Date of the battle of Plataea

[Tim]

According to all the sources I have read, the Greek-Persian battle of Plataea took place in 479 BC, i.e. the year AFTER Salamis.  However according to a map taken from the Osprey 'Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War' it was 480 BC, i.e. the SAME year as Salamis.  I have read a fair few books about the period old and new and never come across that date.  Has there been some recent revision of the date of which I am unaware?

[Patrick Waterson]

Since Mardonius and his army spent the winter in Boeotia and resumed campaigning in the spring, I am more inclined to suspect an Osprey misprint than a change in chronology.

Such errors are quite easy to make, as I recently managed to demonstrate! 

[Dave Beatty]

I agree with Patrick! 

Herodotus states that Mardonius wintered in Thessaly after Salamis and began the campaign that led to Plataea (8:113) and at 8:133 he states, "The coming of spring and the presence of Mardonius in Thessaly roused the Greeks to action again."  At 9:11 he mentions an eclipse in the year prior to the battle of Plataea and one occurred on 2 October 480.  Salamis was in September 480; Plataea in August 479.  Some put the date at 27 August 479 BC based upon Plutarch's statement that the battle occurred on the fourth of the Athenian month of Boedromion. This month began about the new moon of August which occurred on the 23rd in 479:  "They fought this battle on the fourth day of the month Boedromion, according to the Athenians, but according to the Boeotians, on the twenty-seventh of Panemus;- on which day there is still a convention of the Greeks at Plataea, and the Plataeans still offer sacrifice for the victory to Jupiter of freedom. As for the difference of days, it is not to be wondered at, since even at the present time, when there is a far more accurate knowledge of astronomy, some begin the month at one time, and some at another." (Plutarch, Aristides, 19:7).  So there was even an argument over the date of the battle in antiquity!

[Patrick Waterson]

Fortunately not so much an argument as a difference in the way Athenians and Boeotians constructed their calendars.  The Boeotians used the Boeotian calendar, perhaps Thessalian in origin, while the Athenians used the Attic calendar, a different tradition.  Among other things, the Attic calendar began the new year in June, while most others began the new year in autumn or winter.

Here is a quick if not wholly informative list of Greek calendars.  As can be seen, the Athenian third month (Boedromion) corresponds with the Boeotian ninth month (Panamos), and Herodotus circumstantially demonstrates that the month-to-month lineup between the calendars was twenty-three days out of phase at this point in the year.

Good post, David.