Origins
This Persian king founded the Empire in the mid-6th century BC
Who is Cyrus the Great?
This battle in 490 BC saw Athenians and Plataeans defeat a large Persian force.
What is the Battle of Marathon?
This period covers the approximately ten years between the first and second Persian Wars.
What is the Inter-war period?
This naval battle in 480 BC saw the Greeks achieve a significant victory in narrow straits.
What is the Battle of Salamis?
He was the Spartan king who led the 300 at the Battle of Thermopylae.
Who is Leonidas?
This event, starting in 499 BC, is traced as an origin of the conflict between Greeks and Persians.
What is the Ionian Revolt?
He was the Greek commander in overall charge of the army at Marathon.
Who is Miltiades?
He succeeded Darius I as King of Persia in 486 BC and prepared for the second invasion.
Who is Xerxes I?
At this land battle in 479 BC, fought near Thebes, the Greeks defeated the remaining Persian land forces.
What is the Battle of Plataea?
This Athenian leader is credited with convincing the Athenians of the need for a large navy, crucial for victory at Salamis.
Who is Themistocles?
Following the Ionian Revolt, Persian King Darius I vowed to punish these two Greek cities for their support of the rebels.
What are Athens and Eretria?
The Persians landed at Marathon under the command of this former tyrant of Athens.
Who is Hippias?
Themistocles used a silver strike at this location to fund the increase of Athens' fleet.
What is Laurion?
This traitor showed the Persians a mountain path to outflank the Greeks at Thermopylae.
Who is Ephialtes?
This Spartan was chosen to lead all Greek naval forces against the Persians in 481 BC and commanded the fleet at Artemisium and Salamis.
Who is Eurybiades?
The Persians saw themselves as having this, which they believed gave them the right to rule the world.
What is a god-given right to rule the world?
What was making the center thinner and the flanks thicker?
At Marathon, Miltiades used this unconventional tactic with the Greek phalanx formation.
This Greek exile at the Persian court was among those who encouraged Xerxes to invade Greece, hoping to become satrap.
Who is Mardonius?
This series of naval battles occurred at the same time as Thermopylae, with the purpose of stopping the Persian fleet from sailing south.
What are the Battles of Artemisium?
This Spartan was the commander of the Greek land forces at the Battle of Plataea.
Who is Pausanias?
What was allowing them to keep their democracies and not raising tributary obligations?
This conciliatory policy enacted by King Darius after crushing the Ionian Revolt helped the Persians gain support from many Ionian cities.
What was to avoid being slaughtered by Persian archers?
This was the primary reason given by the sources for why the Greeks charged the final distance at Marathon instead of marching.
This assembly of 31 Greek states was formed in 481 BC, under Spartan leadership, to unite against the Persian invasion.
What is the Hellenic League (or Greek Congress of the Isthmus)?
Fought on the coastline of Asia Minor in 479 BC, this battle occurred shortly after Plataea and involved the Greek fleet attacking the remaining Persian forces.
What is the Battle of Mycale?
Both Themistocles and Eurybiades were awarded this prize upon their return to Sparta in recognition of their success.
What is an olive wreath (or the prize of courage)?