The Persian Wars opposed the Greeks to the Persians of the Achaemenid Empire at the beginning of the 5th century BC. They were triggered by the revolt of the Asian Greek cities against Persian dominance, with Athens' intervention on their behalf leading to reprisal. The two military expeditions of Achaemenid sovereigns Darius I and Xerxes I constitute the main military episodes of this conflict; it concluded with the spectacular victory of the European Greek cities led by Athens and Sparta.

They traditionally mark the transition from the archaic period to the classical period.

The Persian Wars began with the Ionian revolt. This revolt has obscure origins. According to Herodotus, in 502, the Persians sought help from Aristagoras, the tyrant of Miletus, to quell the rebellion of Naxos. Aristagoras agreed, provided he was recognized afterward as the ruler of the island. He failed, and to protect himself from certain death, he incited a revolt among the Milesians and other inhabitants of the Ionian islands. The revolt broke out in 499. Aristagoras went to mainland Greece to seek help, but only Athens and Eretria agreed to assist him by sending 20 and 5 warships, totaling 2000 men.

In 498, the Greek offensive resulted in the capture and burning of the city of Sardis (the former capital of Croesus). Following a defeat near Ephesus, the Athenians and Eretrians returned home, leaving the Ionians, who were very poorly united, to fend for themselves against the Persians. The Ionian revolt ended in 494, with Miletus being captured and sacked, women and children taken into slavery, and the fleet annihilated during the Battle of Lade.

Continental Greece, especially Athens, was saddened by this defeat. Herodotus wrote that the spectators at a tragedy by Phrynichos about the capture of Miletus burst into tears during its performance. Phrynichos also had to pay a hefty fine for recalling national misfortunes. In 493, Themistocles was elected archon of Athens. He quickly decided to build the port of Piraeus to develop a strong military fleet, sensing the increasingly pressing threat from the Persians. Darius sent ambassadors to the Greek cities to demand their submission. Athens and Sparta were among the few cities to refuse the offer.

FIRST PERSIAN WAR

The first Persian war erupted in 490. The Persian forces, led by Admiral Datis and General Artaphernes, departed from Cilicia (in southern Anatolia) and subdued the Greek islands on their way. They captured and sacked Eretria, enslaving its population. Then, they landed north of Marathon in Attica, where the Athenians awaited them, joined only by the Plataeans, as the Spartans were busy celebrating the religious festival of Karnéia. The Battle of Marathon was a resounding success for Athens and its hoplites, who dissuaded the Persians from landing elsewhere on the shores of Attica due to their rapid movement.

• THE BATTLE OF MARATHON

The Persians turned back but maintained control of the Aegean Sea. A revolt broke out in Egypt, preventing Darius from attacking Greece immediately. In 486, he died, and his son Xerxes I took his place.

The famous battle took place in the coastal plain that bears the name of a locality situated about 35 kilometers northeast of Athens, where Persians and Athenians fought in ~ 490 (September 21?). When landing at Marathon, the Persians likely intended to lure the opposing army away from its capital to enable their supporters to seize it. Indeed, under the inspiration of Miltiades, the Athenians took the offensive. The two armies faced each other for several days, with the Persians on the shore, and the Greeks in the hills to monitor the roads leading to the city and wait for the Spartans they had called for reinforcements. The approach of the latter or the hope of success for their supporters led the Persian leaders to embark most of their troops for transportation to Phalerum. The Athenians immediately attacked the rear guard that covered the operation. Faced with forces still twice their number, they had to stretch their center and reinforce their wings to avoid being enveloped. Racing past the dangerous zone where they were within range of enemy archers, they approached the adversary at full speed. Their center was pushed back, but their victorious wings closed in on the bulk of the Persian forces, threw them into disarray, and pursued the fugitives to the ships where they were attempting to take refuge. Shortly thereafter, they took the forced march back to their capital, arriving in time to dissuade their enemies from landing there. On the Athenian side, 9,000 men and 1,000 allied Plataeans were lined up; losses were limited to 192 dead. On the Persian side, of the 20,000 men engaged in combat, 6,400 perished.

