑暗” 中度过了整整400年，等待着希腊城邦崛起的曙光。
invasion：入侵，侵略
Palatial：壮丽的、宫殿般的
archaeological：考古学的
bureaucrat：官僚、官僚主义者
artifact：手工艺品
monumental：不朽的、纪念碑的
tholos：圆屋、圆形建筑
charisma：魅力、非凡领导力
pottery：陶器、制陶术
intricate：复杂的、纠缠的
armour：盔甲、护面
contemporaneous：同时期的
Key Words in History 历史关键词
1. Homer荷马
In the Western classical tradition Homer is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics are at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.
When he lived is controversial. Herodotus estimates that Homer lived 400 years before Herodotus’ own time, which would place him at around 850 BC; while other ancient sources claim that he lived much nearer to the supposed time of the Trojan War, in the early 12th Century BC.
For modern scholars “the date of Homer” refers not to an individual, but to period when the epics were created. The formative influence played by the Homeric epics in shaping Greek culture was widely recognized, and Homer was described as the teacher of Greece.
2. Iliad伊利亚特
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set in the Trojan War, the ten–year siege of Ilium by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. Although the story covers only a few weeks in the final year of the war, the Iliad mentions or alludes to many of the Greek legends about the siege. Along with the Odyssey, also attributed to Homer, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version is usually dated to around the eighth century BC. The Iliad contains over 15, 000 lines, and is written in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek with other dialects.
3. Odyssey奥德赛
The Odyssey is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon. Indeed it is the second–the Iliad being the first–extant work of Western literature. It was probably composed near the end of the 8th century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the Greek–speaking coastal region of what is now Turkey.
The poem mainly centers on the Greek hero Odysseus (or Ulysses, as he was known in Roman myths) and his long journey home following the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten–year Trojan War. In his absence, it is assumed he has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors, the Mnesteres or Proci, competing for Penelope’ s hand in marriage.
It continues to be read in the Homeric Greek and translated into modern languages around the world. The original poem was composed in an oral tradition by an aoidos (epic poet/singer), perhaps a rhapsode (professional performer), and was more likely intended to be sung than read. The details of the ancient oral performance, and the story’ s conversion to a written work inspire continual debate among scholars. The Odyssey was written in a regionless poetic dialect of Greek and comprises 12, 110 lines of dactylic hexameter. Among the most impressive elements of the text are its non–linear plot, and that events seem to depend as much on the choices made by women and serfs as on the actions of fighting men. In the English language as well as many others, the word odyssey has come to refer to an epic voyage.
Background Knowledge 背景知识补充
“黑暗时代” 开始于迈锡尼文明的没落。而迈锡尼文明的衰落，在时间上恰恰与赫梯文明、埃及文明的衰落相对应，其原因可能为某个装备有铁兵器的海上民族的入侵。当多利安人南下希腊的时候，他们也装备有更为先进的铁兵器，可以轻易地将已然衰弱的迈锡尼人逐走。于是，这些武器先进，但是文明欠发达的民族，开创了希腊的黑暗时代。
这一历史时期之所以被称为 “黑暗” 主要有两个原因：黑暗，最明显的理由，是因为我们没有任何关于他们的史料和记录，我们找不到这些记录，因此称之为黑暗。另一个理由是，黑暗从悲观的角度来说就是不好的、坏的。这是一个艰难的时代，一个困苦的时代，一个不幸的时代，一个悲惨的时代，这就是黑暗时代。黑暗时代紧随着迈锡尼文明的陨落到来，这段历史的部分内容，是迈锡尼文明与地中海地区源远流长的关系，尤其是与东部港口城市的联系切断了。不管是政治、经济还是文化，希腊成了一个孤岛。
现在，我们只能从考古学发现以及《荷马史诗》中去追寻那一时期的历史踪迹。人们相信，荷马史诗中含有一些黑暗时代口头传承下来的传统，但是荷马作品的历史真实性仍广为争论。因为荷马史诗中所塑造的大多为半人半神的英雄（Hero) ，是介于人和神（God) 之间的一种生物。所以，黑暗时代的真相到底如何，还有待历史学家和考古学家进一步研究。
爱琴文明
爱琴文明是希腊及爱琴地区史前文明的总称。它曾被称为 “迈锡尼文明” ，因为这一文明的存在被海因里希? 施里曼对迈锡尼始于1876年的发掘而进入人们的视野。然而，后续的发现证明迈锡尼在爱琴文明的早期（甚至任何时期）并不占中心的地位，因而后来更多地使用更为一般的地理名称来命名这个文明。
Reading in a single sitting 一口气读完这段历史
The missing Minoans: 20th–15th century BC
It is astonishing that history should lose all track of a civilization which lasts for six centuries, makes superb ceramics and metalwork, trades extensively over a wide region, and houses its rulers in palaces elaborately decorated with superb fresco paintings. Yet this has been the case with the Minoans in Crete, until the excavation of Knossos.
