In the sixth century BC,
Cyrus the Great, the king of Anchan
created the Persian-Achaemenid Empire.
In just a couple of decades he and his son Cambyses
conquered numerous other kingdoms like Media, Libya,
Babylon and Egypt.
And Darius, who seized the throne, expanded
into Europe by conquering Scythian territory in 515 BC,
subjugating the Macedonians and taking numerous
cities in Thrace.
Greece at this time was divided up into a series of
small states, like Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes and Argos,
all of which were part of complicated rival alliances.
But there were other Greeks living under
Persian rule in Anatolia.
They were governed by Persian-appointed tyrants
and one these, Aristagoras of Miletus, unsuccessfully tried to capture Naxos.
So feeling his position was now under threat, he decided to lead the Ionian-Greeks
in open revolt against the Persians in 499 BC.
As the rebellion spread to Cyprus, Athens and Eretria sent troops to help the rebels capture Sardis in 498 BC,
but soon pulled out of the conflict.
Darius finally sent an army to capture Cyprus in 496 [BC], destroyed the Ionian navy
and ended the rebellion by 493 BC.
And in order to prevent the Greek states from supporting any more rebellions,
Darius decided to invaded the following year.
The first Persian campaign, led by Mardonius,
was successful in re-subjugating Thrace and Macedon.
But a storm prevented reinforcements from arriving.
This gave Greek states, like Athens and Sparta time to form an anti-Persian alliance.
The Persians invaded just a year later and the large fleet transported troops
first, to take Naxos, then Eretria and then landed on the mainland at Marathon.
An Athenian messenger, Pheidippides, was sent to Sparta to get help.
But the Spartans was celebrating a religious festival, so they refused.
Nevertheless, the Athenians met the Persians, but a stalemate ensued.
So the Persians decided to pull back and reach Athens by sea.
But the Greeks attacked the Persian footsoldiers that remained on land and won the battle of Marathon.
The defeated Persians still tried to outmanoeuvre the Greeks by taking Athens by sea,
but the Athenian army successfully made it back to Athens on land in time.
Darius died during the preparations for another invasion and his successor Xerxes had to
deal with insurrection in Egypt and Babylon.
So it wasn't until 481 that he was ready to move into Greece again.
An army of hundreds of thousands crossed Hellespont on a bridge of boats
and dug a canal across the isthmus of Mount Athos in 480 BC.
Soon Greek states such as Argos and Thebes may have been prepared to defect,
but many more Greek states had, by this point, formed an anti-Persian alliance.
Over 30 city-states met regularly to discuss the conduct of the war,
but they were indecisive.
So the Spartans under King Leonidas marched out to try and stop the Persians.
They were successful in delaying the Persian advance but ultimately were defeated at
the Battle of Thermopylae.
Meanwhile, the Athenians attacked the Persians at sea.
Under Themistocles, the Athenian navy had expanded a great deal
and they were able to delay the Persians at Artemisium.
But, they retreated when they heard of the Spartan's failure.
But now with no army prepared to stop the Persians, Athens was evacuated
and in September 480 BC, the Persians took it.
The Greeks pulled back to the isthmus of Corinth,
which was defended by the Peloponnesians,
and sent their fleets to attack the Persians once again.
This time, the Athenian navy crushed the Persians at the Battle of Salamis in September.
Sinking around 200 of their ships and forcing the Persians to retreat
because they couldn't resupply their troops.
But the Greeks under the Spartan, Pausanius, pursued the Persians,
defeated them at Plataea and continued to advance.
Athens took the city of Sestos in 478 BC, while the Spartans temporarily took Byzantium and raided Cyprus.
The Spartans, however, decided to make peace with the Persians
while their general Pausanius was alleged of conspiring with the Persians.
So, Aristides of Athens, helped create the Delian League, which was anti-Spartan,
and continued in the war against Persia.
Together, they expanded into Thrace and neighbouring islands
after Cimon, the hero of Salamis, crushed the Persian navy again
at Eurymedon in 467 BC.
In Persia, Xerxes was assassinated in 465 BC and domestic instability prevented them
from effectively fighting the Greeks.
For instance, the Egyptians revolted in 460 BC and the Delian League sent troops to aid them.
But the Persians were able to defeat the Greeks and restore order by 454 BC.
And the Greeks were also unsuccessful in trying to capture Cyprus in 450.
The wars then quietly came to an end as the Athenians focused on securing dominance in Greece,
through alliances, threats and military force, they had effectively created an empire of their own.
But fearing Athenian dominanation, the Spartans brought back the Peloponnesian League of city-states.
And Greece was thrown into decades of war when the Peloponnesian Wars broke out in 431 BC.
And although the Persians wouldn't try to invade Greece again, they remained
a powerful nation until they were conquered a century later by Alexander the Great.