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
The Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I.
Persians and Spartans fighting at Plataea. 19th century illustration.
The Achaemenid Empire and its allied Greek states (Macedonia, Thessaly, Malis, Locris, Phocis and Boeotia) at the time of the Battle of Plataea.
Answer of Aristides to the ambassadors of Mardonius: "As long as the sun holds to its present course, we shall never come to terms with Xerxes".