Power or decadence? Luxury under the Achaemenids, Athenians, and Alexander the Great

The ancient Greeks knew luxury when they saw it. And they certainly saw it in August 479 BC, during the closing stages of the Battle of Plataia. This was a clash between an alliance of Greek city-states and Persian forces sent by the Achaemenid empire to conquer mainland Greece. After a lengthy standoff, the Greeks decided to withdraw to more favourable ground. The Persians, thinking their foes were in flight, rushed to administer the coup de grâce. But their haste proved their undoing, and after hard fighting it was the Greeks who emerged triumphant. So crushing was the Persian defeat that Plataia marked the final land battle of the botched invasion. Greek victory was sealed when they capt