Question

The Persian Wars began when the helped the Ionian people revolt against the Persians. From that time, the Greeks and Persians became enemies. They fought a series of wars over 50 years. started the first war to punish the Greeks for their support of the Ionian revolt. The Greeks defeated his forces at the . But after his death, his son Xerxes I sent the Persian military to invade Greece again. In 479 BC, the fighting ended with .

Answer 1

Mardonius led his army south and captured Athens once more. In the summer of 479 BC the combined armies of Athens and Sparta forced him northward toward Thebes and decisively defeated the Persian army at Plataea in September. In that same month, the Greek fleet, led by Xanthippus, scored one more victory over the Persian navy at Mycale, off the coast of Asia Minor.

Greece was at last free from the threat of eastern domination. Over the next half-century Athens remained the strongest naval power in the world, while Sparta maintained the finest army.