The Persian Wars, also known as the Greco Persian Wars, were a series of battles fought between Ancient Greece and the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the 5th century BCE. The most famous of these battles are the Battle of Marathon, the Battle of Thermopylae, the Battle of Salamis and the Battle of Plataea.

The beginning of the Persian Wars saw the Achaemenid Empire ruled by Darius the Great, and the main catalyst of the wars was the Ionian Revolt and Athenian and Eretrian sack of the city of Sardis which was under Persian rule.