The Persian king Xerxes I is one of the most famous characters in the ancient history of mankind. Actually, it was this ruler who led his troops to Greece in the first half of the 5th century. It was he who fought with the Athenian hoplites in the battle of Marathon and with the Spartans in the battle of Thermopylae, which is widely promoted today in popular literature and cinema.
Beginning of the Greco-Persian Wars
Persia at the very beginning of the 5th century BC was a young, but aggressive and already powerful empire that managed to conquer a number of eastern peoples. In addition to other territories, the Persian king Darius also took possession of some Greek colony-polises in Asia Minor (the territory of modern Turkey). During the years of Persian rule, among the Greek population of the Persian satrapies - the so-called administrative territorial units of the Persian state - often raised uprisings, protesting against the new orders of the eastern conquerors. It was Athens' help to these colonies in one of these uprisings andled to the beginning of the Greco-Persian conflict.
Marathon Battle
The first general battle of the Persian landing and the Greek troops (Athenians and Plataeans) was the Battle of Marathon, which took place in 490 BC. Thanks to the talent of the Greek commander Miltiades, who skillfully used the hoplite system, their long spears, as well as the sloping terrain (the Greeks pushed the Persians down the slope), the Athenians won, stopping the first Persian invasion of their country. Interestingly, the modern sports discipline "marathon running" is associated with this battle, which is a distance of 42 km. That is how much the ancient messenger ran from the battlefield to Athens to announce the victory of his compatriots and fall dead. Preparations for a more massive invasion were thwarted by the death of Darius. The new Persian king Xerxes I ascended the throne, continuing the work of his father.
The battle of Thermopylae and three hundred Spartans
The second invasion began in 480 BC. King Xerxes led a large army of 200 thousand people (according to modern historians). Macedonia and Thrace were quickly conquered, after which an invasion began from the north into Boeotia, Attica and the Peloponnese. Even the coalition forces of the Greek policies could not resist such numerous forces, gathered from the many peoples of the Persian Empire. The weak hope of the Greeks was the opportunity to accept the battle in a narrow place through which the Persian army passed on its way to the south - the Thermopylae Gorge. The numerical advantage of the enemy here would not be at allso noticeable that it left hopes of victory. The legend that the Persian king Xerxes was almost beaten here by three hundred Spartan warriors is some exaggeration. In fact, from 5 to 7 thousand Greek soldiers from different policies, not only Spartan, took part in this battle. And for the width of the gorge, this amount was more than enough to successfully hold back the enemy for two days. The disciplined Greek phalanx kept the line evenly, really stopping the hordes of the Persians. No one knows how the battle would have ended, but the Greeks were betrayed by one of the inhabitants of the local village - Ephi altes. The man who showed the Persians a detour. When King Leonidas found out about the betrayal, he sent troops to the policies to regroup forces, remaining on the defensive and delaying the Persians with a small detachment. Now there really were very few of them - about 500 souls. However, no miracle happened, almost all the defenders were killed on the same day.
What happened next
The battle of Thermopylae did not fulfill the task that the Greek men assigned to it, but it became an inspired example of heroism for other defenders of the country. The Persian king Xerxes I still managed to win here, but later suffered crushing defeats: at sea - a month later at Salamis, and on land - in the battle of Plataea. The Greco-Persian War continued for the next thirty years as protracted, sluggish conflicts in which the odds increasingly leaned towards the policies.