PREPARATIONS

From 490 to 480, the Greek cities returned to their habits, without worrying about the threat of the Persians. Leonidas became the King of Sparta, and only Athens seemed to prepare under the impetus of the new strategist Themistocles, who, by exploiting the silver mines of Laurion, built 200 triremes at the port of Piraeus.

Xerxes, for his part, prepared the offensive via the northern route, bridges of boats were constructed over the Strymon and the Hellespont, and supply depots were established along the land and sea routes. At the threshold of the second Persian war, the Persians appeared much more powerful than the Greek states. The numbers vary according to ancient and contemporary historians, but the Persians were believed to have a very large and better-prepared military force of nearly 150,000 men and 600 to 700 triremes, significantly more than during the first attempt.

Some Greek cities aware of the threat gathered at the Isthmus of Corinth in 481 to prepare for defense, and Leonidas was charged with taking command of the army of the Hellenic League.

SECOND PERSIAN WAR

In the summer of 480, Northern Greece was conquered by the Persians and Leonidas, with his 6 to 7,000 men, took position at the pass of Thermopylae while a Greek fleet of 300 triremes awaited the Persians at Cape Artemisium. The fighting raged, the Persians narrowly won at Artemisium. At Thermopylae, the battle, rendered famous by the courage of the Spartans, concluded after the betrayal of Ephialtes, who informed Xerxes to send detachments to outflank the pass and attack the Greeks from the rear. Leonidas decided to detach a large part of his army to protect the rear lines, keeping only a thousand men with him who resisted, as best they could, until their deaths. The land army gathered at the Isthmus, and the fleet at Salamis, leaving Central Greece and Attica in the hands of the Persians, who took advantage of this to set fire to the Acropolis of Athens. The Battle of Salamis was a significant Athenian victory, severely damaging the Persian ships. During the winter of 480, Xerxes decided to return to Sardis, leaving Mardonius, his brother-in-law, in charge of keeping the army stationed in Thessaly and Macedonia.

Hostilities resumed in 479, The Persians invaded Attica again, occupied Athens and Boeotia. Pausanias, who took over from Leonidas at the head of Sparta, gathered a large army composed mostly of Spartans, along with a few Athenians and Greeks from other cities. In August 479, Pausanias commanded an army of nearly 35,000 Greeks against the Persians and their Greek allies (70,000 to 120,000 men) at Plataea. This battle, significant for Sparta, was won following the death of Mardonius in the thick of the fight. The Persians who failed to flee were massacred, and the Greek fleet finished the job at Cape Mycale in Ionia. Cities previously under Persian control revolted. Following its success at Cape Mycale, Athens continued its advance to Sestos, where the Persian offensive had commenced three years earlier. The capture of Sestos by the Athenians marked the end of the Persian war. This truly concluded after the signing of the Peace of Callias in 448.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE PERSIAN WARS

Following the success of the allied Greeks, a significant portion of the Persian fleet was destroyed, and all Persian garrisons were expelled from Europe, marking the end of Persian expansion into the western part of the continent. The cities of Ionia were also freed from Persian control. However, despite their successes, the spoils of war sparked a more significant internal conflict within the Hellenic world. The violent actions of Spartan leader Pausanias during the siege of Byzantium, for example, alienated many Greek states from Sparta and shifted military command of the Delian League from Sparta to Athens. This set the stage for Sparta's eventual withdrawal from the Delian League.

IN PERSIA

After their defeats at the hands of the Greeks and plagued by internal rebellions that hampered their ability to fight foreign enemies, the Persians adopted a policy of division and domination. Starting in 449 BC, the Persians attempted to exacerbate the growing tensions between Athens and Sparta, even going so far as to corrupt politicians to achieve these goals. Their strategy was to distract the Greeks with internal conflict to prevent the tide of counterattacks from reaching the Persian Empire. Their strategy was largely successful, with no open conflict between the Greeks and Persia until 396 BC when Spartan king Agesilaus briefly invaded Asia Minor.