The Persian Wars

350,000

estimated total dead

Each dot below represents 1,000 human lives. Scroll to watch the scale unfold.

Military Dead

300,000 soldiers killed in combat, from wounds, or from disease. Each = 1,000 lives.

Persian Empire — 270,000 military dead

Greek City-States — 30,000 military dead

Civilian Dead

50,000 civilians killed — from violence, famine, disease, and displacement. Wars are not fought only by soldiers.

Civilian dead — 50,000

Deadliest Engagements

Battle of Plataea50,000

Battle of Salamis40,000

Battle of the Eurymedon25,000

Battle of Thermopylae22,000

Battle of Mycale15,000

Battle of Cyprus12,000

Battle of Artemisium9,000

Battle of Lade8,000

For Perspective

How Persian Wars's dead compare to other conflicts and events.

Persian Wars — total dead350,000

Persians killed at Salamis alone40,000

Spartans who died at Thermopylae (the 300)300

Athenians killed at Marathon192

Persian ships lost at Salamis200

Milesian citizens deported to Mesopotamia30,000

Milestones of Loss

192 dead

The 192 Athenians who died at Marathon were given the extraordinary honour of burial on the battlefield — the Soros mound is still visible today. All other Athenian dead were normally returned to Athens for burial.

300 dead

The 300 Spartans at Thermopylae were the 'hippeis' — the personal bodyguard of the king, all full Spartiates who had fathered sons. Leonidas reportedly chose only men whose family lines would continue after their deaths.

50,000 dead

Civilian deaths are estimates and largely reflect the sack of Miletus (494 BC) and the deportation of its population, the destruction of Eretria (490 BC), and the evacuation and burning of Athens (480 BC). Greek civilian deaths were mostly displacement rather than massacre.

All figures are historical estimates and vary across sources. The true human cost of war is impossible to fully quantify — these numbers represent the best scholarly consensus. Each number was a person with a name, a family, and a life unlived.