It is certain that for the Persian sovereigns the defeat of Marathon is an additional reason to finish with Athens and it is necessary to consider the expedition of 480 BC. AD as a desire for revenge and a punitive expedition. Xerxes is encouraged by his impulsive and brutal character but also by the many exiles from Athens at the court of the Great King as well as by his brother-in-law Mardonios (while his uncle Artabane is against it).
For this expedition the preparations are very long. First of all Xerxes must suppress the revolts of Egypt and Babylon, which he does with great brutality. Then from 484/483, he plans the invasion of Greece, leaving nothing to chance. This is how he encourages Carthage to attack the Greeks of Sicily and Italy in order to deprive the Greeks of their possible help. The combination of the two expeditions in 480, that of Xerxes, and that of the Carthaginians on Agrigento and Syracuse, is not a mere coincidence and is part of a skillfully and patiently developed plan. The Carthaginians are defeated on land and sea at Himera by Gelon of Syracuse but no help reaches Greece to fight against Xerxes (it also seems that Gelon made excessive demands for the price of his help).
In addition, the Persians allied themselves with certain peoples or certain cities in mainland Greece itself, not to mention the Ionians who had again become vassals of the empire since the crushing of their revolt 15 years earlier. Thus Locrida and especially Boeotia with Thebes sided with the invaders, thus yielding to what is called "medism".
The chosen invasion project is the one defended by Mardonios, the son of a sister of Darius I, therefore a cousin of Xerxes I. It consists of resuming the invasion project by land of -492 through Thrace and the Macedonian coast. For this it is necessary according to Mardonios to have a considerable land army corps supported by a fleet bringing supplies and responsible for avoiding the counter-attacks of the Greek fleet on the rear of the Persian army. To avoid the frequent and brutal storms from the North-East in the Mount Athos region and not to repeat the disaster of 492, a channel cuts the Isthmus of Acté. It is 2.4 kilometers long and wide enough for two triremes to pass abreast. Bridges are built on the Strymon by detachments of Persian scouts. In addition the Phoenicians and the Egyptians are responsible for building a double bridge of boats on the Hellespont from Abydos to a promontory located between Sestos and Madytos. The first bridge is made up of 360 ships and the second of 314 which are firmly anchored and bound edge to edge by ropes. Then planks are laid and covered with earth while high wooden barriers, serving as a parapet, are installed so that the animals are not frightened by the sea. Finally, towns are selected to become the main warehouses centralizing the supplies necessary for such an army. These are the cities of Doriscos, Eion and Therma located respectively at the outlets of the fertile valleys of the Hebre, Strymon and Axios as well as Leukè Actè on the Hellespont and Tyrodiza.
Staff
A thorny question is that of the workforce, because the figures of the historians of Antiquity appear fanciful. Thus Herodotus speaks of more than 500,000 sailors, 1.7 million infantry and about 80,000 cavalry. And again it's just the fighters. Contemporary historians have estimates that vary quite widely.
* Numbers of the Persians:from 75,000 men (according to the historian Delbrück) to 300,000 (for Hanson) and from 20,000 to 60,000 horsemen divided into 6 army corps. The fleet has a number of units of about 1200 triremes provided mainly by the Phoenicians, Egyptians and Ionians. More than the numbers, what matters to contemporaries of the event is the impression of an impressive mass levy. “Asia has emptied itself of all its males,” wrote Aeschylus in his tragedy The Persians.
* Effectiveness of the Greek coalition:here too the estimates are highly divergent and range from 7,000 infantry to 35,000 hoplites (to which must be added 40,000 more summarily armed servants). On the other hand the Greeks do not have cavalry. At sea the Greek fleet has only 360-380 triremes or pentecontores. If we assume that each ship has a full crew (about 150 rowers, about ten officers, about ten crewmen and about 15 soldiers) this represents about 70,000/75,000 men.
