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The Greco-Persian Wars (also often called the Persian Wars) were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world of the Greeks and the enormous empire of the Persians began when Cyrus the Great conquered the Greek ...
At the Battle of Plataea, the Greek army won a decisive victory, destroying much of the Persian army and ending the invasion of Greece. [131] Meanwhile, at the near-simultaneous naval Battle of Mycale, they also destroyed much of the remaining Persian fleet, thereby reducing the threat of further invasions. [132]
Beginning of the first Persian invasion of Greece: 492–490 BC: First Persian invasion of Greece: Greeks: Achaemenid empire: Inconclusive: Persians capture Thrace and part of Macedon, but they fail to achieve their goals Sparta and Athens remain independent; 480–479 BC: Second Persian invasion of Greece: Greeks: Achaemenid empire: Greek victory
The Greek navy, despite their lack of experience, also proved their worth holding back the Persian fleet whilst the army still held the pass. Thermopylae provided the Greeks with time to arrange their defences, and they dug in across the Isthmus of Corinth , an impregnable position; although an evacuated Athens was thereby sacrificed to the ...
Although the Persian forces put up sturdy resistance, the heavily armored Greek hoplites eventually routed the Persian troops, who fled to their camp. The Ionian Greek contingents in the Persian army defected, and the camp was assailed, with a large number of Persians slaughtered. The Persian ships were then captured and burned.
Immortals (Greek: Ἀθάνατοι Athánatoi), or Persian Immortals, was the name given by the Greek historian Herodotus to a 10,000-strong unit of elite heavy infantry in the Achaemenid army. They served in a dual capacity, operating as an imperial guard and contributing to the ranks of the standing army.
The Achaemenid Empire (559–330 BCE) was the first of the Persian Empires to rule over significant portions of Greater Iran. The empire possessed a "national army" of roughly 120.000–150.000 troops, plus several tens of thousands of troops from their allies. The Persian army was divided into regiments of a thousand each, called hazarabam.
The army led by Alexander the Great into the Persian Empire included Greek heavy infantry in the form of allied contingents provided by the League of Corinth and hired mercenaries. These infantrymen would have been equipped as hoplites with the traditional hoplite panoply consisting of a thrusting spear ( doru ), bronze-faced Argive shield and ...