The Spartans were in the middle of a religious festival. As soon as it was over they sent the promised force immediately.
Marathon was fought to keep the Persians from invading Athens.
The Persians fought against the citizens of Athens who were aided by those of Plataea.
The Persians would have won if Sparta and Athens had not united to fight the Persian Army
They refused to fight because of the harsh weather, and for fear of loosing
sparta athens '
Nowhere. Athens sent Pheidippides to run to Sparta to summon them to help fight the Persians. The 120 mile return trip killed him.
They did not want to be captured and put under control again of the Athenian tyrant they had expelled 20 years earlier.
He established an empire out of the Delian League formed to fight the Persians, and Athens lived high on the hog from the proceeds. He also brought in a radical democracy where the citizens made political decisions.
Athens led 180 eastern Greek city-states against the Persians in the last 30 years of the 50-year Persian War.
The Athenians did not fight at Thermopylai. A combined force of half a dozen other cities did. The Athenians manned their fleet at the parallel sea battle at Artemesion which was lost. Athens evacuated its populace to Peloponnesian cities and embarked its forces on its warships to fight in the Southern Greek fleet at the successful battle of Salamis, after which they returned to Athens which the Persians had evacuated.
In the first naval phase, 180 warhips. In the next land phase, 10,000 armoured infantry.
They wanted to punish the persians for attacking Greece