counting on the strength of the archers, but the
close proximity between that of the Greeks and Persians overcame his strategy.
The advantage the Greeks had on the Persians in the Battle of Plataea was not of strategic
form but was because of their weaponry. As stated in the Battle of Thermoplyae, the Persians had
a hard time fighting and penetrating the bronze shields and helmets of the Spartan hoplite
phalanx. Once again at the Battle of Plataea, the same mistake had occurred to the Persians that
their weaponry lacked the quality from that of the Greeks. The position was too close to the
Persians for them to have carried out their advantage of archers. Likewise, the strategy of the
phalanx had also come in handy as that is what took Mardonias’ army down. Mardonias’ death
concluded a decisive victory to the Greeks once more and into wrapping up the entire second
Persian war.
The last of the second Persian war battles was that of the Battle of Mycale. The King of
Sparta, Leotychides was leading the Greeks at the time and decided that they needed to finish the
war off completely at the islands. A messenger from Samos had told Leotychides that if he
advanced, the Ionians would rise in revolt (Sealy 8). Leotychides continued and as they arrived
to Samos they found that the Persians had left their camp. So they continued up to Mount Mycale
to attack their enemy. When they finally arrived, Leotychides asked those Ionians on the Persian
6
side to join the Greeks and revolt. As suspected earlier in the war that the Ionians would
eventually revolt, the Persians
disarmed some of the Ionians they did not trust (Sealy 8).
Leotychides attacks the Persians regardless of wanting the battle or not. The Samians who were
part of the Ionians that were disarmed had revolted and attacked the Persians and influenced
other Ionians to do the same (Herotodus 9.103). Herotodus calls this the second Ionian revolt
because those who had been put to help the Persian fugitives had led them back to the Greeks.
At the end, only a few Persians had escaped (Herotodus 9.107). Sealy 8 concludes that the battle
was a clear defeat for the Persians and another victory for the Hellenes. The success in the Battle
of Mycale had played in the favor of the Hellenes in terms of surviving not one, but two
invasions by the Persians. This victory completes the decisiveness on
Greek victory and had also
ended any future threat of invasion of the Hellas.
In concluding the war, it could be said that the greeks were successful in victory over the
Persians because they planned strategically as opposed to the naïve King, Xerxes. Not only was
he inexperienced, but he also lacked the ability to truly strategize as the Hellenes had done
throughout their existence.I believe that his boasting about this army he had got in the way of
critically thinking and thus he became more reliant on the number of troops he had rather than
the quality of his troops. The Persians may have been physically strong, but the Greeks were
raised to be mentally strong since birth.
