Persian Invasion of Greece, Second
480 BCE to 479 BCE
The second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BCE) occurs during the Greco-Persian Wars, as King Xerxes I of Persia seeks to conquer all of Greece.
The invasion is a direct, if delayed, response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece (492–490 BCE) at the Battle of Marathon, which ends Darius I's attempts to subjugate Greece.
After Darius's death, his son Xerxes spends several years planning for the second invasion, mustering an enormous army and navy.
The Athenians and Spartans lead the Greek resistance, with some 70 city-states joining the 'Allied' effort.
However, most of the Greek cities remain neutral or submit to Xerxes.The invasion begins in spring 480 BE, when the Persian army crosses the Hellespont and marches through Thrace and Macedon to Thessaly.
The Persian advance is blocked at the pass of Thermopylae by a small Allied force under King Leonidas I of Sparta; simultaneously, the Persian fleet is blocked by an Allied fleet at the straits of Artemisium.
At the famous Battle of Thermopylae, the Allied army holds back the Persian army for seven days, before they are outflanked by a mountain path and the Allied rearguard is trapped in the pass and annihilated.
The Allied fleet has also withstood two days of Persian attacks at the Battle of Artemisium, but when news reaches them of the disaster at Thermopylae, they withdraw to Salamis.After Thermopylae, all of Boeotia and Attica fall to the Persian army, who capture and burn Athens.
However, a larger Allied army fortifies the narrow Isthmus of Corinth, protecting the Peloponnesus from Persian conquest.
Both sides thus seek out a naval victory which might decisively alter the course of the war.
The Athenian general Themistocles succeeds in luring the Persian navy into the narrow Straits of Salamis, where the huge number of Persian ships become disorganized, and are soundly beaten by the Allied fleet.
The Allied victory at Salamis prevents a quick conclusion to the invasion, and Xerxes, fearful of becoming trapped in Europe, retreats to Asia, leaving his general Mardonius to finish the conquest with the elite of the army.The following spring, the Allies assemble the largest ever hoplite army, and march north from the isthmus to confront Mardonius.
At the ensuing Battle of Plataea, the Greek infantry again proves its superiority, inflicting a severe defeat on the Persians, killing Mardonius in the process.
On the same day, across the Aegean Sea, an Allied navy destroys the remnants of the Persian navy at the Battle of Mycale.
With this double defeat, the invasion is ended, and Persian power in the Aegean severely dented.
The Greeks now move over to the offensive, eventually expelling the Persians from Europe, the Aegean islands and Ionia before the war finally comes to an end in 479 BCE.
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The Middle East: 621–478 BCE
Rise and Expansion of the Achaemenid Empire
From the late seventh to the early fifth centuries BCE, the Middle East witnesses the rise and consolidation of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, transforming regional geopolitics. Under Cyrus the Great, the empire rapidly expands, uniting Medes and Persians into a formidable power. By 546 BCE, Cyrus has conquered Lydia, integrating Asia Minor and the Levant. His empire stretches from the Hindu Kush to the Mediterranean, exemplified by his humane conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE, where he famously releases the Judahites from captivity, earning him an enduring legacy in biblical texts.
Administrative Innovations and Cultural Integration
Following a brief period of instability after Cyrus’s death, Darius I ascends the throne in 522 BCE, imposing order through significant administrative and economic reforms. He introduces a structured system of satrapies, standardized legal codes (Universal Law), and creates a sophisticated postal system supported by the extensive Royal Road. His issuance of gold coinage (darics) fosters robust economic activity throughout the vast empire.
Under Darius, cultural and religious practices, notably Zoroastrianism, are actively promoted as tools for unifying diverse peoples. Monumental architecture at Persepolis symbolizes imperial unity, blending artistic traditions from across conquered territories.
Military Ambitions and Western Limitations
Despite substantial successes in consolidating internal control, Darius's military ambitions in Greece are significantly challenged. The Persian defeat at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE marks a notable limitation of Persian expansion westward, laying groundwork for future Greek-Persian conflicts.
Transition and Challenges Under Xerxes
Following Darius's death in 486 BCE, his son Xerxes I inherits an expansive but increasingly strained empire. Xerxes swiftly quells rebellions in Egypt and Babylonia before embarking on ambitious campaigns against Greece. Initial successes, notably at Thermopylae, are overshadowed by decisive defeats at Salamis and Plataea, forcing Persian withdrawal and marking a pivotal shift in Mediterranean geopolitics.
Mesopotamian Shifts: From Babylonian Splendor to Persian Rule
Under the earlier Neo-Babylonian Empire, particularly during Nebuchadnezzar II's reign (605–562 BCE), Babylon achieves significant cultural and architectural prominence, exemplified by structures like the legendary Hanging Gardens. However, internal religious conflicts weaken Babylon, paving the way for Persian conquest under Cyrus in 539 BCE.
Persian administration initially revitalizes Mesopotamia economically, but by 500 BCE, signs of cultural and economic decline become apparent, reflecting shifting regional importance.
