Ancient Greece

===Classical Greece===
{{Main|Classical Greece}}
[[File:EarlyAthenianCoin.jpg|thumb|left|Early [[Athens|Athenian]] coin, depicting the head of [[Athena]] on the obverse and her owl on the reverse – 5th century BC.]]

In 499 BC, the [[Ionia]]n city states under Persian rule rebelled against their Persian-supported tyrant rulers.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|pp=126–27}}</ref> Supported by troops sent from Athens and [[Eretria]], they advanced as far as [[Sardis]] and burnt the city before being driven back by a Persian counterattack.<ref name="martin2013">{{harvnb|Martin|2013|p=127}}</ref> The revolt continued until 494, when the rebelling Ionians were defeated.<ref name="martin2013" /> Darius did not forget that Athens had assisted the Ionian revolt, and in 490 he assembled an armada to retaliate.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|p=128}}</ref> Though heavily outnumbered, the Athenians—supported by their [[Plataea]]n allies—defeated the Persian hordes at the [[Battle of Marathon]], and the Persian fleet turned tail.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|pp=128–29}}</ref>

[[File:Map Greco-Persian Wars-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Map showing events of the first phases of the [[Greco-Persian Wars]].]]
[[File:Map athenian empire 431 BC-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Delian League ("Athenian Empire"), immediately before the [[Peloponnesian War]] in 431 BC.]]

Ten years later, a [[Second Persian invasion of Greece|second invasion]] was launched by Darius' son [[Xerxes I|Xerxes]].<ref name="martin131">{{harvnb|Martin|2013|p=131}}</ref> The city-states of northern and central Greece submitted to the Persian forces without resistance, but a coalition of 31 Greek city states, including Athens and Sparta, determined to resist the Persian invaders.<ref name="martin131" /> At the same time, Greek Sicily was invaded by a Carthaginian force.<ref name="martin131" /> In 480 BC, the first major battle of the invasion was fought at [[Battle of Thermopylae|Thermopylae]], where a small rearguard of Greeks, led by three hundred Spartans, held a crucial pass guarding the heart of Greece for several days; at the same time [[Gelo]]n, tyrant of Syracuse, defeated the Carthaginian invasion at the [[Battle of Himera (480 BC)|Battle of Himera]].<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|pp=131–33}}</ref>

The Persians were decisively defeated at sea by a primarily Athenian naval force at the [[Battle of Salamis]], and on land in 479 BC at the [[Battle of Plataea]].<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|pp=134–36}}</ref> The alliance against Persia continued, initially led by the Spartan [[Pausanias (general)|Pausanias]] but from 477 by Athens,<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|pp=137–38}}</ref> and by 460 Persia had been driven out of the Aegean.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|p=140}}</ref> During this long campaign, the [[Delian League]] gradually transformed from a defensive alliance of Greek states into an Athenian empire, as Athens' growing naval power intimidated the other league states.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|pp=137–41}}</ref> Athens ended its campaigns against Persia in 450, after a disastrous defeat in Egypt in 454, and the death of [[Cimon]] in action against the Persians on Cyprus in 450.<ref name="martin147">{{harvnb|Martin|2013|p=147}}</ref>

As the Athenian fight against the Persian empire waned, conflict grew between Athens and Sparta. Suspicious of the increasing Athenian power funded by the Delian League, Sparta offered aid to reluctant members of the League to rebel against Athenian domination. These tensions were exacerbated in 462 BC when Athens sent a force to aid Sparta in overcoming a [[helot]] revolt, but this aid was rejected by the Spartans.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|p=142}}</ref> In the 450s, Athens took control of Boeotia, and won victories over [[Aegina]] and Corinth.<ref name="martin147" /> However, Athens failed to win a decisive victory, and in 447 lost Boeotia again.<ref name="martin147" /> Athens and Sparta signed the [[Thirty Years' Peace]] in the winter of 446/5, ending the conflict.<ref name="martin147" />

Despite the treaty, Athenian relations with Sparta declined again in the 430s, and in 431 BC the [[Peloponnesian War]] began.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|p=149}}</ref> The [[Archidamian War|first phase of the war]] saw a series of fruitless annual invasions of Attica by Sparta, while Athens successfully fought the Corinthian empire in northwest Greece and defended its own empire, despite a [[Plague of Athens|plague]] which killed the leading Athenian statesman [[Pericles]].<ref name="hornblower160">{{harvnb|Hornblower|2011|p=160}}</ref> The war turned after Athenian victories led by [[Cleon]] at [[Battle of Pylos|Pylos]] and [[Battle of Sphacteria|Sphakteria]],<ref name="hornblower160" /> and Sparta sued for peace, but the Athenians rejected the proposal.<ref name="hornblower162">{{harvnb|Hornblower|2011|p=162}}</ref> The Athenian failure to regain control of Boeotia at [[Battle of Delium|Delium]] and [[Brasidas]]' successes in northern Greece in 424 improved Sparta's position after Sphakteria.<ref name="hornblower162" /> After the deaths of Cleon and Brasidas, the strongest proponents of war on each side, [[Peace of Nikias|a peace treaty]] was negoitiated in 421 by the Athenian general [[Nicias]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hornblower|2011|p=163}}</ref>

