Battle of Thermopylae

 There is a little more history to the battle of Thermopylae that few know. It all started with The Battle of Marathon. The Battle of Marathon took place during September of 490 BC. The battle really took place southeast the actual city of Marathon. Surprisingly the Persians made landfall at Marathon by sea from the Bay of Marathon. The Persian military consisted of 15,000 soldiers and were lead by Datis and Artaphernes to punish Athens for aiding the persian rebellion groups in the Ionian Revolt. Which was a revolt against Persian Rule. The Athenian Hoplites were lead by Miltiades. A hoplite was a a heavily armed foot soldier of ancient Greece.The Greek Army consisted of 10,000 hoplites and 1,000 Plataeans.Plataea was an ancient city in Greece, in Boeotia. The Greeks later defeated Persians here in 479 B.C. There are several theories on the runner after the battle. One claim is that after the battle an Athenian ran from the battle to the steps of the Pantheon and screamed Nike! Which was the Greek word for victory. Also some say that "before the battle started a trained runner named Phidippides ran from Athens to Sparta in order to request assistance from the Spartans. He is said to have covered about 150 miles in about two days". Yet despite the Persian loss by the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon in, the Persians were determined to conquer mainland Greece.The battle was just a minor set back for the Persians seeing as how they controlled almost the entire ancient world. Persia's arm stretched out to Asia Minor, Lydia, Judah, Mesopotamia, and to Egypt.
Darius therefore began raising a huge new army with which he meant to completely subjugate Greece; however, in 486 BC, his Egyptian subjects revolted, indefinitely postponing any Greek expedition. Darius then died while preparing to march on Egypt, and the throne of Persia passed to his son Xerxes I. Xerxes crushed the Egyptian revolt, and   quickly restarted the preparations to invade Greece. Since this was...