Battle of Plataea
After Salamis, Xerxes returned to Persia leaving Mardonius with around 100,000 elite troops to continue the conquest of Greece. The following year a Greek coalition assembled the largest hoplite army ever fielded — some 38,000 heavy infantry plus thousands of light troops, totaling perhaps 80,000 men, under Spartan regent Pausanias. For weeks the two armies faced each other across the Asopus River near Plataea, neither willing to attack across open ground. The Persians were masters of missile warfare — cavalry and archers — while the Greeks depended on shock-combat superiority. Each side tried to exploit the other's weaknesses. Persian cavalry harassed Greek supply lines and fouled their water sources. Pausanias ordered a night withdrawal to better positions near Plataea itself. The maneuver became disordered; at dawn the Greek forces were strung out and vulnerable. Mardonius, seeing the Greeks apparently in retreat, ordered an immediate pursuit. The Spartans and Tegeans, cut off on the right flank, turned and made a stand. Mardonius charged personally at the Spartans, mounted on a white horse and surrounded by his best troops. The Spartan phalanx held, and Mardonius was killed. With their general dead, Persian morale collapsed. The Persian camp was stormed and the army routed. The same day, according to tradition, the Greek fleet destroyed the remnant Persian fleet at Mycale on the Ionian coast — liberating the Ionian Greek cities. Plataea ended the Persian Wars in Greece. Pausanias dedicated the victory spoils at Delphi: a golden tripod inscribed with the names of the allied cities.
- Year: 479 BCE
- Category: Military
