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Mardonius (nephew of Darius I)

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For other uses, seeMardonius (disambiguation).

Mardonius(Old Persian:𐎶𐎼𐎯𐎢𐎴𐎡𐎹Mr̥duniyaʰ;‹See Tfd›Greek:ΜαρδόνιοςMardónios;[1]died 479 BC) was a Persian military commander during theGreco-Persian Wars.Though he secured initial victories in thefirst Persian invasion of Greece,he was ultimately forced to retreat intoAnatoliaafter suffering catastrophic losses in both men and material due to a storm off the coast ofMount Athos,following which he was relieved of his command byDarius the Great.He was later re-appointed byXerxes Iand took part in thesecond Persian invasion of Greece.In 480 and 479 BC, Mardonius spearheaded the Persian army'sdestruction of Athens.Shortly thereafter, he was killed during theBattle of Plataea.

Early and personal life

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Gobryas,father of Mardonius, on the tomb ofDarius I.[2]

Mardonius was the son ofGobryas,a Persian nobleman who had assisted the Achaemenid princeDariuswhen 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. Furthermore, Mardonius married Darius' daughterArtozostra.Thus, Darius the Great was simultaneously Mardonius' uncle, father-in-law, and half-brother-in-law.[3]

Military career

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First Persian invasion of Greece

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Main article:First Persian invasion of Greece

Darius appointed Mardonius as one of his generals and, after theIonian Revolt,sent him in 492 BC to retaliate against the Greek city-state ofAthensfor assisting theIonians.On his way to Athens, he used his army in the Ionian cities to depose the Greektyrantsand set updemocraticgovernments, 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.[4]His fleet and army then passed across theHellespont.

Mardonius first attackedThasos,a Greek island which possessed gold mines. It became a tributary of the Achaemenid empire. Thenavyand the army continued ontoMacedonia,which was soon added to the Persian Empire as a fully subordinate client kingdom, becoming also part of its administrative system.[5][6]

However, after these victories, Mardonius’ fleet was destroyed in a storm off the coast nearMount Athos.According toHerodotus,the Persians lost 300 ships and 20,000 men. Around this time, Mardonius was commanding the army in a battle inThrace.While Mardonius was wounded in the battle, he was victorious, re-subjugating Thrace into the empire.[7]Nevertheless, the loss of the fleet meant that he had to retreat back intoAsia Minor.[8]He was relieved of his command by Darius, who appointedDatisandArtaphernes juniorto lead the invasion of Greece in 490 BC, and though they were subsequently successful in capturingNaxosand destroyingEretria,they were later defeated at theBattle of Marathon.

Second Persian invasion of Greece

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Main article:Second Persian invasion of Greece
Mardonius led theDestruction of Athens.Part of the archaeological remains calledPerserschutt,or "Persian rubble".

Mardonius came back into favour under Darius' successorXerxes I,Mardonius' cousin and brother-in-law. Xerxes was at first not interested in renewing the war with Greece, but Mardonius, who had the most influence on Xerxes in all of Persia,[9]repeatedly tried to convince him that he must avenge Darius' defeat. This view was opposed by another of Xerxes’ advisors,Artabanus,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 becomesatrap(governor) of Greece and had a love for 'mischief and adventure'.[10]

He was present at theBattle of Thermopylae,and after the Persian defeat at theBattle of Salamis,he attempted to convince Xerxes to stay and fight yet another campaign. 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 KingAlexander I,but Alexander himself gave valuable information about Mardonius' plans to the Athenians, saying that, as a Greek, he could not bear to see Greece defeated.

After the first part of the campaign directly under the orders Xerxes I, Mardonius remained in Greece with 300,000 elite troops, who fought in the last stages of the war, destroyingAthens,but being finally vanquished at theBattle of Platea:[11]

Answer of the AthenianAristidesto the ambassadors of Mardonius: "As long as the sun holds to its present course, we shall never come to terms with Xerxes".[12]

Mardonius there chose out first all the Persians calledImmortals,save onlyHydarnestheir general, who said that he would not quit the king's person; and next, the Persian cuirassiers, and the thousand horse, and theMedesandSacaeand Bactrians and Indians, alike their footmen and the rest of the horsemen. He chose these nations entire; of the rest of his allies he picked out a few from each people, the goodliest men and those that he knew to have done some good service... Thereby the whole number, with the horsemen, grew to three hundred thousand men.

— Herodotus VIII, 113.[13][11]

Mardoniuscaptured and 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.

Battle of Plataea

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Main article:Battle of Plataea
Camp of Mardonius and disposition of Achaemenid troops at theBattle of Plataea(479 BC), in which Mardonius was killed. From left to right:Greekallies,Sacae,Indians,Bactrians,MedesandPersians.

Mardonius prepared to meet them atPlataea,despite the opposition from another Persian commander,Artabazus,who, like Artabanus, did not think that the Persian army could automatically defeat the Greeks. Mardonius was killed in the ensuing battle by the Spartans (seeBattle of Plataea). It is claimed byHerodotus[14]andPlutarch[15]a Plataean calledAeimnestuskilled Mardonius. This led to his army breaking up.

Herodotus relates of the Spartan leaderPausanias’ response when an Aeginetan suggests mounting on a pole the head of the slain Persian general Mardonius, as Xerxes had wanted to do toLeonidasafterthe battle of Thermopylae—a suggestion taken by Pausanias to threaten the very root of civilization: "Such doings befit barbarians rather than Greeks, and even in barbarians we detest them...Come not before me again with such a speech nor with such counsel, and thank my forbearance that you are not now punished".

Notes

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  1. ^Jan Tavernier (2007).Iranica in the Achaemenid Period (ca. 550-330 B.C.).Peeters Publishers. p. 19.ISBN978-9042918337.
  2. ^Kuhrt, Amélie (2013).The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period.Routledge. p. 450.ISBN9781136017025.
  3. ^Gobryas (conspirator) - Livius.
  4. ^Herodotus 6, 43.
  5. ^Joseph Roisman,Ian Worthington."A companion to Ancient Macedonia"John Wiley & Sons, 2011.ISBN144435163Xpp. 343-345.
  6. ^Vasilev 2015,p. 156.
  7. ^Joseph Roisman,Ian Worthington."A companion to Ancient Macedonia"John Wiley & Sons, 2011.ISBN144435163Xpp. 343-345.
  8. ^Herodotus 6, 44-45.
  9. ^Herodotus (1998).The Histories.Oxford University: Oxford University Press.
  10. ^Herodotus 7, 5-6.
  11. ^abTola, Fernando (1986). "India and Greece before Alexander".Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.67(1/4): 159–194.JSTOR41693244.
  12. ^The Histories.Penguin UK. 2013. p. 484.ISBN9780141393773.
  13. ^LacusCurtius • Herodotus — Book VIII: Chapters 97‑144.p. Herodotus VIII, 113.
  14. ^Herodotus 9, 65.
  15. ^Plutarch's Lives, Aristides 19.

References

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