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Xerxes I (/ ˈ z ɜː r k ˌ s iː z / ZURK-seez [2] [a] c. 518 – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, [4] was a Persian ruler who served as the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC.
The second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC) occurred during the Greco-Persian Wars, as King Xerxes I of Persia sought to conquer all of Greece. The invasion was a direct, if delayed, response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece (492–490 BC) at the Battle of Marathon, which ended Darius I's attempts to subjugate Greece.
Beginning of the first Persian invasion of Greece: 492–490 BC: First Persian invasion of Greece: Greeks: Achaemenid empire: Inconclusive: Persians capture Thrace and part of Macedon, but they fail to achieve their goals Sparta and Athens remain independent; 480–479 BC: Second Persian invasion of Greece: Greeks: Achaemenid empire: Greek victory
The military history of Greece between the end of the second Persian invasion of Greece and the Peloponnesian War (479–431 BC) is not well supported by surviving ancient sources. This period, sometimes referred to as the pentekontaetia ( πεντηκονταετία , the Fifty Years ) by ancient writers, was a period of relative peace and ...
However, the Athenians did not have the manpower to fight on land and sea; and therefore combatting the Persians would require an alliance of Greek city states. In 481 BC, Xerxes sent ambassadors around Greece asking for earth and water, but made the very deliberate omission of Athens and Sparta. [23]
The destruction of Athens, took place between 480 and 479 BCE, when Athens was captured and subsequently destroyed by the Achaemenid Empire.A prominent Greek city-state, it was attacked by the Persians in a two-phase offensive, amidst which the Persian king Xerxes the Great had issued an order calling for it to be torched.
The Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece.It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states (including Sparta, Athens, Corinth and Megara), and the Achaemenid Empire of Xerxes I (allied with Greek states including Boeotia, Thessalia, and Macedon).
Plataea was the final battle of Xerxes' invasion of Greece. After this, the Persians never again tried to invade Greece. With the disappearance of this external threat, cracks appeared in the united front of the Hellenic League. [10] In 477, Athens became the recognised leader of a coalition of city-states that did not include Sparta.