Plataea
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Plataea was an ancient Greek city-state situated in Boeotia near the frontier with Attica at the foot of Mt. Cithaeron, between the mountain and the river Asopus, which divided its territory from that of Thebes. Its inhabitants was known as the Plataeans.
View of Plataea, and the battlefield of the Battle of Plataea.
Modern Plataies and ruins of the city of Plataea.
Part of the wall of Plataea
The burial mound of the Plataeans, fallen at the Battle of Marathon, Marathon
Battle of Marathon
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The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Greece. The Greek army inflicted a crushing defeat on the more numerous Persians, marking a turning point in the Greco-Persian Wars.
1900 depiction of the Battle of Marathon
The plain of Marathon today, with pine forest and wetlands.
Darius I of Persia, as imagined by a Greek painter on the Darius Vase, 4th century BC
Marshlands at Marathon.