The gathering of the Persian troops takes place in a remarkable way. The fleet gathers in the bay of Phocaea and that of Kyme in Ionia while the land troops winter in Sardis and Cristalla in Cappadocia. When Xerxes arrived in the spring of 480 with his elite troops, the huge army set off and joined Abydos to cross the bridges of boats. According to Greek sources, the bridge on the right is used by infantry and cavalry, the one on the left by valets, slaves and beasts of burden. In total, according to tradition, this passage lasted seven days and seven nights. Then the army moves towards Sestos then Doriscos where the junction with the fleet takes place.
The reaction of the Greeks
Most of the Greek city-states remain for a long time without worrying about the Persian danger, especially after the Athenian victory at Marathon. The Greeks reconnect with their old demons of internal quarrels as soon as the danger has passed. Thus Miltiades, after a failure before Paros in 489 BC. J.-C., is treated ignominiously by Athens and dies shortly after. From 487 to 486 Athens tries in vain to seize its old rival Aegina while Sparta continues its hegemonic policy in the Peloponnese, thus becoming the most powerful city of Greece. Inside Athens, political struggles opposed the Democrats, who had returned to power just after Marathon, Xanthippe, the father of the future Pericles, and Aristide, who was more moderate and had the support of a few aristocrats. It is in this context that a third man appears:Themistocles. He was archon in 493/492 at age 30 and strategist three years later (490/489). Ambitious and unscrupulous, he is eloquent - important thing in the public life of Athens -, courageous and tenacious. He probably understood before the others that the future of Athens depends on the creation of a large permanent fleet. Archon plans to substitute the deep and sheltered port of Piraeus for the bad and wide open roadstead of Phaleron. This project, initially put on hold, was activated by Themistocles, elected strategist after Marathon. His arguments are multiple. Such a fleet will allow Athens to protect itself against Aegina whose inhabitants have a certain propensity for piracy which hinders trade. There is of course the Persian danger which Themistocles considers to be far from over but which is undoubtedly less mobilizing than the argument over Aegina, a “closer” danger for the Athenians. There are also economic arguments. Faced with the rapid growth of the population, it is necessary to seek supplies from further and further away, beyond the Hellespont or towards Magna Graecia (Sicily and southern Italy). For this it is essential to have a fleet that will be able to control the trade routes. n Finally, a fleet represents work for a significant part of the inhabitants of the city (rowers, construction and maintenance of ships, etc.).
There remains a major problem, namely the financing of such a project in a city where the finances of the State are not flourishing. It was then that in 483 the silver mines of Laurion were discovered to the south-east of Athens. Themistocles obtains that the product of the farm of the mines, approximately 50 to 100 talents per annum, is devoted to the construction of this fleet. His main opponent opposed to the project is exiled and Themistocles, hands free, orders the immediate construction of 100 triremes. The hundred richest citizens each receive a loan of a talent to build and arm a trireme. Then one hundred talents are offered to 50 naucraries (group of citizens), on condition that they build and maintain two triremes. It's time. In 480 Athens had around 200 triremes ready to set sail.
Battle of Thermopylae
The Congress of Corinth
The Persian preparations obviously did not go unnoticed and a congress of the various Greek cities met in Corinth at the end of autumn 481. For once the immediate interests of Sparta and Athens merge. Athens fears revenge from the Persians for its earlier successes and Sparta finds that its great rival in the Peloponnese, Argos, is contacted by the envoys of Xerxes. All the great Greek cities, except Cyrene, Argos, Syracuse, Corcyra and Phocaea, send representatives to the temple of Poseidon at Corinth. Sparta, as the most powerful of the cities, presides over the congress. A general reconciliation takes place, as for example between Athens and Aegina, and 31 cities engage by oath in a defensive league against the Persians and prepare contingents of soldiers. The command of the troops is entrusted to two Spartans, King Leonidas I for the infantry and Eurybiade for the Greek fleet. But during the winter of 481/480 the Greeks dithered on the campaign plan and could not oppose the conquest of Thessaly by the Persian troops in the spring of 480.
