Siege of Plataea

The democratic leadership accepted the offer but quickly worked out that the invading force could be overpowered because of their small numbers, their lack of knowledge of the streets, the bad weather, and the darkness.

Thucydides reports that a number of the remaining Thebans escaped with the help of a Plataean woman who provided them with an axe to break open one of the town's gates.

Thucydides states (Book II.1–6) that these events, during which Thebes and its Boeotian allies lost over 10 percent of their total army, represented the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, which would go on for another 27 years.

He says that "the treaty had now been broken by an overt act after the affair at Plataea" and that "Athens and Lacedaemon now resolved to send embassies to the King and to such other of the barbarian powers as either party could look to for assistance."

During the summer, two years after these events occurred, the Spartan king Archidamus II finally led a Peloponnesian force against Plataea and began to raze their crops.

The Spartans then quickly laid siege to the city, and employed several innovative, yet unsuccessful tactics to bypass the Plataean defences.

Failing in these undertakings, the Spartans built a line of fortifications around the city, left enough troops to guard the walls, then retired.

The plan involved breaking past the Spartan defences and escape; originally all the men were to join the attempt, but the danger being so great, only 220 ultimately agreed to go.

The Thebans were on the losing side in the Corinthian War and the 387 Peace of Antalcidas required Thebes disband its Boeotian League.

In 338 BC, after Philip II of Macedon defeated the Thebans at the Battle of Chaeronea, he reestablished Plataea as "a symbol of Greek courage in resisting the Persians".