The Persian Wars

Part of Spartan History Podcast

With Owen Rees

Dr Owen Rees, a historian specialising in the psychological effects of ancient warfare, discusses the Battle of Marathon of 490 BCE, its build up, the peculiarities of Athenian general Miltiades and its aftermath.

Zack Snyder directed this 2006 film based on Frank Miller and Lynn Varley's 1998 comic, retelling the Battle of Thermopylae as historical fantasy, with King Leonidas leading 300 Spartans against Xerxes and more than 300,000 Persian soldiers.

Rudolph Maté directed this 1962 CinemaScope film depicting the Battle of Thermopylae, made with the cooperation of the Greek government and filmed in the village of Perachora in the Peloponnese, starring Richard Egan and Ralph Richardson.

Part of Spartan History Podcast

With Trevor Culley

Trevor Culley, host of the History of Persia Podcast, introduces the Persian empire as the greatest threat Greek city-states faced until the Roman conquest of Greece in the 2nd century BCE, reaching the 5th century outbreak of Greco-Persian hostilities.

Noam Murro directed this 2014 sequel to 300, based on Frank Miller's comic Xerxes and a fictionalized retelling of the Battle of Artemisium and the Battle of Salamis in the Greco-Persian Wars, starring Eva Green and Lena Headey.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

An unscripted end-of-year chat with Steve of the Spartan History Podcast, focusing a great deal on the Greco-Persian Wars and touching on the periods before and after, with a few connection issues left in.

Part of Our Fake History

Legend credits three hundred Spartans with holding off over two million Persians for four days at Thermopylae, but thousands of other Greeks who fought there have been edited out of the story.

Part of Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! | Greek Mythology & the Ancient Mediterranean

BONUS: Ben of Classical Studies Memes for Hellenistic Teens joins Liv to tear apart the movie 300, a mess of so many issues, holding nothing back.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

With Trevor Culley

Trevor Culley of the History of Persia Podcast on Persia's experience of the wars, its motivations and why it was ultimately unsuccessful, since most sources focus on the Greek experience.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

An unscripted conversation with Steve of the Spartan History Podcast on the founding of democracy in Athens, whether Lycurgus was historical, and whether Athens or Sparta did most to defeat Persia; part 1 of 2.

Directed by Jacques Tourneur and Mario Bava, this 1959 international co-production sword and sandal film, loosely based on the Battle of Marathon, stars Steve Reeves as Phillipides.

Part of The History of Ancient Greece

The Persian Wars' aftermath, the Delian League formed under Athens to carry on the war against Persia at sea, and the rival factions in Athens and Sparta struggling over foreign policy in the 470s BC.

Part of Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)

Kagan traces the rise of the Persian empire into conflict with Ionian Greeks in Asia Minor, sparking the Persian Wars, and closes with the battle of Marathon, where the Athenians defeated the Persians.

Part of The Ancients

With Roel Konijnendijk, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

In 486 BC Xerxes ascended the Persian throne and sought revenge on Greece; Tristan Hughes, Dr Roel Konijnendijk and Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones explore his massive invasion through the battles of Thermopylae and Salamis in the accounts of Herodotus.

Part of The History of Ancient Greece

The death of Dareios and accession of Xerxes, preparations for a larger second invasion in 480 BC, the Hellenic League, the simultaneous land and naval battles at Thermopylai and Artemision, and the folklore of Thermopylai.

Part of Introduction to Ancient Greek History (Open Yale Courses)

Kagan follows the fear of Persian revenge after the Greek victory of 479 BC, as island poleis turned to Athens to lead the league that became the Delian League, while Sparta held back.

Part of The History of Ancient Greece

The first Persian invasion in 490 BC: preparations and shifting alliances, regnal squabbles at Sparta, the Battle of Marathon and its aftermath, folklore and monuments, the feud between Athenians and Aiginetans, and Athenian politics in the 480s BC.

Part of Greeced Lightning

Sara, Luke, and Sam turn from myth to ancient history with the 2007 film 300, covering the Battle of Thermopylae, the Persian Wars, Spartan life, jock rock, and the Greeks' aversion to pants.

