Roda da Fortuna. Revista Eletrônica sobre Antiguidade e Medievo, 2012, vol. 1, n. 2, 2012
The two key events in the history of Greece and, to use an anachronistic term, the “Western World”, were the Greco-Persian Wars at the beginning of the 5th century BC. They brought total war to the small, divided Greek world when the armies and fleets of the great king, Darius the Great (492-490) and later those of his son Xerxes (481-479) repeatedly suffered defeat at the hands the warriors of small independent cities, the poleis. After one of the least humiliating defeats in history (Thermopylae, 480) and two naval battles (Cape Artemisium and Salamina, 480), the coalition of free Greeks faced the bulk of the Persian forces at Plataea (479), with the Greek heavy infantry (hoplites) winning one of the most famous victories in military history.
