500 - 400 BC (Guardians)

The 5th century BC is dominated by the wars between Greece and Lydia, which matched east against west for the first time and ended in triumphant victory for the Greeks. The victory established Greek dominance over the Mediterranean and the ability to spread their culture from one end to another, enabling a golden age for Greece. However, such prosperity did not last, and the many city-states that made up Greece frequently battled each other in hopes of establishing dominance. Elsewhere, the Zhou dynasty of China slides into near total irrelevancy and Buddhism becomes a major religion in northern India.

Greece
Lydian forces invaded Attica in 499 BC to put an end to Athenian meddling in Lydian affairs, namely Athenian support for Ionian rebellion. At the battle of Marathon, the Lydians are beaten and forced to withdraw by the Athenians, who continue their efforts to free the Ionians without success. Sadyattes II gave up trying to expand east, however his son Croesus II did not.

Angered at the failure of his father, Croesus II prepared a large force which he then divided in two. One force was sent overland, across the Dardanelles and into Macedon to strike the Greeks from the north, while another force was sent by sea to ravage the southern Greek cities. The invasion commenced in 480 BC, nearly twenty years after the first battle at Marathon.

The southern Greek cities were concerned with this invasion and the way the Lydians seemed to progress through northern Greece and the Aegean unopposed. Sparta under its king Leonidas sent a force northwards to drive out the Lydians while the Athenians rallied their allies and fleets to take back the Aegean. In the battle of Thermopolyae, the Spartans were successful in defeating the Lydians and pushed north into Macedon. The Lydian assault by sea was more successful, defeating the Greeks at Artimisium before pulling back from lack of supplies.

With their homeland secured, the Athenians pushed forth in order to liberate other lands. The Spartans, although successful in freeing Macedon from Lydian control, declined to march further, needing to remain in Greece so as to keep its slave population in check. Athens sent several forces to liberate Ionia, and Ionia and the Bosphorus were free by 477 BC. Croesus II, while furious at the actions of the Greeks, was forced to allow it, as the Persians invaded once more and Croesus II had to fight tooth and nail to keep his kingdom.