Part of The Rest Is History

Tom and Dominic launch into Persia's invasion of Greece, one of the most cataclysmic clashes in all ancient history, asking why the Persian Empire crossed the Aegean to destroy Athens in 490BC under Darius, the King of Kings.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

The 2014 sequel 300: Rise of an Empire, centred on Artemisium and Salamis, compared with the ancient sources for what is well grounded, what is stretched, and where its creators wrote their own version.

Part of The Rest Is History

Tom and Dominic discuss the Battle of Marathon and its aftermath, asking why the battle changed the world so considerably and whether the Athenians could really triumph over the indomitable Persian Empire.

Part of Ancient Greece Declassified

The finale of the Persian Wars saga: the aftermath of Salamis, Xerxes going home, the final battles at Plataea and Mycale, the Themistoclean Walls, and the exile and death of Themistocles.

Part of Spartan History Podcast

With Paul Cartledge

Professor Paul Cartledge examines Thermopylae's 3 fateful days at the hot gates, when Leonidas and his 300 wrote their Polis' legend, separating the facts of the battle from the myth making around it.

Part of Have Toga, Will Travel: Exploring Greece and Rome, Ancient and Modern

Emily and Cam trace Xerxes's decision to invade Greece and his expedition toward the Battle of Thermopylae, with a brief digression on the film 300.

Part of The History of Ancient Greece

Spartan-Athenian tensions in the winter of 480/79 BC, Mardonios trying to turn the allies against each other, the twin victories at Plataia and Mykale in 479 BC, and Athens' first attempt on the Thrakian Chersonesos.

Part of The History of Ancient Greece

Kyros' conquests of Lydia, the Greek city-states of western Anatolia, the nomadic tribes of central Asia and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, his multi-ethnic army, an empire from Anatolia to the Hindu-Kush, and why later historians called him Great.

Part of The History of Ancient Greece

Dareios takes the throne and campaigns to the Indus, Ahura-Mazda and Zoroastrianism in his reign, and the reforms: Old Persian script, Persepolis, satrapies, the Royal Road, a canal of sorts and the gold Daric.

Part of Ancient History Hound

With Sonya Nevin

In her book The Idea of Marathon, Dr Sonya Nevin explores the Battle of Marathon from several angles, including how later generations made sense of it, complete with complaining Greeks and disappearing horses.

Part of Dan Snow's History Hit

With Patrick Wyman

Patrick Wyman explains how the Achaemenids under Darius and Xerxes the Great sent armies against rebel Greek city states, reshaping the ancient world in the 5th century BC.

Part of The History of Ancient Greece

Herodotos, the Father of History, with his influences, drawbacks and positives, then the Near East of the 7th and early 6th centuries BC: Medes and Neo-Babylonians destroying Assyria, and Kyros of Anshan overthrowing the Medes.

Part of The Ancients

With Andrew Bayliss

In 480 BC a vastly outnumbered Greek force under Leonidas, king of Sparta, prepared to face Xerxes at Thermopylae; Tristan Hughes and Dr Andrew Bayliss trace Leonidas's rise through Sparta's Agiad dynasty to his final stand at the hot gates.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

The 2006 movie 300 set against the historical record: what it presents fairly accurately, what is its own interpretation, and which fanciful elements appear inserted for dramatic purposes with no basis in the record.

Part of Have Toga, Will Travel: Exploring Greece and Rome, Ancient and Modern

In the final part of a four-part series, Emily and Cam cover the Battle of Salamis and the Battle of Plataea, closing with the Serpent Column as a monument to Greek victory.

Part of Tides of History

With John Hyland

The usual perspective on the Greco-Persian Wars is quite explicitly that of the Greeks; the episode asks how the Persians viewed these conflicts and what they were after, presenting Professor John Hyland's research on how the Persians understood war.

Part of Spartan History Podcast

With Mark Selleck

Part two of a collaboration with Mark from Casting Through Ancient Greece opens on the possible veracity of the Lycurgus myth and closes with Spartan and Athenian contributions to victory in the Persian wars.

Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast

The team discusses magazine issue XIV.4, The Greco-Persian Wars, on how by the late sixth century BC it had become clear that the expanding Persian Empire and the Greek city states of Asia and the Aegean would soon collide.

