Persian Wars (499–479 bc) Conflict between the ancient Greeks and Persians. In 499 bc, the Ionian cities of Asia Minor rebelled against Persian rule. Athens sent a fleet to aid them. Having crushed the rebellion, Persian Emperor Darius I, invaded Greece but suffered a defeat at Marathon (490 bc). In 480 bc, his successor, Xerxes, burned Athens but withdrew after defeats at Salamis and Plataea (479 bc). Under Athenian leadership, the Greeks fought on, regaining territory in Thrace and Anatolia, until the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (431 bc).

Persian War, 1856. The Crimean War ended in March 1856 but a new war with Persia followed in November after the shah had seized Herat, a disputed city in the north-west of Afghanistan. Sir James Outram led a punitive expedition of 6,000 in January 1857. Peace was signed on 4 March whereby the shah withdrew from Herat and promised not to intervene in Afghanistan.

J. A. Cannon