World famous military leaders biography

In the spring of Xerxes led , soldiers over a pontoon bridge across the Hellespont BC, Persia’s King and invaded Greece.

World famous military leaders biography

Accompanied by 1, warships and 3, transports, Xerxes intended to destroy Athens to avenge the defeat of the Persian army at Marathon a decade earlier. In August the Persians defeated the Spartans at Thermopylae, then captured Athens and burned the Acropolis.

The Athenians fled to the islands of Aegina, Salamis and Troezen. The Greek fleet sought safety in Salamis’ harbor and waited for the Persians to attack.

The Spartans wanted to withdraw the fleet to protect Corinth from a Persian attack.

But Themistocles, commander of the Athenian flotilla, knew that if Athens was to survive, the fleet must remain at Salamis and defeat Xerxes.

Leonidas:Sparta’s King Leonidas led “the 300” against thousands of Persians during the heroic defense of the mountain pass at Thermopylae (480 B.C.).

He sent his slave, Sicinnus, to tell the Persians that due to dissension among the Greeks, the fleet had decided to sail for Corinth the next day. Xerxes took the bait, and ordered his ships to block Salamis Sound. By daybreak the Persi