Part of Spartan History Podcast

With Barry Strauss

Cornell University Professor Barry Strauss on the battle of Salamis, where an allied Hellenic fleet nominally under Spartan command, with Athenian citizens as its backbone and a navy built under Themistocles, faced Persian forces outnumbering it around 4 to 1.

Part of The History of Ancient Greece

Kambyses' reign: Amasis II and Psammetichos III, Battos III, Arkesilaos III, Polykrates and Lygdamis, the conquests of Kypros and Egypt, failed campaigns in north Africa, and his "madness", as told by Herodotos, which ended his reign.

Part of The Ancients

With Paul Cartledge

2,499 years ago King Xerxes launched history's largest amphibious invasion of Europe before D-Day; Paul Cartledge sorts the fact from the fiction about the doomed Thermopylae defence by Leonidas, his 300 (or so) Spartans and their Hellenic allies.

Part of The Rest Is History

Tom and Dominic continue marking the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian invasion of Greece, examining Thermopylae as the archetype of a heroic defeat and Salamis as the great naval clash that saved Greece from Persian conquest.

Part of The History of Ancient Greece

The Ionian Revolt: the failed Naxos expedition, Miletos' role, the Greek sack of Sardeis, the Persian counteroffensive, the naval victory at Lade and sack of Miletos, the Spartan destruction of Argos at Sepeia, and the early life of Themistokles.

Part of The History of Ancient Greece

After Thermopylai the Persians advance on Athens, Themistokles tricks them into fighting in the narrows at Salamis in 480 BC, a stunning Greek victory at sea, and Xerxes' fleet and the bulk of his army retreat to Asia.

Part of Ancient Greece Declassified

In 480BC the Persian Empire invaded Greece, and Themistocles had a plan: the mines of Laurion, Athens against Aegina, the battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium, the Wooden Wall, and the Battle of Salamis.

Part of History of Persia

A decade after Aristagoras revolted and Athens reneged on its offerings of earth and water, a Persian army lands on the Greek mainland for the first time, camping on the plain that becomes Marathon.

Part of The Rest Is History

In 480 BC, 300 Spartans made a stand at Thermopylae as Persian forces under Xerxes seemed set to conquer Greece; though defeated, the Greek navy soon routed the Persians at Salamis, a turning point in the war.

Part of The Ancients

With Michael Scott

Themistocles rose from obscurity to help build one of the greatest naval powers in history and defeat Persia's navy, then his story ends in exile serving the empire he once defeated; Tristan Hughes and Michael Scott trace rise and fall.

Part of Greeced Lightning

Sara and Sam tackle the Chronicles: Battle for Greece campaign in Age of Empires 2, discussing Europeans stealing historical treasures, ancient tyrants and the Ionian revolt.

Part of The History of Ancient Greece

The 460s BC: Kimon's dual land and naval victory at the Eurymedon, the assassination of Xerxes, Themistokles' medism trial and defection to Artaxerxes, the revolt of Thasos, the earthquake and resulting Helot revolt, Kimon's ostracism, and the ascendency of Perikles.

Part of Epic Greek History

The episode opens a two-part account of the Persian Empire's rise, arguing no historical event loomed larger for ancient Greeks than their defense against Persian military power.

Part of Ancient Greece Declassified

The first of two episodes on the Greco-Persian Wars through the eyes of Themistocles: his childhood and the Athenian Revolution, democracy's early challenges, the demagogue, the Ionian Revolt, and Marathon.

Part of HistoryExtra podcast

With Paul Cartledge

Ancient historian Paul Cartledge tells Spencer Mizen about the Spartans' resistance against the Persians at Thermopylae, whether their military training was as tough as historians suggest, and the culture and politics of their ancient Greek city-state.

Part of Greeced Lightning

Sara and Sam continue their Age of Empires 2 campaign into the Persian War, covering ostracism procedures, wily old Themistocles, and Sara's waning tolerance for podcasting while pregnant.

Part of Epic Greek History

The episode follows Cambyses the Second subduing Egypt after the death of Cyrus in 530 BCE, then covers Darius the First reorganizing the empire and introducing Persian coinage.