We still know little more about them than is suggested by Minoan art and artefacts. It is typical that the name they have been given derives from a figure of myth rather than history–Minos, the legendary king of Crete whose pet creature is the Minotaur, a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull which feeds on young human flesh.
Three very similar palaces have been excavated in Crete from the Minoan period–at Knossos, Mallia and Phaistos. Built from around 2000 BC, each is constructed round a large public courtyard; each has provision for the storage of large quantities of grain; each is believed to be the administrative centre for a large local population. The number at Knossos has been variably estimated as between 15, 000 and 50, 000 people.
Administrative records and accounts are kept on clay tablets in a script as yet undeciphered (it is known as Linear A). Archaeological discoveries reveal that trade is carried on round the entire Mediterranean coast from Sicily in the west to Egypt in the southeast.
Overseas there are outposts of Minoan culture. It is not known whether they are colonies or more in the nature of trading partners, influenced by the culture of Crete. Notable among them is the city of Akrotiri, on the island of Thera. Its houses, apparently those of rich merchants, have survived with their frescoes intact. Several of the houses stand to a height of three storeys, with their floors still in place.
The reason for their preservation is the eruption of the island’ s volcano in about 1525 BC. Like Pompeii a millennium and a half later, Akrotiri is pickled in volcanic ash.
Defensive walls are notably absent in Minoan Crete, as also are paintings of warfare. This seems to have been a peaceful as well as a prosperous society. But its end is violent. In about 1425 BC all the towns and palaces of Crete, except Knossos itself, are destroyed by fire.
It is not known whether this is a natural disaster, which gives Greeks from the mainland their chance, or whether Greek invaders destroy Minoan Crete–keeping only the main palace for their own use. But it is certain that the next generation of rulers introduce the culture of mainland Mycenae, and they keep their accounts in the Mycenaean script–Linear B. It seems probable that a Mycenaean invasion ends Minoan civilization.
The first Greek civilization: from the 16th century BC
The discovery that Linear B is a Greek script places Mycenae at the head of the story of Greek civilization. Its right to this place of honour is reinforced in legend and literature. The supposed occupants of the Mycenaean palaces are the heroes of Homer’ s Iliad.
Archaeology reveals the rulers of these early Greeks to have been as proud and warlike as Homer suggests.
Their fortress palaces are protected by walls of stone blocks, so large that only giants would seem capable of heaving them into place. This style of architecture has been appropriately named Cyclopean, after the Cyclopes (a race of one–eyed giants encountered by Odysseus in the Odyssey). The walls at Tiryns, said in Greek legend to have built by the Cyclopes for the legendary king Proteus, provide the most striking example.
At Mycenae it is the gateway through the walls which proclaims power, with two great lions standing above the massive lintel.
Royal burials at Mycenae add to the impression of a powerful military society. The tombs of the 16th century (known as ‘shaft graves’ because the burial is at the bottom of a deep shaft) contain a profusion of bronze swords and daggers, of a kind new to the region, together with much gold treasure, including death masks of the kings.
By the 14th century the graves themselves become more in keeping with the status of their occupants, with the development of the tholos or ‘beehive’ style of tomb. The most impressive is the so–called Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, with its high domed inner chamber (independently pioneered in Neolithic western Europe 2500 years previously).
The earliest known suit of armour comes from a Mycenaean tomb, at Dendra. The helmet is a pointed cap, cunningly shaped from slices of boar’ s tusk. Bronze cheek flaps are suspended from it, reaching down to a complete circle of bronze around the neck. Curving sheets of bronze cover the shoulders. Beneath them there is a breast plate, and then three more circles of bronze plate, suspended one from the other, to form a semi–flexible skirt down to the thighs. Greaves, or shinpads of bronze, complete the armour.
The Mycenaean warrior’ s weapons are a bronze sword and a bronze–tipped spear. His shield is of stiff leather on a wooden frame. Similar weapons are used, several centuries later, by the Greek hoplites.
Trade and conquest: 13th–12th century BC
By the 13th century Mycenaean rulers control to varying degrees the whole of the Peloponnese, together with the eastern side of mainland Greece as far north as Mount Olympus, the large islands of Crete and Rhodes and many smaller islands. This is indeed a civilization which spreads around and through most of the Aegean.
