Persian Wars

The Persian Wars In 519 BC Darius I ascended the throne of the expanding empire of Persia. A group of people called the Ionians, lived along the coast of Asia Minor. They were under Persian rule, having been conquered by Emperor Cyrus (ruled 550-530 BC), and at this time were unhappy about their conditions. In 499 BC Aristagoras, the leader Miletus, one of the city-states, organized a revolt of all the rest of the city-states along the …

…agile Greek vessels. Xerxes, who watched the defeat of his mighty fleet from the shore, returned to Persia in disgust, leaving his general Mardonius to subdue Greece with the army. A year later, the Greeks under the Spartan general Pausanias obliterated the Persian army at the Battle of Plataea. The Athenian navy sailed to Asia Minor and destroyed what was left of the Persian fleet at Mykale, freeing the Ionian city-states there from Persian rule.