1) Cyrus the Great ruled the Persian Empire from 559 to 530 BCE and was known for treating his subjects well. Darius reorganized the empire into 20 provinces to make it more efficient. Xerxes, son of Darius, vowed revenge on Athens and led a new invasion of Greece in 480 BCE. 2) Themistocles devised a strategy to fight Xerxes by cutting off food supplies to the Persians. Herodotus documented the Persian Wars as a conflict between freedom and dictatorship. 3) The Persians were eventually defeated at the battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea, marking a turning point that convinced the Persians to