Page "Battle of Mycale" Paragraph 13

Following the defeat of his navy at the Salamis, Xerxes retreated to Asia with, according to Herodotus at least, the majority of the army.

Herodotus suggests that this was because he feared the Greeks would sail to the Hellespont and destroy the pontoon bridges, thereby trapping his army in Europe.

He thus left Mardonius, with handpicked troops, to complete the conquest of Greece the following year.

Mardonius evacuated Attica, and wintered in Thessaly ; the Athenians then reoccupied their destroyed city.

Over the winter, there seems to have been some tension between the Allies.

In particular, the Athenians, who were not protected by the Isthmus, but whose fleet were the key to the security of the Peloponnese, felt hard done by, and demanded an allied army march north the following year.

When the Allies failed to commit to this, the Athenian fleet refused to join the Allied navy in spring.

The navy, now under the command of the Spartan king Leotychides, thus skulked off Delos, whilst the remnants of the Persian fleet skulked off Samos, both sides unwilling to risk battle.

Similarly, Mardonius remained in Thessaly, knowing an attack on the Isthmus was pointless, whilst the Allies refused to send an army outside the Peloponnese.