Mycenaeans trade the length of the Mediterranean, from the traditional markets of the eastern coasts to new ones as far away as Spain in the west. They also have long–range trading contacts with Neolithic societies in the interior of Europe.
In the latter half of the 13th century, according to well–established oral tradition, the rulers of Mycenaean Greece combine forces to assault a rich city on the other side of the Aegean Sea. The city is Troy. Some four centuries later the oral tradition will be written down as the Iliad.
In Homer’ s poem it takes many years before Troy is finally subdued. If there is truth in this, the war perhaps fatally weakens the Greeks. Certainly archaeology reveals that the successful Mycenaean civilization comes to an abrupt end not very much later–in about 1200 BC.
The sudden destruction of Mycenaean palaces in Greece is part of a wider pattern of chaos in the eastern Mediterranean. As far away as Egypt, the pharaohs fight off invasion by raiders whom they describe as people “from the sea”. It is a mystery, then as now, exactly where these predators come from.
The most likely answer is the southern and western coasts of Anatolia. The rulers of Anatolia, the Hittites, are among their victims. So also are the communities of the eastern Mediterranean, where some of the Sea Peoples settle–to become known as the Philistines.
Doric and Ionic: from the 12th century BC
In muted form Mycenaean Greece survives this first assault. But it suffers a final blow later in the 12th century at the hands of the Dorians–northern tribesmen, as yet uncivilized, who speak the Doric dialect of Greek. The Dorians move south from Macedonia and roam through the Peloponnese. They have the advantage of iron technology, which helps them to overwhelm the Bronze Age Mycenaeans.
The Dorian incursion plunges Greece into a period usually referred to as a dark age. But Dorian military traditions survive to play a profound part in the heyday of classical Greece. The ruthlessly efficient Spartans will claim the Dorians as their ancestors, and model themselves upon them.
The rival tradition in classical Greece is linked with Athens, an outpost of Mycenaean culture. Athens successfully resists the Dorians and becomes something of a place of refuge for those fleeing the invaders.
With the encouragement of Athens, from about 900 BC, non–Dorian Greeks migrate to form colonies on the west coast of Anatolia. These colonies eventually merge to form Ionia (Ionic is the dialect spoken by the Athenians and by many other Greek tribes). In subsequent centuries Ionia, with Athens, becomes a cradle of the classical Greek civilization. So there is a genuine continuity from Mycenae. It is reflected in the romantic idea of Mycenaean Greeks expressed by Homer–himself probably a native of Ionia.
存在了至少三千多年的爱琴文明在多大程度上可以被认为是持续的？考古发掘提供了许多证据以回答这一问题。爱琴文明的根可以追溯到漫长的原始新石器时代，这一时期代表为克诺索斯将近6米厚的地层，它包含了石器以及手工制作打磨的器皿的碎片，显示了从底层到顶端持续的技术发展。
米诺斯文明层可能比希沙立克（Hissarlik）的最底层年代更早。它的结束标志为对陶器上白色充填的锯齿状装饰的引进，还发现了以其单色颜料对其主题的复制品。在这一阶段的结束后，紧接着的是青铜时代的开端以及米诺斯文明的第一阶段。因此，对于分层的仔细观察可以辨认出另外八个阶段，每一个阶段都标志有陶器风格的重要进步。这些阶段占据了整个青铜时代，而后者的终结，标志为铁这一更为先进的材料的引入，也宣告了爱琴时代的落幕。
astonishing：使人吃惊的，惊人的
eruption：喷发，爆发
prosperous：普罗斯珀勒斯
civilization：文明，文化
military：军事的，军用的; 军人的；武装的
bronze：青铜，深红棕色的，青铜色的
migrate：迁移; 移往
Key Words in History 历史关键词
1. Commerce商业
Commerce was practiced to some extent in very early times, as is proved by the distribution of Melian obsidian throughout the Aegean area. We find Cretan vessels exported to Melos, Egypt and the Greek mainland. After 1600 B.C. E. there are indications of very close commerce with Egypt, and Aegean things made their way along the coasts of the Mediterranean. No traces of currency have been found, unless certain axeheads, too slight for practical use, were used for this purpose. The Aegean written documents found outside the area, have not yet proved to be epistolary (letter writing) correspondence with other countries. Representations of ships are not common, but several have been observed on Aegean gems, gem–sealings and vases. They are vessels of low free–board, with masts. Their familiarity with the sea has been proven by the free use of marine motifs in their decorating.
