In the autumn of 480 BCE, the most powerful man alive stood on the hilltop at the center of Athens and watched it burn. King Xerxes of Persia had brought the largest army the ancient world had ever seen — maybe 300,000 soldiers — sweeping through Greece. The Spartans had tried to stop him at Thermopylae, a narrow mountain pass, and fought to the last man. It only slowed him down. Athens lay empty. The Athenians had already fled, betting everything on their navy.
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Lost & Found·6/7·1′
The place
Acropolis of Athens
The Persian Destruction and the Oath
The burning of Athens that created the Parthenon
480 BCEAcropolis of Athens
Moral of the Story
“What gets burned down can be rebuilt stronger. The Persians destroyed Athens — and accidentally created the Parthenon.”
Characters
X
XerxesT
ThemistoclesA
Athenian priests and defendersT
The Persian armySource
Herodotus's Histories (Books 8-9), Thucydides's History, Isocrates's Panegyricus, Diodorus Siculus's Bibliotheca Historica