Phoenicia, Cyprus, and the Persian Sphere
Phoenician cities and Cyprus become integral maritime and commercial hubs within the Persian sphere. While Phoenician naval resources are vital during Persian campaigns, especially against Greece, burdensome tribute obligations lead to periodic rebellions. Cyprus, though officially a Persian satrapy, retains considerable autonomy, culturally aligning closely with Greece and occasionally resisting Persian domination.
Technological Advances and Economic Integration
The Achaemenids introduce notable innovations such as early forms of mercury amalgamation around 500 BCE. Economic and trade advancements under Persian rule significantly enhance interregional commerce, embedding Persian cultural and linguistic influences into broader Mediterranean and Middle Eastern contexts.
Thus, the era from 621 to 478 BCE sees the Middle East dramatically reshaped by the rapid expansion and sophisticated governance of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, laying enduring foundations for subsequent regional dynamics.
A descendant, Cyrus II (also known as Cyrus the Great or Cyrus the Elder), leads the combined forces of the Medes and the Persians to establish the most extensive empire known in the ancient world.
Cyrus defeats Croesus, the Lydian king of fabled wealth, by 546 BCE and secures control of the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, Armenia, and the Greek colonies along the Levant.
Moving east, he takes Parthia (land of the Arsacids, not to be confused with Parsa, which is to the southwest), Chorasmia (Khwarezm), and Bactria.
He besieges and captures Babylon in 539 BCE and releases the Judahites who had been held captive there, thus earning his immortalization in the Book of Isaiah.
When Cyrus dies in 529 BCE, his kingdom extends as far east as the Hindu Kush in present-day Afghanistan.
Cyrus's successors are less successful.
His unstable son, Cambyses II, conquers Egypt in 525 BCE but later commits suicide during a revolt led by a priest, Gaumata, who holds the throne until 522 BCE, when he is overthrown by a member of a lateral branch of the Achaemenian family, Darius I (also known as Darayarahush and Darius the Great).
Darius attacks the Greek mainland, which has supported rebellious Greek colonies under his aegis, but his defeat at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE forces him to retract the limits of the empire to Asia Minor.
The Achaemenians hereafter consolidated areas firmly under their control.
It is Cyrus and Darius who, by sound and farsighted administrative planning, brilliant military maneuvering, and a humanistic worldview, establish the greatness of the Achaemenians, raising them in less than thirty years from an obscure tribe to a world power.
The quality of the Achaemenians as rulers begins to disintegrate, however, after the death of Darius in 486 BCE.
His son and successor, Xerxes, chiefly occupies himself with suppressing revolts in Egypt and Babylonia.
He also attempts to conquer the Greek Peloponnesus, but, encouraged by a victory at Thermopylae, he overextends his forces and suffers overwhelming defeats at Salamis and Plataea.
By 500 BCE, the Persian Empire controls the Greek city states in Asia Minor and Macedonia.
Attempts by some of the Greek city-states of Asia Minor to overthrow Persian rule fail, and Persia invades the states of mainland Greece in 492 BCE, but is forced to withdraw after a defeat at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE.
A second invasion by the Persians follows in 480 BCE.
Following decisive Greek victories in 480 and 479 BCE at Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale, the Persians are forced to withdraw for a second time, marking their eventual withdrawal from all of their European territories.
Led by Athens and Sparta, the Greek victories in the Greco-Persian Wars are considered a pivotal moment in world history, as the fifty years of peace that follow are known as the Golden Age of Athens, the seminal period of ancient Greek development that lays many of the foundations of Western civilization.
The Middle East: 489–478 BCE
Transition and the Rise of Xerxes
Following the Persian defeat at Marathon in 490 BCE, Darius I is deeply committed to avenging the empire’s setback and begins meticulous preparations for a renewed offensive against the Greek city-states. However, these plans are interrupted by his death in 486 BCE, passing the throne to his son Xerxes I.
Xerxes immediately inherits not only his father’s expansive empire but also his intense ambition to subdue Greece. Early in his reign, Xerxes confronts rebellions in Egypt and Babylonia, swiftly suppressing them to reaffirm Persian authority. His decisive actions solidify his position and secure internal stability, setting the stage for a grand campaign against Greece.
Xerxes continues Darius's extensive infrastructural developments, notably completing construction at Persepolis, where monumental architecture epitomizes Persian grandeur and imperial authority. He invests heavily in military and logistical preparations, amassing resources and manpower on an unprecedented scale.
In 480 BCE, Xerxes leads a vast Persian army into Greece, sparking a series of iconic battles—Thermopylae, Artemisium, and Salamis—that profoundly shape the historical trajectory of both Greece and Persia. The Greek resistance, particularly the naval triumph at Salamis, significantly hinders Xerxes’ ambitions, marking a turning point in the Greco-Persian conflicts.
Despite initial successes, the Persian invasion ultimately fails, forcing Xerxes to retreat in 479 BCE. This defeat not only halts Persian expansion westward but also emboldens Greek confidence, laying the foundation for future Greek dominance in the Mediterranean region. The period thus concludes with Persia maintaining its vast territories, yet forced to reassess its ambitions toward Greece, signaling a critical transition in Middle Eastern geopolitics.