The Greeks then choose in August, while the Persians invade Pieria, a very strong defensive position at Thermopylae which commands access to Boeotia and central Greece. As for the fleet, it settles in the north of Euboea in a place called Artemision in order to prevent the Persian fleet from circumventing this position. Indeed the Persians, to keep in touch with their fleet, must take the only important road which passes through Thermopylae (the "Hot Doors", because of the thermal springs there). There, between the Maliac Gulf and the mountain, the narrow causeway passes in a defile, some passages of which do not exceed 10 meters in width and which, moreover, is blocked by the remains of a wall built in a zigzag pattern. Finally, the marshes are numerous and form an additional obstacle.
Between the approximately 7,000 to 10,000 men available to Leonidas and the fleet of Eurybiades (with Themistocles at the head of the contingent of Athenian ships, by far the most numerous) there are constant liaisons.
The Artemision Storm
On leaving Thessaly the troops of Xerxes move south. The infantry leave the city of Therma and arrive thirteen days later in the Trachinian plain (between the Asopos valley and the city of Anticyre). The Persian fleet sets off about ten days later so that the arrival of land and naval troops is joint. Eurybiades, faced with the size of the Persian fleet, left the Artemision and went along the Euboean Canal to occupy the stranglehold of Chalcis, leaving Leonidas at the mercy of a landing on his rear. But this maneuver, if it does not appear very daring, encourages the Persians to progress further south than expected and to anchor at Cape Sepias, near a rocky and steep coast where they cannot tow their ships on dry land and where the depth of the waters prevents many ships from mooring securely. A violent three-day storm will destroy about 400 ships. Several thousand men drowned. The main consequence is that Xerxes, although he retains numerical superiority, is no longer able to divide his naval forces in such a way as to convoy the army while fighting the Greek fleet. At Chalcis, Eurybiades regains confidence and goes back to take his guard at the Artemision. But despite the storm, the Persian numerical superiority appears so imposing that Eurybiades and his assistant, the Corinthian Adimantos, turn back.
It was then that Achaemenes, one of the half-brothers of Xerxes and admiral of the Persian fleet, detached a squadron of 200 ships and approximately 40,000 men to circumvent Euboea by the high seas while the rest of the fleet moved to the Aphètes anchorage, a safer anchorage than that of Cape Sepias. Warned of this diversion, which forbade them to escape through the Evia canal to the south, and of this new anchorage, the Greeks attempted a coup de force and launched a surprise attack on the Ionians, allies of the Persians, and sank about thirty ships before returning to their home base of the Artemision. Finally, a new storm bursts and again damages a Persian fleet whose ships are at their anchors while at Artemision the Greeks, as usual, pull the ships on dry land, which puts them at risk. 'shelter. Above all, this new storm causes the total destruction of the squadron sent to bypass Euboea.
The Battle
At first, on land, the troops of Leonidas hold their position firmly and repel the Persians, inflicting great losses, including the famous Immortals, the elite troops of Xerxes. But Leonidas is betrayed by a certain Ephialtes, son of Eurydemos, a citizen of Malia, who delivers to the Persians the means of circumventing the Greek army, by the path of Anopée. Leonidas then decides to sacrifice himself with the 300 Spartan hoplites, as well as 700 soldiers from the cities of Thebes and Thespies, to give the Greeks time to organize their defense and the army to withdraw in good order. The Greeks resist heroically around the Spartan king and are all massacred by order of Xerxes. This battle became the emblem of the Greek resistance to the invader and the spirit of sacrifice of the Spartans. At the top of Kolonós, the scene of the ultimate Spartan resistance, on which a mausoleum was erected, an inscription by the poet Simonides of Ceos (556, 467) commemorates this action:"Passer-by, go and tell Sparta that here his sons are died to obey his laws”.
