Browse Items (25 total)

This painting depicts the gruesome Battle of Thermopylae and shows the Persian army running into the Greek Phalanx and dying by the thousands.
Without art like John Steeple Davis's piece, the bloody battles might fade into oblivion because war is…

This map shows the path the Persian Army took as it tore through Greece, with an insert to show the path the Elites took to get around the Spartan Phalanx at Thermopylae.
This map is needed to outline the broader scope of the Greco-Persian war to…

This picture displays modern-day Thermopylae where the Phocian Wall was placed to funnel the Persian forces into the Greek Phalanx, and it also shows how narrow that space actually was.
The coastline used to be where the highway is now, and that is…

This drawing shows Athens at its peak right before Xerxes came through and burned it to the ground, and its position at the top of a hill is both literal and symbolic because Athens was the richest city-state in Greece.
Xerxes targeted Athens to get…

The Strait of Salamis is a narrow passage between islands in Greece, and it was a key victory for the Greeks because Xerxes's naval fleet was decimated.
Themistocles of Greece tricked Xerxes's fleet into the narrow Strait and disoriented the…

The Battle of Plataea was the final nail in the coffin for Xerxes's land invasion of Greece because of the city's advantageous location, backed up against a mountainside.
The location is important because the Persian Army pushed hard towards the…

The battle of Mycale was another naval battle that the Persians lost in a Strait after being disoriented, and this particular battle decimated the Persian fleet and ended the Greco-Persian war.
After this battle, Xerxes did not attempt another…

Darius The Great invaded Greece and lost at the Battle of Marathon, his son Xerxes took the throne before Darius could get around to attacking Greece again.
Darius's failure led to Xerxes's lusts for blood and was a factor in the gruesome Second…

Xerxes I carried his father's ambitions and invaded Greece, making it a lot further than his father did.
Xerxes was bloodthirsty and killed anyone in his path, leading to a deadly and brutal war against the Greek city-states.

King Leonidas gathered 300 royal guards and several thousand hoplites to hold the Persians at the Hot Gates of Thermopylae.
This heroic stand by an aging King (around 60 years old) against impossible odds gave the rest of Greece hope against the…