Persian Wars

1st Persian War. The battle of Marathon was the first battle of the Persian war, which occurred in 490 BC.

490 BCE

This battle inspired the marathon race, after the legend of Pheidippides who was said to run 26 miles, from Marathon to Athens, to tell the Athenians that they had had won.The Athenians put their strongest soilders on the outside and their weaker soilders in the center. The persians put their strongest soldiers in the center, and their weakest soldiers on the inside. In the end the Athenian soldiers closed in on the persian soldiers and won the battle.

2nd Persian War

480 BCE

The battle of Thermopylae began in late summer of 480 BC. King Xerxes wanted revenge on his father, Darius, so he sent an army to Greece to meet up with the spartan led army at Thermopylae. The Persians won the war and the 300 Spartans who had survived, decided to die rather than give up the body of their king.

3rd Persian War

480 BCE

After the Persian victory at Thermopylae King Xerxes went to Athens which he captured in the last days of September 480-481 BC. The Greeks are successful because for the first time, they are united. The greeks formed the Delian league however the Spartans did not join. At last there is a period of Peace and Prosperity for the greeks, and they do not have to worry about being ready for battle.

The Delian League

477 BCE

The Delian League was formed on the Island of Delos in 477 BC. The leader of the Delian League was the city-state of Athens, and it was made to continue fighting the Persians after the second Persian invasion. Sparta did not join the Delian league, however the rest of the Greek city states did, and it became successful.