Greco-Persian Wars
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The Greco-Persian Wars were two invasions of mainland Greece by the Achaemenid Empire, fought between 499 and 449 BCE and ending in a stalemate that preserved the independence of the Greek city-states. The first phase grew out of the revolt of the Greek cities of Ionia against Persian rule, which Athens and Eretria supported by burning Sardis; Darius resolved to punish them and sent an expedition under Mardonius and then Datis and Artaphernes. Marathon in 490 BCE, where the Athenians and Plataeans routed a Persian landing force, gave the victory its name and made Miltiades a hero. Ten years later Xerxes invaded with a vast land and sea force, forced the pass at Thermopylae where Leonidas fell, and burned Athens; but Themistocles drew the Persian fleet into the narrows of Salamis in 480 BCE and destroyed it, while the Greek army finished the war at Plataea in 479. The wars produced the Delian League, an alliance of tribute that Athens turned into an empire, and they opened the century of Athenian power in which democracy, tragedy and philosophy flourished. Persia kept funding the enemies of Athens, and the conflict trailed on until the Peace of Callias around 449, leaving Persia unable to subdue the Greek world.