Battle of Marathon

Overview

The Battle of Marathon (490 BCE) was a decisive Greek victory over the Persian Empire during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It demonstrated that the Persians could be defeated and became a symbol of Greek resistance. @t[=490 BCE]

Context

King Darius I of Persia (r. 522–486 BCE) launched the invasion in retaliation for Athenian and Eretrian support of the Ionian Revolt (499–493 BCE), which had included the burning of Sardis. In 491 BCE Darius sent envoys demanding Greek submission; Athens and Sparta executed the envoys and pledged mutual defense. A Persian fleet of ~600 ships landed at Eretria (which it sacked) before crossing to Marathon, chosen for its flat terrain suitable for cavalry. ¹

Key Facts

Date: ~11–12 September 490 BCE @t[=490 BCE]
Location: Plain of Marathon, ~40 km northeast of Athens
Belligerents: Athens and Plataea vs. Persian Empire
Commanders: Callimachus (Athenian polemarch, overall command; killed in battle), Miltiades (Athenian strategos, tactical command), Arimnestos (Plataea); Datis and Artaphernes (Persia)
Result: Decisive Greek victory ²

The Battle

~9,000–10,000 Athenians and ~1,000 Plataeans vs. ~20,000–25,000 Persians (estimates vary) ²³
Greeks thinned their center to four ranks deep and strengthened the flanks to match the Persian line width (~1,500 m front)
The Persian cavalry was conspicuously absent from the engagement — possibly embarked for a flanking move on Athens, or unable to deploy effectively on the terrain ¹
Greek wings enveloped the Persian center in a double envelopment; the Persian flanks broke and fled toward the ships across marshy ground
Fierce fighting at the ships; Callimachus was killed in this phase; the Greeks captured seven Persian vessels ¹
Persian losses: ~6,400; Greek losses: ~192 (the Greek figure is likely an undercount) ²

Aftermath

After the battle, the Persian fleet sailed around Cape Sounion toward Athens; the Greek army force-marched back and arrived in time to deter a landing — the Persians withdrew to Asia ¹
~2,000 Spartans arrived after the battle; delayed by the sacred Karneia festival and possibly a Messenian revolt ²¹
The Athenian dead were cremated and buried on the battlefield in the soros (burial mound), still visible today; a commemorative trophy column was erected (fragments in the Archaeological Museum of Marathon) ¹
Annual sacrifice of 500 goats to Artemis Agrotera was performed at the site for ~400 years ¹
Victory commemorated at Delphi with a bronze sculptural group by Phidias (including Apollo, Artemis, and Miltiades) and a Treasury of the Athenians; a colossal bronze Athena was erected on the Athenian Acropolis ¹

Scholarly Notes

Date: The conventional date of 12 September 490 BCE (established by August Boeckh using the Athenian calendar) has been challenged. Olson et al. (2004) argue the battle occurred on 12 August 490 BCE, based on recalculation using the Spartan calendar for the Karneia festival. ⁴
Pheidippides: Herodotus describes a runner named Pheidippides sent before the battle to request Spartan aid — a run of ~240 km to Sparta. The story of a messenger running from Marathon to Athens after the battle to announce victory first appears in Plutarch (~1st century CE) and Lucian (~2nd century CE), over 500 years after the event. The modern marathon race (42.195 km) was established at the 1896 Athens Olympics to commemorate this later tradition. ²³¹

Legacy

First Greek land victory over Persia; proved the Persian army was not invincible
Boosted Athenian democratic identity and confidence; veterans wore a bull-of-Marathon device on their shields ¹
Preceded the larger Persian invasion of 480 BCE (Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataea)

Cartwright, M. "Battle of Marathon." World History Encyclopedia, 19 May 2013. https://www.worldhistory.org/marathon/ ↩︎
Herodotus, Histories 6.94–117 (~430 BCE) ↩︎
Krentz, P. The Battle of Marathon (Yale University Press, 2010) ↩︎
Olson, D. W. et al. "Battle of Marathon date revised." Nature News, 19 July 2004. https://doi.org/10.1038/news040719-1 ↩︎

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