The Battle of Plataea: 479 BC

Question 1

What did the Peloponnesians finish over the winter months before Plataea?

Answer 1

• They completed their fortification of the Isthmus of Corinth

Question 2

With the reassurance that came with the completion of the fortification of the Isthmus of Corinth, what did the Peloponnesian armies then do?

Answer 2

• They marched out towards Boeotia to fight the Persians

Question 3

What is the Serpent Column? What does Herodotus claim it was made of? Where was it placed?

Answer 3

• A victory monument that was erected by the Greeks after Plataea
• The melted weapons of the Persian soldiers
• It was placed in the sanctuary at Delphi, where the oracles for the war had been uttered

Question 4

What does Herodotus claim were the belligerents of the Persians and the Greeks at Plataea? What is the modern estimation? Who were the commanders on each side?

Answer 4

• Herodotus claims 110,000 Greeks and 300,000 Persians
• Modern estimation is 80,000 Greeks and 80-120,000 Persians
• Pausanias was the Greek commander (regent for the young king Pleistarchus, Leonidas’ son)
• Mardonius was still the commander of the Persians

Question 5

What was the battlefield at Plataea like? What were the positions of each army?

Answer 5

• A large, open plain that was ideal for massive military operations and cavalry manoeuvres (largely flat, broken up by a series of small streams and rivers)
• Mardonius and the Persians in the north at the river Asopus
• Greeks in the foothills near the city of Plataea to the south

Question 6

Outline the events immediately before the battle. What happened in the first few days? Did they receive good omens? What was Mardonius’ worry? What was Pausanias anxious about?

Answer 6

• For days a stalemate ensued, with both sides trying to position their forces in a way that would best suit their fighting style. Neither side received favourable omens that would convince them to fight
• Mardonius was anxious at the sight of new Greek reinforcements every day
• Pausanias was anxious that his forces were too exposed in the great plain

Question 7

What happened in the night before the battle of Plataea? What did Pausanias then do? What problem followed? What did Mardonius do as a result?

Answer 7

• Alexander of Macedon secretly entered the Greek camp and told the Greeks of Mardonius’ plan to attack to try and force the Greeks into fighting
• Pausanias became terrified at this news and ordered a retreat under the cover of darkness
• The communication lines failed in the dark and by the morning the Greek forces were separated by divisions across the plain
• Mardonius, seeing this error, ordered a full assault and the battle began

Question 8

What reasons does Herodotus give for the Greek victory at Plataea? (3)

Answer 8

• “they (Persians) had no armour” + “naked against men fully armed”
• “they were unskilled and no match for their adversaries in craft”
• “When Mardonius was killed and his guards…had also fallen, then the rest too yielded”

Question 9

What does Herodotus say of the victory at Plataea?

Answer 9

• “the most glorious of victories of all which we know, won by Pausanias”

Question 10

What effect did the battle of Plataea have on the Spartans? (3)

Answer 10

• The Spartans gained their revenge for Leonidas
• The Spartans earned all of the credit
• They were given the prize of valour because they fought and killed the best of the Persians (Mardonius and the Immortals)