in ancient times one of the most powerful and largest states was the Persian Empire Persian rulers conquered boundless territories from the hot deserts of Egypt to the harsh mountains of Central Asia hundreds of peoples and tribes were forced to accept Persian Rule and submit to a despotic regime however their attempt to conquer a small but proud ancient Greece suffered a complete defeat how did liberty-loving Greeks defend their freedom and put their names in history in the middle of the 6th Century BC the lydian king cus one of the richest kings of the world spread his influence over the Greek cities in Asia Minor the ionian and other Asia Minor grecians maintained self-government and paid a small part of the taxes to the lydian treasury the situation for the Asia Minor grecians changed dramatically when the Persian State took Lydia the rulers of Persia of the aeonid Dynasty created the most powerful Empire of the time through an aggressive expansion Persia was a typical Eastern despotic State so the Greek cities were demanded for complete submission and payment of a great tribute moreover the Persian authorities largely supported the Greek tyrants in their struggle for power in the polus while the population sought democracy in 499 BC indignant grecians from Asia Minor raised a Revolt the center of which became myus the rebels asked for help from from the European Greeks but only a small part of the ancient Greek polus led by Athens supported them in the beginning the rebels scored a number of Victories over the local Persian garrisons and even destroyed the Sardis where the Persian Governor's residence was located but the Persian army had a considerable numerical Advantage they reversed the course of the confrontation by defeating the Greek Rebels ionian cities were mercilessly robbed men of the most rebellious polus were killed women and children were sold into slavery the Persian king Darius the great had considerable conquering appetites and a number of reasons to invade Greece first Darius wanted to avenge the European grecians because they supported their compatriots in Asia Minor secondly the conquest would have made him the ruler of the Mediterranean which means that all conquered peoples would have paid tribute to him for the conquest of Mainland ancient Greece in 492 he sent a large Persian army led by his brother-in-law mardonius the Persian army conquered Southern thce and Macedonia for the second time but near Mount Athos their fleet was destroyed by a storm and the Army suffered losses in Mountain battles with the frian tribe the Persian commanders feared losing their supply lines so they decided to return home Darius built a powerful new Fleet and sent ambassadors demanding surrender as per the customs of that era the Persian king requested the dispatch of soil and Waters from these lands thereby acknowledging the king's Reign Over the lands and Waters of the conquered territories in Athens the Persian ambassadors were simply executed in Sparta they were thrown into deep Wells with the words that it is there that they can take soil and Waters killing the ambassadors made Darius even angrier in the summer of 490 BC the Persian army with the help of the fleet quickly landed on the island of conquered it and captured the city of erria the survivors were sold into slavery up to 26,000 Persians landed near Athens on the marathon Plateau the Athenians sent Messengers to the allies and other Greek cities to ask for help as their own military forces were several times smaller the commander of the Athenian Army was the strategist from kenesis miltiades minor reinforcements from bosia came to the aid of Athens but the Spartans couldn't arrive in time due to religious festivities in total the Greek forces from that moment numbered about 10,000 Soldiers the Greeks decided not to rely on the strength of their City walls but to defeat the Persians on their way to Athens the hopes of the grecians for victory were tied to the skill of the hoplight these hardened soldiers of heavy infantry were Bound in armor they wielded great swords and Spears and had a reputation as as the masters of combat the Athenians held position at the marathon for several weeks they noticed the departure of some Persian forces and launched a decisive attack to compensate for the numerical minority and eliminate the danger of accordin Greek strategists concentrated their forces on the flanks it was thanks to the Frantic flanking pressure of the skillful Greek hoplight that the Persian lines closed and were crushed to the ground the Triumph of the Greek weapons was conditional according to Herodotus the number of Athenians killed was 192 the number of Persians killed was over 6,000 because of plutarch's later hoax a legend arose that the news of the victory in Athens was brought by the messenger fipdes in honor of the distance he supposedly ran eventually a new kind of race was established Marathon the unfortunate defeat upset Darius but it did not significantly affect the milit Ary power of the aate Empire at the same time the grecians became convinced of their ability to defeat a larger but less capable Persian army Darius planned a second larger campaign to conquer ancient Greece but died before he could implement it for some time revolts were breaking out in different parts of the Persian Empire in Babylon and Egypt for example the son of Darius Xerxes had to suppress them a significant part of the Greek people were aware of the danger of the coming Persian Invasion for example the renowned Athenian strategist theistic convinced the citizens of his polus to direct the revenues from the lauran Silver Mines on building 200 new warships in 481 BC the Greeks also convened the Congress at the ismus of Corinth which was attended by representatives from 30 Greek polus it was dominated by the speakers of Sparta and Athens who had the strongest land and Naval forces in all all of Greece respectively however not all ancient Greek polus decided to confront the Invaders a number of polus refused to participate in a potential War Akia Argos thbes creit and some others Xerxes didn't waste any time and gathered a giant army which included Persians mes bactrians Assyrians Saka thians part of Greeks from Asia Minor and other peoples of the Persian Empire Herodotus exist exaggerated the size of this huge Army saying that it included more than 2 million soldiers while modern Scholars estimate it to reach 250,000 however the vast majority of these troops were lightly armed lacked armor and had a low morale a fleet consisting mainly of Phoenician and Egyptian ships and numbering between 700 to 1,000 warships also took part in the campaign on the way to Greece the Persian army was attacked by a hurricane in the area of helis Pont the storm destroyed pontoon fairies and killed thousands of soldiers eccentric Xerxes ordered to punish the stormy sea for this with whips the march of a huge Army of Conquest continued through the lands of thce and Macedonia the grecians were considering several tactical plans to fight the enemy eventually Greek strategists decided to try to stop the Persian invasion in The Gorge