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Mardonius (d. 479 BC) was a Persian commander
during the Persian Wars with Greece in the 5th
century BC.

He was the son of Gobryas and the son-in-law of
Darius I of Persia, whose daughter Artozostra he
had married. After the Ionian Revolt, Mardonius
was sent in 492 BC to punish Athens for assisting
the Ionians. He first stopped in the Ionian cities
to depose the Persian tyrants and set up
democracy|democratic governments, probably so the
Ionians would not revolt a second time after the
Persian army had passed through. His fleet and
army then passed across the Hellespont, but the
fleet was destroyed in a storm off of Mount Athos;
according to Herodotus the Persians lost 300 ships
and 20 000 men. Mardonius himself was commanding
the army at the time, which was fighting a battle
in Thrace. Mardonius was wounded, but was
victorious; nevertheless, the loss of the fleet
caused him to retreat back into Asia Minor. He was
relieved of command by Darius, who appointed Datis
and Artaphrenes to lead the invasion of Greece in
490 BC, and were defeated at the Battle of
Marathon.

Mardonius came back into favour under Darius'
successor Xerxes I. Xerxes was at first not
interested in renewing the war with Greece, but
Mardonius repeatedly tried to convince him that he
must avenge Darius' defeat, in opposition to
another advisor, Artabanus, who urged more caution
in the matter. Herodotus, who portrays Mardonius
as somewhat of an evil advisor (as opposed to a
number of other good advisors whose arguments are
never followed), says that Mardonius simply wanted
to become governor of Greece. He was present at
the Battle of Thermopylae, and after the Persian
defeat at the Battle of Salamis, he attempted to
convince Xerxes to stay and fight yet another
battle. This time Mardonius could not persuade
Xerxes, but when Xerxes left he did become
governor of the parts of Greece that had been
conquered. He allied with Alexander I of Macedon
and recaptured Athens, which had been deserted
before the Battle of Salamis. He offered to return
Athens and help rebuild the city if the Athenians
would accept a truce, but the Athenians rejected
the truce and prepared for another battle. 

Mardonius prepared to meet them at Plataea,
despite the opposition from another Persian
commander, Artabazus, who, like Artabanus, did not
think that a much larger Persian army could
automatically defeat the Greeks. Mardonius was
killed in the ensuing battle (see Battle of
Plataea). His head was cut off and placed on a
stake, just as he had done to Leonidas at
Thermopylae, and his body was never recovered by
the remnant of the Persian army.