Plataea (; , ''Plátaia'') was an ancient Greek

city-state A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world throughout history, including cities such as Rome, ...

situated in

Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinisation of names, Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia (; modern Greek, modern: ; ancient Greek, ancient: ), is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the modern regions of Greece, region of Central Greece (adm ...

near the frontier with

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

at the foot of Mt. Cithaeron, between the mountain and the river

Asopus Asopus (; ''Āsōpos'') is the name of four different rivers in Greece and one in Turkey. In Greek mythology, it was also the name of the God (male deity), gods of those rivers. Zeus carried off Aegina (mythology), Aegina, Asopus' daughter, and ...

, which divided its territory from that of Thebes. Its inhabitants were known as the ''Plataeans'' (; ''Plataiaí'', ). It was the location of the

Battle of Plataea The Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Polis, Greek city-states (including Sparta, Cla ...

in 479 BC, in which an alliance of Greek

s defeated the

Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...

. Plataea was destroyed and rebuilt several times during the Classical period of ancient Greece. The modern Greek town of

Plataies Plataies (), anciently Kokhla, is a village and a former municipality in Boeotia, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Thebes, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 172.533 ...

is adjacent to its ruins.

Early history

Plataea was settled during the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

. (It was mentioned in

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

in the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

'' as among the other Boeotian cities). Local tradition, as related by the geographer Pausanias, was that its people were "sprung from the soil" (autochthonous, or indigenous). Its name is that of the daughter of an ancient king,

, for whom the nearby river is named. According to the ancient Thebans, who claimed authority over the city, Plataea was founded by them. In 520 BC Plataea, unwilling to submit to the supremacy of Thebes, and unable to resist this powerful neighbour with its own resources, sought the protection of

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

. Sparta, however, demurred, saying:

We live too far away, and our help would be cold comfort to you. You could be enslaved many times over before any of us heard about it. We advise you to put yourselves under the protection of the Athenians, since they are your neighbours and not bad men at giving help.

Herodotos, the source of this statement, went on to say that the

Spartans Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the valley of Evrotas river in Laconia, in southeastern P ...

had an ulterior motive in this: that they wished to cause trouble between Athens and Thebes. In the end, Plataea did form a close alliance with Athens, to which its people remained faithful during the whole of its subsequent history.

Persian Wars (Battles of Marathon and Plataea)

When the Persian king Dareios sent an armada to invade

in 490 BC, Plataea sent 1,000 men to join Athens at the

Battle of Marathon The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens (polis), Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Achaemenid Empire, Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaph ...

, and shared in the glories of that victory. A decade later, they also served in the Athenian fleet at the sea battle at

Artemisium Artemisium or Artemision ( Greek: Ἀρτεμίσιον) is a cape in northern Euboea, Greece. The hollow cast bronze statue of Zeus or Poseidon, known as the Artemision Bronze, was found off this cape in a sunken ship, as was the Jockey of ...

, though they had no ships of their own. They missed the later

Battle of Salamis The Battle of Salamis ( ) was a naval battle fought in 480 BC, between an alliance of Greek city-states under Themistocles, and the Achaemenid Empire under King Xerxes. It resulted in a victory for the outnumbered Greeks. The battle was fou ...

, in order to remove their families and property from the city at the approach of the Persian army. Upon the arrival of the Persians shortly afterwards their city was burned to the ground. In the following year (479 BC), their territory was the scene of the

, which delivered Greece from the Persian invaders. In this engagement, a combined Greek force met those of the Persian general Mardonius on the plain next to the Asopus River. As this victory had been gained on the soil of Plataea, its citizens received special honour and rewards from the confederated Greeks. Not only was the large sum of 80 talents granted to them, which they employed in erecting a temple to Athena, but they were charged with the duty of tendering religious honours every year to the tombs of the warriors who had fallen in the battle, and of celebrating every four years the festival of the

Eleutheria The Greek word "ἐλευθερία" (capitalized Ἐλευθερία; Attic Greek pronunciation: ), transliterated as eleutheria, is a Greek term for, and personification of, liberty. Eleutheria personified had a brief career on coins of Alexan ...

in commemoration of the deliverance of the Greeks from the Persian yoke. The festival was sacred to

Zeus Eleutherius Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the Greek pantheon. He is a sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings t ...