The Sack of Athens
Xerxes resumes his progress on sea and on land with the capture of Athens in mind. Along the way the cities of Boeotia are forced to surrender and Thebes tarnishes its reputation by an inglorious surrender. The Persians finally enter Attica and advance towards Athens. For the Athenians, the situation is difficult. The city did not have ramparts at the time. Also under the impetus of Themistocles, the population was evacuated in particular to Aegina, Troezene and Salamis, while the banished were recalled, such as Aristide, with the cancellation of all the decrees of exile issued for political reasons. Cimon, the son of Miltiades, yet one of Themistocle's adversaries, places his ex-voto on the Acropolis to make it clear that the time for the "Sacred Union" has come and that it is time to fight not on horseback but on ships. The city is thus abandoned with the exception of a few hundred diehards who wish to defend the Acropolis and who will pay for this gesture with their lives. The Persians indeed take the city of Athens, then the Acropolis, and loot it from top to bottom, massacring the few Athenians still present who resist in a hopeless fight.
Battle of Salamis
The situation on the eve of the battle and the strategy of Themistocles
The Greek fleet is at anchor at Artemision when the Battle of Thermopylae begins. She must also repel an assault by Xerxes' fleet during a very indecisive battle where several dozen ships are lost. Also the Greek leaders unanimously decide to leave the Artemision, especially since Leonidas is dead and the land army of the united Greek cities is withdrawing towards the south. In the night, surreptitiously, the fleet led by Eurybiades takes the Euboea Canal and sails south.
The situation for the Greeks is not encouraging, as reported by Diodorus of Sicily. The defeat of Thermopylae, the submission of Boeotia, the capture of Athens sow discouragement in people's minds. Cleombrote I, brother of Leonidas and king of the Spartans, thinks only of protecting the Peloponnese by building a wall towards the Isthmus of Corinth. As for the fleet, it moved to Salamis at the request of Themistocles. This plan, to hold the Isthmus of Corinth and the Gulf of Salamis, implies the total abandonment of Attica, which also explains the capture of Athens, abandoned by its inhabitants on the advice of Themistocles.
Themistocles has a precise plan which he imposes against the advice of Eurybiades. It is a question of fighting in the narrow bay of Salamis because he is convinced, rightly, that the Persians will not be able to undertake the maneuver of encirclement by the wings sketched out at the Artemision. Moreover, he is convinced that in this narrow pass the enemy ships will interfere with each other and will be as many prey for a boarding or a ramming by the solid Greek triremes. Finally he is convinced that by cutting the Persian army from its fleet it will turn around. He says the following, reported by Plutarch:
“You will never be able to stop the flow of this immense army on earth. What is needed is to cut him off by destroying his transport fleet. Reduced to starvation, she will have no choice but to turn back. This is your only chance of salvation. »
Eurybiades prefers to defend another, more cautious point of view. Now that the Greek fleet has ensured the evacuation of Attica, it is necessary to return to the proximity of the land forces in order to undertake combined actions. This point of view is shared by the Corinthians, the second fleet of the coalition. Themistocles however receives the support of Aegina and Megara, it is true directly threatened in the event of withdrawal on the Isthmus of Corinth of the Greek fleet. It was then that Themistocles, according to Plutarch and Herodotus, used trickery and sent a message to Xerxes, through a Greek probably from Ionia named Sicinnos, informing him of the desire to flee of a part of the Greek generals by the western pass of the still free bay of Eleusis. This maneuver, we would say today "of disinformation", works fully and part of the Persian fleet ends the encirclement of the Greeks while the islet of Psyttalia is occupied by a detachment with the objective of collecting the Persian crews and completing the Greeks when battle breaks out.
Staff
How many troops were involved in the Battle of Salamis? Difficult to answer precisely.
* For the Greek forces we can consider that the figure of 350/380 triremes is credible, which represents almost the entire Greek fleet. In addition to the ships of Athens, more than half of the fleet, we have 40 ships from Corinth, about thirty from Aegina, between 15 and 20 for cities like Megara, Sicyon... the rest being negligible.
