Greco-Persian Wars

The Greco-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts fought between 499 and 449 BCE between the Achaemenid Persian Empire and an alliance of Greek city-states, beginning with the Ionian Revolt of Greek cities in Asia Minor against Persian rule and escalating into two major Persian invasions of the Greek mainland. The first invasion ended in 490 BCE when an outnumbered Athenian-led force defeated the Persians at the Battle of Marathon, and the second, much larger invasion under King Xerxes I in 480 to 479 BCE saw a small Greek force delay the Persian army at Thermopylae before the decisive Greek naval victory at Salamis and land victory at Plataea drove Persian forces from mainland Greece for good. The wars' outcome preserved the independence of the Greek city-states, above all Athens and Sparta, whose subsequent political, cultural and military prominence shaped much of later Western intellectual tradition. The conflict is chiefly known through the Histories of Herodotus, often called the first work of history in the Western tradition, written within a few decades of the events themselves.