The Persian defeats at the battle of Plataea (479 BCE) preserved the freedom of Greece. But the victorious Athenians came back to a burned city. Their homes, the public buildings, the tombs of their ancestors, and the temples of their gods lay in smouldering ruins. The Acropolis had been destroyed with such a vengeance that almost no stone had been left intact. All around the temple of Athena spread a field of statues methodically maimed by Persian axes and hammers. According to the legend, the Athenians stood among the ruins of their city and took a solemn vow never to rebuild their temples as a perpetual reminder of the danger that once engulfed their city.