Plataea
pluh-TEE-uh
Attested elsewhere in ancient sourcesThe land battle of 479 that ended the Persian invasion, fought in Boeotia the summer after Thermopylae and Salamis.
The Spartans came in full strength this time under Pausanias, and Herodotus says the Persian infantry lacked neither courage nor strength but were unarmoured against armoured men, and were outmatched in skill.
He also records the Spartans holding position under arrow fire while the omens were taken, and refusing to move until they came right.
Sources
- Hdt. 9.19-89
- Hdt. 9.62-63
- Hdt. 9.61
References are to the standard divisions of the ancient texts, not to any one edition.
Acenes of Sparta: The Dragon Slayer
A dragon is the reason the 300 died. Leonidas used the magic of the gods to bind Kalaxes beneath Taygetus, and the price was his life and his men's. Sixty-two years later a seven-year-old of the agoge falls into the dragon's crypt and inherits the unpaid balance.
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