History of Athens returned under Darius's son Xerxes. When a small Greek force holding the pass of Thermopylae was defeated, the Persians proceeded to capture an evacuated Athens. The city of Athens got captured and sacked twice by the Persians within one year after Thermopylae. Subsequently, the Athenians (led by Themistocles), with their allies, engaged the much larger Persian navy at sea in the Battle of Salamis. Xerxes built a throne on the coast in order to watch the Greek navy being defeated, but instead, the Persians were routed. This established a great turning point in the war. In 479 BC, the Athenians
Dienekes of Fire" (1998). He is a minor character in the video game "" (2018). Dienekes Dienekes or Dieneces (, from διηνεκής, Doric Greek: διανεκής "continuous, unbroken") was a Spartan soldier who fought and died at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. He was acclaimed the bravest of all the Greeks who fought in that battle. Herodotus (7.226) related the following anecdote about Dienekes: Herodotus also mentions that Dienekes said many other similar things which made him unforgotten. Plutarch in his "Sayings of the Spartans" also mentions this comment, but he attributes it to Leonidas I, Dienekes' general in the