* 479 BC – Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan commander of the Greek army in the Battle of Plataea.

" Although a Greek, he may have been a soldier of the Persian army when Clazomenae was suppressed during the Ionian Revolt.

In 490 BC, Aeschylus and his brother Cynegeirus fought to defend Athens against Darius I's invading Persian army at the Battle of Marathon.

Xerxes then personally led a second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, taking an enormous ( although oft-exaggerated ) army and navy to Greece.

The following year, 479 BC, the Allies assembled the largest Greek army yet seen and defeated the Persian invasion force at the Battle of Plataea, ending the invasion and the threat to Greece.

* 531 – Battle of Callinicum: A Byzantine army under Belisarius is defeated by the Persian at Ar-Raqqah ( northern Syria ).

Kotlyarevsky defeated the numerically superior Persian army in the Battle of Aslanduz and in October, 1813, Persia was compelled to make a disadvantageous peace, ceding some territory in the Caucasus ( present-day Georgia, Dagestan, and most of the Republic of Azerbaijan ).

He is most remembered for his valor in battle and his failed attempts to modernize the Persian army.

This theory therefore utilises Herodotus ' suggestion that after Marathon, the Persian army re-embarked and tried to sail around Cape Sounion to attack Athens directly ; however, according to the first theory this attempt would have occurred before the battle ( and indeed have triggered the battle ).

Herodotus does not estimate the size of the Persian army, only saying that they were a " large infantry that was well packed ".

The Athenian strategy was therefore to keep the Persian army pinned down at Marathon, blocking both exits from the plain, and thus preventing themselves from being outmaneuvered.

Passing through the hail of arrows launched by the Persian army, protected for the most part by their armour, the Greek line finally collided with the enemy army.

Then, following the battle, the Athenian army marched the 40 ( 25 miles ) or so kilometers back to Athens at a very high pace ( considering the quantity of armour, and the fatigue after the battle ), in order to head off the Persian force sailing around Cape Sounion.

The army expanded to about 580, 000 men from a 285 strength of 390, 000, of which 310, 000 men were stationed in the East, most of whom manned the Persian frontier.

* 627 – Battle of Nineveh: A Byzantine army under Emperor Heraclius defeats Emperor Khosrau II's Persian forces, commanded by General Rhahzadh.

Afghanistan was inhabited by the Aryan tribes and controlled by the Medes until about 500 BC when Darius the Great ( Darius I ) marched with his Persian army to make it part of the Zoroastrian Achaemenid Empire.

His familiarity with Athenian tragedy is demonstrated, for example, in a number of passages echoing Aeschylus's Persae, including the epigrammatic observation that the defeat of the Persian navy at Salamis caused the defeat of the land army ( Hist.

Mahmud led an Afghan army into Persia in 1722 and defeated the Persian army at the Battle of Gulnabad.

The first battles of the campaign ended in defeat for the Byzantines ; the Persian army fought their way to the Bosphorus.

In 530 a Persian army was defeated at Dara, but the next year saw the defeat of Roman forces under Belisarius near Callinicum.

As the army marched toward the Persian capital, the enemy broke the dikes which crossed the land, turning it into marshland, so the army's progress was slowed.

Polybius tells that 28 years after the expulsion of the last Persian king Xerxes crossed over to Greece, and that event is fixed to 478 BC by two solar eclipses.

The name Ahasuerus is equivalent to Xerxes, both deriving from the Persian Khshayārsha, thus Ahasuerus is usually identified as Xerxes I ( 486-465 BCE ), though Ahasuerus is identified as Artaxerxes in the later Greek version of Esther ( as well as by Josephus, the Jewish commentary Esther Rabbah, the Ethiopic translation and the Christian theologian Bar-Hebraeus who identified him more precisely as Artaxerxes II ).

The story told in the book of Esther takes place during the rule of Ahasuerus, who has been identified as the fifth-century Persian king Xerxes ( 486-465 ).

The Hebrew Ahasuerus is most likely derived from Persian Khshayarsha, the origin of the Greek Xerxes.

As for the identity of Mordecai, the similar names Marduka and Marduku have been found as the name of officials in the Persian court in over thirty texts from the period of Xerxes I and his father Darius, and may refer to up to four individuals, one of which might after all be Mordecai.

Instead, the Hebrew name Ahasuerus accords with an inscription of the time that notes that Artaxerxes II was named also Arshu, understood as a shortening of Achshiyarshu the Babylonian rendering of the Persian Khshayarsha ( Xerxes ), through which the Hebrew Achashverosh ( Ahasuerus ) is derived.

It was said that the bridge was to rival that of Persian King Xerxes ' crossing of the Hellespont.

Some commentators have argued the story of the first three kings must have been originally planned as a history of Persia and the story of Xerxes, later added to it instead is a history of the Persian Wars.

* 480 BC – Battle of Salamis: The Greek fleet under Themistocles defeats the Persian fleet under Xerxes I.

The Athenians were certainly aware throughout this period that the Persian interest in Greece had not ended ; Darius's son and successor, Xerxes I, had continued the preparations for the invasion of Greece.

Even if this did not work, Themistocles apparently intended that Xerxes would at least begin to suspect the Ionians, thereby sowing dissension in the Persian ranks.

Xerxes evidently took the bait, and the Persian fleet was sent out to effect the block.

* 465 BC: King Xerxes I of the Persian Empire is murdered by Artabanus the Hyrcanian.

* The Persian King Xerxes I arrives at Sardis and begins to build up his great army and navy for the invasion of Greece.

Xerxes set out in the spring of 480 BC from Sardis with a fleet and army which Herodotus estimated was roughly one million strong along with 10, 000 elite warriors named the Persian Immortals.

According to Herodotus, upon encountering the deserted city, in an fit of rage uncharacteristic even for Persian kings, Xerxes had Athens burned.

However, Persian scholars dispute this view as pan-Hellenic propaganda, arguing that Sparta, not Athens, was Xerxes's main foe in his Greek campaigns, and that Xerxes would have had nothing to gain by destroying a major center of trade and commerce like Athens once he had already captured it.

In 465 BC, Xerxes was murdered by Artabanus, the commander of the royal bodyguard and the most powerful official in the Persian court ( Hazarapat / commander of thousand ).

Other works dealing with the Persian Empire or the Biblical story of Esther have also referenced Xerxes, such as the video game Assassin's Creed II and the film One Night with the King, in which Ahasuerus ( Xerxes ) was portrayed by British actor Luke Goss.

Xerxes II (, IPA :/ ˈzəːksiːz /-Xšayāršā ) was a Persian king and the son and successor of Artaxerxes I.

The Persian king Xerxes was also anxious for a decisive battle.