, to whom a temple was erected at Plataea. In return for these services the assembled Greeks swore to guarantee the independence and inviolability of the city and its territory.

Peloponnesian War

Plataea was rebuilt and its inhabitants were unmolested until the commencement of the

Peloponnesian War The Second Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), often called simply the Peloponnesian War (), was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek war fought between Classical Athens, Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Ancien ...

. In the spring of 431 BC, before war was formally declared, a party of 300 Thebans attempted to take over Plataea. They were admitted within the walls during the night by members of a faction partial to Thebes, but the Plataeans soon discovered the attack and engaged the invaders. During the night they killed many and captured 180. Few escaped. Word was sent to Athens of the attempted coup, and then the captives were executed. The Athenians, dismayed at the slaughter, nevertheless sent a garrison to protect the city from further attack. This event proved to be the spark that ignited the war between Athens and Sparta. In the third year of the war (429 BC) the Peloponnesian army under the command of Spartan king Archidamus laid siege to Plataea, claiming that it had violated the protections guaranteed it after the Persian War by continuing its alliance with Athens. Before deciding whether to declare the city neutral or maintain their alliance with Athens, the Plataeans secured a truce, during which they sent their old men, women, and children to Athens together with the envoys who were to see what Athens had to say. In the end, they determined to continue the alliance, which set the stage for the assault that came next. The remaining garrison of the city consisted of only 400 citizens and 80 Athenians, and 110 women who were there to manage household affairs. Yet this small force defied the whole army of the Peloponnesians, which, after many fruitless attempts to take the city, gave up the assault and converted the siege into a blockade. They raised a circumvallation round the city consisting of two parallel walls, 16 feet apart, with a ditch on either side. Then, leaving a small force to guard the city, the invading army went home. In the second year of the blockade (428), 212 of the besieged succeeded in scaling the walls of circumvallation during the night and safely made it to Athens. In the course of the following summer (427), those remaining in Plataea were obliged, through failure of provisions, to surrender to the Peloponnesians. After a "trial" by the Spartans, in which their arguments against the unwarranted assault on the city were shunted aside, they were put to death and all private buildings were razed to the ground by the Thebans. In time, the latter used the remnants to erected an inn and a chapel for the local precinct of Hera. The land was allocated to those Plataeans who had supported Thebes in the lead-up to the attack.

Relocation to Scione

In 423 BC, Athens and Sparta negotiated a one-year truce in the midst of the Pelopennesian War. One of the terms was that no new conquests or revolts were to take place once the truce was signed. The people of

Scione Scione or Skione () was an ancient Greek city in Pallene, the westernmost headland of Chalcidice, on the southern coast east of the modern town of Nea Skioni. Scione was founded by settlers from Achaea; the Scionaeans claimed their ancestor ...

, in the

Chalcidice Chalkidiki (; , alternatively Halkidiki), also known as Chalcidice, is a peninsula and regional units of Greece, regional unit of Greece, part of the region of Central Macedonia, in the Geographic regions of Greece, geographic region of Macedon ...

, had revolted about this time, and while Sparta claimed it was before the truce, Athens had intelligence that it took place afterward. The Athenian assembly then passed a decree "to reduce and put to death the Scionaeans". The next year they besieged the city, finally subduing it and carrying out the decree in 420. Once this was done, they gave the town to those Plataeans then living at Athens to be their new home. At the close of the Peloponnesian War, Athens was compelled to evacuate Scione, and the Plataeans again found a hospitable welcome at Athens.

Peace of Antalcidas (The King's Peace)

The exiled Plataeans continued to live at Athens until the imposition

Peace of Antalcidas The King's Peace (387 BC) was a peace treaty guaranteed by the Persian King Artaxerxes II that ended the Corinthian War in ancient Greece. The treaty is also known as the Peace of Antalcidas, after Antalcidas, the Spartan diplomat who traveled to ...

by the Great King of Persia (387 BC), which guaranteed the autonomy of all Greek cities. The Spartans, who were now anxious to humble the power of Thebes, took advantage of it to restore the Plataeans to their native city. But the Plataeans did not long retain possession of their city. With Thebes ever a threat to their independence, Sparta kept a garrison there to protect it, and at the Boeotian cities of

