The Greeks are scientific and commercial. They start the game with Bronze Working and Alphabet and build Hoplites instead of spearmen. The period following the catastrophic collapse of the Mycenaean civilization in Greece (about 1200 BC) was marked by a series of migrations by barbarian peoples from the north, leading to a number of city-states - prominent among these, Sparta and Athens - and a phase of Greek colonization along the shores of the Mediterranean. For two centuries, Greek history was a provincial tale of neighbors squabbling over scarce resources. But it was also the dawn of philosophy and science. There seems to be no good reason why the Hellenes, clustered in isolated city-states in a relatively poor and backward land, should have struck out into intellectual regions that were only dimly perceived, if at all, by the splendid civilizations of the Yangtze, the Tigris and Euphrates, and the Nile valleys; but they did. The Persian Wars (492-449 BC) were sparked by a revolt of Greek colonies in Asia Minor and brought the Greeks onto the stage of world history. Athens and Eretria sent a small fleet in support of the revolt, which the Persian emperors took as a pretext for launching two invasions of the Greek mainland. In 490 BC a Persian army under Darius I (522-486 BC) landed unopposed on the plain of Marathon; following an appeal to the Spartans, the Athenian-led Greeks won a decisive victory. A second invasion ten years later, blunted by the valiant stand by the Spartans and Thespians at Thermopylae (481 BC), ended with the crushing defeat of the Persian fleet at Salamis. Sporadic fighting between Greek alliances and Persia continued for another 30 years, before the Peace of Callas (449 BC) finally ended the hostilities. The surprising Greek triumph ensured the survival of Greek culture and political structures. Growing tensions among the victors led to the Peloponnesian Wars (431-404 BC), fought between Athens and Sparta. The Athenian league was, in fact, an empire that included most of the island and coastal states around the shores of the Aegean Sea, while Sparta was leader of an alliance of independent cities that included most of the major land powers of the peninsula. The end finally came in 404 BC when, starved by an impenetrable blockade, Athens capitulated. Athens' devastation and decline was perhaps the worst casualty in a war that crippled Greek unity.