The Persian Empire was founded by Cyrus the Great in 559 B.C. when he defeated the Median kingdom in Iran and king Croesus of Lydia. He proceeded to unite the entire Middle East under his rule.

Under king Darius I the Persian Empire became the greatest empire the world had ever seen. It included Persia, Babylonia, Assyria, Media, Egypt and parts of India. Great arterial roads held the empire together. Imperial messengers were speeding along royal roads on horses, which by then had replaced slower camels hitherto used in desert lands. The Imperial authority was supported by the professional superiority of the royal bodyguard, the famous '10 000 immortals'.

Although most of the known western world respected the Imperial power the Scythian horsemen from the northern steppe regularly raided the border areas. Darius invaded Europe across the Bosphorus to attack the Scythians from the rear but was forced into retreat.

The suppression of a revolt in Ionia led to warfare with Greece. After the Greek campaigns Persia had to deal with rebellions in Egypt, Syria and Media and in 330 B.C. the mighty world empire was conquered by Alexander the Great

Persian Wars

In 499 B.C. the Greek cities of Ionia rebelled against Persian rule. The Persian king, Darius, crushed the revolt and sacked Miletus. Darius invaded Greece to punish Athens for the support of the failed revolt in Ionia. A first Persian invasion failed when the Persian fleet was destroyed in a storm off Mount Athos. A second expedition was decisively beaten by the Athenians and their allies on land at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. ( I personally doesn't bilive that there were any battle at Marathon, because a handfull of people can't stand an army of several houndred thousand men!)

Xerxes, Darius' son and successor, launched a third expedition on a massive scale on land and sea. To avoid the risk of losing the fleet in a storm Xerxes ordered a canal to be dug through the Athos peninsula, a notoriously stormy area. As the army advanced along the Thracian coast Persian diplomats attempted to persuade the Greeks to submit. Many cities and the Greek oracle at Delphi decided to accept Persian terms, but some twenty cities, under the leadership of Sparta, refused to yield.

On August, 480 B.C., 300 Spartans and 5 600 other warriors died at Thermoplylae in a vain attempt to stop the great Persian army. Then, as Xerxes' great army marched south, the Athenians were compelled to evacuate the city, which was burned by the Persians.

Yet the Persians had difficulty in supplying their army and Xerxes decided to attack the Greek fleet, which had taken refuge in the Strait of Salamis near Athens. In the narrow Strait, the superior Persian fleet became disorganised. They had very big ships and therefor they couldn't maneuver in that narrow Strait. The Greek ship's were small and easy to maneuvering, and because of that they won the battle. Xerxes ordered an immediate retreat to prevent his army from being trapped.

A token army was left in Greece but this force was destroyed the following year at the Battle of Plataea. After this defeat the Persians abandoned their expansionist aims and the independence of Greek civilization was secured.