Thermopylae (battles you should know)

GRECO–PERSIAN WARS.

480 BCE ◼ CENTRAL GREECE ◼ GREECE VS. PERSIA

In 480 BCE, Xerxes I restarted 

the Persian invasion of Greece that 

had ended at Marathon 10 years 

earlier, bridging the Hellespont (Dardenelles) with pontoons to transport his huge 

army. Unable to oppose such a force, the northern Greek cities quickly capitulated and the Persians swept through Thessaly in central Greece. An anti-Persian resistance coalesced around Athens and Sparta, 

however, and resolved to halt the invaders. The Spartan army under Leonidas marched to Thermopylae in Boeotia, where a narrow pass could be held by a small number of hoplites. Simultaneously, the Athenian fleet blocked the Persian navy at the Straits of Artemisium to the northeast. 

Xerxes approached on August 18 with around 70,000 men, 10 times that of the Spartan-led defenders. He unleashed a 

volley of arrows, followed by a headlong charge and an assault by his elite forces, the Immortals, all of which the Greeks 

withstood. With Persian losses mounting on the second day, Xerxes’s campaign was only saved by the discovery of a mountain path that enabled him to attack from the rear. 

Outflanked, Leonidas sent most of the army away, and fought to the death with a smaller force. The Greek fleet retired, and Xerxes marched on Athens and into the Peloponnese.

Source : battles that changed history by Dk publication & internet search results