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The Spartans and Athenians were compelled to ally against the Great Kings of Persia Darius I (521–486 B.C.) and Xerxes (486–465 B.C.), who sought to conquer the Greek homeland. Twice, Persian armies invaded Greece. In 490 B.C., 10,000 citizen hoplites of Athens defeated a Persian army at Marathon. In 480 B.C., King Xerxes invaded Greece at the head of an army of 250,000 men and a fleet of 1,200 triremes. Athens deferred to Sparta, which commanded Hellenic forces on land and sea. Although Spartan King Leonidas won immortality by his dramatic stand at Thermopylae, Persia emerged the victor. The democratic leader Themistocles convinced the Athenians to abandon their city and to fight the decisive naval battle of Salamis that ended the Persian threat. Although their city was in ruins in 479 B.C., the Athenians stood as leaders to the East Greeks who revolted from Persian rule. To the Spartans and Peloponnesians, Athenian success brought concern about the future of the Greek world.
