Battle of Plataiai

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Battle of Plataiai
Part of: Persian Wars
Battle of Plataeae
Battle of Plataeae
date Summer 479 BC Chr.
place Plain near Plataeae in southern Boeotia , 12 km south of Thebes
output Greek victory
consequences End of the Persian attempts to conquer Greece, proof of the military superiority of the Greek contingent
Parties to the conflict

Sparta , Athens , Aegina, Plataiai, Megara, allied Greek cities

Persian Empire , allied Greek cities (including Thebes)

Commander

Pausanias
Aristeides of Athens (Athenian Phalanx)

Mardonios
Artabazos I (Persians and Bactrians)
Alexander I (Macedonians)

Troop strength
38,700 hoplites, including 5,000 Spartians and 8,000 Athenians as well as 69,500 lightly armed men, including 35,000 helots ( Herodotus )
26,500 hoplites and 11,500 Athenians, Aeginetes, Plateans and Megarians (Delbrück 1900)
70,000 Greeks (Connolly 1981)
at least 40,000 and max. 75,000 (Delbrück)
120,000 (Conolly 1981)
250,000 (Holland 2005)
losses

1360 (according to Plutarch )

over 50,000 (according to Plutarch), obviously a greatly exaggerated figure

Objectives:
Persians: conquest of Greece
Greece: decisive battle to drive out the invaders
The serpent column consecrated by the victorious Greeks

In the battle of Plataiai ( ancient Greek Μάχη τῶν Πλαταιῶν , Latin Proelium Plataeense ) in Boeotia , the Greeks allied against Persia defeated in the summer of 479 BC. The Persian army under its general Mardonios . After the Greeks had already defeated the fleet of the Persian Great King at Salamis in the previous year , the victory at Plataiai in Boeotia ( ancient Greek Πλαταιαί τῆς Βοιωτίας , Latin Plataeae Boeotiae) marked the end of the Persian attempts to conquer Greece.

prehistory

After the defeat in the sea ​​battle of Salamis (480 BC), the Persian great king Xerxes I returned to his empire. His fleet was in the process of disintegration; the still powerful land army, however, wintered under the leadership of Mardonios in Thessaly .

Mardonios first tried to exploit existing differences between Sparta and Athens . He made Athens offers of peace to drive a wedge between the allied Greeks. Since he did not succeed in this, he had Athens ravaged a second time.

After recruiting new soldiers and pooling all forces, including the rowers, the Greeks fought on land against the Persians.

Troop strengths

The information on the troop strengths of both sides varies - as is often the case with ancient conflicts. According to Herodotus, Sparta alone led 45,000 men into the field: 5,000 Spartians , 5,000 Periöks and 35,000 (lightly armed) helots. Herodotus lists in detail 38,700 fighters in hoplite contingents from different poleis , of which 8,000 hoplites from Athens under Aristeides . In total, Herodotus lists over 100,000 fighters on the Greek side, which is viewed as quite possible in recent research. Traditional German research of the early 20th century. on the other hand assumes around 40,000 Greeks, including 5,000 Spartians. With the Greeks, the hoplite phalanx of the Spartans and Athenians formed the main force; in addition there were troop contingents from many city-states, for example the Tegeans , Plateans, Corinthians , Megarians and Aeginetes .

Herodotus' figures for the Persian side of approx. 300,000 men are generally viewed with skepticism, with recent international research mostly also assuming numbers around 100,000 men. For example, the historian Peter Connolly estimates the Persian army to be around 120,000 men based on the size of the Persian camp described by Herodotus, a square of 10 stadiums on a side (around 1,800 m). Other modern international estimates range between 70,000 and over 250,000 fighters. Mardonios's troops comprised contingents from all parts of the Persian Empire. Herodotus lists Persians , Medes , Indians, Saks , Bactrians , Phrygians , Thracians , Mysians , Paionians , Egyptians and Ethiopians . There were also numerous contingents from allied with the Persian Empire Poleis: fighters from Megara , Boeotia , the Lokris who Malia , Thessaly and Phocis and Macedonians under Alexander I . The Persians, led by Artabazos , provided the core troops of the archers and cavalry. Because of their agility and speed, they were used at critical points in battle.

Deployment and order of battle

The Greek army marched from the isthmus of Corinth , where they had gathered, not directly on Mardonios, who was standing near Athens, but to the north into the enemy-empty space behind the Persians. Mardonios reacted to this threat to his supply lines with a retreat to the allied Thebes . The Persian army reached Boeotia before the Greek and encamped in Parasopia on the north bank of the Aesopus in a square camp 1,800 m long. The Greeks under the leadership of the Spartians Pausanias took up position south of it on a chain of hills on the south bank of the Aesopos, several kilometers north of the destroyed Plataiai . The armies in sight initially lined up for battle for days without either side taking the first step. Herodotus delivers an order of battle according to contingent contingents:

On the extreme right wing of the northward facing Greek front, the traditional thrust wing of a phalanx , stood the Spartans and Tegeans. Opposite them, Mardonios placed the Persian contingent. To the left (to the west) Corinth and some smaller poleis followed on the Greek side, opposite them the Medes. This was followed by smaller Peloponnesian poles, which the Bactrians faced. The Indian contingent of the Persians was v. a. confronted with Poleis from Evia . The Saaks were set up across from smaller poles from western and southern Greece. Finally, on the left wing, the Athenians under Aristeides faced the Greek hoplites on the Persian side and the Macedonians. This disposition was only partially preserved in the later battle.

