The Persian Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the Greek polis and the Persian Empire, in the 5th century BC. These conflicts were initiated by the will of the Persian emperors to expand their dominions across the Mediterranean Sea, as well as to eliminate the eventual threat that the Greeks, especially Athens and Sparta, represented to their power. Although they had certain forceful victories, as in Thermopylae, the Persians never managed to turn the battle in their favor, and they were eventually defeated by the Greeks.
