Battle of Plataea 479 BC
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 479 BC | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Ancient (before 500) | derived from year |
| Location | Greece | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Greco-Persian Wars, Second Persian invasion of Greece | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 38.2400, 23.3180 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in August 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an Achaemenid army led by Mardonius (allied with Boeotia, Thessaly, and Macedon) and the Spartan-led Hellenic alliance including Athens, Corinth, Tegea, Megara and other city-states.
At the preceding Battle of Salamis, the allied Greek navy had won an unlikely but decisive victory, preventing the conquest of the Peloponnese region. Xerxes then retreated with much of his army, leaving his general Mardonius to finish off the Greeks the following year. In the summer of 479 BC, the Greeks assembled a huge army and marched out of the Peloponnese. The Persians retreated to Boeotia and built a fortified camp near Plataea. The Greeks, however, refused to be drawn into the prime terrain for cavalry around the Persian camp, resulting in a stalemate that lasted eleven days.
While attempting a retreat after their supply lines were disrupted, the Greek battle line fragmented.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Plataea (revision 1375049994), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Siege of Plataea 429 BC · 4 km
- Siege of Thebes (292–291 BC) 292 BC · 9 km
- Battle of Thebes 335 BC · 9 km
- Battle of Leuctra 371 BC · 14 km
- Battle of Tanagra (457 BC) 457 BC · 21 km
- Battle of Haliartus 395 BC · 25 km
Other battles of the Second Persian invasion of Greece
- Battle of Artemisium 480 BC
- Battle of Salamis 480 BC
- Battle of Thermopylae 480 BC
- Battle of Mycale 479 BC
All 5 battles of the Second Persian invasion of Greece →
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