An important effect of the battle, however, was to frighten Xerxes and to make him resolve to return home. His chief officers humoured what they knew to be their master's intention, and perhaps thought that they were really better without him, for his courage was questionable and he was at any rate excitable and irresolute. Mardonius, therefore, after escorting him for some distance on his return, was left with the flower of the army to renew the invasion in the next year. The king, after much suffering and loss, reached the Hellespont, and thence crossed to Asia and reached Sardis in safety; while Artemisia, queen of Halicarnassus, who had distinguished herself in the battle, and had remained afterwards, was entrusted with the royal family and household, whom she conveyed safely back to Asia.
Next year (B.C. 479) the fighting was on land, and the result of the invasion was settled by the great battle of Plataea. Early in the spring Mardonius, who had wintered in Thessaly, marched south and again occupied Athens. But he found the country ill-suited for cavalry, in which his chief strength lay; and hearing that a strong force had been collected in the Peloponnese and was on its way to attack him, after some indecision he left Attica for Boeotia. There he could count on the assistance of Thebes, and could find more suitable ground for his operations in the valley of the Asopus. He constructed a great camp of refuge on the bank of this river, and there awaited the arrival of the Greek forces. The Greeks presently appeared on the slopes of Mount Cithaeron, and for twelve days the two armies faced
