Darius’ death has left to his son the task of punishing the Athenians, Naxians, and Eretrians for their interference in the Ionian Revolt, the burning of Sardis and their victory over the Persians at Marathon.

From 483 BCE, Xerxes had begun preparing his expedition: A channel is dug through the isthmus of the peninsula of Mount Athos, provisions are stored in the stations on the road through Thrace, two pontoon bridges later known as Xerxes' Pontoon Bridges are built across the Hellespont.

Soldiers of many nationalities serve in the armies of Xerxes, including the Assyrians, Phoenicians, Babylonians, Egyptians and Judahites.

Among the Phoenician naval contingents of the Persian fleet are the sailors of Sidon.

Xerxes concludes an alliance with Carthage, and thus deprives Greece of the support of the powerful monarchs of Syracuse and Akragas.

Many smaller Greek states, moreover, take the side of the Persians, especially Thessaly, Thebes and Argos.

The Second Persian War is a very different proposition from the first.

Xerxes in 481 BCE uses a bridge of boats to cross the Hellespont at Abydos with a huge fleet and an army of over one hundred thousand troops. (Herodotus estimates the Persian army to number in the millions, but modern scholars tend to doubt his figures, replacing them with far lower ones.)

The unprecedented size of Xerxes' forces makes their progress quite slow, giving the Greeks plenty of time to prepare their defense.

The natural isolation and character of the Thessalians have kept them aloof from the main currents of Greek life.

Politically unstable because of tribal rivalries, they have never long sustained a concerted action.

The Greeks soon abandon an initial plan to defend Thessaly, and the Aleuads of Larissa ally their country with the Persians.

The Greeks instead fall back on a zone at the northeastern end of Euboea, where they hope to defend Thermopylae by land and Artemisium by sea; the two holding operations close enough for each set of defenders to know what is happening to the other.

Xerxes' forces advance slowly toward the Greeks, suffering losses from the weather.

…that of the navy to Athens.

The combined Greek fleet, which, even without western Greek help, numbers about three hundred and fifty vessels, is thus only about one-third the size of the Persian fleet.

Greek unity, though impressive, is not complete; …

…conspicuous among the “Medizers” is Thebes, whose hostility to Athens over mutual interest in the Plataea district leads to Theban collaboration with Persia, while …

…the neutrality maintained by Argos amounts, in Herodotus's view at least, to Medism.

The mainland Greeks send an embassy to Gelo requesting aid against Xerxes.

Gelo at first complains that the Greeks had spurned his request of aid against the Carthaginians in the past, but he offers to sent twenty-four thousand foot, four thousand horse and two hundred warships in addition to fully provisioning the combined Greek force in Greece if he were to be made the supreme commander.

The Spartans object to this, and Gelo then asks to be the commander of either the land or naval forces in exchange for his help.

The Athenian envoy then objects, and the Greeks are dismissed.

Gelo also hedges his bets, sending three ships under Cadmus of Kos to Delphi, with instructions to offer his submission to Xerxes in case of a Persian victory.

The Ligurians called themselves Ambrones, according to Plutarch, but this does not necessarily indicate a relationship with the Ambrones of northern Europe.

Classical references and toponomastics suggest that the Ligurian sphere once extended further than the present boundary of Liguria.

Ligurian toponyms have been found in Sicily, the Rhône valley, Corsica and Sardinia.

Aeschylus represents Hercules as contending with the Ligures on the stony plains near the mouths of the Rhone, and Herodotus speaks of Ligures inhabiting the country above Massilia (modern Marseilles, founded by the Greeks).

Thucydides also speaks of the Ligures having expelled the Sicanians, an Iberian tribe, from the banks of the river Sicanus, in Iberia.

The Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax describes the Ligyes (Ligures) living along the Mediterranean coast from Antion (Antibes) as far as the mouth of the Rhone; then intermingled with the Iberians from the Rhone to Emporion in Spain.

Little is known of the Ligurian language.

Only place-names and personal names remain.

It appears to be an Indo-European branch with both Italic and particularly strong Celtic affinities.

Strabo tells us that they were of a different race from the Celts (by which he means Gauls) who inhabited the rest of the Alps, though they resembled them in their mode of life.

Lucan in his Pharsalia (around 61 CE) described Ligurian tribes as being long-haired, and their hair a shade of auburn (a reddish-brown): ...Ligurian tribes, now shorn, in ancient days First of the long-haired nations, on whose necks Once flowed the auburn locks in pride supreme.

The Ligurians are ignorant of their own origin.

In the nineteenth century, the Ligures' question got the attentions of not a few scholars.

Dominique-François-Louis Roget, Baron de Belloguet, claimed a "Gallic" origin.

Amédée Thierry, a French historian, linked them to the Iberians, while Karl Müllenhoff, professor of Germanic antiquities at the Universities of Kiel and Berlin, studying the sources of the Ora maritima by Avienus (a Latin poet who lived in the fourth century CE, but who used as source for his own work a Phoenician periplus of the sixth century BCE), held that the name Ligurians generically referred to various peoples who lived in Western Europe, including the Celts, but thought the real Ligurians were a Pre-Indo-European population.

