How 10,000 Spartans Avenged Thermopylae

The Persian invasion of Greece ends here. After the defeats at Marathon and Salamis, the Persian Empire had one last chance for conquest. On the plains of Plataea, the largest Greek army ever assembled, led by 10,000 Spartans, faced the elite forces of the Persian general Mardonius in a final, bloody battle for the fate of Western Civilization. This is the story of the Battle of Plataea (479 BCE), the decisive land battle of the Greco-Persian Wars. Discover how a tense two-week standoff exploded into a chaotic and brutal confrontation. Witness the tactical genius of Mardonius as he nearly starved the Greeks into submission, and the iron discipline of the Spartan phalanx as they turned a desperate retreat into an unstoppable attack. This was more than a battle; it was the ultimate clash between two ways of war and two civilizations. The victory at Plataea not only avenged the burning of Athens and the sacrifice at Thermopylae, but it secured the future of Greek independence, paving the way for the Golden Age of democracy, philosophy, and art.