Greco - Persian Wars 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 tyrant s to rule each of them . This would prove to be the source of much trouble for the 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 497 – 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 en 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 to 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 torch Athens and overrun most of Greece . However , while seeking to destroy the combined Greek fleet , the Persians suffered a severe defeat at the Battle of Salamis . The following year , the confederated Greeks went on the offensive , defeating the Persian army at the Battle of Plataea , and ending the invasion of Greece . The allied Greeks 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 460 – 454 BC ) resulted in a disastrous defeat , and 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 . Sources . Almost all the primary sources for the Greco - Persian Wars are Greek ; there are no surviving historical accounts from the Persian side . By some distance , the main source for the Greco - Persian Wars is the Greek historian Herodotus . Herodotus , who has been called the " Father of History " , was born in 484 BC in Halicarnassus , Asia Minor ( then part of the Persian empire ) . He wrote his ' Enquiries ' ( Greek — " Historia " ; English — " ( The ) Histories " ) around 440 – 430 BC , trying to trace the origins of the Greco - Persian Wars , which would still have been recent history . Herodotus ' s approach was novel and , at least in Western society , he invented ' history ' as a discipline . As Holland has it : " For the first time , a chronicler set himself to trace the origins of a conflict not to a past so remote so as to be utterly fabulous , nor to the whims and wishes of some god , nor to a people ' s claim to manifest destiny , but rather explanations he could verify personally . " Some later ancient historians , starting with Thucydides , criticised Herodotus . Nevertheless , Thucydides chose to begin his history where Herodotus left off ( at the Siege of Sestos ) and felt Herodotus ' s history was accurate enough not to need re - writing or correcting . Plutarch criticised Herodotus in his essay " On The Malignity of Herodotus " , describing Herodotus as " " Philobarbaros " " ( barbarian - lover ) for not being pro - Greek enough , which suggests that Herodotus might actually have done a reasonable job of being even - handed . A negative view of Herodotus was passed on to Renaissance Europe , though he remained well read . However , since the 19th century his reputation has been dramatically rehabilitated by archaeological finds that have repeatedly confirmed his version of events . The prevailing modern view is that Herodotus did a remarkable job in his " Historia " , but that some of his specific details ( particularly troop numbers and dates ) should be viewed with skepticism . Nevertheless , there are still some historians who believe Herodotus made up much of his story . The military history of Greece between the end of the second Persian invasion of Greece and the Peloponnesian War ( 479 – 431 BC ) is not well supported by surviving ancient sources . This period , sometimes referred to as the " pentekontaetia " by ancient scholars , was a period of relative peace and prosperity within Greece . The richest source for the period , and also the most contemporaneous , is Thucydides ' " History of the Peloponnesian War " , which is generally considered by modern historians to be a reliable primary account . Thucydides only mentions this period in a digression on the growth of Athenian power in the run up to the Peloponnesian War , and the account is brief , probably selective and lacks any dates . Nevertheless , Thucydides ' s account can be , and is , used by historians to draw up a skeleton chronology for the period , on to which details from archaeological records and other writers can be superimposed . More detail for the whole period is provided by Plutarch , in his biographies of Themistocles , Aristides and especially Cimon . Plutarch was writing some 600 years after the events in question , and is therefore a secondary source , but he often names his sources , which allows some degree of verification of his statements . In his biographies , he draws directly from many ancient histories that have not survived , and thus often preserves details of the period that are omitted in Herodotus and Thucydides ' s accounts . The final major existing source for the period is the universal history ( " Bibliotheca historica " ) of the 1st century BC Sicilian , Diodorus Siculus . Much of Diodorus ' s writing about this period is drawn from the much earlier Greek historian Ephorus , who also wrote a universal history . Diodorus is also a secondary source and often derided by modern historians for his style and inaccuracies , but he preserves many details of the ancient period found nowhere else . Further scattered details can be found in Pausanias ' s " Description of Greece " , while the Byzantine Suda dictionary of the 10th century AD preserves some anecdotes found nowhere else . Minor sources for the period include the works of Pompeius Trogus ( epitomized by Justinus ) , Cornelius Nepos and Ctesias of Cnidus ( epitomized by Photius ) , which are not in their original textual form . These works are not considered reliable ( especially Ctesias ) , and are not particularly useful for reconstructing the history of this period . Origins of the conflict . The Greeks of the classical period believed that , in the dark age that followed the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization , significant numbers of Greeks fled and had emigrated to Asia Minor and settled there . Modern historians generally accept this migration as historic ( but separate from the later colonization of the Mediterranean by the Greeks ) . There are , however , those who believe the Ionian migration cannot be explained as simply as the classical Greeks claimed . These settlers were from three tribal groups : the Aeolians , Dorians and Ionians . The Ionians had settled about the coasts of Lydia and Caria , founding the twelve cities that made up Ionia . These cities were Miletus , Myus and Priene in Caria ; Ephesus , Colophon , Lebedos , Teos , Clazomenae , Phocaea and Erythrae in Lydia ; and the islands of Samos and Chios . Although the Ionian cities were independent of one another , they recognized their shared heritage and supposedly had a common temple and meeting place , the " Panionion " . They thus formed a ' cultural league ' , to which