Notes

first battle
In 490 a. C. Darius, now King of Persia, sent a fleet of about 20,000 Soldiers to Punish und Athens and Eretria for helping in the Ionian revolt. Darius did not lead the war in Person. He put General Datis in control of his army. Two armies faced each other on the plain of Marathon in September 490 BCE, the Persian tactic of rapidly firing vast numbers of arrows into the enemy must have been an awesome sight. The Victorious of the war was the Greeks, the Battle of Marathon quickly became the stuff of legend. Since then the Persian left and went back to Asia but they would be back, and next time, in even bigger numbers.

second battle
The Greeks were unprepared for the latest Persian attack, and many of them intended simply to accept Persian domination without resistance. King Xerxes continued gathering a huge invasion force to attack Greece again in 480 BCE, this time via the pass at Thermopylae on the east coast. In August 480 BCE a small band of Greeks led by Spartan King Leonidas held the pass for three days but were killed to a man. At the same time, the Greek left managed to hold off the Persians at the Artemision. These battles bought Greece time and allowed them to upgrade their forces as well as their tools and their cities.

third battle
The next battle engagement was going to be at the sea in September 480 BCE. The Salamis in the Saronic Gulf, the Greeks once more faced a larger enemy force. 500 Persian ships against a Greek fleet of 300 seems the most likely estimate. The hoplites had won at Marathon and now it was time for avenge. Themistocles won a great victory and the remaining Persian ships retreated to Asia Minor. But still, this was not the end. There would be one more battle, the largest ever yet seen in Greece, and it would decide her fate for centuries to follow.

forth battle
The battle fell into several phases. The Greek were numbered about 110,000 while the Persians were the similar number of troops. Although they both wanted to fight on their preferred positions- the Persians wanted to fight on flat ground to get the best use out of their horsemen while the Greeks wanted to fight on the mountains, where the horsemen would be less effective. They had more hoplite and phalanx which was a big advantage for the Greeks which finally led them to victory. Xerxes could only watch from his throne at the top of the mountain as the Persians lost to the Greeks. After the battle, the Persian weapons were melted down to create a large bronze statue of a three-headed snake.

peace
A peace was finally signed in 449 BCE which sometimes referred to as the Peace of Callias, between the two opposing civilizations.
While the Greeks were grateful with the victory, the Persian Empire were not happy with the defeat. Whatever, the Persian Empire continued to thrive for another 100 years. As with other wars, there are no written records by the Persians and so their view of the conflict can only be speculated.