3271–3282 AM · 490 BCE — 479 BCE · world history
The Greco-Persian Wars
Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis: small city-states hold off the greatest empire on earth.
Persia invades Greece twice. In 490 the Athenians defeat a landing at Marathon. Ten years later Xerxes brings a vast army: Leonidas and three hundred Spartans delay it at Thermopylae, Athens burns, but the Greek fleet traps the Persian navy in the narrows of Salamis and destroys it. Plataea finishes the war the following year.