Xerxes, when he fled from Greece, left Mardonius all his costly dinner-service of plate. Pausanias, aware of this, ordered the cooks, after the death of Mardonius at Plataea, to prepare a dinner precisely as they would have done for Mardonius. When this was ready, and the divans and gold and silver tables had been duly set out, he told his own servants to prepare a Spartan dinner. Laughing heartily at the contrast, he called his generals and said, "Gentlemen, I wished to point out to you the folly of this Persian general, who with all this grandeur came to rob you of your miserable meal."