Cultural encounters | Encountering cultures
West meets East: Greeks, Persians, and the Birth of "Orientalism" by Dr. Sheila Ager
At the beginning of the fifth century BC, the Persian Empire sent two expeditionary forces against Greece in an attempt to bring the Greeks under their rule. These were the years of some of the most famous battles in history: Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis. The Greek success in driving back the Persian invaders was seen in later years as the most glorious moment in all their history.