Hamilcar, delayed by three years, leads a Carthaginian expedition to Sicily, which coincides with the expedition of Xerxes against mainland Greece in 480 BCE.
He is said to have assembled an army numbering three hundred thousand soldiers from Iberia, Sardinia, Corsica, Italy, Gaul and Africa under the command of a body of Carthaginian officers, along with war chariots, two hundred warships and three thousand transports for the venture.
Hamilcar had chosen not to sail to Selinus and then attack Akragas, although it lies on the coast closest to Carthage.
The Carthaginian fleet, escorted by sixty triremes, sails to Panormus instead.
Hamilcar has chosen this course probably because restoring Terrilus was his primary objective.
The conquest of Sicily, if this indeed is a consideration, takes second place to his duty as a guest friend of Terrilus.
The fleet is battered by storms at sea, losing the ships carrying the chariots and horses—which is to be a significant factor in the coming battle.
The Greek fleet, able to muster two hundred ships, does not contest the crossing; in fact, it will play no part in the coming battle.
Hamilcar spends three days reorganizing his forces at Panormus, and repairing his battered fleet.
The Carthaginians march along the Sicilian coast to Himera, with the fleet sailing alongside.
Situated on the western bank of the River Himera, the city sits atop a hill (three hundred to four hundred feet high) that is steep in the northern, western, and eastern sides but gradually slopes to the south.
There are hills to the west and south of the city.
The Carthaginians erect two camps, joined by siege works: the Sea camp is set to the north of Himera by the sea, surrounded by a palisade and a ditch.
The army is billeted in a separate camp to the south on a low hill west of Himera.
Theron is already present in Himera with his army, but the Greeks do not interfere with Carthaginian operations.
The Greek allies of Hamilcar (Greeks of Selinus and Anaxilas of Rhegion) are absent—and never join the battle.
It is not known if Hamilcar wished to build siege weapons at Himera or settle the issue through battle.
After the camps are erected, the Punic ships drop off provisions at the sea camp and are sent to Sardinia and Africa for more supplies.
Twenty triremes patrols the sea, the rest of the ships are beached in the sea camp.
Himera is not fully invested—the east and south sides were open.
Hamilcar leads a picked body of men on reconnaissance mission, and defeats the Greeks in a pitched battle outside Himera.
The Greeks block the west gates of Himera and their morale also falls, while the Carthaginian foragers range the territory of Himera.
Theron sends messages to Gelo, who arrives with his army and encamps across the river.
Gelon's cavalry manages to capture many of the foragers, as Hamilcar has no cavalry present to counter his moves.
The morale in Himera improves, and the bricked-up gates are cleared on Gelo's orders.
The different versions of the battle given by Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus are hard to reconcile; Diodorus provides a more detailed account.
Herodotus noted that Sicilian tradition held that this battle and the battle of Salamis were fought on the same day.
The Greek and Punic armies fight from dawn on through the day, while Hamilcar watches the battle from his camp and offers sacrifices to Baal in a huge fire.
Sometime after the battle is joined, disguised Greek horsemen kill Hamilcar while he is preparing the sacrifice, and then set fire to the beached ships, causing great confusion at the sea camp.
However, it is not known what further role the Greek cavalry played in the battle.
The Carthaginians rush to launch whatever ships they can save and some of the ships, overcrowded with soldiers, leave the site altogether.
When the news of Hamilcar's death and the burning of ships reaches the fighting armies, the Greeks press harder and rout the Carthaginians, who flee to their camp.
Gelo's army storms the Carthaginian camp and the Greeks scatter to loot the tents.
The Iberians of the Carthaginian army reform, then attack the now disordered Greeks, inflicting severe casualties.
The Greeks fight back, but they are hard pressed and the Iberians get the upper hand in the struggle.
At this critical juncture, Theron decides to join the battle.
He directs his attack on the flank and rear of the Iberian position inside the camp and also sets fire to tents near them.
The Iberians finally give way, and retreat to the ships still afloat.
Other Carthaginian survivors leave the camp and retreat to a hill inland, where they attempt to defend themselves.
The hill is waterless and they are ultimately forced to surrender.
About half of the Carthaginian army and majority of the fleet is destroyed, with numerous prisoners and rich booty falling into Greek hands.
Diodorus commented that the surviving Carthaginian ships were sunk in a storm on their return journey to Africa.
Ten thousand mass graves from the era show over two hundred thousand Greek dead, buried ten to fifteen per grave on the site).
The army had no siege engines and the Etruscans and the Elymians, allies in past struggles against Greeks, were not part of it.
The Cypriot kings during Persian king Xerxes' invasion of Greece in 481-480 BCE, like the Ionian Greeks of coastal Anatolia, …
…contribute infantry and naval contingents to the Achaemenid forces.
The ancient Greek city of Amphipolis was founded near the entrance of the Strymon River to the Aegean, at the site previously known as Ennea Odoi (Nine roads).
When Xerxes I of Persia crosses the river during his invasion in 480 BCE, he buries alive nine young boys and nine maidens as a sacrifice to the river god.
The huge Achaemenid army is at first successful, conquering Thessaly; …