Part of History Unplugged Podcast

With Michael Livingston

Thousands have lost their lives fighting over the pass at Thermopylae from the Greek Classical Era to World War II; the 300 Spartans of 480 BC were one battle among twenty-six others fought there, with guest Michael Livingston.

Part of Spartan History Podcast

The Greco-Persian wars' genesis is traced to the Ionian revolt, led by Aristagoras of Miletus, whose tyranny was underpinned by his father-in-law Histiaeus, setting the path toward Marathon, Thermopylae, Plataea and Salamis.

Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast

With Michael Livingston, Myke Cole

Jasper and Murray discuss Michael Livingston and Myke Cole's new book The Killing Ground: A Biography of Thermopylae, on the pass where, since the dawn of the Classical Era to World War II, thousands died fighting.

Part of In Our Time

The Battle of Salamis halted the further Persian conquest of Greece, and further Greek victories the next year at Plataea and Mycale brought Persian withdrawal and the immediate threat of conquest to an end.

Part of HistoryExtra podcast

With Jamie Fraser, Kelly Accetta Crowe

Curators Jamie Fraser and Kelly Accetta Crowe tell Emily Briffett how Greek soldiers who captured the Persian king's command tent during the Greco-Persian wars saw its decadence as the reason for the Persians' downfall.

Part of Spartan History Podcast

The third instalment of the Greco-Persian war series covers the decade between Marathon and Thermopylae: Themistocles' Athenian naval build up, Sparta's two new and unstable kings, and Xerxes' mounting forces in Persia.

Part of Ancient Greece: Myth, Art, War

Dr Gillian Shepherd traces Athens from the benevolent rule of the tyrant Peisistratos through the fall of his dynasty to democracy, and on to the battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea against the invading Persians.

Part of Ancient Greece Declassified

Stanford archaeologist Ian Morris examines the economies and technologies behind the Greek victory over the biggest invasion force that had ever been launched, in the Persian expeditions of 490-479 BC.

Part of The Ancients

With Chris Carey

Ever since it occurred in 480 BC, the Battle of Thermopylae has been legend; Professor Chris Carey explains how its shadow continues today, referenced by those fighting for freedom and in films and video games.

Part of Ad Navseam

With Peter Green's help, the guys trace how Darius the Great is turned back at Marathon before his son Xerxes I seeks revenge with a horde of wicker-wearing Immortals.

Part of Ancient Greece: Myth, Art, War

Dr Gillian Shepherd looks at victory monuments in Athens, Attica and Delphi after Marathon in 490 BC, where myth held that Athena, Herakles, Theseus and Echetlaos joined the Athenians against the Persians.

Part of The Ancients

With Joshua Hall

480 BC is widely celebrated in Greek history for Thermopylae and Salamis, but 600 miles west of Salamis another famous battle was supposedly fought the same day: the Battle of Himera; Dr Joshua Hall explains its significance for ancient Sicily.

Part of Ithaca Bound

With Chris Carey

Emeritus Professor Chris Carey of University College London recounts the Battle of Thermopylae, where a heavily outnumbered Greek army under a Spartan commander fought, a story that has captured interests and imaginations for eons.

Part of The Classics Podcast

With Roel Konijnendijk, Lynette Mitchell

Roel Konijnendijk and Lynette Mitchell begin exploring the reasons for the Greek victory over the Persians in 480 to 479 BCE, the first of six episodes on Greek history in Season 1 of this A Level series.

Part of Ad Navseam

In 480 BC the Persians learn Spartan discipline holds until the traitor Ephialtes shows Xerxes a mountain path, and Leonidas resigns himself to death.

Part of Have Toga, Will Travel: Exploring Greece and Rome, Ancient and Modern

Emily and Cam continue the Persian-Greek conflict series, covering Cyrus's son Cambyses, the rise of Darius, and Darius's relationships with Greeks along his empire's western frontier.

Part of HistoryExtra podcast

With Andrew Bayliss

Ancient historian Andrew Bayliss discusses the Greek city-state of Sparta, ranging from Spartan military prowess and the battle of Thermopylae to the structure of Spartan society and its darker history.

Part of History of Persia

Between 484 and 481 BCE Xerxes orders his subjects to prepare for war in Greece, readying infrastructure across the western empire; 200,000 soldiers converge on the Hellespont in spring 480 and march toward Hellas.

