Mycale, Battle of

The Battle of Mycale is one of the two major battles that ended the second Persian invasion of Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars.

It takes place on or about August 27, 479 BCE on the slopes of Mount Mycale, on the coast of Ionia, opposite the island of Samos.

The battle is fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states, including Sparta, Athens and Corinth, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I.The previous year, the Persian invasion force, led by Xerxes himself, had scored victories at the battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium, and conquered Thessaly, Boeotia and Attica; however, at the ensuing Battle of Salamis, the allied Greek navies had won an unlikely victory, and therefore prevented the conquest of the Peloponnese.

Xerxes then retreated, leaving his general Mardonius with a substantial army to finish off the Greeks the following year.In the summer of 479 BC, the Greeks assemble a huge army (by contemporary standards), and march to confront Mardonius at the Battle of Plataea.

At the same time, the allied fleet sails to Samos, where the demoralized remnants of the Persian navy are based.

The Persians, seeking to avoid a battle, beach their fleet below the slopes of Mycale, and, with the support of a Persian army group, build a palisaded camp.

The Greek commander Leotychides decides to attack the Persians anyway, landing the fleet's complement of marines to do so.Although the Persian forces put up stout resistance, the heavily armored Greek hoplites again prove themselves superior in combat, and eventually rout he Persian troops, who flee to their camp.

The Ionian Greek contingents in the Persian army defect, and the camp is assailed and a large number of Persians slaughtered.

The Persian ships are then captured and burned.

The complete destruction of the Persian navy, along with the destruction of Mardonius's army at Plataea (allegedly on the same day as the Battle of Mycale), decisively ends the invasion of Greece.

After Plataea and Mycale, the allied Greeks will take the offensive against the Persians, marking a new phase of the Greco-Persian Wars.

Although Mycale is in every sense a decisive victory, it does not seem to have been attributed the same significance (even at the time) as, for example the Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon or even the Greek defeat at Thermopylae.

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