Histories

In Book 9, Herodotus concludes his account of the Persian invasion of Greece under Xerxes and Mardonius. He describes the defeat of Mardonius’ forces at Plataea and the Greek fleet’s destruction of the Persian navy at Mycale in Ionia. In closing, he offers two anecdotes about the Persian emperors Cyrus and Xerxes that emphasize main themes of his work: freedom versus slavery, the influence of poverty and wealth on a nation’s character, and the destructive consequences of hubris and lust.

On receiving the Athenian refusal to form an alliance, Mardonius set out with his army from Thessaly and hurried towards Athens. Arriving in Boeotia, the Thebans encouraged him to make his base there and try to bribe the most powerful men of the independent Greek cities in order to force their subjection by extortion. Mardonius rejected this advice, desiring to capture Athens again, and pressed on to Attica. He found the city deserted, as most of the Athenians had evacuated in their ships for Salamis. Mardonius sent a herald to the island who repeated the Persian offer of alliance to the Athenian council, which was again rebuffed. An Athenian councilor who advocated that Mardonius’ proposal be brought before the citizens’ assembly was stoned to death by the indignant public.

The Athenians, who had been awaiting the Spartan army to join them in Boeotia, sent envoys to Lacedaemon to reproach them for their delay. The Spartans were busily occupied in completing a wall across the Isthmus of Corinth; Herodotus suggests they may have no longer felt they needed the Athenians’ help in opposing Mardonius. The Athenians reminded the Spartan council that the Persian general had made generous overtures of alliance to them; fearing that Athens might side with Persia and allow her fleet to be used by Mardonius, the Spartan ephors finally ordered 5,000 hoplites under the command of Pausanias, accompanied by 35,000 helots, to march northward under cover of night.

Discovering this, Mardonius decided to abandon Attica for Boeotia, burning Athens and destroying all the buildings remaining in the city. He preferred to engage the Greek forces on the plains of Thebes, which were better suited for the Persian cavalry. The Persian army built a large palisade near the Asopus river as a refuge in case the battle went against them. That evening, an eminent Theban hosted a banquet for Mardonius and 50 of the highest-ranking Persian officers, during which one of the Persians confessed that most of them feared the expedition would end in disaster but were powerless to do anything about it.

Meanwhile, the Spartan and Peloponnesian forces arrived at Eleusis, where they were joined by the Athenians. They marched northward into Boeotia and took up position opposite the Persian camp on the foothills of Mount Cithaeron. Mardonius dispatched his cavalry to harass the Greek regiments, which refused to leave the relative safety of the high ground. The Megarians, who were bearing the brunt of the cavalry attack, were reinforced by a band of Athenians, and together they drove off the Persian horsemen, killing their commander Masistius. The Greeks, encouraged by the victory, displayed the body of the beautiful warrior in a wagon to all their assembled regiments. Mardonius and the entire Persian army grieved bitterly for the loss of Masistius, who was greatly esteemed by Xerxes.

The Greeks then moved down into the plain of Plataea, camping near a spring. As they drew up their ranks, a fierce dispute broke out between the Tegeans and Athenians over the honor of holding the wing opposite the Spartans. Both justified their claims by citing the heroic deeds of their cities, ancient and recent. The Athenians won the Spartans’ acclamation by appealing to their victory at Marathon, in which they (and the Plataeans) single-handedly defeated Darius’ combined force of 46 nations. The Athenians then took up the left wing.

The Greek forces at Plataea numbered 110,000; Herodotus claims the Persian army totaled 300,000 and was accompanied by up to 50,000 Greeks who had declared their loyalty to Xerxes. After each side had organized their divisions, they conducted sacrifices to predict the outcome of the battle. The results were the same for both sides; the omens were favorable for each army to conduct a defensive engagement, but not cross the Asopus river to initiate hostilities. Eight days were spent in the ensuing stalemate, during which more Greeks steadily streamed into the Hellenic camp. Mardonius sent a raiding party of cavalry at night to intercept the Greek reinforcements and disrupt their supply chain. For the next two days, the Persian cavalry, eagerly led by the Thebans, taunted and harassed the Greek position, inflicting considerable losses.

Exasperated at the continued standoff, Mardonius conferred with his lieutenant Artabazus, a highly respected Persian officer and favorite of Xerxes. Artabazus urged that the Persian army relocate inside the palisade, and through bribery encourage Greek leaders to betray the allied cause, thereby dividing the opposition without exposing the Persians to the risk of battle. Mardonius rejected the proposal, insisting that his army was much stronger than the Hellenes and that waiting for an auspicious omen was unnecessary. He called together his subordinate commanders and the leaders of the Greek forces serving him and asked whether any of them knew of any prophecy that the Persians would be destroyed in Greece. All were silent; some because they were unaware of the prophecies, others out of fear of acknowledging them aloud. Mardonius then recited an oracle that declared Persians attacking Greece would all die, but only after they plundered the sanctuary of Delphi. He reassured his subordinates that because he had no intention of doing the latter, the Persians had nothing to fear. He ordered his commanders to prepare for battle the next day. (In an aside, Herodotus reports that the oracle Mardonius cited was about the Illyrians, not the Persians).

