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Date: August 490 B.C. Location: Attica, Greece |
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At Marathon we stood alone against Persia. And our courage
in that mighty endeavor defeated the men of 46 nations.
( THE ATHENIANS CLAIM THE PLACE OF HONOUR AT PLATAEA) HERODOTUS 9.27 )
Marathon
was a battle of opposites. A tiny democratic city-state opposed a despotic
empire hundreds of times its size. One army was almost entirely composed of
armored infantrymen, the other of horsemen and archers. This clash of
cultures was profoundly to affect the subsequent development of Western
civilization.
For the city-state was Athens,
where a functioning democracy had been created just two decades previously.
The previous ruler of Athens, Hippias, had fled
to the court of Darius 1 (521 -486 BC), king of Persia, whose empire
stretched from the Aegean Sea to the banks of the Indus. Until they were
conquered by Persia, the Greek colonies in Asia Minor had been independent.
Unsurprisingly, they felt a greater affinity with their former homeland of
Greece than with their ruler thousands of miles away in Persia. The Greeks
of Asia Minor rebelled against the Persians, and were assisted by Athenian
soldiers who captured and burned Sardis, the capital of Lydia, in 498.
Herodotus the historian tells us:
 'Darius
enquired who these Athenians were, and on being told ... he prayed "Grant to
me, God, that might punish them", and he set a slave to tell him three times
as he sat down to dinner "Master, remember Athenians".
Preparations for battle
Persian infantrymen shown on a polychrome brick-faced wall in the
royal palace at Susa (Iran). Their principal weapon was the bow, which they
used with deadly effect. |
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Accordingly, after crushing the
rebellion in Asia Minor, in 490 BC a Persian invasion force landed at
Marathon,
some 40 km (25 miles) east of Athens. Modern research has moved the date of
this landing to August from the traditional date in early September. The
size of the invading force is uncertain, with some estimates as high as
100,000 men. Probably there were about 20,000 men, including oarsmen and
cavalry. Marathon
was
chosen because it was sufficiently far from Athens for an orderly
disembarkation, and because the flat ground suited
the
Persian cavalry, which outmatched
the Greek
horse.
Hippias,
the former tyrant of Athens, accompanied the invaders. It was hoped that
his presence might inspire a coup by the conservative aristocrats of Athens
and bring about a bloodless surrender.
The rest
of Greece was cowed into neutrality. Even the Spartans, the foremost
military power in Greece, discovered a number of pressing religious rituals
which would keep them occupied for the duration of the crisis. Only
Plataea, a tiny
dependency of Athens, sent
reinforcements to the Athenian force which mustered before the plain of
Marathon, in an area called Vrana between the hills and the sea.
The Athenians had about 9,200 men.
They were mostly hoplites, a term which comes from the,
the
large circular shield which they carried. Each shield also offered support
to the soldier on the shield bearer's left, allowing this man to use his
protected right arm to stab at the enemy with his principal weapon – the
long spear. The Persian infantry preferred the
bow, and were fearsomely adept with it. They fired from behind large wicker
shields which protected them from enemy bow fire, but were of doubtful value
against attacking infantry.
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Miltiades, the Athenian leader, knew his enemy, for
he had once served in the Persian army. Now he had to convince a board of
ten fellow
generals that his plan of attack would succeed. Each general commanded for
one day in turn and, though they ceded that
command to Miltiades, he still waited until his allotted day before ordering
the attack.
This delay was probably for
military rather than political reasons. To neutralize the superior Persian
cavalry the Athenians might have needed to bring up
abatis, spiky wooden defenses, to guard their flanks. Or they
might have waited for the Persian cavalry to consume their available
supplies and be forced to go foraging. Or Datis, the Persian commander,
might have broken the deadlock by ordering a march on Athens.
The Athenians deployed most of their strength on the
wings, perhaps to buffer a cavalry thrust, or so that they could extend
their line to counter a Persian envelopment. This left the centre
dangerously weak, especially as the toughest of the Persian troops were
deployed against it.
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The engagement
To minimize their exposure to enemy
bow fire, the
Athenians did something unprecedented for a hoplite army: They charged down the slight
downhill slope at a run. The startled Persians misjudged the speed of the
Athenian advance, and many of their arrows sped over the hoplites' heads and
landed harmlessly behind them.
Though caught off balance, the
Persians were tough and resilient fighters. They broke the Athenian centre
and drove through towards Athens. But the hoplite force destroyed the wings,
and rolled them up in disorder before turning on the Persian regulars who
had broken their centre. The fight boiled through the Persian camp as the
Persians struggled to regain their ships, with those who failed being driven
into the marshes behind the camp.
The Athenians captured only six
ships – perhaps because the Persian cavalry belatedly reappeared.
Nevertheless, it was a stunning victory. Over 6,000 Persians lay dead for
the loss of 192 on the Athenian side. But there was no time for self-congratulation. The
Persian fleet then started heading down the coast to where Athens lay
undefended. In the subsequent race between the army on land and the army at
sea the Athenians were again victorious. On seeing the Athenian army
mustered to oppose their landing, the Persians hesitated briefly, then
sailed away.
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Outcome
Without a Greek victory at Marathon, Athens might
never have produced Sophocles, Herodotus, Socrates, Plato or Aristotle. The
world might never have known
Euclid, Pericles or Demosthenes – in short, the cultural heritage of Western
civilization would have been profoundly altered.
Nor would a young runner called Phaedippides have
brought news of the victory to Athens. Phaedippides had earlier gone to
Sparta asking for help, and now his heart gave way under the strain of his
exertions. But a run of 41 km (26 miles) is still named after the battle
from which he came – a marathon.
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Destinations in Greece
COMBATANTS
Greeks
10,000 men, of which 7,200 were
Athenian hoplite infantrymen
Commanded by Miltiades and
Callimachus 192 dead
Persians
45,000 men
Commanded by Datis
6,400 dead (according to the Greeks)
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