* It is for the numbers of the fleet of Xerxes that it is more difficult to decide. Ancient historians, such as Herodotus, Diodorus of Sicily or the Panegyric of Athens by Isocrates give the figure of 1200 ships. These figures are fanciful and do not seem to take into account the losses suffered during the storms and during the battle of Artemision. In addition, it must be considered that the Persian fleet must ensure the supply of the army, guard the neuralgic points (straits, depots, etc.). We must probably admit a figure of 500 to 600 ships at least, which allows Xerxes to keep the numerical superiority and to compensate for the inferiority in combat of his troops.
Vigil of Arms
While the Persian fleet finishes encircling the island of Salamis in the night, the Greek generals are still prevaricating. However, Aristides arrives from Aegina, having managed to get through the Persian blockade, and informs Eurybiades and Themistocles that the blockade is total and that the fleet has little choice left. From now on, all possibility of retreat being cut off, it is necessary to fight. Themistocles' ruse has just succeeded. The tactic used is simple. The narrowness of the strait means that only the first lines of ships will fight, which annihilates the numerical superiority of the Persians. Previous land battles have shown that the combat value of the Greeks as well as the armament are superior, which in the case of boarding enemy ships is an advantage. Finally the Persian crews, in fact especially Phoenicians or Ionians, will be tired because having traveled an average distance of about ten kilometers for some from their anchorages in Phaleron.
Two imperatives are imposed on the Greeks. First of all settle slightly below the strait so that the Persian mass settles in the bottleneck, but also do not retreat too much so that the Persian ships cannot take advantage of their numerical superiority. It is also necessary to avoid a Persian landing at Salamis where a large number of Athenians have taken refuge, protected by a detachment of hoplites commanded by Aristide.
The Persians are also preparing for battle with in particular this incredible installation of the throne of Xerxes on the slopes of Mount Aegalee which dominates the strait. Shortly before dawn on September 29, 480, Xerxes installed himself on his throne with his ministers and officers, his secretaries responsible for noting brilliant actions and faults to be punished, and his guard of Immortals. At the same time the fleet moves into position. On the right are the Phoenicians of the fleets of Tyre, Sidon led by the Persian generals Megabazus and Prexaspes. In the center the battle corps is led by Achaemenes, half-brother of Xerxes, who holds the role of Grand Admiral and directs more precisely the fleets of Cilicia and Lycia. Finally on the left wing are the fleets of Ionia, Pontus and Caria led by an Achaemenid prince, Ariabignes and where Artemis I, queen of Halicarnassus, is fighting, the only one who dared to tell Xerxes, a few days before, that 'it was better to avoid the fight.
The battle
Right from the start the Persians made a mistake described by Diodorus of Sicily as follows:
"The Persian ships kept their rank as long as they sailed out to sea, but on entering the channel they were obliged to draw some of their ships out of line, which caused great confusion. »
The Persians make a mistake out of overconfidence and are disorganized from the start of the battle. It was then that the Greek fleet appeared and, without breaking its lines, descended on the Persian ships. There remains a point on which historians are still in disagreement, and that is to know what was the axis of the two lines of ships at the time of the impact. For some it is assumed that the Greek fleet is backed by the island of Salamis and that the Persian fleet is aligned more or less parallel to the shore of Attica. For others, on the contrary, the Greek fleet completely bars the strait, which then gives a battle axis perpendicular to the axis of the strait. This second hypothesis seems to be the most commonly accepted at the present time. In any case, whatever the alignment of the fleets at the start of the battle, the main action takes place in the strangulation of the Strait of Salamis and in the two channels provided by the islet of Psyttalie between Salamis and the 'Attica.
