Battle of Aegospotami
The naval Battle of Aegospotami took place in 405 BC and was the last major battle of the Peloponnesian War. In the battle, a Spartan fleet under Lysander destroyed the Athenian navy and this effectively ended the war, since Athens could not import grain or communicate with its empire without control of the sea. In 405 BC, following the severe Spartan defeat at the Battle of Arginusae, one of Lysanders advantages as a commander was his close relationship with the Persian prince Cyrus. Using this connection, he raised the money to begin rebuilding the Spartan fleet. When Cyrus was recalled to Susa by his father Darius, he took the step of appointing Lysander as satrap of Asia Minor. With the resources of this entire wealthy Persian province at his disposal and he set off on a series of campaigns throughout the Aegean. He seized several Athenian-held cities, and attacked numerous islands and he was unable to move north to the Hellespont, because of the threat from the Athenian fleet at Samos. To divert the Athenians, Lysander struck westward, approaching quite near to Athens itself, he attacked Aegina and Salamis, and even landed in Attica.
The Athenian fleet set out in pursuit, but Lysander sailed around them, reached the Hellespont, from there, he seized the strategically important town of Lampsacus. From here, the way was open to enter the Bosporus, if the Athenians were to avoid starvation, Lysander had to be contained immediately. The Athenian fleet caught up with Lysander shortly after he had taken Lampsacus, perhaps because of the need to keep a close watch on Lysander, they set up camp on a beach much nearer to Lampsacus. The location was less than ideal because of the lack of a harbor and the difficulty of supplying the fleet, every day, the fleet sailed out to Lampsacus in battle formation, and waited outside the harbor, when Lysander refused to emerge, they returned home. At this time, the exiled Athenian leader Alcibiades was living in a castle near the Athenian camp, coming down to the beach where the ships were gathered, he made several suggestions to the generals. First, he proposed relocating the fleet to the secure base at Sestos.
Second, he claimed that several Thracian kings had offered to him with an army. If the generals would offer him a share of the command, he claimed, the generals, declined this offer and rejected his advice, and Alcibiades returned home. Two accounts of the battle of Aegospotami exist, diodorus Siculus relates that the Athenian general in command on the fifth day at Sestos, sailed out with thirty ships, ordering the rest to follow him. In the event, the force was immediately defeated
Alcibiades
Alcibiades, son of Cleinias, from the deme of Scambonidae, was a prominent Athenian statesman and general. He was the last famous member of his mothers family, the Alcmaeonidae. He played a role in the second half of that conflict as a strategic advisor, military commander. During the course of the Peloponnesian War, Alcibiades changed his political allegiance several times, in Sparta, he served as a strategic adviser, proposing or supervising several major campaigns against Athens. In Sparta too, Alcibiades soon made powerful enemies, there he served as an adviser to the satrap Tissaphernes until his Athenian political allies brought about his recall. He served as an Athenian general for years. Once restored to his city, however, he played a crucial role in a string of Athenian victories that eventually brought Sparta to seek a peace with Athens. He favored unconventional tactics, frequently winning cities over by treachery or negotiation rather than by siege and his mother was Deinomache, the daughter of Megacles, and could trace her family back to Eurysaces and the Telamonian Ajax.
His maternal grandfather, named Alcibiades, was a friend of Cleisthenes, after the death of Cleinias at the Battle of Coronea and Ariphron became his guardians. According to Plutarch, Alcibiades had several teachers, including Socrates. He was noted, for his behavior, which was mentioned by ancient Greek. It was believed that Socrates took Alcibiades as a student because he believed he could change Alcibiades from his vain ways, Xenophon attempted to clear Socrates name at trial by relaying information that Alcibiades was always corrupt and that Socrates merely failed in attempting to teach him morality. Alcibiades took part in the Battle of Potidaea in 432 BC, Alcibiades had a particularly close relationship with Socrates, whom he admired and respected. According to Plutarch, Alcibiades feared and reverenced Socrates alone, Alcibiades was married to Hipparete, the daughter of Hipponicus, a wealthy Athenian. According to Plutarch, Hipparete loved her husband, but she attempted to divorce him because he consorted with courtesans and she lived with him until her death, which came soon after, and gave birth to two children, a daughter and a son, Alcibiades the Younger.