they would admit no other cities , or even other tribal Ionians . The cities of Ionia remained independent until they were conquered by the Lydians of western Asia Minor . The Lydian king Alyattes II attacked Miletus , a conflict that ended with a treaty of alliance between Miletus and Lydia , that meant that Miletus would have internal autonomy but follow Lydia in foreign affairs . At this time , the Lydians were also in conflict with the Median Empire , and the Milesians sent an army to aid the Lydians in this conflict . Eventually a peaceable settlement was established between the Medes and the Lydians , with the Halys River set up as the border between the kingdoms . The famous Lydian king Croesus succeeded his father Alyattes in around 560 BC and set about conquering the other Greek city states of Asia Minor . The Persia n prince Cyrus led a rebellion against the last Median king Astyages in 553 BC . Cyrus was a grandson of Astyages and was supported by part of the Median aristocracy . By 550 BC , the rebellion was over , and Cyrus had emerged victorious , founding the Achaemenid Empire in place of the Median kingdom in the process . Croesus saw the disruption in the Median Empire and Persia as an opportunity to extend his realm and asked the oracle of Delphi whether he should attack them . The Oracle supposedly replied the famously ambiguous answer that " if Croesus was to cross the Halys he would destroy a great empire " . Blind to the ambiguity of this prophecy , Croesus attacked the Persians , but was eventually defeated and Lydia fell to Cyrus . While fighting the Lydians , Cyrus had sent messages to the Ionians asking them to revolt against Lydian rule , which the Ionians had refused to do . After Cyrus finished the conquest of Lydia , the Ionian cities now offered to be his subjects under the same terms as they had been subjects of Croesus . Cyrus refused , citing the Ionians ' unwillingness to help him previously . The Ionians thus prepared to defend themselves , and Cyrus sent the Median general Harpagus to conquer them . He first attacked Phocaea ; the Phocaeans decided to abandon their city entirely and sail into exile in Sicily , rather than become Persian subjects ( although many later returned ) . Some Teians also chose to emigrate when Harpagus attacked Teos , but the rest of the Ionians remained , and were each in turn conquered . In the years following their conquest , the Persians found the Ionians difficult to rule . Elsewhere in the empire , Cyrus identified elite native groups such as the priesthood of Judea – to help him rule his new subjects . No such group existed in Greek cities at this time ; while there was usually an aristocracy , this was inevitably divided into feuding factions . The Persians thus settled for sponsoring a tyrant in each Ionian city , even though this drew them into the Ionians ' internal conflicts . Furthermore , certain tyrants might develop an independent streak and have to be replaced . The tyrants themselves faced a difficult task ; they had to deflect the worst of their fellow citizens ' hatred , while staying in the favour of the Persians . In the past , Greek states had often been ruled by tyrants , but that form of government was on the decline . Past tyrants had also tended and needed to be strong and able leaders , whereas the rulers appointed by the Persians were simply place - men . Backed by the Persian military might , these tyrants did not need the support of the population , and could thus rule absolutely . On the eve of the Greco - Persian wars , it is probable that the Ionian population had become discontent and was ready for rebellion . Warfare in the ancient Mediterranean . In the Greco - Persian wars both sides made use of spear - armed infantry and light missile troops , Greek armies placed the emphasis on heavier infantry , while Persian armies favoured lighter troop types . Persia . The Persian military consisted of a diverse group of men drawn from across the empire . However , according to Herodotus , there was at least a general conformity in armour and style of fighting . The troops were usually armed with a bow , a ' short spear ' and a sword or axe , carried a wicker shield . They wore a leather jerkin , although individuals of high stature wore high quality metal armor . The Persians most likely used their bows to wear down the enemy , then closed in to deliver the final blow with spears and swords . The first rank of Persian infantry formations , the so - called ' sparabara ' , had no bows , carried larger wicker shields and were sometimes armed with longer spears . Their role was to protect the back ranks of the formation . The cavalry probably fought as lightly armed missile cavalry . Greece . The style of warfare between the Greek city - states , which dates back until at least 650 BC ( as dated by the ' Chigi vase ' ) , was based around the hoplite phalanx supported by missile troops . The ' hoplite s ' were foot soldiers usually drawn from the members of the middle - classes ( in Athens called the " zeugites " ) , who could afford the equipment necessary to fight in this manner . The heavy armour usually included a breastplate or a linothorax , greaves , a helmet , and a large round , concave shield ( the " aspis or hoplon " ) . Hoplites were armed with long spears ( the " dory " ) , which were significantly longer than Persian spears , and a sword ( the " xiphos " ) . The heavy armour and longer spears made them superior in hand - to - hand combat and gave them significant protection against ranged attacks . Lightly armed skirmishers , the psiloi also comprised a part of Greek armies growing in importance during the conflict ; at the Battle of Plataea , for instance , they may have formed over half the Greek army . Use of cavalry in Greek armies is not reported in the battles of the Greco - Persian Wars . Naval warfare . At the beginning of the conflict , all naval forces in the eastern Mediterranean had switched to the trireme , a warship powered by three banks of oars . The most common naval tactics during the period were ramming ( Greek triremes were equipped with a cast - bronze ram at the bows ) , or boarding by ship - borne marines . More experienced naval powers had by this time also begun to use a manoeuver known as " diekplous " . It is not clear what this was , but it probably involved sailing into gaps between enemy ships and then ramming them in the side . The Persian naval forces were primarily provided by the Phoenicians , Egyptians , Cilicians and Cypriots . Other coastal regions of the Persian Empire would contribute ships