Achaemenid destruction of Athens

Achaemenid Destruction of Athens
Part of the Second Persian invasion of Greece
Perserschutt, a collection of Greek artifacts that were destroyed by Persian soldiers at the Acropolis of Athens, photographed shortly after being excavated in 1866.
Date 480–479 BCE Location Athens, Greece 37°59′02″N 23°43′40″E / 37.983972°N 23.727806°E / 37.983972; 23.727806 Result Persian victory Destruction of Athens Massacre of Athenians
Belligerents
Athens	Achaemenid Empire
Athens class=notpageimage| Location within modern-day Greece Show map of Greece Athens class=notpageimage| Location within Europe Show map of Europe

The destruction of Athens, took place between 480 and 479 BCE, when Athens was captured and subsequently destroyed by the Achaemenid Empire. A prominent Greek city-state, it was attacked by the Persians in a two-phase offensive, amidst which the Persian king Xerxes the Great had issued an order calling for it to be torched. The Persian army commander Mardonius oversaw the razing of several structures of political and religious significance throughout the city, including the Acropolis, the Old Temple of Athena, and the Older Parthenon. Two year later, the Greek coalition retook Athens and dealt a devastating defeat to the Persian army during the Battle of Plataea, killing Mardonius and setting the stage for the eventual expulsion of all Persian troops from Lower Greece; after the Persians conquered all of Greece for the first time; and held onto it for 2 years.

Athens' destruction by the Persians prompted the Greeks to build the Themistoclean Wall around the city in an effort to deter future invaders, and the event continued to have an impact on Greek society for a prolonged period; a number of Athenian artifacts that had been taken to Persia during the Greco-Persian Wars were returned to Greece during the Wars of Alexander the Great, and according to the Greek historians Plutarch and Diodorus, it was the legacy of the Persian assault on Athens that ultimately influenced Alexander's decision to burn down the Palace of Persepolis as he was completing his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BCE.