483 BC - found riches
Athenians wanted to split the money among themselves but Themistocles wanted to buy more ships;
Athenians had the greatest naval force
Xerxes - Darius's son - a Persian king who was still pissed that the Persian were defeated by the Greeks;
Attempted to get revenge
Rumors had leaked back Athens
480 BC - the Persian army had set out for Greece
Xerxes drank rivers dry, Ravaged lands,
Xerxes was very confident
Athenians; scared, sent messages to the oracle to find out their fate;
Oracle- a priests who can community with the gods, most well-regarded one could be found at Delphi - (considered to be the center of the universe)
Basically told them to "run away, they are doomed, you won't be able to win"
Ordered the evacuation of Athens for the first time in their history:
Wanted to fight in the sea rather than on land; stronger navy
Themistocles wanted to fight in the little body of water between Athens and Salamis ( A small island to the left of Athens )
Persian navy is 3X the size of the Greeks
Themistocles was outnumbered on land & sea but had better equipment and strategy so Athens won the battle again
"Athens was put into the right situation to start building an empire"
Delian League- All contributed money to Athens
So they would protect them and be under their gov't
Athens became a vast trading network
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