throughout the course of the wars . Ionian Revolt ( 499 – 493 BC ) . The Ionian Revolt and associated revolts in Aeolis , Doris , Cyprus , and Caria were military rebellions by several regions of Asia Minor against Persian rule , lasting from 499 to 493 BC . At the heart of the rebellion was the dissatisfaction of the Greek cities of Asia Minor with the tyrants appointed by Persia to rule them , along with opposition to the individual actions of two Milesian tyrants , Histiaeus and Aristagoras . In 499 BC the then tyrant of Miletus , Aristagoras , launched a joint expedition with the Persian satrap Artaphernes to conquer Naxos , in an attempt to bolster his position in Miletus ( both financially and in terms of prestige ) . The mission was a debacle , and sensing his imminent removal as tyrant , Aristagoras chose to incite the whole of Ionia into rebellion against the Persian king Darius the Great . Struggling to rule the independent - minded cities of Ionia , the Persians appointed local tyrant s to rule each of them . This would prove to be the source of much trouble for the Greeks and Persians alike . In 498 BC , supported by troops from Athens and Eretria , the Ionians marched on , captured , and burnt Sardis . However , on their return journey to Ionia , they were followed by Persian troops , and decisively beaten at the Battle of Ephesus . This campaign was the only offensive action taken by the Ionians , who subsequently went on the defensive . The Persians responded in 497 BC with a three - pronged attack aimed at recapturing the outlying areas of the rebellious territory , but the spread of the revolt to Caria meant the largest army , under Darius , moved there instead . While at first campaigning successfully in Caria , this army was wiped out in an ambush at the Battle of Pedasus . This resulted in a stalemate for the rest of 496 and 495 BC . By 494 BC the Persian army and navy had regrouped , and they made straight for the epicentre of the rebellion at Miletus . The Ionian fleet sought to defend Miletus by sea , but was defeated decisively at the Battle of Lade , after the Samians had defected . Miletus was then besieged , captured , and its population was enslaved . This double defeat effectively ended the revolt , and the Carians surrendered to the Persians as a result . The Persians spent 493 BC reducing the cities along the west coast that still held out against them , before finally imposing a peace settlement on Ionia that was considered to be both just and fair . The Ionian Revolt constituted the first major conflict between Greece and the Achaemenid Empire and represents the first phase of the Greco - Persian Wars . Asia Minor had been brought back into the Persian fold , but Darius had vowed to punish Athens and Eretria for their support for the revolt . Moreover , seeing that the political situation in Greece posed a continued threat to the stability of his Empire , he decided to embark on the conquest of all Greece . First invasion of Greece ( 492 – 490 BC ) . After conquering Ionia , the Persians began to plan their next moves of extinguishing the threat to their empire from Greece ; and punishing Athens and Eretria . The resultant first Persian invasion of Greece consisted of two main campaigns . 492 BC : Mardonius ' s campaign . The first campaign , in 492 BC , was led by Darius ' s son - in - law Mardonius , who re - subjugated Thrace , which had nominally been part of the Persian empire since 513 BC . Mardonius was also able to force Macedon to become a client kingdom of Persia ; it had previously been allied but independent . However , further progress in this campaign was prevented when Mardonius ' s fleet was wrecked in a storm off the coast of Mount Athos . Mardonius himself was then injured in a raid on his camp by a Thracian tribe , and after this he returned with the rest of the expedition to Asia . The following year , having given clear warning of his plans , Darius sent ambassadors to all the cities of Greece , demanding their submission . He received it from almost all of them , except Athens and Sparta , both of whom instead executed the ambassadors . With Athens still defiant , and Sparta now also effectively at war with him , Darius ordered a further military campaign for the following year . 490 BC : Datis and Artaphernes ' campaign . In 490 BC , Datis and Artaphernes ( son of the satrap Artaphernes ) were given command of an amphibious invasion force , and set sail from Cilicia . The Persian force sailed from Cilicia first to the island of Rhodes , where a Lindian Temple Chronicle records that Datis besieged the city of Lindos , but was unsuccessful . The fleet sailed next to Naxos , to punish the Naxians for their resistance to the failed expedition the Persians had mounted there a decade earlier . Many of the inhabitants fled to the mountains ; those that the Persians caught were enslaved . The Persians then burnt the city and temples of the Naxians . The fleet then proceeded to island - hop across the rest of the Aegean on its way to Eretria , taking hostages and troops from each island . The task force sailed on to Euboea , and to the first major target , Eretria . The Eretrians made no attempt to stop the Persians from landing or advancing and thus allowed themselves to be besieged . For six days , the Persians attacked the walls , with losses on both sides ; however , on the seventh day two reputable Eretrians opened the gates and betrayed the city to the Persians . The city was razed , and temples and shrines were looted and burned . Furthermore , according to Darius ' s commands , the Persians enslaved all the remaining townspeople . Battle of Marathon . The Persian fleet next headed south down the coast of Attica , landing at the bay of Marathon , roughly from Athens 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 Persians decided to continue onward to Athens , and began to load their troops back onto the ships . After the Persians had loaded their cavalry ( their strongest soldiers ) on the ships , the 10 , 000 Athenian soldiers descended from the hills around the plain . The Greeks crushed the weaker Persian foot soldiers by routing the wings before turning towards 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 . As soon as the Persian survivors had put to sea , the Athenians marched as quickly as possible to Athens . They arrived in time to prevent Artaphernes from securing a landing in Athens . Seeing his opportunity lost , Artaphernes ended the year ' s campaign and returned to Asia . The Battle of Marathon was a watershed in the Greco - Persian wars , showing