Mardonius 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 democratic