Plataea
Plataea is a historical city located in Boeotia, Greece, situated between Mount Cithaeron and the river Asopus. This small city has roots tracing back to the Bronze Age and is referenced in Homer's "Iliad." It gained protection from Athens around 519 BC to fend off Theban annexation. During the Persian Wars, Plataeans allied with the Athenians, participating notably in the Battle of Marathon and suffering the destruction of their city by Persian forces in 480 BC. The decisive Battle of Plataea in 479 BC marked a turning point in the wars, resulting in a significant Greek victory and the death of the Persian general Mardonius.
Plataea faced further adversities during the Peloponnesian War, being attacked and eventually destroyed by Sparta's ally, Thebes, in the late 5th century BC. The city was rebuilt with Spartan support but fell to Theban destruction again around 373 BC. Throughout its history, Plataea was intermittently rebuilt and destroyed, with notable periods of reconstruction under significant leaders like Philip II of Macedonia and Alexander the Great. The site features archaeological remnants of ancient fortifications, temples, and a rich cultural heritage, including festivals commemorating its historical significance, such as the Eleutheria. In later periods, it became a bishopric during Byzantine times, highlighting its longstanding importance in the region.
Subject Terms
Plataea
Plataiai
A small city in Boeotia (central Greece) near its border with Attica, between Mount Cithaeron and the river Asopus. There are traces of Bronze Age (Mycenaean) habitation. Plataea is mentioned in Homer's Iliad. It obtained the protection of Athens against Thebes, which was bent on its annexation, c 519 BC. During the Persian Wars Plataeans joined the Athenian army at Marathon (490). In 480 their city, like Athens, was destroyed by the Persians, although its inhabitants escaped and fought at Salamis. In the following year Plataea was the scene of the final land battle of the wars. The Persian general Mardonius had moved down from Thessaly and invaded Attica with a force of some 300,000 men, hoping to persuade the Athenians to make peace. When this diplomatic attempt failed, he fell back to Boeotia, and severely harassed an advancing allied army of some 39,000 heavy infantry (hoplites) and 70,000 light infantry. During a retreat to higher ground near Plataea, the Spartan general commander-in-chief Pausanias was attacked by the Persians, but won a total victory, in which the Spartan hoplites played the major part. Mardonius was killed, and the remnants of his severely damaged army evacuated Greece.
After the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War between the Athenians and Spartans, Plataea was attacked by Sparta's ally Thebes, and its civilians were evacuated to Athens (431); but after a long siege by the Spartans (429–427), in which part of the garrison escaped, the remaining defenders were starved out and put to death, and their city was razed to the ground. Rebuilt with Spartan help (c 380)—whereupon it issued its only silver coinage—Plataea was again destroyed c 373, this time by the Thebans. Its surviving citizens found refuge in Athens until Philip II of Macedonia repatriated them after the battle of Chaeronea (338). His son Alexander the Great reconstructed the city, and Hadrian (AD 117–38) granted it freedom. Plutarch, who died after AD 120, records that in his time the Eleutheria, a festival in memory of the Persian War, was still celebrated. In late imperial and Byzantine times Plataea was a bishopric.
There are traces of walls going back to the fifth century BC, and more elaborate remains of successive fortifications erected c 385 and dating from the reigns of Philip II of Macedonia and Alexander the Great (?). A temple of Hera, whose cult was famous from the sixth century BC onward, contained a statue of the goddess by Praxiteles. A large hostel for pilgrims (Katagogion) was built by the Thebans after the city's destruction in 427; the hostel was pulled down and replaced by the city's agora in Roman times. But the temple of Athena Areia, which was enriched by Athens after the Persian War and contained a statue by Pheidias and wall paintings by Polygnotus, has not been located. Efforts to discover the graves of those who fell in 479, and to identify the site of a famous altar of Zeus, have recently been resumed.