It would be another three centuries before Rome absorbed the Greek city-states into its own empire in 146 BC. The Persian Empire ... to defeat independent Greece and thereafter their heirs ...

The sculpture also represents Greece's struggle to resist being absorbed into the Persian Empire. The Greeks had a strong notion of their own identity and regarded the Persians as barbarians like ...

About 2,500 years ago Greece was one of the most important places in the ancient world ... to fight against a bigger enemy, like the Persian Empire. Only a very powerful ruler could control ...