the Greeks that the Persians could be beaten . It also highlighted the superiority of the more heavily armoured Greek hoplites , and showed their potential when used wisely . The Battle of Marathon is perhaps now more famous as the inspiration for the Marathon race . Interbellum ( 490 – 480 BC ) . Achaemenid Empire . After the failure of the first invasion , Darius began raising a huge new army with which he intended to subjugate Greece completely . However , in 486 BC , his Egyptian subjects revolted , and the revolt forced an indefinite postponement of any Greek expedition . Darius died while preparing to march on Egypt , and the throne of Persia passed to his son Xerxes I . Xerxes crushed the Egyptian revolt , and very quickly resumed the preparations for the invasion of Greece . Since this was to be a full scale invasion , it needed longterm planning , stockpiling and conscription . Xerxes decided that the Hellespont would be bridged to allow his army to cross to Europe , and that a canal should be dug across the isthmus of Mount Athos ( a Persian fleet had been destroyed in 492 BC while rounding this coastline ) . These were both feats of exceptional ambition that would have been beyond the capabilities of any other contemporary state . However , the campaign was delayed by one year because of another revolt in Egypt and Babylonia . The Persians had the sympathy of several Greek city - states , including Argos , which had pledged to defect when the Persians reached their borders . The Aleuadae family , who ruled Larissa in Thessaly , saw the invasion as an opportunity to extend their power . Thebes , though not explicitly ' Medising ' , was suspected of being willing to aid the Persians once the invasion force arrived . In 481 BC , after roughly four years of preparation , Xerxes began to muster the troops to invade Europe . Herodotus gives the names of 46 nations from which troops were drafted . The Persian army was gathered in Asia Minor in the summer and autumn of 481 BC . The armies from the Eastern satrapies were gathered in Kritala , Cappadocia and were led by Xerxes to Sardis where they passed the winter . Early in spring , it moved to Abydos where it was joined with the armies of the western satrapies . Then the army that Xerxes had mustered marched towards Europe , crossing the Hellespont on two pontoon bridges . Size of the Persian forces . The numbers of troops that Xerxes mustered for the second invasion of Greece have been the subject of endless dispute . Most modern scholars reject as unrealistic the figures of 2 . 5 million given by Herodotus and other ancient sources because the victors likely miscalculated or exaggerated . The topic has been hotly debated , but the consensus revolves around the figure of 200 , 000 . The size of the Persian fleet is also disputed , although perhaps less so . Other ancient authors agree with Herodotus ' number of 1 , 207 . These numbers are by ancient standards consistent , and this could be interpreted that a number around 1 , 200 is correct . Among modern scholars , some have accepted this number , although suggesting the number must have been lower by the Battle of Salamis . Other recent works on the Persian Wars reject this number , viewing 1 , 207 as more of a reference to the combined Greek fleet in the Iliad . These works generally claim that the Persians could have launched no more than around 600 warships into the Aegean . Greek city states . Athens . A year after Marathon , Miltiades , the hero of Marathon , was injured in a military campaign to Paros . Taking advantage of his incapacitation , the powerful Alcmaeonid family arranged for him to be prosecuted for the failure of the campaign . A huge fine was imposed on Miltiades for the crime of ' deceiving the Athenian people ' , but he died weeks later from his wound . The politician Themistocles , with a power base firmly established amongst the poor , filled the vacuum left by Miltiades ' s death , and in the following decade became the most influential politician in Athens . During this period , Themistocles continued to support the expansion of Athen ' s naval power . The Athenians were aware throughout this period that the Persian interest in Greece had not ended , and Themistocles ' s naval policies may be seen in the light of the potential threat from Persia . Aristides , Themistocles ' s great rival , and champion of the " zeugites " ( the ' upper hoplite - class ' ) vigorously opposed such a policy . In 483 BC , a vast new seam of silver was found in the Athenian mines at Laurium . Themistocles proposed that the silver should be used to build a new fleet of triremes , ostensibly to assist in a long running war with Aegina . Plutarch suggests that Themistocles deliberately avoided mentioning Persia , believing that it was too distant a threat for the Athenians to act on , but that countering Persia was the fleet ' s aim . Fine suggests that many Athenians must have admitted that such a fleet would be needed to resist the Persians , whose preparations for the coming campaign were known . Themistocles ' s motion was passed easily , despite strong opposition from Aristides . Its passage was probably due to the desire of many of the poorer Athenians for paid employment as rowers in the fleet . It is unclear from the ancient sources whether 100 or 200 ships were initially authorised ; both Fine and Holland suggest that at first 100 ships were authorised and that a second vote increased this number to the levels seen during the second invasion . Aristides continued to oppose Themistocles ' s policy , and tension between the two camps built over the winter , so the ostracism of 482 BC became a direct contest between Themistocles and Aristides . In what Holland characterises as , in essence , the world ' s first referendum , Aristides was ostracised , and Themistocles ' s policies were endorsed . Indeed , becoming aware of the Persian preparations for the coming invasion , the Athenians voted to build more ships than those for which Themistocles had asked . Thus , during the preparations for the Persian invasion , Themistocles had become the leading politician in Athens . Sparta . The Spartan king Demaratus had been stripped of his kingship in 491 BC , and replaced with his cousin Leotychides . Sometime after 490 BC , the humiliated Demaratus had chosen to go into exile , and had made his way to Darius ' s court in Susa . Demaratus would from then on act as an advisor to Darius , and later Xerxes , on Greek affairs , and accompanied Xerxes during the second Persian invasion . At the end of Herodotus ' s book 7 , there