The Greek right wing, led by Eurybiades, and made up of Lacedaemonian, Corinthian and Aeginetan ships, flinched at the start and retreated temporarily, under the probable boos of the civilians massed on the shores of the island of Salamis. Themistocles directs the rest of the fleet, namely in the center the fleets of Megara, Chalcis and Athenian ships, and especially on the left wing a homogeneous fleet of about 120 Athenian triremes. Facing them stand their old adversaries, the Phoenicians.
Herodotus recounts the outbreak of this battle as follows:
“The Athenian Aminias of Pallene, sailing outside the line, struck a Persian vessel and could not extricate himself; the rest of the fleet coming to his assistance, the melee began. But, on the other hand, the Aeginetans claim that it was the ship sent to Aegina which started the fight. »
This rivalry of glory is the translation of an ancient conflict between the two cities but also the translation of a proven fact:Athenians and Aegineti were the most ardent of the Greeks during the battle. It should not be believed, moreover, that bravery is on the side of the Athenians and their allies alone. The presence of Xerxes I who watches over the battle, his severity in the repression of cowards or incompetents, the rivalries between Greeks, make the Greeks of Ionia serve the Persians very loyally and fight fiercely. Sailors from Samos like Theomestor or like Phylacos, the son of Histiae, sink Greek ships and will later receive many rewards from Xerxes. It takes all the skill of the sailors of Aegina to contain the assault of the ships of Ariabignès.
However, the combativeness of the Greeks of Ionia, or the Phoenicians against Themistocles on the left wing, was not enough to counterbalance the initial error that had been the disorder introduced into their lines before the attack. The jostling, the panic lead many Persian ships to present the side instead of the bow which in a fight at the spur is prohibitive especially against the Greeks who manage to hold their alignment. The Athenians apply a particularly effective sawing maneuver - a thrust forward then retreat to gain momentum and move forward without deviating from the axis of attack - which sows devastation in the Phoenician ranks. /P>
The battle is already engaged when a sea breeze rises - according to Plutarch - which does not bother the Greek ships whose superstructures are low but clearly disadvantages the Phoenician ships in particular whose stern is high and the deck is raised. If it is implausible that Themistocles waited for this breeze to approach the Persian fleet, especially since he had no choice of the time of the engagement, it is on the other hand very possible that he waited this propitious moment to engage its reserves which, with the help of the breeze, complete the confusion in the opposing ranks.
The disaster proves irremediable when during the fight the fleet of Xerxes loses one of its admiral commanders Ariabignès, the brother of the Great King, killed by a javelin while boarding a Greek trireme. His body is fished out by Queen Artemis of Halicarnassus who will take it to Xerxes. This woman, who had advised against the battle, realizes that all is lost. But she is full of resources, if not scruples, and does not hesitate to free herself from sinking the ship of Damasithymos, king of Calynda (in Lycia). Most surprisingly, she received praise from Xerxes for this feat of arms because in the confusion it appeared that she had just sunk an enemy ship. It is unlikely that many Calydians survived to accuse him. It is about this episode that Xerxes is credited with the famous phrase:
“My men became women and my women became men. »
On the evening of the battle
The savior becomes general but the problem is to be able to get out of the trap that constitutes the tangle of ships in the narrow passage of Salamis to reach the anchorage of Phaleron. The reflux of the Persian boats took place in the most complete disorder at the end of the day, the battle having lasted about twelve hours. Aristide, at the head of a detachment of hoplites, lands on the islet of Psyttalia and annihilates the troops that Xerxes had installed the previous night. As for Xerxes himself, he must have left his observatory rather quickly because the Athenians seized his throne in the evening, which many years later was proudly shown to pilgrims in the Parthenon.
However Themistocles does not wish to pursue the Persian fleet on the high seas because despite the disaster it probably retains its numerical superiority. It seems that the Greeks do not immediately understand the scope of their victory and that they expect a new assault the next day. The Persian fleet is unable to do so, demoralized by this disaster. The crews took refuge in Phaleron under the protection of the army while the Egyptian ships which had bypassed the island of Salamis from the south to block the western entrance to the strait also returned unmolested. In the evening, silence returns to the place of this battle, as Aeschylus writes in Les Perses:
"A moan mingled with sobs reigns alone over the open sea until the hour when the dark-faced night comes to stop everything. »
During this battle, the Persians lost at least 200 triremes, not counting those that fell into the hands of the victors, and the Greeks about forty...
