Mardonius
(
Μαρδόνιος). A distinguished Persian, son of Gobryas and
son-in-law of Darius Hystaspis. In B.C. 492 he was sent by Darius to punish Eretria and Athens
for the aid they had given to the Ionians; but his fleet was destroyed by a storm off Mount
Athos, and the greater part of his land forces was destroyed on his passage through Macedonia
by the Brygians, a Thracian tribe. On the accession of Xerxes he was one of the chief
instigators of the expedition against Greece. After the defeat of the Persians at Salamis (480
B.C.) he was left by Xerxes with a large army to conquer Greece; but he was defeated in the
following year (479 B.C.), near Plataeae, by the combined Greek forces under the command of
Pausanias, and was slain in the battle (
Herod. vi. 43, 94;
vii. 5, 9, 82;
viii. 100-144;
ix. 165).