Battle of Thermopolis and Artemisium between Persians and Greeks: Xerxes, son of Darius, wants to avenge the defeat at Marathon and prepares a fleet of 1,000 ships and a million men; at Cape Artemisium the Athenian ships face the Persian ones, at Thermopolis the Persians defeat the Spartans (the “300”) of King Leonidas; the Persians destroy Athens, already abandoned by its inhabitants, who have taken refuge in Salamis; the Athenian Themistocles counterattacks at sea and wins a victory at Salamis, the Persian army retreats and is defeated by the Spartan king Pausanias and the Athenian Aristides at Plataea in Boeotia; the Persian fleet is definitively defeated in the Battle of Miletus