Later in the twentieth century, discoveries of sunken trading vessels along the coasts have brought to the forefront an enormous amount of new information regarding the culture.
2. The Minoan Civilization米诺斯文明
The origin of the Minoans is unknown, but by 1600 BC they dominated the Aegean region. They lived on Crete from about 2500 BC to 1400 BC, when they were conquered by Mycenaeans from the Greek mainland. Their prosperity depended upon seafaring and trade, especially with the Middle East and with Egypt.
In 1900 the British archaeologist Arthur Evans began excavations at Knossos that eventually revealed a great palace that covered 5.5 acres (2.2 hectares). There were no surrounding walls at Knossos, as in the Mycenaean cities. The palace and the city had been protected by a powerful navy. Evans found storerooms with huge oil jars still in place, elaborate bathrooms, ventilation and drainage systems, and waste disposal chutes. The pottery was as fine as porcelain. Paintings on walls and pottery showed the dress of the women, with puffed sleeves and flounced skirts. The palace of Knossos was destroyed during the 14th century BC.
The Minoans worshiped a mother goddess, whose symbol was the double–bladed ax, called a labrys. The name of the symbol and the maze of rooms in the palace recall the story of the labyrinth. According to Greek mythology, Daedalus built a labyrinth for Minos to house the man–eating Minotaur, half man and half bull. Painted on the palace walls are pictures of acrobats vaulting over the backs of bulls. This sport may have given rise to the myth. After the Greeks conquered the Minoans they absorbed such stories into their mythology.
3. Mycenae Cities迈锡尼城邦
In 1876 Heinrich Schliemann began excavating Mycenae. Still visible today is the acropolis, with its broken stone walls and Lion Gate. Within the walls Schliemann uncovered the graves of bodies covered with gold masks, breastplates, armbands, and girdles. In the graves of the women were golden diadems, golden laurel leaves, and exquisite ornaments shaped like animals, flowers, butterflies, and cuttlefish.
Schliemann thought he had found the burial place of Agamemnon and his followers. Later study proved the bodies belonged to a period 400 years earlier than the Trojan War. Rulers of another dynasty were buried outside the walls in strange beehive tombs.
Other great cities of the same period were Pylos, the legendary capital of King Nestor, and Tiryns. It is not known to what extent Mycenae controlled other centers of the Achaean civilization. It is known that Mycenaean trade extended to Sicily, Egypt, Palestine, Troy, Cyprus, and Macedonia.
Background Knowledge 背景知识补充
爱琴文明是指公元前20世纪至公元前12世纪间的爱琴海域的上古文明。它是指公元前20世纪至前12世纪存在于地中海东部的爱琴海岛、希腊半岛及小亚细亚西部的欧洲青铜时代的文明，因围绕爱琴海域而得名。在希腊文明之前，是最早的欧洲文明，是西方文明的源泉。主要包括米诺斯文明和迈锡尼文明两大阶段，前后相继。有兴旺的农业和海上贸易，宫室建筑及绘画艺术均很发达，是世界古代文明的一个重要代表。公元前2000年左右，爱琴文明发祥于克里特岛，后来文明中心移至希腊半岛，出现迈锡尼文明。克里特岛文明和迈锡尼文明合称爱琴文明，历史约800年，它是古希腊文明的开端。
现在这里所称的 “爱琴地区” 已经扩大到了包括克里特和塞浦路斯在内的爱琴海群岛、希腊半岛、爱奥尼亚诸岛、西安那托利亚。它的分支可以延伸到西地中海地区，西西里、意大利、撒丁那、西班牙以及东地中海地区，包括叙利亚和埃及。而对于昔兰尼卡地区，还需更多的了解。
希波战争
希波战争是古代波斯帝国为了扩张版图而入侵希腊的战争，战争以希腊获胜，波斯战败而告结束。这次战争对东西方经济与文化的影响远大过战争本身。
Reading in a single sitting 一口气读完这段历史
The Greco–Persian Wars (also often called the Persian Wars) were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire of Persia and city–states of the Hellenic world that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world of the Greeks and the enormous empire of the Persians began when Cyrus the Great conquered Ionia in 547 BC. Struggling to rule the independent–minded cities of Ionia, the Persians appointed tyrants to rule each of them. This would prove the source of much trouble for both Greeks and Persians alike.