The aftermath of Salamis
The situation after the bitter defeat of Salamis is not however hopeless for the Persians. Their army is intact except for the small troops massacred on the islet of Psyttalia by Aristide's hoplites. The Persian fleet remains, despite its losses, superior in tonnage and the immense resources of the empire can allow the construction of many ships while for the Greeks, the destruction of the Attica shipyards is an irreplaceable loss. This is why the attitude of Xerxes I after the battle raises many questions and this from Antiquity where we speak of the pusillanimity of the Great King. Indeed, leaving the command of his army to Mardonios, his brother-in-law, the one who already led the expedition of 492, Xerxes abandoned his troops to return to his capitals Susa and Persepolis.
In this he follows the advice of Mardonios and Queen Artemis I of Halicarnassus, namely to leave a large army in Greece, Herodotus speaks of 300,000 men which is undoubtedly excessive, who will winter in mainland Greece, then attack the Peloponnese in spring. As for Xerxes, his presence is no longer useful, since his main objective is achieved, namely the destruction of Athens. This presentation of the facts allows the Persian king to keep up appearances and not return to his empire defeated. Xerxes crosses the Hellespont in the last days of the year 480 not without difficulty because the Thracians, enraged by the requisitions of the summer, launch numerous raids on the Persian troops.
As for the winners, they are surprised by the inaction of the Persians and do not seem to understand at first the extent of their success. When it appears that the Persians are retreating, Themistocles in the euphoria of victory proposes to cut off the road to Asia from Xerxes by crossing the Aegean. But Aristide and Eurybiades object caution. Moreover the Greeks lost more than 40 ships at Salamis and cannot replace them as quickly as their adversaries. Finally, sending the entire fleet so far from Greece while the refugees from Athens are still on the island of Salamis and the Greek coasts are unprotected is quite risky. The season finally becomes dangerous for navigation. For Aristide, a possible defeat of Athens would play into Sparta's hands, especially since Sparta is in the process of finishing the wall which bars the isthmus of the Peloponnese and therefore no longer feels the Persian threat with the same acuity.
Battle of Plataea (479 BC).
Negotiations
Mardonios the new Persian generalissimo declared after Salamis:"The Cypriots, the men of Phenicia, Cnidus and Egypt, alone were defeated, not the Persians who could not fight. This state of mind is indicative of the Persians' desire to continue the fight despite the departure of Xerxes I. However Mardonios considers it impossible to continue operations at the approach of the bad season and takes up winter quarters in Thessaly. He took the opportunity to launch intense diplomatic maneuvers with Athens, which he hoped to detach from the rest of his allies. But the embassy sent to the Attic capital, under the direction of a prince of Macedonia, Alexander, was told that "as long as the sun would follow its usual path" the Athenians would not make an alliance with the Persian sovereign. Worried, the Spartans also send an embassy to counter the argument of the Persians. She is received coolly enough by the furious Athenians that one can doubt their determination. They specify that “the fact of being Greek, of sharing the same blood and the same language, of having common sanctuaries and sacrifices as well as similar customs” prohibits them from treason.
Resumption of hostilities
In the spring Mardonios then invaded Attica again, which was once again evacuated by its inhabitants, reoccupied Athens and settled in Boeotia. A coalition of Peloponnesian forces was created in the spring of 479 BC. AD led by Pausanias, regent of Sparta and nephew of Leonidas I. It includes troops from Sparta, probably 10,000 hoplites and 30,000 to 35,000 auxiliaries, plus 8,000 Athenians and a few thousand men from other cities of Greece, such as Corinth, Epidaurus, Megara, Plataea, Troezene, Chalcis, Phliont, Aegina, etc. The Greeks line up a total of about 110,000 soldiers, which is 3 times less than the Persians, but we have already seen that this was not a handicap. However, this constitutes the largest Greek troop ever assembled, even if it is undoubtedly necessary to greatly reduce the actual numbers here.
