Xerxes burns Athens
480 BCE · Event
With the pass lost and the army through, Athens is evacuated to the islands on Themistocles' reading of the 'wooden walls' oracle — and the Persians burn the empty city, Acropolis and temples included. The Athenians watch the smoke from their ships at Salamis; the battle comes within days.
On these timelines: Greco-Persian Wars, Ancient Greece, Master, Persia and Iran
More from Greco-Persian Wars
- Persian invasions of Greece (499 BCE)
- Themistocles builds the fleet (483 BCE)
- Xerxes bridges the Hellespont (480 BCE)
- Ionian Revolt (499 BCE)
- The burning of Sardis (498 BCE)
- Darius demands earth and water (491 BCE)
- Battle of Artemisium (480 BCE)
- The Peace of Callias (449 BCE)
Around 480 BCE
- Peloponnesian War (431 BCE)
- Gautama Buddha (563 BCE)
- Achaemenid Persian Empire (550 BCE)
- Confucius (551 BCE)
- Aristotle (384 BCE)
- Plato (428 BCE)
- Roman Republic founded (509 BCE)
- Mahabharata (400 BCE)
- Cleisthenes' reforms (508 BCE)
- Socrates (469 BCE)