Part of Epic Greek History

The episode dates the Ionian revolt to 499 BCE, when Aristagoras of Miletus led Ionian Greek cities against the Persian Empire while Athens sent twenty ships in support.

Part of History of Persia

After a year of success, Persian occupation of northern Greece suffers a second massive defeat: the Hellenic League fields a full Greek army against Mardonius near the town of Plataea, and the maneuvering ends in decisive, bloody battle.

Part of History of Persia

Little survives of the decade after Greek offensives against Xerxes until the Battle of the Eurymedon, when Athenian general Kimon leads a Delian League fleet to destroy the Persian fleet and army in southern Anatolia.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

A look back at the 18 episodes on the Greco-Persian Wars, from the Ionian revolt through the two invasions, framed by Herodotus, who was born during the wars and later collected all he could.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Gelon rises through a series of tyrannies to control almost the entire east coast of Sicily and Syracuse; Carthage answers with an invasion of unprecedented size, and the two armies camp across from one another at Himera.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Alexander I of Macedon between Persia and Greece: his sister's marriage to a Persian governor suggests submission, yet as a friend of Athens he advises the Greeks while assisting Xerxes' march through his lands.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

After Sardis and defeat at Ephesus the Ionian revolt spreads to Aeolia, the Hellespont, Caria and Cyprus by 497, until Persian armies retake western Anatolia; Ionia revolts again after Mycale.

Part of History of Persia

September 480 BCE marks the Persian high point in Greece: Athens smolders, the Greek army has retreated to Corinth and the fleet is in limbo with the Athenian refugees on Salamis, where Xerxes sends his navy and loses.

Part of History of Persia

As 480 BCE ends, the war between Greeks and Persians only pauses: the Peloponnesians go home, Athenians raid the Aegean, Xerxes withdraws to Lydia, Mardonius stays in Greece, and Artabazos marches an army to Thrace.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Persia's side of defeat, asking why an army that size failed to capture Greece and whether equipment, training or reliance on various nations undid it, and how an empire left intact was affected.

Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast

The team discusses magazine issue XVII.4, on how, after the Persians were defeated at Salamis and Plataea and withdrew from the Greek mainland, the war was far from over as the Greeks went on the offensive.

Part of Tides of History

Covering the Ionian Revolt to the Battle of Marathon, the episode argues the Persian Wars were far more complicated than a simple civilizational clash, and sets out the background that made them possible.

Part of History of Persia

In summer 480 BCE, King Xerxes' invasion force meets the Greek allies at the twin battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium; after three days the pass falls, and Persian troops push south through Phocis, Boeotia, Attica and Athens.

Part of Have Toga, Will Travel: Exploring Greece and Rome, Ancient and Modern

Aeschylus's Persians stands as the oldest surviving Greek tragedy, offering what Emily and Cam call a surprisingly sympathetic take on Athens's ancient Persian enemies.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

After Salamis Xerxes withdraws home and leaves his most trusted general Mardonius to subjugate the rest of Hellas; Athens rejects his terms and once again takes refuge on Salamis.

Part of HistoryExtra podcast

With Michael Scott

Michael Scott offers his insights into the 490 BC Battle of Marathon in this edition of the podcast.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

At the turn to the Greek and Persian wars, a summary of the first 13 episodes from the first signs of human habitation in Greece, the host's podcasting experiences, and answers to listener questions.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Plataea: the Greek line, broken into three formations by the night withdrawal, meets an all-out Persian attack; Mardonios falls to a thrown rock, and the Hellenic league wins the largest engagement of the wars.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

After Persia destroys Lydia, the fence-sitting Ionian Greeks meet the anger of Cyrus, a Lydian revolt is crushed, and a generation of tyranny and tribute later the Ionians revolt and attack Sardis.

Part of The Classics Podcast

With Roel Konijnendijk, Lynette Mitchell

Roel Konijnendijk and Lynette Mitchell conclude their exploration of why the Greeks defeated the Persians in 480 to 479 BCE, the second half of the opening episode in this Ancient History A Level season.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Mycale, by tradition fought the same day as Plataea: Leotychidas, reluctant with a small fleet, sails east once the Athenians arrive, and the Persians beach their ships so a naval operation is decided on land.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Thrace as a crossroads for Persian campaigns at the turn of the 6th and 5th centuries, from the push into Scythian lands to the coastal engineering works for Xerxes' invasion, with Thracians later known as some of the best mercenaries.

