Battle of Thermopylae
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The Battle of Thermopylae was fought in 480 BC between the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Xerxes I and an alliance of Greek city-states led by Sparta under Leonidas I. Lasting over the course of three days, it was one of the most prominent battles of both the second Persian invasion of Greece and the wider Greco-Persian Wars.
Leonidas at Thermopylae (1814) Jacques-Louis David
The Spartans throw Persian envoys into a well
The site of the battle today. Mount Kallidromon on the left, and the wide coastal plain formed by accretion of fluvial deposits over the centuries; the road to the right approximates the 480 BC shoreline.
Soldiers of the Achaemenid army of Xerxes I at the time of the Battle of Thermopylae. Tomb of Xerxes I, circa 480 BC, Naqsh-e Rustam. Top rank: Persian, Median, Elamite, Parthian, Arian, Bactrian, Sogdian, Chorasmian, Zarangian, Sattagydian, Gandharan, Hindush (Indians), Scythian. Bottom rank: Scythian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Arabian, Egyptian, Armenian, Cappadocian, Lydian, Ionian, Scythian, Thracian, Macedonian, Libyan, Ethiopian.
Achaemenid Empire
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The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the First Persian Empire, was the ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the largest empire by that point in history, spanning a total of 5.5 million square kilometres. The empire spanned from the Balkans and Egypt in the west, West Asia as the base, the majority of Central Asia to the northeast, and the Indus Valley to the southeast.
The Achaemenid Empire at its greatest territorial extent, under the rule of Darius the Great (522–486 BC)
Family tree of the Achaemenid rulers.
The Bible recounts Cyrus's liberation of the Israelites held captive in Babylon, allowing them to resettle and rebuild Jerusalem
Cyrus the Great's tomb, located at Pasargadae