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EntityQ155063· pop 36· linked from 183 articles

Achaemenid military commander during Greco-Persian Wars (died 479 BC)

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Gender
male
Place of death
Plataea
Father
Gobryas
Show 4 more facts
date of death
0479-01-01
date of birth
0600-01-01
name in native language
Μαρδόνιος
significant place
Persis
Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~7 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Mardonius (Old Persian: 𐎶𐎼𐎯𐎢𐎴𐎡𐎹 Mr̥duniyaʰ; Ancient Greek: Μαρδόνιος Mardónios; died 27/28 August 479 BC) was a Persian military commander during the Greco-Persian Wars. Though he secured initial victories in the first Persian invasion of Greece, he was ultimately forced to retreat into Anatolia after suffering catastrophic losses in both men and material due to a storm off the coast of Mount Athos, following which he was relieved of his command by Darius the Great. He was later re-appointed by Xerxes I and took part in the second Persian invasion of Greece. In 480 and 479 BC, Mardonius spearheaded the Persian army's destruction of Athens. Shortly thereafter, he was killed during the Battle of Plataea.

Early and personal life

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mardonius” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.