Mardonius

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Mardonius

This page is about the historical figure; for the millipede
Millipede

Millipedes are arthropods that have two pairs of arthropod leg per segment . Each segment that has two pairs of legs is a result of two single segments fused together as one....
genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
, see Mardonius (genus)

Mardonius (d. 479 BC) was a leading Persian
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
military commander during the Persian Wars with Greece
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
in the early 5th century BC.

onius was the son of Gobryas, a Persian nobleman who had assisted the Achaemenid prince Darius
Darius I of Persia

Darius I or Darius the Great was the son of Hystaspes and Persian Empire from 522 BC to 486 BC. Darius is the dominant Latin language spelling used by the Roman historians....
when he claimed the throne. The alliance between the new king and his friend was cemented by diplomatic marriages: Darius married Gobryas' daughter, and Gobryas married Darius' sister.

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This page is about the historical figure; for the millipede
Millipede

Millipedes are arthropods that have two pairs of arthropod leg per segment . Each segment that has two pairs of legs is a result of two single segments fused together as one....
genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
, see Mardonius (genus)
Mardonius (d. 479 BC) was a leading Persian
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
military commander during the Persian Wars with Greece
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
in the early 5th century BC.

Early years
Mardonius was the son of Gobryas, a Persian nobleman who had assisted the Achaemenid prince Darius
Darius I of Persia

Darius I or Darius the Great was the son of Hystaspes and Persian Empire from 522 BC to 486 BC. Darius is the dominant Latin language spelling used by the Roman historians....
when he claimed the throne. The alliance between the new king and his friend was cemented by diplomatic marriages: Darius married Gobryas' daughter, and Gobryas married Darius' sister. Mardonius became the son-in-law of Darius I of Persia
Darius I of Persia

Darius I or Darius the Great was the son of Hystaspes and Persian Empire from 522 BC to 486 BC. Darius is the dominant Latin language spelling used by the Roman historians....
when he married Darius’ daughter Artozostra.

Persian Wars with the Greeks
Darius appointed Mardonius as one of his generals and, after the Ionian Revolt
Ionian Revolt

The Ionian Revolts were triggered by the actions of Aristagoras, the tyrant of the Ionian city of Miletus at the end of the 6th century BC and beginning of the 5th century BC....
, sent him in 492 BC to punish the Greek city-state of Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
for assisting the Ionia
Ionia

Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest Izmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Hellenes settlements....
ns. On his way to Athens, he used his army in the Ionian cities to depose the Persian tyrant
Tyrant

This article is about the political ruler. For other uses see Tyrant and Tyranny In modern usage, a tyrant is a single ruler holding absolute political power over a state or within an organization....
s and set up democratic
Democracy

Democracy is a form of government in which power is held directly or indirectly by citizens under a free electoral system. It is derived from the Greek language d?????at?a , "popular government" which was coined from d???? , "people" and ???t?? , "rule, strength" in the middle of the 5th-4th century BC to denote the political syst...
governments, an action which surprised the Greeks at that time. Historians consider that he may have taken this action so that the Ionians would not revolt a second time after the Persian army had passed through. His fleet and army then passed across the Hellespont
Hellespont

Hellespont was the ancient name of the narrow strait, now known by the modern European term 'Dardanelles'. It was so called from Helle , the daughter of Athamas, who was drowned here in the mythology of the Golden Fleece....
. The first victim of Persian aggression in Greece proper was Thasos
Thasos

Thasos or Thassos is a Greece island in the northern Aegean Sea, close to the coast of Western Thrace and the plain of the river Mesta River but geographically part of Macedonia ....
, a Greek island which possessed important mines. It became a tributary of the Achaemenid empire. The navy and the army continued onto Macedon
Macedon

Macedon or Macedonia was the name of a monarchy centred in the northernmost part of ancient Greece. The homeland of the ancient Macedonians, it was bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east....
ia, which was soon added to the Persian Empire.

However, after these victories, Mardonius’ fleet was destroyed in a storm off the coast near Mount Athos
Mount Athos

Mount Athos is a mountain on the peninsula of the same name in Macedonia , of northern Greece, called in Greek language Agion Oros , or in English, "Holy Mountain"....
. According to Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
, the Persians lost 300 ships and 20,000 men. Around this time, Mardonius was commanding the army in a battle in Thrace
Thrace

Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. Today the name Thrace designates a region spread over southern Bulgaria , northeastern Greece , and European Turkey ....
. While Mardonius was wounded in the battle, he was victorious. Nevertheless, the loss of the fleet meant that he had to retreat back into Asia Minor. He was relieved of his command by Darius, who appointed Datis
Datis