Part of The Ancients

With Barry Strauss

Around 22 September, 2,499 years ago, a small largely-Athenian fleet squared up against the mighty Persian armada of King Xerxes; Professor Barry Strauss talks through the Battle of Salamis and explains why it became so important to the Athenians.

Part of Tides of History

The episode describes the Persian invasion burning much of Athens after defeating Leonidas, before the Greek allies met them nearby at Salamis in what became one of the largest and most decisive naval battles in history.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

The third player before the Greco-Persian Wars: the Persians, a relatively small group in the Zagros Mountains, expand under Cyrus the Great, absorb the Lydian Empire and create the largest empire the world had yet known.

Part of New Books in Ancient History

With Michael Scott

Michael Scott's Themistocles: The Rise and Fall of Athens' Naval Mastermind (Yale UP, 2026) presents the Athenian general as shaping his own destiny through choices, some of them flawed, not a fixed nature.

Part of Ancient History Hound

Starting from the mythical foundation of Thebes, this episode moves through the very real aftermath of the Persian invasion, with athletic cows, wedding drama and walls along the way.

Part of History of Persia

Before the fighting between the Persian Empire and the Greek city states, how the Greeks prepared for war: Athens builds a navy, everyone plans to deploy armies, and the whole history of the famous 300 Spartans.

Part of History of Persia

After the Persian defeat at Mycale the Greco-Persian war drags on: late 479 BCE brings Greek offensives into Persian territory that outlast Sparta's withdrawal in 478, and the third year against Xerxes sees Athens found the Delian League.

Part of Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! | Greek Mythology & the Ancient Mediterranean

Michaela opens Herodotus's Histories, the first history text from Greek antiquity, tracing the beginnings of the Persian Wars through as many tangents as the father of history can manage.

Part of Tides of History

In the spring of 479 BC the allied Greeks' land forces met the Persian army at Plataea, and the legacy of the Persian Wars would shape memory, identity and the future relationship between Greeks and Persians for decades and centuries.

Part of History of Persia

Though the Ionian cities are defeated, their revolt has consequences; in 492 BCE Mardonius campaigns in the Balkans, then Artaphernes and Datis punish Athens and Eretria for aiding the Ionians with the first Persian invasion of Greece.

Part of History of Persia

Memphis endures a five-year siege from 459 to 454 BCE as Pharaoh Inaros tries to oust Persian rule with Athenian aid; Persian reinforcements crush the rebellion, capture Inaros, and send Athens reeling back to one last attempt on Cyprus.

Part of Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! | Greek Mythology & the Ancient Mediterranean

Herodotus returns to Croesus's mad dash to take on the Persian Empire, tangents included, as book one of the Histories continues toward the capture of a third city.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Persia after Cyrus: Cambyses conquers Egypt and dies amid a crisis, a pretender holds power for seven months, and Darius, one of the conspiring nobles, becomes king, expands the empire and collides with the Greeks.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Salamis: with the fleet set to withdraw, Themistocles sends Xerxes a ruse bordering on treason, both openings of the straits appear blocked, and the outnumbered Greeks win as Persian ships foul one another.

Part of History of Persia

Athens moves from oligarchy through Peisistratid tyranny to Cleisthenes' democracy, then joins Eretria and the Ionian Greek cities in revolt; in 498 BCE their army marches from Ephesus to burn Sardis.

Part of Plutarch's Greeks and Romans Podcast

Athens faces destruction as the Persians advance, and it falls to the bold, clever Themistocles and his honorable rival Aristides to find a way to stop them.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Athens, occupied a second time, refuses Mardonius again and uses his offer to press Sparta, whose army turns out to be already marching north; the swelling Hellenic league emerges from the Citheron Mountains near Plataea.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

After Plataea and Mycale: cities build monuments to thank the gods who assisted them, including a collective monument at Delphi, Pausanias turns on Thebes for Medizing, and the fleet clears Persian garrisons from the Hellespont.

