Then the rest of the Greek fleet was fain to withdraw from Salamis, and look to the safety of the Peloponnese only.  But Themistocles warned them that if they did so, the Athenians would leave them and sail to new lands and make themselves a new Athens; and thus the fleet was persuaded to hold together at Salamis.  Yet he did not trust only to their goodwill, but sent a messenger to the Persian fleet that the way of retreat might be intercepted.  For the Persian fleet had gathered at Phalerum, and now looked to overwhelm the Grecian fleet altogether, despite the council of Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus, who would have had them not fight by sea at all.  When Aristides, called the Just, the great rival of Themistocles, came to the Greeks with the news that their retreat by sea was cut off, then they were no longer divided, but resolved to fight it out.

In the battle, the Aeginetans and the Athenians did the best of all the Greeks, and Themistocles best among the commanders; nor was ever any fleet more utterly put to rout than that of the Persians, among whom Queen Artemisia won praise unmerited.  As for King Xerxes, panic seized him when he saw the disaster to his fleet, and he made haste to flee.  He consented, however, to leave Mardonius behind with 300,000 troops in Thessaly, he being still assured that he could crush the Greeks.  And it was well for him that Themistocles was over-ruled in his desire to pursue and annihilate the fleet, then sail to the Hellespont and destroy the bridge.

When the winter and spring were passed, Mardonius marched from Thessaly and again occupied Athens, which the Athenians had again evacuated, the Spartans having failed to send succour.  But when at length the Lacedaemonians, fearing to lose the Athenian fleet, sent forth an army, the Persians fell back to Boeotia.  So the Greek hosts gathered near Plataea to the number of 108,000 men, but the troops of Mardonius were about 350,000.  Yet, by reason of doubtful auguries, both armies held back, till Mardonius resolved to attack, whereof warning was brought to the Athenians by Alexander of Macedon.  But when the Spartan Pausanias, the general of the Greeks, heard of this, he did what caused no little wonder, for he proposed that the Athenians instead of the Lacedaemonians should face the picked troops of the Persians, as having fought them at Marathon.  But Mardonius, seeing them move, moved his picked troops also.  Then Mardonius sent some light horse against the Greeks by a fountain whence flowed the water for the army; which, becoming choked, it was needful to move to a new position.  But the move being made by night, most of the allies withdrew into the town.  But the Spartans, and Tegeans and Athenians, perceiving this, held each their ground till dawn.

Now, in the morning the picked Persian troops fell on the Spartans, and their Grecian allies attacked the Athenians.  But, Mardonius being slain, the Persians fled to their camp, which was stormed by the Spartans and Tegeans, and the Athenians, who also had routed their foes; and there the barbarians were slaughtered, so that of 300,000 men not 3,000 were left alive.  But Artabazus, who, before the battle, had withdrawn with 40,000 men, escaped by forced marches to the Hellespont.