Battle of Plataea other. The Allies initially adopted a strategy of blocking land and sea approaches to southern Greece. Thus, in August 480 BC, after hearing of Xerxes' approach, a small Allied army led by Spartan King Leonidas I blocked the Pass of Thermopylae, while an Athenian-dominated navy sailed to the Straits of Artemisium. Famously, the massively outnumbered Greek army held Thermopylae for three days before being outflanked by the Persians, who used a little-known mountain path. Although much of the Greek army retreated, the rearguard, formed of the Spartan and Thespian contingents, was surrounded and annihilated. The simultaneous Battle of Artemisium, consisting
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