The Greco-Persian wars started when the Ionian islands along the coast of Greece revolted. These islands were under Persian control.The Ionian city states in the Kingdom of Lydia fell to Cyrus in543 BC. Darius I was put on the Persian throne; the empire expanded further; the military was better with better supplies and great amounts of manpower, even though the people who had first migrated to Ionia were Greeks. Ionia dealt with a lot of trade, some of the trade they did was with the Athenians. As soon as they revolted, the Athenians sent troops to help the Ionians. The islands of Imnos and Limnos were captured by the Persians; this gave the Persians better control of the great supply coming from the Black Sea. Naxos was also on the list of targets. Aristagoras tried to capture Naxos with the help of Darius and the Persians;…show more content… He brought 180,000 to 5,000,000 troops and 800 to 4,000 ships across the Hellespont. Sparta and Athens called together a congress to decide who would help defend Greece. 31 Poles agreed to defend Greece against the incoming Persians. Sparta was put in control of the army and the navy. The first war was at Thermopylae. The battle at Thermopylae was positioned at a place called Thermopylae were there was a narrow pass surrounded by cliffs on all sides on one side the cliff ended in the ocean. Leonidas, the leader of the Spartans, knew of a path through the mountains; he sent 1000 men to guard the pass. This battle would be decisive because if the Persians won they could just go down to Athens, destroy the city and then later Greece. The battle of Thermopolay was situated between the mountains and the sea at a place called Thermopylae. There was an opening between the sea and the mountains; the Greeks guarded this passage against the Persians. The Spartan king Leonidas knew of another pass through the mountains. He sent 1000 men to guard the pass. There were 7000 Greek soldiers and 300