Also favoring a Pre-Indo-European origin thesis were French historian Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville, who argued that the Ligurians, together with the Iberians, constituted the remains of the native population that had spread in Western Europe with the Cardium Pottery culture cardial ceramic, or related to the Bell Beaker folk; and Arturo Issel, a Genoese geologist and paleontologist, who considered them direct descendants of the Early European Modern Humans that lived throughout Gaul from the Mesolithic.

The Ligures seem to have been ready to engage as mercenary troops in the service of others; Ligurian auxiliaries are mentioned in the army of the Carthaginian general Hamilcar in 480 BCE.

Hamilcar, delayed by three years, leads a Carthaginian expedition to Sicily, which coincides with the expedition of Xerxes against mainland Greece in 480 BCE.

He is said to have assembled an army numbering three hundred thousand soldiers from Iberia, Sardinia, Corsica, Italy, Gaul and Africa under the command of a body of Carthaginian officers, along with war chariots, two hundred warships and three thousand transports for the venture.

Hamilcar had chosen not to sail to Selinus and then attack Akragas, although it lies on the coast closest to Carthage.

The Carthaginian fleet, escorted by sixty triremes, sails to Panormus instead.

Hamilcar has chosen this course probably because restoring Terrilus was his primary objective.

The conquest of Sicily, if this indeed is a consideration, takes second place to his duty as a guest friend of Terrilus.

The fleet is battered by storms at sea, losing the ships carrying the chariots and horses—which is to be a significant factor in the coming battle.

The Greek fleet, able to muster two hundred ships, does not contest the crossing; in fact, it will play no part in the coming battle.

Hamilcar spends three days reorganizing his forces at Panormus, and repairing his battered fleet.

The Carthaginians march along the Sicilian coast to Himera, with the fleet sailing alongside.

Situated on the western bank of the River Himera, the city sits atop a hill (three hundred to four hundred feet high) that is steep in the northern, western, and eastern sides but gradually slopes to the south.

There are hills to the west and south of the city.

The Carthaginians erect two camps, joined by siege works: the Sea camp is set to the north of Himera by the sea, surrounded by a palisade and a ditch.

The army is billeted in a separate camp to the south on a low hill west of Himera.

Theron is already present in Himera with his army, but the Greeks do not interfere with Carthaginian operations.

The Greek allies of Hamilcar (Greeks of Selinus and Anaxilas of Rhegion) are absent—and never join the battle.

It is not known if Hamilcar wished to build siege weapons at Himera or settle the issue through battle.

After the camps are erected, the Punic ships drop off provisions at the sea camp and are sent to Sardinia and Africa for more supplies.

Twenty triremes patrols the sea, the rest of the ships are beached in the sea camp.

Himera is not fully invested—the east and south sides were open.

Hamilcar leads a picked body of men on reconnaissance mission, and defeats the Greeks in a pitched battle outside Himera.

The Greeks block the west gates of Himera and their morale also falls, while the Carthaginian foragers range the territory of Himera.

Theron sends messages to Gelo, who arrives with his army and encamps across the river.

Gelon's cavalry manages to capture many of the foragers, as Hamilcar has no cavalry present to counter his moves.

The morale in Himera improves, and the bricked-up gates are cleared on Gelo's orders.

The different versions of the battle given by Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus are hard to reconcile; Diodorus provides a more detailed account.

Herodotus noted that Sicilian tradition held that this battle and the battle of Salamis were fought on the same day.

The Greek and Punic armies fight from dawn on through the day, while Hamilcar watches the battle from his camp and offers sacrifices to Baal in a huge fire.

Sometime after the battle is joined, disguised Greek horsemen kill Hamilcar while he is preparing the sacrifice, and then set fire to the beached ships, causing great confusion at the sea camp.

However, it is not known what further role the Greek cavalry played in the battle.

The Carthaginians rush to launch whatever ships they can save and some of the ships, overcrowded with soldiers, leave the site altogether.

When the news of Hamilcar's death and the burning of ships reaches the fighting armies, the Greeks press harder and rout the Carthaginians, who flee to their camp.

Gelo's army storms the Carthaginian camp and the Greeks scatter to loot the tents.

The Iberians of the Carthaginian army reform, then attack the now disordered Greeks, inflicting severe casualties.

The Greeks fight back, but they are hard pressed and the Iberians get the upper hand in the struggle.

At this critical juncture, Theron decides to join the battle.

He directs his attack on the flank and rear of the Iberian position inside the camp and also sets fire to tents near them.

The Iberians finally give way, and retreat to the ships still afloat.

Other Carthaginian survivors leave the camp and retreat to a hill inland, where they attempt to defend themselves.

The hill is waterless and they are ultimately forced to surrender.

About half of the Carthaginian army and majority of the fleet is destroyed, with numerous prisoners and rich booty falling into Greek hands.

Diodorus commented that the surviving Carthaginian ships were sunk in a storm on their return journey to Africa.

Ten thousand mass graves from the era show over two hundred thousand Greek dead, buried ten to fifteen per grave on the site).

The army had no siege engines and the Etruscans and the Elymians, allies in past struggles against Greeks, were not part of it.