That evening, Alexander of Macedon visited the Athenian camp and informed its commanders of Mardonius’ plan to attack in the morning. The Athenian generals immediately shared this knowledge with Pausanias, the Spartan commander-in-chief, who directed the Athenians to exchange positions with the Spartans so that each would face a familiar foe. The Spartan contingent, now on the left, would face the Boeotians, while the Athenians, who had experience of Persian fighting tactics, would face the Persians on the right. Apprised of the shift, Mardonius moved the Persian division to counter the Greek maneuver, forcing Pausanias to return to the right wing. When each side had settled back into its original position, Mardonius sent a messenger to the Spartans, taunting them with cowardice and challenging them to an even-sided fight, Persians against Spartans, to decide the contest. When the Spartans did not reply, Mardonius exultingly sent his cavalry out against the Greeks. The Persian horsemen inflicted damage on the Greek lines and destroyed the spring, which had been the sole source of water for the Greek forces. Their food rations also dwindling, the Greeks decided to retreat to a little island in front of the town of Plataea, which would offer protection from Xerxes’ cavalry and a reliable water supply. That night they departed from their position and continued as far as the sanctuary of Hera before Plataea, delighted to flee from the incessant archery of the Persian cavalry. During the retreat, the Athenians kept to the plain while the Spartans sought the cover of the foothills.

The Persian horsemen besieged the fleeing Spartans, while Mardonius, unaware that the Athenians were taking their route on the valley floor, assumed the entire Greek army was vulnerable to attack. He led a charge across the Asopus toward the Spartan position. With the entire Persian cavalry bearing down upon him, Pausanias sent a messenger to the Athenians seeking assistance. The Athenians attempted to respond with reinforcements but were prevented from doing so by the Greek allies of Mardonius who were shadowing the Athenian movement. Left alone to face Mardonius, the Spartans and Tegeans were sorely beset by the Persian archers who set up a barricade from which to launch relentless volleys of arrows. Facing the threat of imminent destruction, Pausanias invoked the aid of the goddess Hera, and at that moment the Lacedaemonians received a favorable omen.

The Tegeans and Spartans advanced, breaking through the Persian barricade. Abandoning their bows, the Persians fought courageously and intensely but lacked the heavy armor and weaponry of the Spartan hoplites. Herodotus notes that they fought in a disorganized manner, without tactical skill, and were consequently decimated by the Greeks. The Spartans pressed their attack against Mardonius and his personal bodyguard; when the Persian general was killed along with most of his retinue, the rest of his forces fled in disorder to their palisade near Thebes. Meanwhile, Artabazus, who foresaw a Persian defeat, withheld his division from the fighting; once he saw the Persians in flight he raced toward Phocis, hoping to get to the Hellespont as soon as possible. Most of Xerxes’ Greek allies behaved cowardly in the battle except the Boeotians, who fought the Athenians enthusiastically, losing 300 of their best men. When news of Pausanias’ victory reached the other Greeks encamped near the sanctuary of Hera, they joined in pursuit of the fleeing Persians and were attacked, with many casualties, by Theban cavalry.

The Persians successfully defended their palisade against the Lacedaemonians, but when the Athenians arrived, its walls were breached. Herodotus reports that all but 3,000 of Mardonius’ troops, not including the 40,000 that had escaped with Artabazus, were killed. 91 Spartans and 52 Athenians perished. Among the barbarians, the Persian infantry most distinguished themselves at Plataea and Mardonius was the most valiant individual fighter. The Lacedaemonians, followed by the Athenians and Tegeans, proved the most courageous and skilled fighters among the Greeks. Aristodemos, the sole survivor of Thermopylae, was the bravest (and most reckless) warrior at Plataea. Of the Athenians, Herodotus singles out Sophanes, who carried an iron anchor slung from his breastplate which he would lodge in the ground when assaulted by an enemy to prevent being forced from his position.

After the victory, an Aeginetan encouraged Pausanias to behead and impale the corpse of Mardonius, just as Xerxes had done to Leonidas after Thermopylae. Desecrating a dead body was considered a sacrilegious practice by the Greeks, and Pausanias refused, saying that Leonidas had been abundantly avenged already. Pausanias had the helots collect all the valuables in the Persian camp—gold and silver furniture, drinking vessels and basins made of precious metals, luxurious jewelry, clothing and embroidery, ornamental weapons—of which a tenth part was set aside for the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. Other treasure was dedicated to the gods at Olympia and the Isthmus, where great statues of Zeus and Poseidon were erected. The helots stole whatever valuables they could conceal. Xerxes had left his tent with Mardonius, and Pausanias ordered a banquet prepared within it, furnished with the most splendid objects of Persian luxury. Next to this magnificent feast, he had his servants prepare a typical Spartan dinner, and then called the Greek commanders to the tent. When they arrived, he invited them to compare the two tables, saying, “Men of Greece, I asked you here in order to show you the folly of the Persians, who, living in this style, came to Greece to rob us of our poverty” (529).