Alcibiades first rose to prominence when he began advocating aggressive Athenian action after the signing of the Peace of Nicias, disputes over the interpretation of the treaty led the Spartans to dispatch ambassadors to Athens with full powers to arrange all unsettled matters. He urged them to renounce their diplomatic authority to represent Sparta, the representatives agreed and, impressed with Alcibiades, they alienated themselves from Nicias, who genuinely wanted to reach an agreement with the Spartans. The next day, during the Assembly, Alcibiades asked them what powers Sparta had granted them to negotiate and they replied, as agreed and this ploy increased Alcibiadess standing while embarrassing Nicias, and Alcibiades was subsequently appointed General
Delian League
Shortly after its inception, Athens began to use the Leagues navy for its own purposes. This behavior frequently led to conflict between Athens and the powerful members of the League. The Greco-Persian Wars had their roots in the conquest of the Greek cities of Asia Minor, the Persians found the Ionians difficult to rule, eventually settling for sponsoring a tyrant in each Ionian city. While Greek states had in the past often been ruled by tyrants, by 500 BC, Ionia appears to have been ripe for rebellion against these Persian clients. The simmering tension finally broke into open revolt due to the actions of the tyrant of Miletus, attempting to save himself after a disastrous Persian-sponsored expedition in 499 BC, Aristagoras chose to declare Miletus a democracy. This triggered similar revolutions across Ionia, extending to Doris and Aeolis, after this, the Ionian revolt carried on for a further five years, until it was finally completely crushed by the Persians. The Ionian revolt had severely threatened the stability of Dariuss empire, Darius thus began to contemplate the complete conquest of Greece, beginning with the destruction of Athens and Eretria.
In the next two decades there would be two Persian invasions of Greece, thanks to Greek historians, some of the most famous battles in history. During the first invasion, Thrace and the Aegean Islands were added to the Persian Empire, the invasion ended in 490 BC with the decisive Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon. Between the two invasions, Darius died, and responsibility for the war passed to his son Xerxes I, Xerxes personally led a second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, taking an enormous army and navy to Greece. Those Greeks who chose to resist were defeated in the simultaneous battles of Thermopylae on land. The following year,479 BC, the Allies assembled the largest Greek army yet seen and defeated the Persian invasion force at the Battle of Plataea, ending the invasion and the threat to Greece. The Allied fleet defeated the remnants of the Persian fleet in the Battle of Mycale near the islands of Salamis—on the same day as Plataea and this action marks the end of the Persian invasion, and the beginning of the next phase in the Greco-Persian wars, the Greek counterattack.
After Mycale, the Greek cities of Asia Minor again revolted, the Allied fleet sailed to the Thracian Chersonese, still held by the Persians, and besieged and captured the town of Sestos. The following year,478 BC, the Allies sent a force to capture the city of Byzantion, the siege was successful, but the behaviour of the Spartan general Pausanias alienated many of the Allies, and resulted in Pausaniass recall. After Byzantion, Sparta was eager to end its involvement in the war, the Spartans were of the view that, with the liberation of mainland Greece, and the Greek cities of Asia Minor, the wars purpose had already been reached. There was perhaps a feeling that establishing long-term security for the Asian Greeks would prove impossible, in the aftermath of Mycale, the Spartan king Leotychides had proposed transplanting all the Greeks from Asia Minor to Europe as the only method of permanently freeing them from Persian dominion. Xanthippus, the Athenian commander at Mycale, had rejected this, the Ionian cities had been Athenian colonies
Thrace
It comprises southeastern Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, and the European part of Turkey. In antiquity, it was referred to as Europe, prior to the extension of the term to describe the whole continent. The name Thrace comes from the Thracians, an ancient Indo-European people inhabiting Southeastern Europe, the word itself was established by the Greeks for referring to the Thracian tribes, from Ancient Greek Thrake, descending from Thrāix. The name of the continent Europe first referred to Thrace proper, the region obviously took the name of the principal river there, probably from the Indo-European arg white river, according to an alternative theory, Hebros means goat in Thracian. In Turkey, it is referred to as Rumeli, Land of the Romans. The name appears to derive from an ancient heroine and sorceress Thrace, who was the daughter of Oceanus and Parthenope, the historical boundaries of Thrace have varied. In one ancient Greek source, the very Earth is divided into Asia, Libya and this largely coincided with the Thracian Odrysian kingdom, whose borders varied over time.