For other uses of the word Dati, see the disambiguation page.Datis or Datus was a Mede admiral who served the Achaemenid Empire, under Darius the Great....
and Artaphernes
Artaphernes

Artaphrenes, was the brother of Darius I of Persia, and satrap of Sardis.It was he who received the embassy from Athens sent probably by Cleisthenes in 497 BC, and subsequently warned the Athenians to receive back the tyrant Hippias ....
to lead the invasion of Greece in 490 BC, and though they were subsequently successful in capturing Naxos and destroying Eretria, they were later defeated at the Battle of Marathon
Battle of Marathon

The Battle of Marathon, Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars took place in 490 BC and was the culmination of the first attempt by the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Ancient Greece....
.

Mardonius came back into favour under Darius' successor Xerxes I, Mardonius' cousin and brother-in-law.. Xerxes was at first not interested in renewing the war with Greece, but Mardonius repeatedly tried to convince him that he must avenge Darius' defeat. This view was opposed by another of Xerxes’ advisors, Artabanus
Artabanus

* Artabanus is the name of a genus of insects in the family Aradidae* Artabanus was the name of two noblemen of Persian Empire:** Artabanus was the younger brother of king Darius I of Persia, and satrap of Bactria in the early 5th century BC....
, who urged more caution in the matter. Herodotus, who portrays Mardonius as a somewhat evil adviser (as opposed to a number of other good advisers whose arguments are never followed), says that Mardonius simply wanted to become satrap
Satrap

Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of ancient Medes and Persian Empire empires, including the Achaemenid Empire and in several of their heirs, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic civilization empires....
(governor) of Greece.

He was present at the Battle of Thermopylae
Battle of Thermopylae

The Battle of Thermopylae [th?r m?pp?lee] took place over three days during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Battle of Artemisium, in August or September 480 BC, at the pass of Thermopylae ....
, and after the Persian defeat at the Battle of Salamis
Battle of Salamis

The Battle of Salamis , was a naval battle fought between an Alliance of Greece city-states and the Achaemenid Empire of Persia in September 480 BC in the straits between the mainland and Salamis Island, an island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens....
, he attempted to convince Xerxes to stay and fight yet another battle. This time Mardonius could not persuade Xerxes, but when Xerxes left he did become governor of those parts of Greece that had been conquered by the Persians. He subdued Macedon, ruled at that time by King Alexander I
Alexander I of Macedon

Alexander I was ruler of Macedon from 498 BC to 454 BC. He was the son of Amyntas I of Macedon king of Macedon and Eurydice.According to Herodotus he was unfriendly to Persian Empire, and had the envoys of Darius I of Persia killed when they arrived at the court of his father during the Ionian Revolt....
, but Alexander himself gave valuable information about Mardonius' plans to the Athenians, saying that, as a Greek, he could not bear to see Greece enslaved. Then Mardonius sacked Athens, which had been deserted before the Battle of Salamis. He offered to return Athens and help rebuild the city if the Athenians would accept a truce, but the Athenians rejected the truce and prepared for another battle.

Mardonius prepared to meet them at Plataea
Plataea

Plataea or Plataeae was an ancient city, located in Greece in southeastern Boeotia, south of Thebes . It was the location of the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC, in which an alliance of Greek city-states defeated the Persian Empire and ended the Persian Wars....
, despite the opposition from another Persian commander, Artabazus
Artabazus

Artabazus was the name of a satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia , under the Achaemenid dynasty of Persian Empire.Artabazus, son of Pharnaces, was one of the generals in Xerxes I' invasion of Greece, in charge of the reserve forces guarding the route back to Asia, and responsible for suppressing a revolt in Potidaea....
, who, like Artabanus, did not think that a much larger Persian army could automatically defeat the Greeks. Mardonius was killed in the ensuing battle (see Battle of Plataea
Battle of Plataea

The Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Ancient Greece city-states, including Sparta, History of Athens, Corinth, Megara and others, and the Achaemenid Empire of Xerxes I....
).

In popular culture

In the movie The 300 Spartans
The 300 Spartans

The 300 Spartans is a 1962 in film film depicting the Battle of Thermopylae. Made with the cooperation of the Greek government, it was shot in the village of Perachora in the Peloponnese....
(1962), Mardonius is portrayed by the actor Nikos Papakonstantinou

See also

Amompharetus
Amompharetus

Amompharetus, son of Poliadas, was a Sparta company commander at the Battle of Plataea. The name means "of irreproachable valor".Before the battle, both the Greece and Persian Empire armies camped in front of each other for 10 days on the plain of Plateaea, with only small raids on each side....

External links