Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: "Hērodotos Halikarnāsseus") was a Greek historian from Ionia who lived in the 5th century BC (484 BC-ca. 425 BC) and is regarded as the "Father of History". He is almost exclusively known for writing "The Histories", …

Pausanias was a Spartan general of the 5th century BC. He was the nephew of Leonidas I and served as regent after his uncle's death, as Leonidas' son, Pleistarchus was still under-age. He was responsible for the Greek victory over Mardonius and the Persians at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC, and was the leader of the Hellenic League created to resist Persian aggression during the Greco-Persian Wars. After the Greek victories at Plataea and the Battle of Mycale, …

Themistocles (Greek: "'"'; c. 524-459 BC) was a leader in the Athenian democracy during the Persian Wars. He favored the expansion of the navy to meet the Persian threat and persuaded the Athenians to spend the surplus generated by their silver mines on building new ships - the Athenian navy grew from 70 to 200 ships. Themistocles was the son of Neocles, an Athenian of no distinction and moderate means, his mother being a Carian or a Thracian.

Amestris or Amastris was the wife of King of Kings Xerxes I of Persia, mother of king Artaxerxes I of Persia. Her reputation is very bad among ancient Greek historians. Amestris was the daughter of Otanes, one of the seven conspirators who killed the Persian rebel king Gaumâta (September 22, 522 BCE). After this, Darius I the Great of Persia started his reign. According to the Greek researcher Herodotus (5th century BC), …

Xenophon, son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, was a soldier, mercenary and an admirer of Socrates. He is known for his writings on the history of his own times, the sayings of Socrates, and the life of Greece.

Euphronios was a Greek painter and potter of red-figure vases, active in Athens between 520 and 470 BC, the time of the Persian Wars. Very little is known about his life other than what can be derived from the vases he signed (a total of eighteen survive, of which eight bear his name as painter and twelve bear his name as potter). Early in his career, Euphronios was apparently one of the leading vase-painters in Athens, …

Pericles or Perikles was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens in the city's Golden Age (specifically, between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars). He was descended, through his mother, from the Alcmaeonid family. Pericles had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thucydides, his contemporary historian, acclaimed him as "the first citizen of Athens".

Timocreon, of Ialysus in Rhodes, was a Greek lyric poet who flourished about 480 BC. During the Persian wars he had been banished on suspicion of "medism". Themistocles had promised to procure his recall, but was unable to resist the bribes of Timocreon's adversaries and allowed him to remain in exile. Timocreon thereupon attacked him most bitterly (see Plutarch, "Themistocles", 21); and Simonides, the friend of Themistocles, retorted in an epigram ("Anth.

Tisamenus in Greek mythology, was a son of Orestes and Hermione. He succeeded his father to the thrones of Argos, Mycenae and Sparta and was later killed in the final battle with the Heracleidae. The latter were led by Aristodemus, Cresphontes, Oxylus, Temenus and sought to retake the Peloponnese as their ancestral land. Following his death the victors divided his lands among them. Cresphontes became King of Messene, Oxylus of Elis and Temenus of Argos.

Hegesistratus was a soothsayer for Mardonius during the Persian War. Originally an Elean, he had been captured by Sparta and put in bonds. He escaped by cutting off a piece of his own foot; however, he was captured again and put to death. This story is related in book 9 of "The History" by Herodotus.

Antenor was an Athenian sculptor, of the latter part of the 6th century BC. He was named after the mythological figure also called Antenor. He was the creator of the joint statues of the tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton, set up by the Athenians on the expulsion of Hippias. These statues were carried away by Xerxes I of Persia during the Greco-Persian Wars. A basis with the signature of Antenor, son of Eumares, …