Battle of Plataea
August 479 BCE · in Battle View, played out step by step on the ground where it was fought
The Greek allies under the Spartan Pausanias destroyed the Persian army Xerxes had left in Greece under Mardonius, ending the Persian invasions of Greece.
The sides
- The Greek allies, led by Pausanias: about 38,700 men
- Persia, led by Mardonius: about 78,000 men
States that fought: Achaemenid Empire, Greek City-States.
How it went
Battle of Plataea
After Salamis, Xerxes has gone home and left his general Mardonius in Greece with the best of his army. In the summer of 479 BCE the Greek cities send the largest army they have ever raised, under the Spartan regent Pausanias. They take up position on the slopes of Mount Cithaeron, facing the Persian camp across the river Asopus.
Masistius’ horse
Mardonius sends his cavalry against the Greek line. The Megarians in the open are hard pressed until Athenian picked men and archers come up; the horse of the cavalry commander Masistius is shot, and he is killed. Heartened, the Greeks move down to a ridge near the Asopus, by the spring of Gargaphia.
Eight days by the river
For days the armies face each other across the Asopus. The omens forbid both sides to cross first. Persian horsemen raid the Greek supply columns in the passes and finally foul and block the Gargaphia spring, the Greeks’ only water.
A retreat in the dark
Pausanias orders a night withdrawal to the ‘island’ nearer Plataea. It goes wrong. The centre runs all the way to Plataea; a Spartan captain, Amompharetus, refuses to retreat and holds the Spartans back until dawn; the Athenians wait to see what the Spartans do. At first light the army is strung out across the hills.
Mardonius attacks
Seeing the Greek camp empty, Mardonius thinks they are running and orders his army across the river. His Persians plant their wicker shields in a wall in front of the Spartans and Tegeans and shoot volley after volley into them. Persia’s Greek allies, the Thebans first, fall on the Athenians.
The shield wall breaks
At last the sacrifices turn good. The Tegeans charge, then the Spartans. They break the wall of shields and fight the Persians hand to hand; Mardonius, on a white horse with his guard, is killed, and the Persians run back across the river to their stockade.
The camp stormed
On the left the Athenians beat the Thebans, who fall back on Thebes. The Greeks storm the Persian camp, the Athenians first over its wooden wall, and slaughter those inside. Artabazus, who never trusted the battle, leads his 40,000 away to the north and back to Asia.
Plataea
No Persian army will invade Greece again. By tradition, on the same day a Greek fleet destroyed the Persians at Mycale, across the Aegean. From the spoils the Greeks dedicated a golden tripod at Delphi on a bronze column of three twisted snakes; the column stands in Istanbul today.
Herodotus gives 38,700 Greek hoplites with some 70,000 light troops, and 300,000 for Mardonius, far too many; modern estimates for the Persian army run from about 50,000 to 120,000. Positions follow his account; the exact ground is still argued over.
People and wars
- Xerxes’ invasion of Greece (480–479 BCE): Xerxes I led a vast Persian army from Sardis across the Hellespont into Greece, won at Thermopylae and burned Athens, but was defeated at sea at Salamis (480 BCE) and on land at Plataea (479 BCE).
- Greco-Persian Wars (499–449 BCE): Conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Greek city-states, beginning with the Ionian Revolt; Greek victories preserved the independence of mainland Greece.