After the Macedonian conquest, this regions former border with Macedonia was shifted from the Struma River to the Mesta River and this usage lasted until the Roman conquest. Henceforth, Thrace referred only to the tract of land covering the same extent of space as the modern geographical region. The medieval Byzantine theme of Thrace contained only what today is Eastern Thrace, the largest cities of Thrace are, İstanbul, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Yambol, Alexandroupoli, Edirne, Çorlu and Tekirdağ. Most of the Bulgarian and Greek population are Christians, while most of the Turkish inhabitants of Thrace are Muslims, Ancient Greek mythology provides them with a mythical ancestor, named Thrax, son of the war-god Ares, who was said to reside in Thrace. The Thracians appear in Homers Iliad as Trojan allies, led by Acamas, in the Iliad, another Thracian king, makes an appearance. Cisseus, father-in-law to the Trojan elder Antenor, is given as a Thracian king. Homeric Thrace was vaguely defined, and stretched from the River Axios in the west to the Hellespont, Greek mythology is replete with Thracian kings, including Diomedes, Lycurgus, Tegyrius, Polymnestor and Oeagrus.
In addition to the tribe that Homer calls Thracians, ancient Thrace was home to other tribes, such as the Edones, Cicones. Thrace is mentioned in Ovids Metamorphoses in the episode of Philomela, Tereus, the King of Thrace, lusts after his sister-in-law, Philomela. He kidnaps her, holds her captive, rapes her, Philomela manages to get free, however. She and her sister, plot to get revenge, by killing Itys, at the end of the myth, all three turn into birds – Procne, a swallow, Philomela, a nightingale, and Tereus, a hoopoe
Potidaea
While besieged by the Persians in 479 BC, the town was saved by the earliest recorded tsunami in history. During the time of the Delian League, conflicts occurred between Athens and Corinth, the Corinthians still sent a supreme magistrate each year. Potidaea was inevitably involved in all of the conflicts between Athens and Corinth, the people revolted against the Athenians in 432 BC, and it was besieged at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War and taken in the Battle of Potidaea in 430 BC. The Athenians retook the city in 363 BC, but in 356 BC Potidaea fell into the hands of Philip II of Macedon, Potidaea was destroyed and its territory handed to the Olynthians. Cassander built a city on the site which was named Cassandreia. It was probably at this time that the canal still exists today was dug through the sandy soil at the narrowest part of the isthmus. In 43 BC a Roman colony was settled by the proconsul of Macedonia, the modern settlement of Nea Poteidaia, built for refugees from Asia Minor after the First World War, is situated near this ancient site.
In popular culture, the fictional character Gabrielle from the TV series Xena, Delian League Peloponnesian Wars The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed.2012, Columbia University Press Greek Coinage of Potidaea
Battle of Delium
The Battle of Delium took place in 424 BC, during the Peloponnesian War. It was fought between the Athenians and the Boeotians, who were allies of the Spartans, and ended with the siege of Delium in the following weeks, in 424 BC, the Athenian generals Demosthenes and Hippocrates planned to invade Boeotia. Demosthenes mistakenly sailed too early and landed at Siphae, where his plans were betrayed by a Phocian named Nicomachus, as Hippocrates had not yet arrived, Demosthenes could not attack and was forced to withdraw. Hippocrates eventually did arrive in Boeotia with an Athenian army and began to fortify the temple at Delium, after five days, the fortifications were complete, and Hippocrates set up a garrison and sent the rest of his army back to Athens. At the same time, the Boeotians gathered their army to challenge Hippocrates, Pagondas of Thebes, the commander of the Boeotian forces, urged them to attack anyway, because he knew the Athenians would eventually return and use Delium as a base for further invasions.
