Just this time last year, Xerxes’ mass armed forces of 150,000 men and a 600 ship navy stormed the pass at Thermopylae to avenge his father 's defeat at Marathon. Here marked the beginning of Sparta’s quest to victory.
The invasion that began following the Greek revolt of 499- 94 BC ,as a punitive attack by Persia against a collection of disunited city states, ended this past week in one of the most critical battles of our time. North of Athens, on the far side of a mountain range that separated Attica from Boeotia, the contest would be decided.
Darius I, then commander of the Persian forces, arranged for messengers to circulate the Greek city-states demanding land and seas. In fear, most complied excluding Athens.
In Sparta, they retorted in true Spartan style ; blasphemously exiling the messengers down a well to their deaths. This signaled a cry— rather cheer of war from the Spartans to the Persians.
Darius I shifted his forces to the bay at Marathon. Highly outnumbered, the Athenians boldly confronted and defeated the Persians and forced them to renounce further invasion plans.
Xerxes, son of Darius now sought the blood of his enemies.
In 480 BC, Xerxes overpassed the Hellespont via the twin bridges he ordered to be constructed. The Greeks had insufficiently
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They stationed themselves for battle in a location suited for their horsemen— the plain. Under the Spartan leader Pausanias, the Greeks stationed themselves advantageously in the foothills of Mt. Cithaeron. In time, Mardonius tried to draw the Greeks out, using his cavalry. He failed, so the Persians retreated. Eventually, Pausanias took his troops down into the ally, Pausanias took his troops down into the plains where they were still separated from the Persians, but only by a row of hills. He divided the army, creating a diversion. The Persians attacked but were met the united army of Greeks, led to victory by the