is an anecdote relating that prior to the second invasion , Demaratus sent an apparently blank wax tablet to Sparta . When the wax was removed , a message was found scratched on the wooden backing , warning the Spartans of Xerxes ' s plans . However , many historians believe that this chapter was inserted into the text by a later author , possibly to fill a gap between the end of book 7 and the start of book 8 . The veracity of this anecdote is therefore unclear . Hellenic alliance . In 481 BC , Xerxes sent ambassadors to city states throughout Greece , asking for food , land , and water as tokens of their submission to Persia . However , Xerxes ' ambassadors deliberately avoided Athens and Sparta , hoping thereby that those states would not learn of the Persians ' plans . States that were opposed to Persia thus began to coalesce around these two city states . A congress of states met at Corinth in late autumn of 481 BC , and a confederate alliance of Greek city - states was formed . This confederation had powers both to send envoys to ask for assistance and to dispatch troops from the member states to defensive points after joint consultation . Herodotus does not formulate an abstract name for the union but simply calls them " " ( the Greeks ) and " the Greeks who had sworn alliance " ( Godley translation ) or " the Greeks who had banded themselves together " ( Rawlinson translation ) . From now on , they will be referred to as the ' Allies ' . Sparta and Athens had a leading role in the congress but the interests of all the states influenced defensive strategy . Little is known about the internal workings of the congress or the discussions during its meetings . Only 70 of the nearly 700 Greek city - states sent representatives . Nevertheless , this was remarkable for the disjointed Greek world , especially since many of the city - states present were still technically at war with one another . Second invasion of Greece ( 480 – 479 BC ) . Early 480 BC : Thrace , Macedonia and Thessaly . Having crossed into Europe in April 480 BC , the Persian army began its march to Greece , taking 3 months to travel unopposed from the Hellespont to Therme . It paused at Doriskos where it was joined by the fleet . Xerxes reorganized the troops into tactical units replacing the national formations used earlier for the march . The Allied ' congress ' met again in the spring of 480 BC and agreed to defend the narrow Vale of Tempe on the borders of Thessaly and block Xerxes ' s advance . However , once there , they were warned by Alexander I of Macedon that the vale could be bypassed and that the army of Xerxes was overwhelmingly large , thus the Greeks retreated . Shortly afterwards , they received the news that Xerxes had crossed the Hellespont . At this point , a second strategy was suggested by Themistocles to the allies . The route to southern Greece ( Boeotia , Attica and the Peloponnesus ) would require the army of Xerxes to travel through the narrow pass of Thermopylae . This could easily be blocked by the Greek hoplites , despite the overwhelming numbers of Persians . Furthermore , to prevent the Persians bypassing Thermopylae by sea , the Athenian and allied navies could block the straits of Artemisium . This dual strategy was adopted by the congress . However , the Peloponnesian cities made fall - back plans to defend the Isthmus of Corinth should it come to it , while the women and children of Athens were evacuated to the Peloponnesian city of Troezen . August 480 BC : Battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium . Xerxes ' s estimated time of arrival at Thermopylae coincided with both the Olympic Games and the festival of Carneia . For the Spartans , warfare during these periods was considered sacrilegious . Despite the uncomfortable timing , the Spartans considered the threat so grave that they dispatched their king Leonidas I with his personal bodyguard ( the " Hippeis " ) of 300 men . The customary elite young men in the Hippeis were replaced by veterans who already had children . Leonidas was supported by contingents from the Allied Peloponnesian cities , and other forces that the Allies picked up on the way to Thermopylae . The Allies proceeded to occupy the pass , rebuilt the wall the Phocia ns had built at the narrowest point of the pass , and waited for Xerxes ' s arrival . When the Persians arrived at Thermopylae in mid - August , they initially waited for three days for the Allies to disperse . When Xerxes was eventually persuaded that the Allies intended to contest the pass , he sent his troops to attack . However , the Allied position was ideally suited to hoplite warfare , the Persian contingents being forced to attack the Greek phalanx head on . The Allies withstood two full days of Persian attacks , including those by the elite Persian Immortals . However , towards the end of the second day , they were betrayed by a local resident named Ephialtes who revealed to Xerxes a mountain path that led behind the Allied lines . Made aware by scouts that they were being outflanked , Leonidas dismissed most of the Allied army , remaining to guard the rear with perhaps 2 , 000 men . On the final day of the battle , the remaining Allies sallied forth from the wall to meet the Persians in the wider part of the pass to slaughter as many Persians as they could , but eventually they were all killed or captured . Simultaneous with the battle at Thermopylae , an Allied naval force of 271 triremes defended the Straits of Artemisium against the Persians , thus protecting the flank of the forces at Thermopylae . Here the Allied fleet held off the Persians for three days ; however , on the third evening the Allies received news of the fate of Leonidas and the Allied troops at Thermopylae . Since the Allied fleet was badly damaged , and since it no longer needed to defend the flank of Thermopylae , the Allies retreated from Artemisium to the island of Salamis . September 480 BC : Battle of Salamis . Victory at Thermopylae meant that all Boeotia fell to Xerxes ; Attica was then open to invasion . The remaining population of Athens was evacuated , with the aid of the Allied fleet , to Salamis . The Peloponnesian Allies began to prepare a defensive line across the Isthmus of Corinth , building a wall , and demolishing the road from Megara , abandoning Athens to the Persians . Athens thus fell to the Persians ; the small number of Athenians who had barricaded themselves on the Acropolis were eventually defeated , and Xerxes then ordered Athens to be razed . The Persians had now captured most of Greece , but Xerxes had perhaps not