Thespiae Thespiae ( ; ) was an ancient Greek city (''polis'') in Boeotia. It sits at the foot of Mount Helicon and near right bank of the Thespius River (modern name Kanavari River). Thespiae was a Boeotian state sporadically involved in the military fe ...

and Orchomenus as well. In the 370s, Athens and Thebes went to war against Sparta, and the Lacedaemonians used Thespiae and Plataea as staging areas for a series of incursions into Boeotia to ravage the Theban countryside. After several years of this, the Thebans, sometimes with Athenian help, began to get the upper hand in these encounters. In 375 BC Sparta was too busy with other campaigns to send forces to the area and Thebes took the opportunity to compel these cities back into the Boeotian Federation. Though not under assault, the Plataeans had lost their independence once more. Over the next couple of years, the Plataeans increasingly resented Thebes' heavy hand. At some point – the year is reported variously as 373, 372, and 371 BC by ancient sources – they reached out to Athens in an attempt to restore the long-standing alliance between the two cities. This, of course, incensed the Thebans and they attacked the Plataea before Athens could respond. Unlike the attack in 427 BC, this time the Thebans expelled the Plataeans rather than killing them - sending them once again to Athens, after which they razed the city. They next did the same to neighboring Thespiae. (The wrongs done to the Plataeans by Thebes were set forth in a speech of Isocrates, entitled ''Plataicus'', which was probably delivered at this time by a Plataean speaker before the Assembly at Athens. At any rate, it was later published and preserved among Isocrates works.) As a result of these actions, Athens backed out of its alliance with Thebes and sought peace with Sparta. In 371 BC, Sparta lost a major battle to Thebes at Leuktra, in Boeotia. For the next two decades Thebes reigned supreme in Greece, until the rise of

Macedon Macedonia ( ; , ), also called Macedon ( ), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, which later became the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal ...

and the campaign of Philip II to extend its hegemony throughout the region. During this time, the Plataeans remained in exile at Athens.

Battle of Chaeroneia

In 338 BC the simmering war between Athens and

came to a head when Philip brought his army into southern Greece. At the last minute Thebes, which had been in league with Macedon for years, switched sides and fought with Athens against him and his son

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

Chaeroneia Chaeronea ( English: , ) is a village and a former municipality in Boeotia, Greece, located about 35 kilometers east of Delphi. The settlement was formerly known as (), and renamed to () in 1916. Since the 2011 local government reform it is pa ...

, in northern Boeotia. The result was a resounding victory for Macedon. Among the settlements later imposed by Philip on the Greek cities, the Plataeans were restored to their city once more. In 335 BC, Thebes revolted against Alexander, who had succeeded his father the previous year. In response, Alexander destroyed the city, sending the Theban survivors into slavery. With their would-be overlords out of the picture, the Plataeans were finally free.

Later years

After its restoration by Philip, Plataea continued to be inhabited for several centuries. It was visited by Pausanias in the 2nd century AD, who mentioned three temples, one of

Hera In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; ; in Ionic Greek, Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women, and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she is queen of the twelve Olympians and Mount Oly ...

, another of Athena Areia, and a third of

Demeter In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Demeter (; Attic Greek, Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric Greek, Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Twelve Olympians, Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over cro ...

Eleusinia. He wrote of only one temple of Hera, which he described as situated within the city and worthy of admiration because of its magnitude and the offerings with which it was adorned. This was possibly the temple built by the Thebans after the destruction of Plataea. It is probable that the old temple of Hera mentioned by Herodotus, and which he described as outside the city, was no longer repaired after the erection of the new one, and had disappeared before Pausanias' visit. The temple of Athena Areia was built, according to Pausanias, out of a share of the spoils of Marathon; but according to Plutarch it was with the 80 talents out of the spoils of Plataea, as mentioned above. The temple was adorned with pictures by

Polygnotus Polygnotus (; ''Polygnotos'') was an ancient Greek painter from the middle of the 5th century BC. Life He was the son and pupil of Aglaophon. He was a native of Thasos but was adopted by the Athenians and admitted to their citizenship. Dur ...

and

Onatas Onatas was an ancient Greek sculptor of the time of the Persian Wars and an exponent of the flourishing school of Aegina. Many of his works are mentioned by Pausanias; they included a Hermes carrying the ram, and a strange image of the Black Demet ...

