Ancient & Medieval Military Leaders Codexery

Mardonius (nephew of Darius I)

Persian commander who led the destruction of Athens and died at Plataea.

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Mardonius (nephew of Darius I)

M. A. Barth · Public domain

Mardonius married Darius' daughter Artozostra, making Darius his uncle, father-in-law, and half-brother-in-law.[1] Mardonius, a Persian commander in the Greco-Persian Wars, perished on 27/28 August 479 BC.[2] His father was Gobryas, a noble who aided Darius in his rise to kingship.[1][3]

Quick Facts

Notable relation
Son-in-law of Darius I

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Darius appointed Mardonius as a general and sent him in 492 BC to retaliate against Athens for assisting the Ionian Revolt.[4] Mardonius was wounded in a battle in Thrace but re-subjugated the region, though the fleet loss forced him to retreat to Asia Minor.[5] He was relieved of command by Darius, who appointed Datis and Artaphernes to lead the 490 BC invasion.[5] Under Xerxes I, Mardonius returned to favour and urged Xerxes to avenge Darius' defeat, opposing the cautious advisor Artabanus.[6]

While advancing, Mardonius removed Greek tyrants from Ionian cities and established democratic rule, which astonished the Greeks.[4] The island of Thasos, which had gold mines, was the first target of his attack and subsequently became a tribute-paying part of the Achaemenid empire.[7] Macedonia was then brought into the Persian Empire as a fully subordinate client kingdom by his land and naval forces.[7] Herodotus reports that after these successes, a storm near Mount Athos wrecked Mardonius' fleet, resulting in the loss of 300 ships and 20,000 men.[5]

Following Xerxes' campaign, Mardonius stayed in Greece with 300,000 elite troops, sacked Athens, and then suffered defeat at the Battle of Platea.[8][9]

What the cited sources add

The Livius account states that Gobryas was one of the seven conspirators who killed the Magian usurper Gaumâta and helped Darius become king in September 522 BC.[3] Gobryas was appointed Darius' lance carrier and is represented on the Behistun inscription and Darius' tomb.[3] According to Herodotus, Gobryas also took part in Darius' campaign against the European Scythians in 514 or 513 BC.[3] Plutarch describes Mardonius making trial of the Hellenes with his strongest arm of service.[9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Mardonius (nephew of Darius I)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Gobryas (conspirator) - Livius" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Mardonius (nephew of Darius I)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jan Tavernier, "Iranica in the Achaemenid Period (ca. 550-330 B.C.)", Peeters Publishers, 2007, p. 19 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. "Gobryas (conspirator) - Livius". facts only, no text reused. livius.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Mardonius (nephew of Darius I)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Herodotus 6, 43. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Mardonius (nephew of Darius I)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Joseph Roisman, Ian Worthington. "A companion to Ancient Macedonia" John Wiley & Sons, 2011. pp. 343-345.; Herodotus 6, 44-45. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Mardonius (nephew of Darius I)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Herodotus, "The Histories", Oxford University Press, 1998; shahbazi, "The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History", Oxford University Press, 2014, p. 128 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Mardonius (nephew of Darius I)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Joseph Roisman, Ian Worthington. "A companion to Ancient Macedonia" John Wiley & Sons, 2011. pp. 343-345.; Vasilev 2015, p. 156 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Mardonius (nephew of Darius I)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tola, "India and Greece before Alexander", Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1986, p. 159–194 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Plutarch's Lives, Aristides 19.. facts only, no text reused. penelope.uchicago.edu

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Mardonius (nephew of Darius I) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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