expected such defiance ; his priority was now to complete the war as quickly as possible . If Xerxes could destroy the Allied navy , he would be in a strong position to force an Allied surrender ; conversely by avoiding destruction , or as Themistocles hoped , by destroying the Persian fleet , the Allies could prevent conquest from being completed . The Allied fleet thus remained off the coast of Salamis into September , despite the imminent arrival of the Persians . Even after Athens fell , the Allied fleet remained off the coast of Salamis , trying to lure the Persian fleet to battle . Partly because of deception by Themistocles , the navies met in the cramped Straits of Salamis . There , the Persian numbers became a hindrance , as ships struggled to maneuver and became disorganised . Seizing the opportunity , the Allied fleet attacked , and scored a decisive victory , sinking or capturing at least 200 Persian ships , therefore ensuring the safety of the Peloponnessus . According to Herodotus , after the loss of the battle Xerxes attempted to build a causeway across the channel to attack the Athenian evacuees on Salamis , but this project was soon abandoned . With the Persians ' naval superiority removed , Xerxes feared that the Allies might sail to the Hellespont and destroy the pontoon bridges . His general Mardonius volunteered to remain in Greece and complete the conquest with a hand - picked group of troops , while Xerxes retreated to Asia with the bulk of the army . Mardonius over - wintered in Boeotia and Thessaly ; the Athenians were thus able to return to their burnt - out city for the winter . June 479 BC : Battles of Plataea and Mycale . Over the winter , there was some tension among the Allies . In particular , the Athenians , who were not protected by the Isthmus , but whose fleet was the key to the security of the Peloponnesus , felt that they had been treated unfairly , and so they refused to join the Allied navy in the spring . Mardonius remained in Thessaly , knowing an attack on the Isthmus was pointless , while the Allies refused to send an army outside the Peloponessus . Mardonius moved to break the stalemate , by offering peace to the Athenians , using Alexander I of Macedon as an intermediate . The Athenians made sure that a Spartan delegation was on hand to hear the Athenians reject the Persians ' offer . Athens was thus evacuated again , and the Persians marched south and re - took possession of it . Mardonius now repeated his offer of peace to the Athenian refugees on Salamis . Athens , with Megara and Plataea , sent emissaries to Sparta demanding assistance , and threatening to accept the Persian terms if they were not aided . In response , the Spartans summoned a large army from the Peloponnese cities and marched to meet the Persians . When Mardonius heard the Allied army was on the march , he retreated into Boeotia , near Plataea , trying to draw the Allies into open terrain where he could use his cavalry . The Allied army , under the command of the regent Pausanias , stayed on high ground above Plataea to protect themselves against such tactics . After several days of maneuver and stalemate , Pausanias ordered a night - time retreat towards the Allies ' original positions . This maneuver went awry , leaving the Athenians , and Spartans and Tegeans isolated on separate hills , with the other contingents scattered further away near Plataea . Seeing that the Persians might never have a better opportunity to attack , Mardonius ordered his whole army forward . However , the Persian infantry proved no match for the heavily armoured Greek hoplites , and the Spartans broke through to Mardonius ' s bodyguard and killed him . After this the Persian force dissolved in rout ; 40 , 000 troops managed to escape via the road to Thessaly , but the rest fled to the Persian camp where they were trapped and slaughtered by the Greeks , finalising the Greek victory . Herodotus recounts that , on the afternoon of the Battle of Plataea , a rumour of their victory at that battle reached the Allies ' navy , at that time off the coast of Mount Mycale in Ionia . Their morale boosted , the Allied marines fought and won a decisive victory at the Battle of Mycale that same day , destroying the remnants of the Persian fleet , crippling Xerxes ' s sea power , and marking the ascendancy of the Greek fleet . Whilst many modern historians doubt that Mycale took place on the same day as Plataea , the battle may well only have occurred once the Allies received news of the events unfolding in Greece . Greek counterattack ( 479 – 478 BC ) . Mycale and Ionia . Mycale was , in many ways , the beginning of a new phase in the conflict , in which the Greeks would go on the offensive against the Persians . The immediate result of the victory at Mycale was a second revolt amongst the Greek cities of Asia Minor . The Samians and Milesians had actively fought against the Persians at Mycale , thus openly declaring their rebellion , and the other cities followed in their example . Sestos . Shortly after Mycale , the Allied fleet sailed to the Hellespont to break down the pontoon bridges , but found that this had already been done . The Peloponnesians sailed home , but the Athenians remained to attack the Chersonesos , still held by the Persians . The Persians and their allies made for Sestos , the strongest town in the region . Amongst them was one Oeobazus of Cardia , who had with him the cables and other equipment from the pontoon bridges . The Persian governor , Artayctes had not prepared for a siege , not believing that the Allies would attack . The Athenians therefore were able to lay a siege around Sestos . The siege dragged on for several months , causing some discontent amongst the Athenian troops , but eventually , when the food ran out in the City , the Persians fled at night from the least guarded area of the city . The Athenians were thus able to take possession of the city the next day . Most of the Athenian troops were sent straight away to pursue the Persians . The party of Oeobazus was captured by a Thracian tribe , and Oeobazus was sacrificed to the god Plistorus . The Athenians eventually caught Artayctes , killing some of the Persians with him but taking most of them , including Artayctes , captive . Artayctes was crucified at the request of the people of Elaeus , a town which Artayctes had plundered while governor of the Chersonesos . The Athenians , having pacified the region , then sailed back to Athens , taking the cables from the pontoon bridges with them as trophies . Cyprus . In 478 BC , still operating under the terms of