Pagondas moved his army into position near the Athenians, although both armies were hidden from each other by a hill, the Boeotians had 7,000 hoplites,1,000 cavalry,500 peltasts, and 10,000 light troops. They were joined by the Locrians, when Hippocrates learned of the Boeotian army, he joined the main Athenian force, leaving 300 cavalry behind at Delium. The Athenians had about the numbers of hoplites and cavalry. This unique deployment by the Theban general Pagondas explains the subsequent unfolding, the Boeotians charged unexpectedly while Hippocrates was giving a speech to his men. The centre lines saw the heaviest fighting, as Thucydides reports, the Boeotian left wing was surrounded and close to defeat, and only the Thespian contingent stood its ground. The victorious Athenian line got into confusion as it circled round the Thespian contingent, some of the Athenian hoplites fought and killed one another when they met at the other end, mistaking their countrymen for the enemy. This was historys first documented incident of friendly fire, in any case, Pagondas sent his cavalry to support the Boeotian left wing and the Athenians were defeated in turn.
Meanwhile, the Boeotian right wing was victorious, and the Athenians fighting there fled, about 500 Boeotians and 1,000 Athenians had been killed, including Hippocrates. One of the Athenian hoplites in the battle was the philosopher Socrates, the soldiers were in rout, and while he and Laches were retreating together, I came upon them by chance. And as soon as I saw them, I at once urged the two of them to heart, and I said I would not leave them behind. I had an even finer opportunity to observe Socrates there than I had had at Potidaea, for I was less in fear because I was on horseback. Consequently, he went away safely, both he and his comrade, for when you behave in war as he did, they just about do not even touch you, the Boeotians chased the Athenians until nightfall. Most of the Athenians returned to the fort at Delium, where a Boeotian herald announced that they were offending land sacred to the Boeotians and must leave
Athens
Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, commerce, entertainment, international trade, culture and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics.
In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil.
In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common
Sparta
Sparta was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece. In antiquity the city-state was known as Lacedaemon, while the name Sparta referred to its settlement on the banks of the Eurotas River in Laconia. Around 650 BC, it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece, given its military pre-eminence, Sparta was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars. Between 431 and 404 BC, Sparta was the enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War, from which it emerged victorious. Spartas defeat by Thebes in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC ended Spartas prominent role in Greece, however, it maintained its political independence until the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC. It underwent a period of decline, especially in the Middle Ages. Modern Sparta is the capital of the Greek regional unit of Laconia, Sparta was unique in ancient Greece for its social system and constitution, which completely focused on military training and excellence.
Its inhabitants were classified as Spartiates, perioikoi, Spartiates underwent the rigorous agoge training and education regimen, and Spartan phalanges were widely considered to be among the best in battle. Spartan women enjoyed more rights and equality to men than elsewhere in the classical world. Sparta was the subject of fascination in its own day, as well as in the West following the revival of classical learning and this love or admiration of Sparta is known as Laconism or Laconophilia. At its peak around 500 BC the size of the city would have been some 20,000 –35,000 free residents, plus numerous helots, olliers theory of the Spartan mirage has been widely accepted by scholars. The ancient Greeks used one of three words to refer to the location of the Spartans. The first refers primarily to the cluster of settlements in the valley of the Eurotas River. The second word was Lacedaemon, this was used sometimes as an adjective and is the name commonly used in the works of Homer. Herodotus seems to denote by it the Mycenaean Greek citadel at Therapne and it could be used synonymously with Sparta, but typically it was not.
