Quick questions on Plataea, Mycale, and the reasons for the Greek victory: HSC Ancient History

After Salamis (late September 480 BC) Xerxes returned to Asia with the main army. Mardonius wintered in Thessaly with around 50,000 picked troops including Persian cavalry and the Immortals. He attempted to detach Athens from the alliance, offering autonomy and Persian support; the Athenian Assembly, in a famous reply preserved by Herodotus (8.143), refused while one Athenian survived. Athens was evacuated a second time in summer 479 BC when Mardonius marched south.

The Hellenic League army, the largest ever assembled by Greeks (Herodotus 9.28 to 30 gives around 110,000 including light troops and helots; 38,700 hoplites), gathered in southern Boeotia under Pausanias, Spartan regent for the young king Pleistarchus.

The Hellenic League fleet, around 110 ships under the Spartan king Leotychidas and the Athenian Xanthippus (father of Pericles), crossed the Aegean and engaged the Persian fleet at Mycale on the Ionian coast.

After Mycale the Athenian contingent under Xanthippus crossed to the Thracian Chersonese and besieged Sestos, the Persian-held base controlling the Hellespont. After a winter siege Sestos fell. The Athenians captured the Persian commander Artayctes and crucified him for sacrilege (Herodotus 9.118 to 121). The capture of Sestos completes Herodotus's narrative.

Hoplite warfare. The Greek heavy infantry in close formation, with bronze armour, the long thrusting doru spear, and the hoplon shield, outclassed Persian light infantry in close combat. The phalanx broke Persian formations at Marathon, Thermopylae (until outflanked), and Plataea.

End of the invasion. Persia would not attempt another major invasion of Greece. Persian and Greek wars continued (Ionian campaigns, the Peace of Callias around 449 BC) but the strategic threat had ended.

Herodotus, Histories 9. The major source for Plataea, Mycale, and Sestos.

Nephew of Leonidas, regent for Pleistarchus son of Leonidas. Spartan commander-in-chief.

Athenian commander, around 8,000 Athenian hoplites.

Both armies camped on the slopes of Mount Cithaeron, watching each other across the Asopus river. The position favoured the Greeks (hilly ground); Mardonius could not deploy his cavalry to full effect. The deadlock lasted around 10 days.

Mardonius's cavalry attacked Greek water supplies and supply lines. The Greek commander Megistias of Sparta and the cavalry commander Masistius were killed. The Athenians killed Masistius in a cavalry skirmish; the body became a Greek trophy.

Pausanias ordered a redeployment to a position with better water. The night march went badly: contingents lost contact in the dark.

At dawn Mardonius, thinking the Greeks were in flight, ordered a general attack. The Persians and the medising Boeotians crossed the river. The Spartans and Tegeans (Pausanias's wing) held against the Persian and Bactrian infantry.

Stormed by the Athenians. Vast plunder including Mardonius's tent (later set up by Pausanias to display the difference between Persian luxury and Spartan simplicity).

Persian land power in Greece ended at Plataea. The medising Greek states were dealt with: Thebes was punished; its pro-Persian leaders were executed; Thessaly lost prestige.