the Hellenic alliance , the Allies sent out a fleet composed of 20 Peloponnesian and 30 Athenian ships supported by an unspecified number of allies , under the overall command of Pausanias . According to Thucydides , this fleet sailed to Cyprus and " subdued most of the island " . Exactly what Thucydides means by this is unclear . Sealey suggests that this was essentially a raid to gather as much booty as possible from the Persian garrisons on Cyprus . There is no indication that the Allies attempted to take possession of the island , and , shortly after , they sailed to Byzantium . Certainly , the fact that the Delian League repeatedly campaigned in Cyprus suggests either that the island was not garrisoned by the Allies in 478 BC , or that the garrisons were quickly expelled . Byzantium . The Greek fleet then sailed to Byzantium , which they besieged and eventually captured . Control of both Sestos and Byzantium gave the allies command of the straits between Europe and Asia ( over which the Persians had crossed ) , and allowed them access to the merchant trade of the Black Sea . The aftermath of the siege was to prove troublesome for Pausanias . Exactly what happened is unclear ; Thucydides gives few details , although later writers added plenty of lurid insinuations . Through his arrogance and arbitrary actions ( Thucydides says " violence " ) , Pausanias managed to alienate many of the Allied contingents , particularly those that had just been freed from Persian overlordship . The Ionians and others asked the Athenians to take leadership of the campaign , to which they agreed . The Spartans , hearing of his behaviour , recalled Pausanias and tried him on charges of collaborating with the enemy . Although he was acquitted , his reputation was tarnished and he was not restored to his command . Pausanias returned to Byzantium as a private citizen in 477 BC , and took command of the city until he was expelled by the Athenians . He then crossed the Bosporus and settled in Colonae in the Troad , until he was again accused of collaborating with the Persians and was recalled by the Spartans for a trial after which he starved himself to death . The timescale is unclear , but Pausanias may have remained in possession of Byzantium until 470 BC . In the meantime , the Spartans had sent Dorkis to Byzantium with a small force , to take command of the Allied force . However , he found that the rest of the Allies were no longer prepared to accept Spartan leadership , and therefore returned home . Wars of the Delian League ( 477 – 449 BC ) . Delian League . After Byzantium , the Spartans were allegedly eager to end their involvement in the war . The Spartans were supposedly of the view that , with the liberation of mainland Greece and the Greek cities of Asia Minor , the war ' s purpose had already been reached . There was also perhaps a feeling that securing long - term security for the Asian Greeks would prove impossible . In the aftermath of Mycale , the Spartan king Leotychides had proposed transplanting all the Greeks from Asia Minor to Europe as the only method of permanently freeing them from Persian dominion . Xanthippus , the Athenian commander at Mycale , had furiously rejected this ; the Ionian cities were originally Athenian colonies , and the Athenians , if no - one else , would protect the Ionians . This marks the point at which the leadership of the Greek Alliance effectively passed to the Athenians . With the Spartan withdrawal after Byzantium , the leadership of the Athenians became explicit . The loose alliance of city - states that had fought against Xerxes ' s invasion had been dominated by Sparta and the Peloponnesian league . With the withdrawal of these states , a congress was called on the holy island of Delos to institute a new alliance to continue the fight against the Persians . This alliance , now including many of the Aegean islands , was formally constituted as the ' First Athenian Alliance ' , commonly known as the Delian League . According to Thucydides , the official aim of the League was to " avenge the wrongs they suffered by ravaging the territory of the king " . In reality , this goal was divided into three main efforts — to prepare for future invasion , to seek revenge against Persia , and to organize a means of dividing spoils of war . The members were given a choice of either supplying armed forces or paying a tax to the joint treasury ; most states chose the tax . Campaigns against Persia . Throughout the 470s BC , the Delian League campaigned in Thrace and the Aegean to remove the remaining Persian garrisons from the region , primarily under the command of the Athenian politician Cimon . In the early part of the next decade , Cimon began campaigning in Asia Minor , seeking to strengthen the Greek position there . At the Battle of the Eurymedon in Pamphylia , the Athenians and allied fleet achieved a stunning double victory , destroying a Persian fleet and then landing the ships ' marines to attack and rout the Persian army . After this battle , the Persians took an essentially passive role in the conflict , anxious not to risk battle if possible . Towards the end of the 460s BC , the Athenians took the ambitious decision to support a revolt in the Egyptian satrapy of the Persian empire . Although the Greek task force achieved initial successes , they were unable to capture the Persian garrison in Memphis , despite a 3 - year long siege . The Persians then counterattacked , and the Athenian force was itself besieged for 18 months , before being wiped out . This disaster , coupled with ongoing warfare in Greece , dissuaded the Athenians from resuming conflict with Persia . In 451 BC however , a truce was agreed in Greece , and Cimon was then able to lead an expedition to Cyprus . However , while besieging Kition , Cimon died , and the Athenian force decided to withdraw , winning another double victory at the Battle of Salamis - in - Cyprus in order to extricate themselves . This campaign marked the end of hostilities between the Delian League and Persia , and therefore the end of the Greco - Persian Wars . Peace with Persia . After the Battle of Salamis - in - Cyprus , Thucydides makes no further mention of conflict with the Persians , saying that the Greeks simply returned home . Diodorus , on the other hand , claims that in the aftermath of Salamis , a full - blown peace treaty ( the " Peace of Callias " ) was agreed with the Persians . Diodorus was probably following the history of Ephorus at this point , who in turn was presumably influenced by his teacher Isocrates — from whom there is the earliest reference to the supposed peace , in 380 BC . Even during the 4th century BC , the idea of the treaty was controversial , and two authors from that period , Callisthenes and Theopompus , appear to reject its existence . It is possible that the Athenians had attempted to negotiate with the Persians previously . Plutarch suggests that in the aftermath of the victory at the Eurymedon , Artaxerxes had agreed a peace treaty with the Greeks , even naming Callias as the Athenian ambassador involved . However , as Plutarch admits , Callisthenes denied that such a peace was made at this point ( c . 