, and with a statue of the goddess by the Athenian sculptor

Pheidias Phidias or Pheidias (; , ''Pheidias''; ) was an Ancient Greek sculptor, painter, and architect, active in the 5th century BC. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the statues o ...

. Of the temple of Demeter Eleusinia we have no details, but it was probably erected in consequence of the battle having been fought near a temple of Demeter Eleusinia at Argiopius. The temple of Zeus Eleutherius seems to have been reduced in the time of Pausanias to an altar and a statue. It was situated outside the city. Plataea is featured in the 2nd-century AD Latin novel ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...

'' (often called ''The Golden Ass'') by Apuleius, in which it is depicted as hosting gladiatorial combat and an array of wild beasts. Plataea's walls were restored by

Justinian Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

in the 6th century AD. The modern village of

is adjacent to the ancient ruins. Foundation stones for several of its buildings are still extant. More information can be found at https://eternalgreece.com/ancient-plataea/

Athenian citizenship

There are several references to a special relationship between Plataeans and Athenians, though the exact nature of it is disputed by scholars.

Thucydides Thucydides ( ; ; BC) was an Classical Athens, Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts Peloponnesian War, the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been d ...

had the Thebans say in a speech: "It was in defense against us, say you, that you became allies and citizens (''politai'') of Athens." Diodorus Siculus, in describing a later event, says: "The Plataeans with their wives and children, having fled to Athens, received equality of civic rights (''isopoliteia'') as a mark of favour from the Athenian people".

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...

, in his ''Frogs'' (693-4) has the Chorus opine, "For it is disgraceful for men who have fought one battle by sea to become Plataeans straightway and masters instead of slaves". A scholiast to this passage appended this: " Hellanicus says that the slaves who joined in the sea battle were given their freedom and were enrolled as joint-citizens (''sympoliteysasthai'') with the Athenians on the same terms as the Plataeans". Perhaps the fullest explanation of their status came from

Demosthenes Demosthenes (; ; ; 384 – 12 October 322 BC) was a Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide insight into the politics and cu ...

in ''

Against Neaera "Against Neaera" was a prosecution speech delivered by Apollodoros of Acharnae against the freedwoman Neaera. It was preserved as part of the Demosthenic corpus, though it is widely considered to be pseudo-Demosthenic, possibly written by Ap ...

''. During this oration, he had the clerk read out a previously enacted degree regarding the Plataeans that had been passed during their exile in 429 BC:

On motion of Hippocrates it is decreed that the Plataeans shall be Athenians from this day, and shall have full rights as citizens, and that they shall share in all the privileges in which the Athenians share, both civil and religious, save any priesthood or religious office which belongs to a particular family, and that they shall not be eligible to the office of the nine archons but their descendants shall be. And the Plataeans shall be distributed among the demes and the tribes; and after they have been so distributed, it shall no longer be lawful for any Plataean to become an Athenian, unless he wins the gift from the people of Athens.

If this is a true representation of the decree (and its wording has been challenged in modern timesCanevaro, Mirko. "The Decree Awarding Citizenship to the Plataeans ( em.59.104)." ''Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies'' 50, no. 3 (2010): 337-69. https://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/view/1481/1571 . Canevaro suggests that the paraphrase by Demosthenes of the decree which follows its reading is a more accurate rendering of its contents.), it would seem that the status did not apply to all Plataeans forever, but only to those individuals who were specifically honored and their children. Based on the several references to separate grants of citizenship, it is probable that these honors were bestowed multiple times over the years to succeeding generations of Plataean exiles.

References

General and cited references

Arrian Arrian of Nicomedia (; Greek: ''Arrianos''; ; ) was a Greek historian, public servant, military commander, and philosopher of the Roman period. '' The Anabasis of Alexander'' by Arrian is considered the best source on the campaigns of ...

, ''

Anabasis of Alexander The ''Anabasis of Alexander'' (, ''Alexándrou Anábasis''; ) was composed by Arrian of Nicomedia in the second century AD, most probably during the reign of Hadrian. The ''Anabasis'' (which survives complete in seven books) is a history of th ...

''. * Fornara, Charles W., ''Translated Documents: Archaic Times to the End of the Peloponnesian War, Vol. 1''. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1983. *

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

, '' The Histories''. * Pausanias
Description of Greece
*

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...

, '' De Aedificiis''. * Smith, William, ed. ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography'', in two volumes. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1870. *