PLATÆA: MYCALE: EURYMEDON.--Xerxes left three hundred thousand men behind in Thessaly, under the command of _Mardonius_. In the spring, incensed at the proud rejection of his overtures, he marched to Athens, whose people again took refuge in Salamis. In the great battle of _Platæa_ (479 B.C.), the Greeks, led by the Spartan _Pausanias_, inflicted on him such a defeat that only forty thousand Persians escaped to the Hellespont. On the same day at _Mycale_, the Persian fleet was vanquished in a sharp encounter where a Spartan commanded, but where the Athenians were the most efficient combatants. Sestos, Lemnos, Imbros, and Byzantium were taken by the Greeks; and a double victory of _Cimon_, the son of Miltiades, at the Pamphylian river, _Eurymedon_, over both the land and naval forces of the Persians, brought the war to an end (467 B.C.). CHAPTER II. THE ASCENDENCY OF ATHENS. PAUSANIAS AND THEMISTOCLES.--Both of the generals by whom the Persians had been overcome, fell under the displeasure of the states to which they belonged. _Pausanias_ was so far misled by ambition as to engage in a negotiation with the Persians for the elevation of himself, by their aid, to supreme power in Greece. His plots were discovered, and he was compelled by his countrymen to starve to death in a temple to which he had fled for refuge. _Themistocles_ caused Athens to be surrounded by a wall, and built long walls from the city to the _Piræus_. This provoked the hatred of the Spartans, so jealous were they of the power of Athens. In conjunction with his Athenian enemies, they contrived to procure his banishment for ten years (471 B.C.). Themistocles fled to Persia, where he was treated with honor and favor. _Artaxerxes I._ gave him a princely domain in Asia Minor where he died (458 B.C.). Grave as his faults were, Themistocles was the founder of the historical greatness of Athens. CONFEDERACY OF DELOS.--It was through the influence of _Aristides_ that the confederacy of Delos was formed, in which the Grecian islands and seaports combined with Athens, and under her leadership, for the further prosecution of the war. By this means, the Athenians, already so efficient on the sea, were enabled still more to strengthen their fleet, and gradually to bring the Ægean islands and smaller maritime states under their sway. _Cimon_ rendered great service as a naval commander. He drove the Persians out of Thrace altogether, and he conquered _Scyros_. He wrested the Chersonese from the Persians, and freed the Greek cities on the coast. In the single battle on the _Eurymedon_, he sunk or captured two hundred galleys (467 B.C.).