the greco–persian wars were a series of wars fought between classical greece and persia's achaemenid empire in the 5th century bc. the struggle lasted 50 years, from 499–449. herodotus wrote a history of the war. fifty years before the war started, cyrus the great had conquered the greek colonies on the western coast of asia minor, an area the greeks called ionia. the persians put a tyrant in charge of each city or polis. about 530 bc cyrus died in battle.