near theropo virtually the only land route from northern Greece to the South was through this narrow Coastal plane the narrowness of The Passage would have allowed to use only a part of the Persian troops in combat at the same time in addition the Greeks built a small wall that served as additional protection the Greek Fleet would then cover the ground forces against a surprise Landing of Persians in their rear various detachments of ancient Greece arrived at theropo about 65 % of the soldiers were from pelones the famous Spartan King leonitis I led the Greek army he brought 300 elite soldiers from his hometown the total number of Greeks was between 6,000 and 7,000 before the battle Xerxes tried to persuade the grecians to lay down arms and surrender to which the Spartans according to the legend answered come and try to take our weapons the Persian king switched to threats and through Messengers conveyed that his army was so great that arrows thrown by Persian archers would cover the sun leonitis answered fine then we shall fight our battle in the shade the two armies met in fierce battle in September 480 BC on the first day Xerxes threw hordes of mes and Saka people on the grecians they were defeated by Greek hoplight the same fate befell the elite Persian guard Immortals the Persian king was shocked and Furious especially as on the second day the Persian army also suffered enormous losses without any particular progress in the offensive moreover time played on the side of the Greeks because a large Persian army needed enormous amounts of food and fodder which the Persians could only get by exploiting new territories at the same time the Persian Fleet attacked the Greek ships at Cape artemisium however the Greeks used a narrow straight between ubba and the mainland to block the passage of numerous Persian ships although a significant portion of their fleet was drowned in a hurricane at the time Persian ships still had an advantage in numbers and speed thus the Battle of Cape artemisium had no winner but suddenly the Persians were helped by either a Traer or a local resident who showed them a bypass through the mountains zer xes sent a part of his forces led by hyar around the fans who had covered the path saw the Persians and took a defensive position but hydarnes decided not to waste time destroying this small unit and continued his way the fans managed to warn leonitis of the Persian infiltration into the rear of the main Greek forces the Spartan King decided at the cost of his life and his soldiers to delay the Persian army to save most of the Greek Army 300 Spartans 700 thespians and 400 thieves remained near theropo the rest withdrew to the peloponese peninsula the Persian army surrounded and massacred the few Spartans and thespians who fought heroically to the death thanks to their courage and self-sacrifice these Warriors have forever entered history King leonitis the first was killed and most of the thians surrendered into captivity the main ground forces of the Greek army retreated to the peloponese peninsula the inhabitants of Athens and some atopus after much debate evacuated to the island of Salamis the Persian army moved South and destroyed the abandoned Athens and the surrounding area at the same time the Persian commanders learned that the Greek ships were stationed near salamis the Persian Fleet had about 600 ships and was twice the size of the Greek Fleet if the Persians can defeat the Greek Naval Force forces they will decimate the Athenians destroy the Greek trade and economy and will get the means of landing on the peloponese this implies the final victory over Greece however that wasn't so simple the Greek trim ships were more massive and robust and the grecians knew the surrounding Straits way better than Persians the mystically Strategic enginuity helped to use these Trump cards in the best possible way on 28th September the Gree defeated the Persians and destroyed more than 200 enemy ships the decisive victory of the Greek Fleet in the Battle of Salamis was a turning point in the Greco Persian standoff as the Greeks now controlled the situation at Sea Xerxes feared a potential Landing of Greek troops in little Greece which would have cut off his Army's supplies and the news of a disgraceful Naval defeat could provoke new revolts of the enslaved peoples of the Persian Empire so zer es and half of his army returned to Asia leaving another part of the Persian army in Greece led by mardonius the Persian army suffered from a shortage of food and was engaged in the liquidation of remnants of resistance in Central and Northern Greece at the same time Greek polist finally managed to gradually unite and form a powerful Army which according to various estimates numbered from 39 to 100,000 soldiers at the end of August 479 BC the enemy armies met in bisha near the town of platia both troops took up positions on The High Ground no one wanted to be the first to make a disadvantageous attack and armies only occasionally exchanged small outbursts on 9 September the grecians led by Spartan Commander panus decided to change their location because of a drinking water shortage but they did it chaotically and without coordinated manner so the Persians decided to attack The Divided Greek forces the Persians did not take into account the advantages of the Greeks in close combat so they were defeated less than 40,000 of the Persians managed to escape the Vengeance of the Greek hoplites While others were killed or captured thus the Persian army in Greece ceased to exist as a combat unit at the same time the Greeks took advantage of their domination at Sea and landed in Asia Minor the estimated strength of this ancient Greek force was 25,000 the Persian army estimated from 40,000 to 60,000 soldiers tried to stop the Grecian Advance along the ionian coast but on August 27th 479 BC the Greeks again defeated the Persians at the Battle of mikol ionian Greeks played a significant role in the Persian defeat they fought in the Persian army but many of them switched to the side of their fellow tribesmen during during the battle this Victory blew up the military power of the AIDS for a long time and opened the way for the Greeks to liberate the Grecian cities of Asia Minor within a year the Greeks liberated Byzantium almost the entire coast of thce the islands of the aian sea roads after this success the leadership of Sparta decided that it was done and withdrew its troops Undisputed leadership and reclaiming Greek inhabited lands passed to Athens at the initiative of the Athenians they formed the Delian League or the Athenian Naval Union which continued to fight the Persians the grecians recaptured part of Cyprus inflicting several defeats on the Persian Phoenician Fleet but lost during the expedition to Egypt in the mid- fifth century relations between Athens and Sparta secretly instigated by Persia escalated therefore the Athenians and the Delian League were forced to conclude a truce with the Persians eventually the grecians defeated the more powerful Persian Empire and defended their freedom but the majority of the Greek lands in Asia minor remained under ained control