After the Greeks buried their dead at Plataea, they attacked Thebes and demanded the surrender of all those who had sided with the Persians. For three weeks they laid siege to the city until the chief traitors agreed to give themselves up. All but one who escaped were taken by Pausanias to Corinth where they were executed. Pausanias then dismissed the confederate army. Meanwhile, three Samians came to the Greek fleet anchored at Delos and implored the Spartan commander Leotychides to free Ionia from Persian occupation. Upon receiving favorable omens, the Greeks sailed for Samos the next day. The Persians, learning of their coming, were fearful of facing the Greek fleet at sea and withdrew to the mainland where they beached their vessels and constructed a defensive rampart. Following them, the Greeks sailed close to the beach and, calling out to the shore, tried to persuade the Ionians serving with the Persians to defect. This caused the Persians to disarm the Samians, whom they suspected of sympathy with the Greek cause, and send the remaining Milesians to guard the passes which led to the town of Mycale.

The Greeks landed and took up an offensive position. At that moment, a herald’s staff was found on the beach and a rumor circulated among the Hellenes that Mardonius had been defeated at Plataea. This was a wonder, Herodotus notes, because the battles took place on the very same day and, moreover, both occurred on land sacred to Demeter. The rumor encouraged the Greek troops, and, after a prolonged effort, the Athenians breached the Persian barricade. Losses were heavy on both sides, but with the arrival of the Spartans, the Persians were decimated. The Samians and other Ionians joined in the rout and attacked their fleeing masters, while the Milesians deceived the retreating Persians by leading them back into the hands of their enemy. The Greeks then burned the Persian ships and fort.

After returning to Samos, the Greeks held a conference to decide the future of the Ionians. The difficulty of protecting the Ionian settlements from the Persians’ vengeance led to a proposal to relocate the entire population to Greece. The Peloponnesians wanted to evict the Greek communities that had gone over to Xerxes and give their lands to the Ionians. The Athenians strongly disapproved, however, not wishing to see Ionia depopulated and incensed at the prospect of allowing Peloponnesians to determine the fate of former Athenian colonists. The Spartans gave way, and the Samians, Chians, Lesbians, and other islanders who had fought the Persians were admitted into the Hellenic confederacy.

The Greek fleet then sailed north to the Hellespont intending to destroy the Persian bridges. Arriving in Abydos, they discovered that the bridges had already been swept away, at which point the Peloponnesians decided to return to Greece. The Athenians, however, were intent on freeing the Chersonese from the Persians and laid siege to Sestos. After a lengthy blockade, the Persian governor Artayctes and his retinue escaped the city, which then opened its gates to the Athenians. Artayctes was captured and crucified by Xanthippus, the Athenian commander, and his son stoned to death before his eyes. The Athenians then returned home, taking with them the cables of the Persian bridges, which they intended to dedicate as an offering on the Acropolis.

Xerxes, meanwhile, had remained in Sardis since he arrived in Asia following the defeat at Salamis. There, he fell in love with his brother’s wife and tried to seduce her without success. He then transferred his affections to his brother’s daughter, who had just become the bride of Xerxes’ son. She was willing to please the king, and as a return for her services, he promised to give her anything she wanted. The girl asked Xerxes for a beautiful robe that had been given to him by his wife, the Persian queen. Reluctantly, he complied, and once Xerxes’ wife saw the girl wearing the robe, she realized the truth of the affair. Choosing to vent her anger on the girl’s mother, whom she suspected of arranging the seduction, she forced Xerxes to turn his brother’s wife over to her. She had the woman horribly mutilated and sent home. Outraged, Xerxes’ brother sent off with his sons to Bactria, hoping to raise a revolt against the king. Xerxes, however, discovered his plans and sent an armed party in pursuit, which overtook and killed the fugitives.

Herodotus concludes with an anecdote about Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian empire. During his reign, several Persians approached the king and suggested that they leave their barren country and establish themselves in a more fruitful land that had been won by Persian arms. Cyrus was not in favor of the idea but said the Persians could do what they pleased. He warned, however, that if they did so, they must prepare to give up their independence and be ruled by others: “Soft countries breed soft men. It is not the property of any one soil to produce fine fruits and good soldiers too” (543). The Persians agreed and chose to live freely in a rugged land rather than cultivate rich fields and be the slaves of others.