Editing Xerxes I (section)

===Battle of Thermopylae and destruction of Athens===
[[File:Achaemenid king killing a Greek hoplite.jpg|thumb|Achaemenid king killing a Greek [[hoplite]]. Impression from a [[cylinder seal]], sculpted c. 500–475 BC, at the time of Xerxes I [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]]]
At the [[Battle of Thermopylae]], a small force of Greek warriors led by King [[Leonidas I|Leonidas]] of [[Sparta]] resisted the much larger Persian forces, but were ultimately defeated. According to Herodotus, the Persians broke the Spartan [[phalanx]] after a Greek man called [[Ephialtes of Trachis|Ephialtes]] betrayed his country by telling the Persians of another pass around the mountains. At [[Battle of Artemisium|Artemisium]], large storms had destroyed ships from the Greek side and so the battle stopped prematurely as the Greeks received news of the defeat at Thermopylae and retreated.

[[File:Foundations of the Old Athena Temple (foreground).jpg|thumb|Foundations of the [[Old Temple of Athena]], destroyed by the armies of Xerxes I during the [[Destruction of Athens]] in 480 BC]]
After Thermopylae, [[Athens]] was captured. Most of the Athenians had abandoned the city and fled to the island of [[Salamis Island|Salamis]] before Xerxes arrived. A small group attempted to defend the [[Athenian Acropolis]], but they were defeated. Xerxes ordered the [[Destruction of Athens]] and burnt the city, leaving an archaeologically attested [[destruction layer]], known as the [[Perserschutt]].<ref>Martin Steskal, ''Der Zerstörungsbefund 480/79 der Athener Akropolis. Eine Fallstudie zum etablierten Chronologiegerüst'', Verlag Dr. Kovač, Hamburg, 2004</ref> The Persians thus gained control of all of mainland Greece to the north of the [[Isthmus of Corinth]].<ref name="Warfare in the Ancient World"/>