It denoted the terrain on which Sparta was situated, in Homer it is typically combined with epithets of the countryside, lovely and most often hollow and broken. The hollow suggests the Eurotas Valley, Sparta on the other hand is the country of lovely women, a people epithet. The name of the population was used for the state of Lacedaemon
Olynthus
For the butterfly genus, see Olynthus.5 kilometers from the sea, and about 60 stadia from Poteidaea. Artefacts found during the excavations of the site are exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Olynthos, son of Heracles, or the river god Strymon, was considered the mythological founder of the town. The South Hill bore a small Neolithic settlement, was abandoned during the Bronze Age, the town was captured by the Bottiaeans, a Thracian tribe ejected from Macedon by Alexander I. Following the Persian defeat at Salamis and with Xerxes having been escorted to the Hellespont by his general Artabazus, the Persian authority in the Balkans must have significantly decreased at the time, which encouraged the inhabitants of the Pallene peninsula to break away. Suspecting that a revolt against the Great King was meditated, in order to control the situation, Artabazus captured Olynthus, which was thought to be disloyal, and killed its inhabitants. The town had priorly been given to Kritovoulos from Toroni and to a population consisting of Greeks from the neighboring region of Chalcidice.
Though Herodotus reports that Artabazus slaughtered them, Boetiaeans continued to live in the area, Olynthus became a Greek polis, but it remained insignificant. In 432 King Perdiccas II of Macedon encouraged several nearby towns to disband and remove their population to Olynthus. This synoecism was effected, though against Perdiccass wishes the contributing cities were preserved and this increase in population led to the settlement of the North Hill, which was developed on a Hippodamian grid plan. In 423 Olynthus became the head of a formal Chalkidian League, during the Peloponnesian war it formed a base for Brasidas in his expedition of 424 and refuge for the citizens of Mende and Poteidaea that had rebelled against the Athenians. After the end of the Peloponnesian War the development of the league was rapid, in this year Sparta was induced by an embassy from Acanthus and Apollonia, which anticipated conquest by the league, to send an expedition against Olynthus. After three years of indecisive warfare Olynthus consented to dissolve the confederacy and it is clear, that the dissolution was little more than formal, as the Chalcidians appear, only a year or two later, among the members of the Athenian naval confederacy of 378-377.
Twenty years later, in the reign of Philip, the power of Olynthus is asserted by Demosthenes to have much greater than before the Spartan expedition. The town itself at this period is spoken of as a city of the first rank, when the Social War broke out between Athens and its allies, Olynthus was at first in alliance with Philip. Subsequently, in alarm at the growth of his power, it concluded an alliance with Athens, Olynthus made three embassies to Athens, the occasions of Demostheness three Olynthiac Orations. On the third, the Athenians sent soldiers from among its citizens, after Philip had deprived Olynthus of the rest of the League, by force and by the treachery of sympathetic factions, he besieged Olynthus in 348. The siege was short, he bought Olynthuss two principal citizens and Lasthenes, who betrayed the city to him and he looted and razed the city and sold its population—including the Athenian garrison—into slavery. According to the latest researches only an area of the North Hill was ever re-occupied, up to 318
Second Persian invasion of Greece
The second Persian invasion of Greece occurred during the Greco-Persian Wars, as King Xerxes I of Persia sought to conquer all of Greece. The invasion was a direct, if delayed, response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece at the Battle of Marathon, after Dariuss death, his son Xerxes spent several years planning for the second invasion, mustering an enormous army and navy. The Athenians and Spartans led the Greek resistance, about a tenth of the Greek city-states joined the Allied effort, most remained neutral or submitted to Xerxes. The invasion began in spring 480 BC, when the Persian army crossed the Hellespont and marched through Thrace and Macedon to Thessaly. At the famous Battle of Thermopylae, the Allied army held back the Persian army for seven days, before they were outflanked by a mountain path and the Allied rearguard was trapped and annihilated. The Allied fleet had withstood two days of Persian attacks at the Battle of Artemisium, but when news reached them of the disaster at Thermopylae, after Thermopylae, all of Boeotia and Attica fell to the Persian army, which captured and burnt Athens.
