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By about 600 b.c., most Athenian farmers owed money to the nobles. Some farmers were forced to sell themselves into slavery to repay their debts. Athenians began to rebel. Farmers called for an end to all debts. They also asked that land be distributed to the poor. The government went and got help from a man named Solon who got rid of the farmer’s debt.

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As a result of the conquests made by Cyrus, the Persians already controlled the Greek cities in Anatolia. In 499 b.c., these Greeks revolted against their Persian rulers. The Athenians sent warships to help the rebels, but the Persians crushed the uprising. The Persian king Darius was angry that the Athenians interfered. He decided to punish the mainland Greeks for meddling in his empire.

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In 490 b.c., Darius sent a fleet of 600 ships and an army to invade Greece. The Persians landed at Marathon, which was a plain about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Athens. The Persians waited there for several days. They expected the Greeks to come there and fight them. However, the Athenians did not come forward. They had only 10,000 troops compared to the Persians' 20,000 soldiers.

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After the defeat at Marathon, the Persians vowed revenge against the Athenians. In 480 b.c., a new Persian king named Xerxes invaded Greece with about 200,000 troops and thousands of warships and supply vessels. The Greek city-states banded together to fight the Persians. King Leonidas of Sparta supplied the most soldiers. Themistocles of Athens directed the Greek naval forces and devised a battle plan.

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The combined forces of the Greek city-states in 479 b.c. formed their largest army yet. They had improved their fighting forces with better armor and weapons. At Plataea, northwest of Athens, the Greek army again faced the Persians. In numbers, the two sides were evenly matched. Each fielded a force of about 100,000 men. This time, however, the Greeks defeated the Persian army. Fighting continued as the Greeks went on the defensive to free the city-states in Anatolia from Persian rule. Peace between the Greek allies and the Persians did not come until 449 b.c.

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As time passed, the Greek city-states learned that their survival depended on cooperation. Even after the Persian Wars ended, the Persian threat against Greece remained. In 478 b.c., Athens joined with other city-states to form a defensive league, or protective group, to defend its members against the Persians. Because the league at first had its headquarters on the island of Delos, it became known as the Delian League.

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Pericles's leadership helped Athens dominate the Delian League. He treated the other city-states like subjects, demanding strict loyalty and regular payments from them. He even insisted that they use Athenian coins and measures. In 454 b.c., the Athenians moved the Delian League's treasury from Delos to Athens. They also sent troops to other Greek city-states to help the common people rebel against the nobles in power.

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Sparta became the leader of an alliance of city-states opposed to Athens. In 433 b.c., Athens began interfering with some of Sparta’s allies. These allies pressured Sparta to attack Athens. War broke out in 431 b.c. and continued until 404 b.c. The possibility of future cooperation among the Greek city-states disappeared as a result of this war. Historians call this conflictthe Peloponnesian War because Sparta was located in the Peloponnesus.

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After the conflict, Sparta ruled its newly acquired empire, much as Athens had ruled its empire before. This harsh treatment angered Sparta's former allies. An uneasy political situation developed. During the next 30 years, Sparta tried to put down rebellions and fought Persia again. Finally, in 371 b.c., the city-state of Thebes seized Sparta and ended the Spartan empire. About 10 years later, Thebes also collapsed.

As the city-states fought, they failed to notice the growing threat from the kingdom of Macedonia to the north. Macedonia's strength and desire for expansion would eventually cost the Greek city-states their independence.