Plataea

Plataea, ancient Greek city in Boeotia, at the base of Mount Cithaeron, south of the ancient city of Thebes. Involved in a war with Thebes, the Plataeans placed themselves under the protection of Athens, apparently about 500 bc, and fought on the side of the Athenians against the Persians at Marathon in 490 bc. In 480 bc the Persians, under Xerxes I, retaliated by destroying the city. In the following year Plataea was the scene of a great victory by the Spartan Greeks, led by the generals Pausanias and Aristides, over the Persian armies commanded by Mardonius; this battle ended the Persian invasion of Greece. The allegiance of the Plataeans to Athens angered the Thebans, and in 429 bc, the third year of the Peloponnesian War, the city was attacked by a combined force of Thebans and Spartans and razed to the ground. Restored after the Peace of Antalcidas, named after the Spartan naval commander Antalcidas in 386 bc, it was once more destroyed by the Thebans in 373 bc. Under Alexander the Great of Macedonia it was rebuilt, and it continued to be inhabited until the 6th century ad.