Hi, thanks for tuning in to ancient Greece, Declassified.

Episode 56, The Man Who Defeated Persia.

In 480 BC, the Persian Empire invaded Greece with the largest military force the world had ever seen.

Leading the expedition was Persian King Xerxes himself. His aim was twofold,

conquered the entire territory, and punished the Athenians in particular for having provided assistance to the earlier Ionian revolt against Persia.

A few months later, he seemed to have accomplished his mission.

The majority of Greece was now occupied or had surrendered, and Zerxes had captured Athens, plundered it,

and his men were now putting the entire city to the torch.

This should have been his moment of triumph.

But there was something he and his men couldn't quite understand.

Where were the Athenians?

The city they had just entered so triumphantly was a ghost town.

The only signs of life bigger than a cockroach were the occasional animal

they found wandering the streets, confused, or the birds picking through garbage heaps. You see,

the Athenians had evacuated their city. The men were now crowded on warships miles off the coast,

while the women and children had been ferried to nearby islands

and the northern coast of the Peloponnese. But all of them were still within sight of their

homeland. They could see across the water the distant glow of fire and the column of black smoke

rising from their former homes. And they now remembered a prophecy they had received from the Delphic

Oracle, which said, fly, you wretches to the ends of the earth, leaving your homes behind,

fire and Ares destroy your city. The Oracle had been right, it seemed. All now appeared to be

lost. But amidst the thousands of mournful faces peering across the

...