Battle of Marathon took place during the first Persian invasion of Greece. Although the Persian had advantage (26,000 against 11,000), Greeks chose wisely the spot to confront the enemy - area full of marshes and mountains that gave Persians no chance to use their most powerful weapon, cavalry. Second important factor was deployment of the forces - while the Persians always used their best warrior...

Naval battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. Outnumbered forces of Athens and their allies managed to defeat the Persian fleet and thus forced Xerxes to retreat to Asia. Even though Persians had advantage in numbers (according to different sources between 2 to 1 or even 4 to 1) they did not reached their target, which was landing near Athens. The description of the battle is rather v...

During the second invasion of Greece Persian king Xerxes landed his forces on the eastern coast of Greece. The only thing between them and Greek cities was narrow pass called Thermopylae. Greeks could only prepare about 20.000 soldiers to face huge army of Xerxes (between 75.000 and 300.000 soldiers), so the Thermopylae pass was a perfect spot to prepare defence. The phalanx formation set up from ...

Battle of Artemisium took place simultaneously to battle of Thermopylae - while the land forces were helding back their position at the narrow pass, Greek fleet at Artemisium prevented the Persian forces from supporting the advancing forces on Thermopylae. Even though the Persian fleet had huge advantage in numbers (1200 ships against 270 Greek) Greeks managed to keep the enemy blocked in Strai...