Part of History of Persia

Exiled aristocrats from Naxos ask the Milesian tyrant Aristagoras for help retaking their island; a failed Persian invasion leaves him broke and plotting the Ionian Revolt against Darius the Great.

Part of History of Persia

Persian troops drive the rebels from Aeolis across Anatolia; Greek cities led by Dionysius of Phocaea regroup on the island of Lade as satrap Artaphernes sends army and navy to retake Miletus.

Part of History of Persia

After Artaxerxes I takes power in 465 BCE, the rebel Pharaoh Inaros II stalemates a satrap in Egypt until 460 BCE, when Athens sends forces that kill the satrap and join Inaros marching on Memphis.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

The Ionian Revolt as prelude to the Greek and Persian wars: only Athens and Eretria answer the call, the campaign is foiled at Sardis, the Greeks are routed at Ephesus, and the revolt is defeated at Lade.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Between the invasions: Miltiades falls from favour, Persia faces revolts in Egypt and Babylon, Darius dies of an illness, and his son Xerxes assembles an army larger than anything before it in the ancient world.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

After Thermopylae the Persians march through central Greece while Athens evacuates to Salamis; Xerxes takes a mostly deserted Acropolis, and the Hellenic league debates whether to depart or fight at Salamis.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Before the main battle: the Athenians kill the Persian cavalry commander, Pausanias deploys the line further forward, the Greeks lose their fresh water and supply lines, and a night retreat leaves the line vulnerable at sunrise.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Greece prepares for Xerxes: Themistocles shifts Athens toward naval power, and a Hellenic league of only a fraction of the city states forms, its cooperation on a razor's edge, before meeting the invasion at Thermopylae and Artemisium.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Thermopylae: some seven thousand Greeks under the Spartan King Leonidas and his three hundred Spartans repel every attack, even the Immortals, until a betrayal reveals the mountain trail and the remaining Greeks fight to the end.

Part of History of Persia

Supposedly the same day as Plataea, the Greek fleet sails to aid Samian rebels at Mount Mycale; still recovering from Salamis, the Persians turn it into a land fight, and general Tigranes and his men are overwhelmed.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Artemisium, by tradition fought over the same 3 days as Thermopylae: a fleet under a Spartan commander, mostly Athenian ships under Themistocles, clever tactics to avoid a decisive action, and withdrawal once Thermopylae fell.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Darius, reportedly reminded at meals to remember the Athenians, sends two campaigns: one undone by a storm off Mt Athos and Thracian resistance, then an island-hopping fleet that lays waste to Eretria and reaches Marathon Bay.

Part of Casting Through Ancient Greece

Marathon: Miltiades persuades Callimachus to give battle, the outnumbered Greeks reportedly cover the distance at a run for reasons still debated, and the Persians sail for Athens to find the Athenian force waiting.

Part of Plutarch's Greeks and Romans Podcast

Themistocles and Aristides come of age as tyranny in Athens gives way to the world's first democracy, a brave new world that would require brave new leaders.

Part of History of Persia

While Persian armies fight Ionian Greek rebels in Anatolia, a fourth force sails for Cyprus, where King Onesilos of Salamis has usurped his brother's throne and incited neighbors to rebellion; the Persians retake the island.

Part of History of Persia

With Miletus fallen and Cyprus under control, Persian victory looks complete, yet Ionian resistance continues; the deposed tyrant Histiaeus schemes to carve out a new niche for himself inside Persian territory.

Part of Dan Snow's History Hit

With Andrew Bayliss

Andrew Bayliss, an expert on Sparta and Ancient Greece, marks the 2,500th anniversary of the battle in which 300 Spartans battled the Persian army, and asks whether the Spartans deserved their reputations.

Part of History of Persia

After Sardis burns, more Greek cities join the Ionian Revolt despite Persian victory at Ephesus; three Persian generals campaign through 497 and 496 BCE until Aristagoras of Miletus flees the failing revolt into exile.

Part of The Classics Podcast

With Roel Konijnendijk, Lynette Mitchell

Roel and Lynette close this revision run on the Persian Wars by weighing Persian supply lines and plain Greek luck among the many factors behind the Greek victory.

Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast

To celebrate the podcast's 300th episode, Murray tackles the big question of what really happened at the battle of Marathon, a listener question whose asker he has since forgotten.

Part of The Classics Podcast

This revision episode weighs Persian decision-making against Greek leadership as rival explanations for the Greek victory in the Persian Wars, part of the Ancient History A Level syllabus.

Part of Epic Greek History

The Battle of Marathon quickly turned from history into legend, and this episode traces how retellings grew taller over time, pointing to Tom Holland's Persian Fire and Owen Rees's question about Pheidippides for further reading.

Part of Kings and Generals

Greek and Persian civilizations fight for millennia, and the battle of Salamis in 480 BC stands as the central defence of free Greece against the Persian invasion.

Part of Kings and Generals

The Armies and Tactics series makes its debut by covering how the armies, tactics, formations and weaponry of the ancient Greeks changed during the Persian invasions.

Part of The Hellenistic Age Podcast

Herodotus at his most wonderfully weird, advanced imperial administration and the question of decadence all come up in this prelude on the Achaemenid Persian Empire.

Part of The Classics Podcast

With Roel Konijnendijk

Roel works through how many people were really involved in the Persian Wars, one of the interpretation questions on the Ancient History A Level syllabus about why the Greeks won.

Part of The Classics Podcast

With Roel Konijnendijk, Lynette Mitchell

This episode revises the roles of different Greek cities in the Persian Wars, and which of them took the credit, alongside the earlier Persian invasion that came before it.

Part of The Classics Podcast

With Roel Konijnendijk, Lynette Mitchell

This revision episode is all about the sources for the first interpretation question, why the Greeks won the Persian Wars, part of the Ancient History A Level syllabus.

Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast

A listener named Andrew wonders why the Greeks did not attack Persian engineers building the pontoon bridge across the Hellespont during the Second Persian Invasion, and whether they missed a chance to destroy it.

Part of The Classics Podcast

With Roel Konijnendijk, Lynette Mitchell

This revision episode covers Xerxes' aims and Greek unity against Persia, part of the syllabus on why the Greeks won the Persian Wars.

Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast

Following an earlier episode where the team discussed the Greco-Persian war, Maxnet asks which ancient source Murray was quoting regarding the Battle of Marathon, and Murray explains his sources.

Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast

Patron Ian asks which was the fastest army in the ancient world travelling overland, noting Herodotus records the Spartan relief force covering roughly 150 kilometres in 3 days racing to Marathon.

Part of In Our Time · The BBC seminar format; only the Greek episodes are indexed

Part of The History of Ancient Greece · The long chronological run, from the Stone Age forward

Part of The Ancients · History Hit's interview show; only the Greek episodes are indexed

With Owen Rees

Part of Dan Snow's History Hit · Dan Snow on history's defining moments; only the Greek episodes are indexed

With William Shepherd

Part of History of Persia · Persia from Cyrus onward; only the episodes where the Greek world is the subject are indexed

Part of Echoes of History · History Hit for Assassin's Creed; only the Greek episodes are indexed

With Danny Wallace

Part of Ancient Warfare Podcast · Panel discussions from Ancient Warfare Magazine; only the Greek episodes are indexed

Part of Tides of History · Patrick Wyman's survey of the deep past; only the Greek episodes are indexed

Part of Tides of History · Patrick Wyman's survey of the deep past; only the Greek episodes are indexed

Part of The Ancients · History Hit's interview show; only the Greek episodes are indexed

With Roel Konijnendijk, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

Part of Have Toga, Will Travel: Exploring Greece and Rome, Ancient and Modern · Two former Classics professors on Greece and Rome, ancient and modern; only the Greek episodes are indexed

Part of Epic Greek History · From Mycenaean kings through the Persian invasions, one full and one short episode a month

Part of In Our Time · The BBC seminar format; only the Greek episodes are indexed

Part of Epic Greek History · From Mycenaean kings through the Persian invasions, one full and one short episode a month

Part of Have Toga, Will Travel: Exploring Greece and Rome, Ancient and Modern · Two former Classics professors on Greece and Rome, ancient and modern; only the Greek episodes are indexed

Part of Not another Greek History podcast! · Greek history told from Athens with pop-culture comparisons and irony