ATHENS, 480 B.C.

In 480 B.C., after the victory of Xerxes I at the Battle of Thermopylae during the Persian Wars, all of Boeotia fell to the Achaemenid Army. Attica was also left open to invasion, and the remaining population of Athens was thus evacuated, with the aid of the Allied fleet, to Salamis. The Peloponnesian Allies began to prepare a defensive line across the Isthmus of Corinth, building a wall, and demolishing the road from Megara, thereby abandoning Athens to the Persians. Athens fell for the first time in September 480 B.C. The small number of Athenians who had barricaded themselves on the Acropolis were eventually defeated, and Xerxes then ordered Athens to be torched. The Acropolis was razed,...View all