In 499 BC, the then tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras, embarked on an expedition to conquer the island of Naxos, with Persian support; however, the expedition was a debacle, and pre–empting his dismissal, Aristagoras incited all of Hellenic Asia Minor into rebellion against the Persians. This was the beginning of the Ionian Revolt, which would last until 493 BC, progressively drawing more regions of Asia Minor into the conflict. Aristagoras secured military support from Athens and Eretria, and in 498 BC, these forces helped to capture and burn the Persian regional capital of Sardis. The Persian king Darius the Great vowed to have revenge on Athens and Eretria for this act. The revolt continued, with the two sides effectively stalemated throughout 497BC–495 BC. In 494 BC, the Persians regrouped, and attacked the epicentre of the revolt in Miletus. At the Battle of Lade, the Ionians suffered a decisive defeat, and the rebellion collapsed, with the final members being stamped out the following year.
Seeking to secure his empire from further revolts, and from the interference of the mainland Greeks, Darius embarked on a scheme to conquer Greece, and to punish Athens and Eretria for burning Sardis. The first Persian invasion of Greece began in 492 BC, with the Persian general Mardonius conquering Thrace and Macedon before several mishaps forced an early end to the campaign. In 490 BC a second force was sent to Greece, this time across the Aegean Sea, under the command of Datis and Artaphernes. This expedition subjugated the Cyclades, before besieging, capturing and razing Eretria. However, while on route to attack Athens, the Persian force was decisively defeated by the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon, ending Persian efforts for the time being. Darius then began to plan the complete the conquest of Greece, but died in 486 BC and responsibility for the conquest passed to his son Xerxes I. In 480 BC, Xerxes personally led the second Persian invasion of Greece with one of the largest ancient armies ever assembled. Victory over the “Allied” Greek states (led by Sparta and Athens) at the Battle of Thermopylae allowed the Persians to overrun most of Greece. However, while seeking to destroy the Allied fleet, the Persians suffered a severe defeat at the Battle of Salamis. The following year, the Allies went on the offensive, defeating the Persian army at the Battle of Plataea, and ending the invasion of Greece.
The Allies followed up their success by destroying the rest of the Persian fleet at the Battle of Mycale, before expelling Persian garrisons from Sestos (479 BC) and Byzantium (478 BC). The actions of the general Pausanias at the siege of Byzantium alienated many of the Greek states from the Spartans, and the anti–Persian alliance was therefore reconstituted around Athenian leadership, as the so–called Delian League. The Delian League continued to campaign against Persia for the next three decades, beginning with the expulsion of the remaining Persian garrisons from Europe. At the Battle of the Eurymedon in 466 BC, the League won a double victory that finally secured freedom for the cities of Ionia. However, the League’ s involvement in an Egyptian revolt (from 460BC–454 BC) resulted in a disastrous defeat and a further campaigning was suspended. A fleet was sent to Cyprus in 451 BC, but achieved little, and when it withdrew, the Greco–Persian Wars drew to a quiet end. Some historical sources suggest the end of hostilities was marked by a peace treaty between Athens and Persia, the so–called Peace of Callias.
前479年，波斯王派大将统率50000大军再度进攻希腊，这次特米斯托克利斯再次使用空城计移师海面。而斯巴达则统率伯罗奔尼撒半岛联军共三万与波斯陆军于普拉提亚进行决战，并击毙了波斯大将，结果波斯军大败，只得再次撤回东方。该年，以雅典为首的希腊海军反攻波斯，攻进小亚细亚，使小亚细亚诸希腊城邦脱离波斯的统治。公元前478年，希波战争以双方签订卡里阿斯和约而告结束，波斯帝国从此承认小亚细亚之希腊城邦的独立地位，并且将其军队撤出爱琴海与黑海地区。
conflict战斗，斗争
collision碰撞，冲突，抵触
embark乘船，装载，从事
progressively前进地，日益增加地，逐渐地
pevolt造反，起义，反抗，违抗，起义，叛乱
conquer攻克，征服
command命令，指挥，控制
alliance联盟，同盟
Key Words in History 历史关键词
1. Battle of Marathon马拉松战役
The Persian fleet next headed south down the coast of Attica, landing at the bay of Marathon, roughly 25 miles (40 km) from Athens [80] Under the guidance of Miltiades, the general with the greatest experience of fighting the Persians, the Athenian army marched to block the two exits from the plain of Marathon. Stalemate ensued for five days, before the Athenians (for reasons that are unclear) decided to attack the Persians. Despite the numerical advantage of the Persians, the hoplites proved devastatingly effective against the more lightly armed Persian infantry, routing the wings before turning in on the centre of the Persian line. The remnants of the Persian army fled to their ships and left the battle. Herodotus records that 6, 400 Persian bodies were counted on the battlefield; the Athenians lost only 192 men.