By place Greece May — King
Xerxes I of Persia marches from
Sardis and onto
Thrace and
Macedonia.
August 11 — The
Battle of Thermopylae ends in victory for the Persians under Xerxes. His army engulfs a force of 300
Spartans and 700
Thespiae under the
Spartan King,
Leonidas I. The
Greeks under Leonidas resist the advance through
Thermopylae of Xerxes' vast army. For two days Leonidas and his troops withstand the Persian attacks; he then orders most of his troops to retreat, and he and his 300-member royal guard fight to the last man.A member of the
Agiad royal family, and the son of King
Cleombrotus and nephew of King Leonidas,
Pausanias becomes regent for Leonidas' son,
Pleistarchus, after
Leonidas I is killed at
Thermopylae.
Phocis and the coasts of
Euboea are devastated by the Persians.
Thebes and most of
Boeotia join Xerxes.King
Alexander I of Macedon is obliged to accompany
Xerxes in a campaign through
Greece, though he secretly aids the Greek allies. With Xerxes' apparent acquiescence, Alexander seizes the Greek
colony of
Pydna and advances his frontiers eastward to the
Strymon, taking in
Crestonia and
Bisaltia, along with the rich silver deposits of Mount Dysorus.The
Athenian soldier and
statesman,
Aristides, as well as the former
Athenian archon Xanthippus, return from banishment in
Aegina to serve under
Themistocles against the Persians.August — The Persians achieve a naval victory over the
Greeks in an
engagement fought near
Artemisium, a promontory on the north coast of
Euboea. The Greek fleet holds its own against the Persians in three days of fighting but withdraws southward when news comes of the defeat at
Thermopylae.Breaking through the pass at
Thermopylae from
Macedonia into
Greece, the Persians occupy
Attica.
September 21 — The Persians sack
Athens, whose citizens flee to
Salamis and the
Peloponnesus.
September 28 — The
Battle of Salamis brings victory to the
Greeks, whose
Athenian general Themistocles lures the Persians into the Bay of Salamis, between the
Athenian port-city of
Piraeus and the island of
Salamis. The Greek
triremes then attack furiously, ramming or sinking many Persian
vessels and boarding others. The
Greeks sink about 200 Persian
vessels while losing only about 40 of their own. The rest of the Persian fleet is scattered, and as a result Xerxes has to postpone his planned land offensives for a year, a delay that gives the Greek city-states time to unite against him.An eclipse of the sun discourages the Greek army from following up the victory of
Salamis. Xerxes returns to Persia leaving behind an army under
Mardonius, which winters in
Thessaly.
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