Persian Conquest of Greece. What would have been the real impact on Western Civ?

[Ideologue]

OK, fair enough, but does Macedon rely on those events to become a powerful kingdom and begin to interfere in Greek affairs?

(Not a rhetorical question.  I may be wrong.)

Yes.  Macedon had been defeated by the Persians during the initial phases of Xerxes' invasion.  They would be a satrapy or a client state of some sort if the Greeks had not defeated the Persians.

I was responding to the hypothetical PDH gave, in which the Persians didn't invade Greece at all...

Yeah, if the Persians invaded Greece, and achieved victory, they would have dominated Macedon as well.

[Valmy]

I was responding to the hypothetical PDH gave, in which the Persians didn't invade Greece at all...

Yeah, if the Persians invaded Greece, and achieved victory, they would have dominated Macedon as well.

Oh....well...again it is really hard to say.  I mean Macedon's success was sort of dependent on the Greeks ripping each other apart and if they had not defeated the Persians would that have even happened?

[PDH]

As I said, to my mind the hypothetical of Persia not invading is far more tantalizing than they do more damage in their huge raid.  Given what problems they caused in northern and central Greece, there were plenty of effects from the expedition as it was.

However, remove the impetus for the Athenians to expand, the Greeks as a whole to gain a mythos of "revenge" which the Macedonians later exploited, and indeed the problems caused by the Peloponnesian War in the form it took...the Persians not doing anything is a better problem I believe.

[Siege]

I mean how different would the world be if the Samnites had run over the Romans?  It would be dramatically different.  But it is almost impossible to imagine how.

This is a more interesting question, I think.
A world without Rome.
Imagine the possibilities.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Not a huge impact on Western civilization. Rome had a much bigger impact than Greece on Western civilization and Greek culture would still influence Rome pretty much as it did historically. So what if there's a satrap in Greece.

Rome took over what had become a Hellenized east.  Others have already touched on it but it bears repeating that the main issue would be whether you would still have an Alexander and a Hellenization of the East if the Persians won or indeed if they never invaded.

Or an Eastern Empire to carry on when the West collapsed.

[Razgovory]

I don't really consider the Greeks part of Western Civilization.

Given that all the gospels were first written in Greek, there would be less books by Dawkins at the very least.

I don't think of Christianity as uniquely Western.

[crazy canuck]

I don't really consider the Greeks part of Western Civilization.

Given that all the gospels were first written in Greek, there would be less books by Dawkins at the very least.

I don't think of Christianity as uniquely Western.

That is exactly the point. 

[The Brain]

Not a huge impact on Western civilization. Rome had a much bigger impact than Greece on Western civilization and Greek culture would still influence Rome pretty much as it did historically. So what if there's a satrap in Greece.

Rome took over what had become a Hellenized east.  Others have already touched on it but it bears repeating that the main issue would be whether you would still have an Alexander and a Hellenization of the East if the Persians won or indeed if they never invaded.

The thread is about Western civilization.

[Siege]

Maybe the Carthaginian Empire would have shaped the West.

[Valmy]

Maybe the Carthaginian Empire would have shaped the West.

We would all be sacrificing babies to Ba'al.

[Razgovory]

Well not Siege.  He'd still be a Jew.

[The Brain]

A Jew who secretly believes in Ba'al.