Battle of Plataea: Iranian archers from the Persian Empire
Battle of Plataea
Now that the Greeks had won a major naval victory over the Persians at Salamis, they were braver. Now they were all eager to fight the Persian army on land too. So in the spring of 479 BC, when Xerxes sent the Persian army back to Greece (he didn’t come himself this time), the Greeks met the Persians in the battle of Plataea (plah-TAY-ah) (near Thebes, north of Athens).
Battle of Plataea: Gold coin of Xerxes (or another Persian king)
End of the Second Persian War
Again, the Greeks beat the Persians (although Thebes fought on the Persian side). This time, the Persians went home again and stayed there. Xerxes had had enough. The Greeks had won the Second Persian War!
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Learn by doing: archery project
More about Classical Greece
Bibliography and further reading about the Persian Wars:
Oxford First Ancient History, by Roy Burrell and Peter Connolly (1997). Lively interviews and pictures make the ancient Mediterranean come to life. For teens.
A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture, by Sarah Pomeroy and others (2004). For college students.
The Greco-Persian Wars, by Peter Green (1998). A popular history of the wars.
The Greek and Persian Wars 499-386 BC, by Philip De Souza (2003).
The Persian Wars, by Herodotus. Straight from the Greek historian himself!
