Persian Wars - Battles Between the Greeks and the Persians

Leonidas was a 5th century B.C. Spartan military king who the famous 300 against the much larger Persian army of Xerxes, at the pass of Thermopylae, in 480 B.C. during the Persian Wars.

Timeline of the battles and chronology of the Persian Wars between Greece and Darius and Xerxes of Persia.

When reading about the Greeks and Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae, it will help to know the following names and other terms.

A review of "The Battle of Marathon," by Peter Krentz

Start here for information about the Persian Wars - a short overview of the conflict.

Mardonius was a Persian commander in the Greco-Persian Wars.

Thermopylae was a pass that the Greeks tried unsuccessfully to defend in battle against the Persians led by Xerxes in 480 B.C. Although the Spartans who led the defense were all killed (and may have known in advance that they would be), their courage provided inspiration to the Greeks.

The Greeks beat the Persians at this important battle in the Persian Wars.

The Battle of Thermopylae is a complicated series of encounters between the Greeks and Persian army best understood with the guidance of an excellent ancient or military historian, like the authors of these books.

The Persian Empire in the time of Darius I extended to the African areas of Egypt and Libya to the south and west, Macedon and Thrace to the North and west, and to the Indus River in the East.