Unlike Romans, Persians fielded large numbers of heavily armoured and armed cavalry ( see cataphracts ).

Marathon ( Demotic Greek: Μαραθώνας, Marathónas ; Attic / Katharevousa:, ) is a town in Greece, the site of the battle of Marathon in 490 BC, in which the heavily outnumbered Athenian army defeated the Persians.

The Abbasids had depended heavily on the support of Persians in their overthrow of the Umayyads.

The entire region was heavily contested between the successor states of Alexander's empire, the Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic Egypt, during the six Syrian Wars of the 3rd – 1st centuries BCE: " After two centuries of peace under the Persians, the Hebrew state found itself once more caught in the middle of power struggles between two great empires: the Seleucid state with its capital in Syria to the north and the Ptolemaic state, with its capital in Egypt to the south ... Between 319 and 302 BCE, Jerusalem changed hands seven times.

Modern perceptions of Nabonidus ' reign has been heavily coloured by accounts written well after his reign as king of Babylon, notably by the Persians and the Greeks.

The battle started with a cavalry and light infantry attack from the Macedonian left, so the Persians heavily reinforced that side.

In History, Herodotus describes a clash of civilizations between the Egyptians, Persians, Scythians, and Greeks — all of which he believed were heavily influenced by the physical geographic setting.

Tactically, hoplites were vulnerable to attacks by cavalry, and since the Persians had substantial numbers of cavalry, this made any offensive maneuver by the Athenians even more of a risk, and thus reinforced the defensive strategy of the Athenians.

Aeschylus travelled to Sicily once or twice in the 470s BC, having been invited by Hiero I of Syracuse, a major Greek city on the eastern side of the island ; and during one of these trips he produced The Women of Aetna ( in honor of the city founded by Hieron ) and restaged his Persians.

The dog followed his master to battle and attacked the Persians at his master's side.

This proved to be a hasty decision, for they were on the wrong side of the Tigris with no clear means of retreat and the Persians had begun to harass them from a distance, burning any food in the Romans ' path.

Many smaller Greek states, moreover, took the side of the Persians, especially Thessaly, Thebes and Argos.

The victories of the Greeks during the great Persian war had the effect of enfranchising their kinsmen on the other side of the Aegean ; and the battle of Mycale ( 479 BC ), in which the defeat of the Persians was in great measure owing to the Ionians, secured their emancipation.

So Antalcidas enters into negotiations with the Persian satrap Tiribazus and reaches an agreement under which the Persians will enter into the war on the Spartan side if the allies refuse to make peace.

Historians suggest that the Allies may have misinterpreted the Persian movements and come to the mistaken conclusion that the Persians were sailing east around Skiathos, aiming to sail around the eastern side of Euboea.

If the Persians sailed around the outer, eastern side of Euboea, they could head straight to Attica, and thereby cut off the Allied fleet's line of retreat.

The Persians and Byzantines exchanged volleys of arrows, resulting in minor casualties on each side.

But the intervention of Sunicas ' Huns attacking from the interior of the Roman line ; as well as Pharas ' Herulians attacking out of ambush from the opposite side, forced the Persians wing to retreat.

The only major success for either side was the conversion of the Azerbaijanis by the Persians to Shia Islam.

Antalcidas, meanwhile, had entered into negotiations with Tiribazus, and reached an agreement under which the Persians would enter into the war on the Spartan side if the allies refused to make peace.

The Athenians were too familiar with the ups and downs of their previous long and disastrous war against Sparta, and the willingness of the Persians to switch support from one side to the other, to be overly encouraged.

Simultaneously the Persians sent their ambassador to the Turks, but Istemi Khan was on the side of Byzantium.

After the battle, Thebes was the final Boeotian state to side with the Persians, and in doing so they denounced both Plataea and Thespiae to Xerxes I as the only Boeotian states to side with the Greeks.

Opus fought on the Greek side at Thermopylae, but surrendered, joining the Persians, and on the Spartan side during the Peloponnesian War.

Persians on the other side hoped to gain access to the sea, and control a territory from which Iberia, which was by now under their firm domination, could be threatened.

: The Iraqis, on their side, call the Iranians Furs, a somewhat derogatory term in medieval times, with a suggestion that the Persians were the heirs of the Zoroastrians defeated at the battle of Qadisiyya in AD 637.

The Aegean Sea was later invaded by the Persians and the Romans, and inhabited by the Byzantine Empire, the Bulgarians, the Venetians, the Genoeses, the Seljuq Turks, and the Ottoman Empire.

Later during the 6th century BC, most of Anatolia was conquered by the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Persians having usurped the Medes as the dominant dynasty in Iran.

It was occupied by the Persians in 514 BC, and Darius burnt it in 512.

Making Antioch his base, he marched at the head of his troops towards Ctesiphon, but a second army was destroyed by the Persians, and further losses were incurred by the retreating Romans in Armenia.

Salamis holds a prominent place in The Persians, his oldest surviving play, which was performed in 472 BC and won first prize at the Dionysia.

After this, the Ionian revolt carried on ( without further outside aid ) for a further five years, until it was finally completely crushed by the Persians.

With the withdrawal of these states, a congress was called on the holy island of Delos to institute a new alliance to continue the fight against the Persians ; hence the modern designation " Delian League ".

This battle was the last major one fought against the Persians.

Athens's empire was not very stable, and only 27 years of war with the Spartans, aided by the Persians and internal strife, were able to defeat it.

The Older Parthenon was still under construction when the Persians sacked the city in 480 BC.

It was rich in treasures, but was destroyed by the Persians in the invasion of Xerxes in 480 BCE, and a second time by the Boeotians and remained in a ruined state. It was rebuilt by Hadrian.

It was known to the Hittites as Hapanuwa, and was later occupied by Phrygians, Lydians and Achaemenid Persians until it was conquered by Alexander the Great.

Since Daniel was a statesman during the Persian conquests, the Book of Daniel could have been written in a period when the Persians had their greatest influence on Aramaic, believed to be in the mid 6th century BC.

This policy was good politics on the part of the Persians, and the Jews viewed it as a blessing from God.

The Battle of Marathon was a watershed in the Greco-Persian wars, showing the Greeks that the Persians could be beaten ; the eventual Greek triumph in these wars can be seen to begin at Marathon.

However, it was also the result of the longer-term interaction between the Greeks and Persians.

As is discussed below, the reason for the delay was probably simply that neither the Athenians nor the Persians were willing to risk battle initially.

There are many variations of this theory, but perhaps the most prevalent is that the cavalry was re-embarked on the ships, and was to be sent by sea to attack ( undefended ) Athens in the rear, whilst the rest of the Persians pinned down the Athenian army at Marathon.

All this was evidently much to the surprise of the Persians ; "... in their minds they charged the Athenians with madness which must be fatal, seeing that they were few and yet were pressing forwards at a run, having neither cavalry nor archers ".

The Athenians arrived in time to prevent the Persians from securing a landing, and seeing that the opportunity was lost, the Persians turned about and returned to Asia.