Nice people, those Plataeans.

>And that the oracle might be accomplished in all particulars for the hope of victory, Arimnestus proposed, and the Plataeans decreed, that the frontiers of their country towards Attica should be removed, and the land given to the Athenians, that they might fight in defence of Greece in their own proper territory. This zeal and liberality of the Plataeans became so famous that [Alexander](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Alexander_the_Great_mosaic.jpg), many years after, when he had obtained the dominion of all Asia, upon erecting the walls of Plataea, caused proclamation to be made, by the herald at the Olympic games, that the king did the Plataeans this favour in consideration of their nobleness and magnanimity, because, in the war with the Medes, they freely gave up their land and zealously fought with the Greeks. ____________________________ **tl;dr:** As the Athenians were going to fight the Medes (Persians) in territory owned by the Plataeans, the Plataean people voted to give that land over to Athens, so that the Athenians could ‘fight for their land.’ Alexander the great, later in history, would remember this and would rebuild Plataean’s walls as a gesture of recognition for their territorial sacrifice for Greece. ____________________________ **Source:** Plutarch, John Dryden, and Arthur Hugh Clough. "Aristides." *Plutarch's Lives*. New York: Modern Library, 2001. 444. Print. ____________________________ **Further Reading:** [Alexander III of Macedon / Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μέγας (Alexander the Great)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great) [Greco-Persian Wars / Persian Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Persian_Wars)