Mardonius

Mardonius commanded the Persian army in Greece after Xerxes went home, and was killed at Plataea. He was the son of Gobryas, one of the seven conspirators who put Darius I on the throne, and married Darius's daughter, which placed him at the centre of the royal family. He was given the western command around 492 BC and campaigned to restore Persian authority in Thrace and Macedonia after the Ionian Revolt. Herodotus records that he deposed the Ionian tyrants and installed democracies in their cities, which the Greeks who read him found astonishing. The expedition ended when his fleet was wrecked off Mount Athos with heavy losses, and he was replaced for the campaign that ended at Marathon. He is presented in Herodotus as the principal advocate of the great invasion of 480 BC, urging Xerxes to it from a mixture of ambition and appetite for a satrapy of his own. After Salamis he advised Xerxes to withdraw with part of the army and leave him 300,000 picked men to finish the war, which is what happened. He wintered in Thessaly, occupied and burned Athens a second time, and made repeated offers of autonomy and rebuilt temples to detach Athens from the alliance. Athens refused each time. At Plataea in 479 BC he faced a Greek army under Pausanias, harried it with cavalry and cut its water, and attacked as it withdrew in disorder. He was killed by a Spartan called Arimnestus, and the army broke. Herodotus makes him the author of the invasion and its scapegoat, which is a convenient shape for a story and may not be a fair one.

• Lived: 500 BCE – 479 BCE
• Nationality: Persian
• Roles: general