The Greeks cross the Isthmus of Corinth, arrive near Eleusis in order to pass into Boeotia. Mardonios chooses a location, south of Thebes near Plataea, which should favor his cavalry. Opposite, the Spartans hold the right wing and the Athenians the left wing.
The Battle
Pausanias is considered a wise general, able to detect the opponent's weak points, but Mardonios is also considered an excellent tactician and the best Persian general. Moreover, the departure of Xerxes I leaves him with a free hand to fight the battle as he pleases. Each of the two generals wishes, in Plataea, to bring the adversary to launch against his own positions.
Initially Pausanias takes position on the foothills of Mount Cithere while Mardonios sets up his fortified camp on the other bank of the Asopus river. A Persian cavalry attack on the Greek positions fails but Mardonios has his opponents' supply lines and water points harassed. Pausanias then changes position and settles in the plain where a small massif of hills protects his army from a frontal attack by enemy horsemen. But after ten days the lack of water and food forced him to withdraw, in the middle of the night, to a position closer to his old lines, where refueling was easier. This retreat took place in some confusion and the various Greek units lost contact.
It was then that Mardonios made a fatal error of judgment. He believes that the disorganization among the Greeks allows him to launch an assault, August 27, 479 BC. J.-C., instead of waiting for the quarrels between the various Greek contingents to divide his adversaries. The Persian attack encountered fierce resistance, especially from the Spartans who, although cut off from the rest of the army, occupied an overhanging position protecting them from the opposing cavalry. It is in this fight that Mardonios is killed. The death of their leader, then the assault against their entrenched camp and the arrival of other Greek units which had just defeated the Boeotians, allied with the Persians, led to the defeat of the troops of Xerxes I and their massacre in large numbers. Very few, it seems, manage to flee and join another body of the Persian army whose leader, Artabazus in conflict with Mardonios, was already turning back towards the Hellespont with about 40,000 men. As for Thebes, which had collaborated with the Persians, it was quickly taken and its leaders were executed. The Greek losses are estimated at around 3000 dead, it is however impossible to assess those of the Persian camp. A huge booty is taken from the camp of Mardonios.
Cape Mycale
The Greek victory was completed by the naval victory at Cape Mycale in the fall of 479, where the Persian fleet, at least the ships not destroyed at Salamis, which had been drawn ashore near Cape Mycale, was totally destroyed by fire at during an attack by the Greeks. This victory completes the victory of the Greeks and is traditionally considered by historians as the end of the Second Persian War. In reality from the spring of 478 the Greeks, and in particular the Athenians led by the strategist Cimon, set out to conquer the various Persian positions in Chersonese, on the Hellespont and in the islands of the Aegean Sea. The capture of Sestos in 478, the city from which Xerxes I had set out to conquer Greece three years earlier, is a symbol of this. Never mind that the peace - known as the Peace of Callias - was not officially signed until 449 BC. J.-C., it does not matter that the Hellenic unit of the congress of Corinth in 481 does not survive, because the Greek triumph in these Persian wars is total and inaugurates the most glorious period of ancient Greece in particular for Athens. /P>
Conclusion
The Athenians will exploit the victories of the Greeks in their propaganda, raising the fight between Persians and Greeks as a Homeric duel. On the vases, this representation multiplies. Victory brings not only glory but also prosperity. The Athenian fleet became for nearly a century, until the disaster of Aigos Potamos, the great power of the Aegean and Black Seas. Salamis is indeed more a victory over the Phoenicians, great competitors of the Greeks, than over the Persians. Victory under dramatic and difficult conditions gave the Greeks, and particularly the Athenians, the energy to accomplish the Greek miracle.