Wars and Battles

Events leading up to the Persian Wars, the Lydians, King Croesus and the Persians, and the formation of the Delian League.

Heroes feature prominently in the wars, myths, and literature of the ancient world. Not all these people would be heroes by today's standards, and some wouldn't be by Classical Greek standards. What makes a hero changes with the era, but it's often tied up with concepts of bravery and virtue. Incidentally, although there are women here, "virtue" comes from the word for man.

Alexander the Great won the Battle of the Granicus in May/June 334 B.C.

The Romans fought four Macedonian Wars between 215 and 148 B.C.

The Hoplites were the heavily armed foot soldiers of the Greeks who fought in close formation.

What Herodotus has to say about the Battle at Thermopylae where the Spartans under Leonidas made a last stand against the Persians under Xerxes.

Timeline of events in the Persian Wars. Links to information on the Persian War Battles of Salamis, Marathon, Thermopylae, and Plataea.

Diodorus Siculus and others, including Plutarch and Justin, based on Pompeius Trogus, tell the story of the Battle of Thermopylae differently from Herodotus.

Information about Aristagoras of Miletus and the Naxos Expedition, the beginning of the Ionian Revolt, and the start of the Greco-Persian Wars.

The Gigantomachy is a battle between gods and giants in Greek mythology that duplicates some of the themes of the Titanomachy.