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
Battle of Himera (480 BC) had taken over neighboring Sikan and Sicel lands under the tyrant Theron (488–472 BC). To forestall any conflicts between Akragas and Syracuse, Gelo and Theron married into each other's families, thus creating a united front against the Sicels and Ionian Greeks of Sicily. To counter this Doric threat, Anaxilas of Rhegion from Italy, who had captured Zankle from Gela in 490 BC, allied himself with Terillus of Himera, and married the daughter of Terillus. Himera and Rhegion next became allies of Carthage, the tyrants even built up personal relationships with the Magonid dynasty of Carthage. Selinus, a Doric city whose