Trench warfare and battle

Since advancing to the Persian position through the plain of Aesopus would have exposed the flanks of the phalanx of the far superior Persian cavalry, they hesitated 11 days to go on the offensive . Persian cavalry units had been attacking the Greek supply lines since the 8th day. Only when the Persian cavalry had made the Gargaphic spring, the only water supply of the Greek army unusable after bypassing the Greek position, the Greeks planned to retreat to watercourses immediately north of Plataiai at night.

The implementation of the retreat, however, turned into a great mess, with the Greek contingents from the center retreating to positions that were not agreed upon, right under the walls of Plataiai. With the Spartans and their closest allies, the Tegeans, the retreat was delayed so long that at dawn they faced the enemy army alone, whereupon Mardonios allowed the Persian contingents to attack. The Athenian contingent on the other wing performed seemingly idiosyncratic maneuvers during the night. In the morning it could not rush to the aid of the Spartans attacked on the right wing, but got into fighting with the Persian-Greek phalanx. The Peloponnesians on the right wing, initially harassed by cavalry and arrow fire, finally launched an assault that pushed the Persian ranks back and, after Mardonios was killed by a stone's throw, finally drove them to flee. The leaderless Persian army fled back to its fortified camp, but the Greeks captured this too, along with the entourage.

In the description of the course of the battle, according to Hans Delbrück , it is difficult to separate legend and truth.

consequences

Mardonios, three sons of Darius I and many members of the Persian elite died in battle, the remaining Persian troops fled. Artabazos was initially able to lead his contingent, with which he had not previously participated in the fight, towards Thessaly.

With the complete Persian defeat, the invasion of Greece was finally repulsed. With the victory against the Persian fleet at Mykale shortly afterwards , the last threat was also removed. The Greek cities on the coast of Asia Minor broke away from Persian rule and joined that of Athens in 477 BC. Founded Attic Sea League . The period of relative peace that followed the victory at Plataiai is considered to be the heyday of classical Greece. To celebrate the decisive victory, the Freedom Games ( Eleuthería , Ἐλευθερία) took place every five years .

swell

  • Heyrodot : histories . English translation by A. Godley. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Online in the Perseus Project at Tufts University.
  • Tuesdayodorus Siculus : Bibliothecae Historicae. Twelve volumes in English translation by C. Oldfather. Cambridge, Mass .; London. Online in the Perseus Project at Tufts University
  • Plutarch , Vitae parallelae / Aristeides.
  • Xenophon , anabasis .

literature

  • Peter Connolly : Greece and Rome at War . Frontline Books, Barnsley 2012 [reprint of 1981]. ISBN 978-1-84832-609-5
  • AA Evans, David Gibbons: Military History from Ancient Times to Today . Bassermann, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8094-2549-6 .
  • Tom Holland: Persian Fire. Abacus, 2005. ISBN 978-0-349-11717-1
  • Peter Hunt: Helots at the Battle of Plataea. In: Historia 46 (1997), pp. 129-144.
  • Peter Green: The Greco-Persian Wars . University Press, Berkeley, Calif. 2008, ISBN 0-520-20313-5 , pp. 239-287.
  • John Francis Lazenby : The Defense of Greece 490-479 BC. Aris & Phillips Ltd., 1993. ISBN 0-85668-591-7

Web links

Commons : Battle of Plataiai  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ AA Evans, David Gibbson: Military History from Antiquity to Today.
  2. Herodotus: Histories . tape IX.28-29 ( tufts.edu ).
  3. Tom Holland: Persian Fire . Abacus, 2005, ISBN 978-0-349-11717-1 , pp. 343-349 .
  4. Hans Delbrück : History of the art of war in the context of political history , Volume 1: Das Altertum, 1. Book, Chapter 9 ( available online ).
  5. Herodotus: Histories . IX. 32 ( tufts.edu ).
  6. a b Herodotus: Histories . IX. 16 ( tufts.edu ).
  7. ^ John Lazenby: The Defense of Greece 490-479 BC . Aris & Phillips Ltd., 1993, ISBN 0-85668-591-7 , pp. 227-8 .
  8. Tom Holland: Persian Fire . Abacus, 2005, ISBN 978-0-349-11717-1 , pp. 237 .
  9. Herodotus: Histories . IX. 31-32 ( tufts.edu ).
  10. Herodotus: Histories . IX. 31 ( tufts.edu ).
  11. Herodotus: Histories . IX. 39 ( tufts.edu ).
  12. Herodotus: Histories . IX. 49 ( tufts.edu ).
  13. Herodotus: Histories . IX. 50-51 ( tufts.edu ).
  14. Herodotus: Histories . IX. 52 ( tufts.edu ).
  15. Herodotus: Histories . tape IX.59 ( tufts.edu ).
  16. Herodotus: Histories . IX. 56 ( tufts.edu ).
  17. Herodotus: Histories . IX. 61 ( tufts.edu ).
  18. Herodotus: Histories . IX. 62-65 ( tufts.edu ).
  19. Herodotus: Histories . IX. 70 ( tufts.edu ).
  20. Herodotus: Histories . IX. 66 ( tufts.edu ).

Coordinates: 38 ° 14 ′ 6 ″  N , 23 ° 16 ′ 41 ″  E