Platées

Plataea or Plataia (pləˈtiːə; Πλάταια), inhabitants: Plataeae or Plataiai (pləˈtiːiː; Πλαταιαί), was an ancient Greek city-state situated in Boeotia near the frontier with Attica at the foot of Mt. Cithaeron, between the mountain and the river Asopus, which divided its territory from that of Thebes. It was the location of the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC, in which an alliance of Greek city-states defeated the Persians. Plataea was destroyed and rebuilt several times during the Classical period of ancient Greece. The modern Greek town of Plataies is adjacent to its ruins. Plataea was settled during the Bronze Age. (It was mentioned in Homer in the Iliad 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, Asopus, 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 BCE 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, 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 neighbors and not bad men at giving help.Herodotos, the source of this statement, went on to say that the Spartans 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. When the Persian king Dareios sent an armada to invade Attica in 490 BCE, Plataea sent 1,000 men to join Athens at the Battle of Marathon, and shared in the glories of that victory.