466 BC ) . Herodotus also mentions , in passing , an Athenian embassy headed by Callias , which was sent to Susa to negotiate with Artaxerxes . This embassy included some Argive representatives and can probably be therefore dated to c . 461 BC ( after an alliance was agreed between Athens and Argos ) . This embassy may have been an attempt to reach some kind of peace agreement , and it has even been suggested that the failure of these hypothetical negotiations led to the Athenian decision to support the Egyptian revolt . The ancient sources therefore disagree as to whether there was an official peace or not , and , if there was , when it was agreed . Opinion amongst modern historians is also split ; for instance , Fine accepts the concept of the Peace of Callias , whereas Sealey effectively rejects it . Holland accepts that some kind of accommodation was made between Athens and Persia , but no actual treaty . Fine argues that Callisthenes ' s denial that a treaty was made after the Eurymedon does not preclude a peace being made at another point . Further , he suggests that Theopompus was actually referring to a treaty that had allegedly been negotiated with Persia in 423 BC . If these views are correct , it would remove one major obstacle to the acceptance of the treaty ' s existence . A further argument for the existence of the treaty is the sudden withdrawal of the Athenians from Cyprus in 449 BC , which Fine suggests makes most sense in the light of some kind of peace agreement . On the other hand , if there was indeed some kind of accommodation , Thucydides ' s failure to mention it is odd . In his digression on the " pentekontaetia " , his aim is to explain the growth of Athenian power , and such a treaty , and the fact that the Delian allies were not released from their obligations after it , would have marked a major step in the Athenian ascendancy . Conversely , it has been suggested that certain passages elsewhere in Thucydides ' s history are best interpreted as referring to a peace agreement . There is thus no clear consensus amongst modern historians as to the treaty ' s existence . If the treaty did indeed exist , its terms were humiliating for Persia . The ancient sources that give details of the treaty are reasonably consistent in their description of the terms : Aftermath and later conflicts . Towards the end of the conflict with Persia , the process by which the Delian League became the Athenian Empire reached its conclusion . The allies of Athens were not released from their obligations to provide either money or ships , despite the cessation of hostilities . In Greece , the First Peloponnesian War between the power - blocs of Athens and Sparta , which had continued on / off since 460 BC , finally ended in 445 BC , with the agreement of a thirty - year truce . However , the growing enmity between Sparta and Athens would lead , just 14 years later , into the outbreak of the Second Peloponnesian War . This disastrous conflict , which dragged on for 27 years , would eventually result in the utter destruction of Athenian power , the dismemberment of the Athenian empire , and the establishment of a Spartan hegemony over Greece . However , not just Athens suffered — the conflict would significantly weaken the whole of Greece . Repeatedly defeated in battle by the Greeks , and plagued by internal rebellions that hindered their ability to fight the Greeks , after 449 BC Artaxerxes I and his successors instead adopted a policy of divide - and - rule . Avoiding fighting the Greeks themselves , the Persians instead attempted to set Athens against Sparta , regularly bribing politicians to achieve their aims . In this way , they ensured that the Greeks remained distracted by internal conflicts , and were unable to turn their attentions to Persia . There was no open conflict between the Greeks and Persia until 396 BC , when the Spartan king Agesilaus briefly invaded Asia Minor ; as Plutarch points out , the Greeks were far too busy overseeing the destruction of their own power to fight against the " barbarians " . If the wars of the Delian League shifted the balance of power between Greece and Persia in favour of the Greeks , then the subsequent half - century of internecine conflict in Greece did much to restore the balance of power to Persia . The Persians entered the Peloponnesian War in 411 BC forming a mutual - defence pact with Sparta and combining their naval resources against Athens in exchange for sole Persian control of Ionia . In 404 BC when Cyrus the Younger attempted to seize the Persian throne , he recruited 13 , 000 Greek mercenaries from all over the Greek world , of which Sparta sent 700 – 800 , believing they were following the terms of the defence pact and unaware of the army ' s true purpose . After the failure of Cyrus , Persia tried to regain control of the Ionian city - states , which had rebelled during the conflict . The Ionians refused to capitulate and called upon Sparta for assistance , which she provided , in 396 – 395 BC . Athens , however , sided with the Persians , which led in turn to another large - scale conflict in Greece , the Corinthian War . Towards the end of that conflict , in 387 BC , Sparta sought the aid of Persia to shore up her position . Under the so - called " King ' s Peace " that brought the war to an end , Artaxerxes II demanded and received the return of the cities of Asia Minor from the Spartans , in return for which the Persians threatened to make war on any Greek state that did not make peace . This humiliating treaty , which undid all the Greek gains of the previous century , sacrificed the Greeks of Asia Minor so that the Spartans could maintain their hegemony over Greece . It is in the aftermath of this treaty that Greek orators began to refer to the Peace of Callias ( whether fictional or not ) , as a counterpoint to the shame of the King ' s Peace , and a glorious example of the " good old days " when the Greeks of the Aegean had been freed from Persian rule by the Delian League .