2. Battle Of Salamis (480BC)
Xerxes and his Persian army had defeated the Greeks at Thermopylae, forcing them to retreat back into the Peloponnese. The Athenians, meanwhile, had to evacuate Athens and settle on the island of Salamis the Persians captured and razed Athens. It wasn't quite the end for the Athenians. Under the command of Themistocles, Athens had built up a large fleet before the war had begun. Alongside other city-states, the fleet managed to hold the Persian ships to a stalemate at Artemisium, before Themistocles persuaded his fellow Greeks to stay for a decisive sea-battle. Xerxes watched the Battle of Salamis from a hill overlooking the Bay of Eleusis. He had ordered a naval battle, rather than shipping his troops over to the island. The Persian fleet, although outnumbering the Greeks Xerxes had 1,200 while the Athenians and her allies had between 370 and 600 chose to enter the bay, which caused chaos and left little room for manoeuvre. The Greeks boarded and began reducing the number of Persian ships, forcing them in retreat. While the Greeks lost 40 ships, Xerxes watched as 200 of his own were lost. The Battle of Salamis, and with winter approaching, led to Xerxes choosing to head home with most of his troops. The Greeks defeated the Persians at Plataea in 479BC and halted the Persian expansion into Europe. The result, if Xerxes had chosen to land attack rather than being tricked into a naval battle in a tight area, could have been different. Looking at how the Persian Empire treated other countries it subjugated, it's likely the city-states would have kept self-rule but under the Persian umbrella. What's a little more difficult to guess, is how democracy and philosophy would have developed under Persian rule. As well as that, would Alexander the Great have been able to defeat a much-stronger, and closer, Persian Empire, and would Rome have been able to grow without the Persian Empire getting involved?