The Decisive Battles of World History

Lecture 3: 479 B.C. Plataea—Greece Wins Freedom

x At the subsequent Battle of Marathon, the Persians suffered a

surprise defeat at the hands of the Athenians. Although Marathon

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demonstrating the superiority of the hoplite style of warfare in

hand-to-hand combat, from the Persian perspective, it was a minor

setback for a small expeditionary force.

x The Persians recognized that they would have to send another army

to crush the Greeks, but internal politics delayed their return for 10

years. In 480 B.C., a massive land and sea invasion force crossed

the Hellespont, led personally by Xerxes, king of Persia, intending

to overwhelm and subjugate the Greeks.

x The Greeks attempted to stop the Persians by occupying the pass

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numbers as a factor. It was a good strategy, undone when a traitor

showed the Persians an alternate route through the mountains.

Although a rear guard of 300 Spartans volunteered to stay and hold

off the Persians while the others escaped, they were slaughtered,

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x The Battle of Thermopylae vividly demonstrated the bravery of

the Spartans, but it did nothing to stop the Persian advance, which

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and the Persians occupied and burned it.

x The Greeks recycled their Thermopylae strategy at sea, opposing

the Persian navy in a narrow strait between the mainland and the

island of Salamis. The resulting naval battle was a success for the

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Yet the victory of Salamis did not end the invasion and left the real

threat to Greece, the vast Persian land army, untouched and still

occupying central Greece.

x What Salamis did accomplish was to complicate supplying the

huge Persian army. Accordingly, Xerxes decided to return to Persia

with many of the conscripts, while leaving behind the best elements