Chapter 28: The Greco-Persian War

Battle of Thermopylae

(480 B.C.E.) Battle in which Spartan king Leonidas and his army of 300 Spartans and other Greeks refused to surrender to the numerically superior Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae; they were annihilated to the man but allowed the other Greek forces to prepare for the Persian invasion.

Battle of Marathon

(490 B.C.E.) Battle where the Persians who invaded Greece were defeated on the Plain of Marathon by an Athenian army.

Militiades

(550-489 BCE) Athenian military commander at the battle of Marathon

Battle of Salamis

480 B.C.E. The battle that effectively ended the Persian war. The Greek fleet, although vastly outnumbered, defeated the Persian fleet. This helped end the Persian war, freeing Greece.

Ionian Revolt

499-493, Ionian cities revolted against Persian Rule, helped by Athens. At first it was a success, then crushed by Persians

Themistocles

A Greek military leader who convinced the Athenians to build a navy. This helped Athens win a major battle against Persia, the Battle of Salamis.

Ionia

Area along the central west coast of Asia Minor colonized by settlers from mainland Greece from about 1000 BC. Ionian Greeks, including Homer, played a central role in the early development of Greek history and literature following the Dark Ages.

Pheidippides

Athenian messenger. He was sent to Sparta to ask for help after the Persian landing at Marathon in 490 and is said to have covered the 150 miles (250 km) in two days on foot.

Calvary

Soldiers on horseback

Battle of Plateau

The battle that ended the Greco-Persian War with Greek victory

Hellespont

The long, narrow body of water between Europe and Asia in present day Turkey

Persian Empire

an empire in southern Asia created by Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BC and destroyed by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC

Leonidas

king of Sparta and hero of the battle of Thermopylae where he was killed by the Persians (died in 480 BC)