However, a larger Allied army fortified the narrow Isthmus of Corinth, both sides thus sought a naval victory that might decisively alter the course of the war. The following spring, the Allies assembled the largest ever hoplite army, at the ensuing Battle of Plataea, the Greek infantry again proved its superiority, inflicting a severe defeat on the Persians and killing Mardonius in the process. On the same day, across the Aegean Sea an Allied navy destroyed the remnants of the Persian navy at the Battle of Mycale, with this double defeat, the invasion was ended, and Persian power in the Aegean severely dented. The Greeks would now move to the offensive, eventually expelling the Persians from Europe, the main source for the Great Greco-Persian Wars is the Greek historian Herodotus. Herodotus, who has called the Father of History, was born in 484 BC in Halicarnassus. He wrote his Enquiries around 440–430 BC, trying to trace the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars, Herodotuss approach was entirely novel, and at least in Western society, he does seem to have invented history as we know it.
Some subsequent ancient historians, despite following in his footsteps, criticised Herodotus, Thucydides chose to begin his history where Herodotus left off, and therefore evidently felt that Herodotuss history was accurate enough not to need re-writing or correcting. A negative view of Herodotus was passed on to Renaissance Europe, since the 19th century his reputation has been dramatically rehabilitated by archaeological finds that have repeatedly confirmed his version of events. The prevailing modern view is that Herodotus generally did a job in his Historia. Nevertheless, there are some historians who believe Herodotus made up much of his story. This account is consistent with Herodotuss. The Greco-Persian wars are described in detail by a number of other ancient historians including Plutarch, Ctesias
Plataea
For the geometer moth genus, see Plataea. Plataea or Plataeae was an ancient city, located in Greece in southeastern Boeotia and it was the location of the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC, in which an alliance of Greek city-states defeated the Persians. Plataea was destroyed in the Peloponnesian War by Thebes and Sparta in 427 BC, the modern Greek town of Plataies is built near its ruins. Herodotus tells that, in order to avoid coming under Theban hegemony, the Spartans refused this offer and, wishing to cause mischief between the Boeotians and Athens, recommended that the Plataeans ally themselves with Athens instead. This advice was accepted and a delegation sent to Athens, where the Athenians were agreeable to such a proposal, on learning that Athens had accepted the alliance, the Thebans sent an army against Plataea, but were met by an Athenian one. Corinth attempted to mediate the dispute, and achieved an agreement that set the border between Thebes and Plataea, in addition, Thebes made a commitment not to interfere with cities that did not want to be a part of a Boeotian state.
However, after the Corinthians had left and Athenians were starting their journey home, in the subsequent battle, the Athenians prevailed and set the river Asopus as the border between Thebes and Plataea. With Athens as their ally, the Plataeans were able to avoid subjugation by their neighbours, in honour of this debt, at the Battle of Marathon, Plataea alone would fight at the Athenians side. Sentinels spied dust clouds in the north and initially feared that another Persian army, instead it was the Plataeans coming panstratiá, i. e. having sent every available fighting man in Athens hour of greatest need. They were led by their general, Arimnestos, in acknowledgement and gratitude of their allys fidelity, the Athenians gave the Plataeans the honour of the left flank during the battle. After the battle, the Plataeans were allowed to share Athenian memorials, in 479 BC Plataea was the site of the final battle that repelled the second Persian invasion of Greece. According to Herodotus, the Spartan general Pausanias led an allied Greek defense against Mardonius Persian forces, although they were vastly outnumbered, the Greeks were able to kill Mardonius, his death precipitated the Persian rout that followed.
Accounts vary, but there is agreement that the battle resulted in a significant number of Persian dead. This battle would mark the last time a Persian army invaded mainland Greece, the Greek victory at Plataea is commemorated by the so-called Serpent Column erected at Delphi. Instead the Theban commanders harmed no one but attempted to persuade all of the citizens of Plataea to join with Thebes allies, the enraged citizenry attacked them. In one of the instances in which both women and slaves took part in what amounted to warfare, the citizenry killed over half the 300 Thebans. Thucydides reports that a number of the remaining Thebans escaped with the help of a Plataean woman who provided them with an axe to break one of the towns gates. Some of the tried to escape by jumping off the city wall
