It was to be his 'divine punishment' for his father, Darius' crushing defeat at Marathon in 490 BC. Now, a decade later ... By the spring of 480 Xerxes' army had reached Macedonia in the north ...

The Battle of Salamis was one of the decisive ... After the defeat and death of the Spartan King Leonidas at Thermopylae, the Persians burned Athens, and the Greek alliance seemed close to collapse.

In the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 BC an alliance of Greek city-states fought the invading Persian army in the mountain pass of Thermopylae. Vastly outnumbered, the Greeks held back the enemy in ...