The Battle of Marathon took place in August or September 490
BC, the combatants being the city-state of Athens and the Persian Empire under
King Darius. The details are quite well known thanks to the Greek historian
Herodotus, although the battle happened several years before he was born. That
said, the reason why the battle is best known to history is one of the less
trustworthy parts of the account.
Darius was determined to bring the city-states of Greece
under his control, having already conquered Turkey and Macedonia, and to that
end he landed an army of 20,000 men on the shore of the Bay of Marathon, 25 miles
from Athens. The Athenians sent a force of 10,000 “hoplites” to meet them.
These were infantry troops, armed with a large shield and a long stabbing
spear.
With the armies in full view of each other, nothing happened
for five days as each side waited for the other to make the first move.
Eventually it was the Greeks who attacked, advancing at a run and being met by
a hail of arrows.
The Persians were astounded that the Greeks could hope to
win given that they had no cavalry nor archers, and at first it looked as
though they would be proved right. However, when the battle turned to hand-to-hand
fighting it was the Greeks who triumphed.
The Persian ranks broke and they fled back to the safety of
their ships, having lost about 6,000 casualties. By contrast, the Greek losses –
according to Herodotus – were around 200.
And did Pheidippides run all the way to Athens with news of
the victory, dying after his mission was accomplished and bequeathing the “Marathon”
to the world of athletics? Well, not according to Herodotus, who described Pheidippides
as taking the news to Sparta, which he reached two days later before returning to
Athens and not expiring when he did so. It was the much later writer Lucian who
gave voice to the generally believed myth.
© John Welford