The peace did not last, however. In 418 BC allied forces of Athens and Argos were defeated by Sparta at [[Battle of Mantinea (418 BC)|Mantinea]].<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|pp=198–99}}</ref> In 415 Athens launched an ambitious naval expedition to dominate Sicily;<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|p=200}}</ref> the expedition ended in disaster at the harbor of [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]], with almost the entire army killed, and the ships destroyed.<ref>{{harvnb|Hornblower|2011|p=177}}</ref> Soon after the Athenian defeat in Syracuse, Athens' Ionian allies began to rebel against the Delian league, while Persia began to once again involve itself in Greek affairs on the Spartan side.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|pp=202–03}}</ref> Initially the Athenian position continued relatively strong, with important victories at [[Battle of Cyzicus|Cyzicus]] in 410 and [[Battle of Arginusae|Arginusae]] in 406.<ref>{{harvnb|Hornblower|2011|pp=186–89}}</ref> However, in 405 the Spartan [[Lysander]] defeated Athens in the [[Battle of Aegospotami]], and began to blockade Athens' harbour;<ref name="Martin 2013 205">{{harvnb|Martin|2013|p=205}}</ref> driven by hunger, Athens sued for peace, agreeing to surrender their fleet and join the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League.<ref>{{harvnb|Hornblower|2011|p=189}}</ref> Following the Athenian surrender, Sparta installed an oligarchic regime, the [[Thirty Tyrants]], in Athens,<ref name="Martin 2013 205"/> one of a number of Spartan-backed oligarchies which rose to power after the Peloponnesian war.<ref>{{harvnb|Hornblower|2011|p=203}}</ref> Spartan predominance did not last: after only a year, the Thirty had been overthrown.<ref>{{harvnb|Hornblower|2011|p=219}}</ref>

The first half of the fourth century saw the major Greek states attempt to dominate the mainland; none were successful, and their resulting weakness led to a power vacuum which would eventually be filled by Macedon under Philip II and then Alexander the Great.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|pp=221, 226}}</ref> In the immediate aftermath of the Peloponnesian war, Sparta attempted to extend their own power, leading Argos, Athens, Corinth, and Thebes to join against them.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|p=224}}</ref> Aiming to prevent any single Greek state gaining the dominance that would allow it to challenge Persia, the Persian king initially joined the alliance against Sparta, before imposing the [[Peace of Antalcidas]] ("King's Peace") which restored Persia's control over the Anatolian Greeks.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|pp=224–225}}</ref>

By 371 BC, Thebes was in the ascendancy, defeating Sparta at the [[Battle of Leuctra]], killing the Spartan king [[Cleombrotus I]], and invading Laconia. Further Theban successes against Sparta in 369 led to Messenia gaining independence; Sparta never recovered from the loss of Messenia's fertile land and the helot workforce it provided.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|pp=225–226}}</ref> The rising power of Thebes led Sparta and Athens to join forces; in 362 they were defeated by Thebes at the [[Battle of Mantinea (362 BC)|Battle of Mantinea]]. In the aftermath of Mantinea, none of the major Greek states were able to dominate. Though Thebes had won the battle, their general Epaminondas was killed, and they spent the following decades embroiled in wars with their neighbours; Athens, meanwhile, saw its second naval alliance, formed in 377, collapse in the mid-350s.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|p=226}}</ref>

The power vacuum in Greece after the Battle of Mantinea was filled by Macedon, under [[Philip II of Macedon|Philip II]]. In 338 BC, he defeated a Greek alliance at the [[Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)|Battle of Chaeronea]], and subsequently formed the [[League of Corinth]]. Philip planned to lead the League to invade Persia, but was murdered in 336 BC. His son [[Alexander the Great]] was left to fulfil his father's ambitions.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|p=221}}</ref> After campaigns against Macedon's western and northern enemies, and those Greek states that had broken from the League of Corinth following the death of Philip, Alexander began his campaign against Persia in 334 BC.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|pp=243–245}}</ref> He conquered Persia, defeating [[Darius III]] at the [[Battle of Issus]] in 333 BC, and after the [[Battle of Gaugamela]] in 331 BC proclaimed himself king of Asia.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|pp=245–247}}</ref> From 329 BC he led expeditions to Bactria and then India;<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|p=248}}</ref> further plans to invade Arabia and North Africa were halted by his death in 323 BC.<ref>{{harvnb|Martin|2013|p=250}}</ref>