Please donate to our server cost fundraiser 2023, so that we can produce more history articles, videos and translations. The Greek army charged, running courageously at full speed across the plains of Marathon, a distance of at least 1,500 meters, dodging a barrage of arrows and javelins and plunging directly into the bristling wall of Persian spears and axes. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Not only did this halt Persian expansion, but it also ensured continued Greek independence - at least until king Philip II of Macedon brought the Greek city-states under Macedonian control over one hundred years later in 338 BCE. 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This suited the Persians as they could now continue unimpeded along the mountain path and arrive behind the main Greek force. In 490 BCE, the Battle of Marathon took place between Athenian Greeks, with help from Plataea, and the Persian Empire. In the resulting battle, the Persian arrows proved almost entirely ineffective against Greek armor and shields. They were joined by 1,000 Plataeans and assistance was requested from Sparta. Cartwright, Mark. The Battle on the plain of Marathon in September 490 BCE between Greeks and the invading forces of Persian king Darius I (r. 522-486 BCE) was a victory that would go down in folklore as the moment the Greek city-states showed the world their courage and excellence and won their liberty. WebFor all of its significance, the Battle of Marathon admittedly did little more than delay the encroaching invaders. That left his son Xerxes I to inherit the throne of Persia as well as Dariuss dream to conquer Greece and the preparations he had already made to do so. Herodotus writes that the Greeks ran the full distance to the Persian army. There was also the matter of the Persian cavalry, numbering around 1,000. Darius was beyond angry a persistent thorn in his side, the continued insolence from Athens was infuriating and so he dispatched his army under the leadership of Datis, his best admiral, heading first toward the conquest of Eretria, a city nearby and in close relations with Athens. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Fink, Dennis L., The Battle of Marathon in Scholarship, McFarland & Company, Inc., 2014. Because they were in a religious ceremony and had to wait until the next full moon which was when it It was here, then, in a 15-metre wide gap with a sheer cliff protecting their left flank and the sea on their right, that the Greeks chose to make a stand against the invading army. What were the consequences of the battle of Marathon? The Battle of Marathon occurred in 490 BCE, when the Persian Empire was at its height. BATTLE OF MARATHON & BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE (BATTLEFIELDS Wild in their fear, some of the Persians tried to escape via the nearby swamps, ignorant and unaware of the treacherous terrain, where they drowned. Moreover, the Greek's armor and, particularly, shields helped negate the attacks from Persian archers. Losing 300 ships and 20,000 men in the disaster, Mardonius elected to withdraw back towards Asia. Many insisted that surrendering and begging for terms would save them, but Datis the Persian general and his forces sent a clear message after burning and enslaving Athens neighboring city. Cite This Work Figure 1: A map of Ancient Greece with regional dialects. This made the Persian archers much less effective against them. Consequences. About five days after first arriving at Marathon, the Greeks decided to attack, and Miltiades moved his army into position. The result of the battle was, however, indecisive and on news of Leonidas' defeat, the fleet withdrew to Salamis. He holds an MA in Political Philosophy and is the WHE Publishing Director. They left their infantry to keep the Athenian army occupied at Marathon, but under cover of darkness theyd packed up and loaded their fast-moving cavalry back onto their ships. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. In around 500 BCE, the Persian Empire looked poised to continue their western expansion and absorb tiny, disunited Greece into their fold. Having somewhere in the region of 80,000 troops at his disposal, the Persian king, who led the invasion in person, first waited four days in expectation that the Greeks would flee in panic. This easy submission was not soon forgotten by Athens and Sparta, and over the following years they watched as Persian influence spread ever closer towards them. In 490 BCE, they were stopped in their tracks largely by the efforts of a single Greek city, Athens. Darius sent an army of around 25,000 or 30,000 soldiers to punish the Athenians and take control of Greece. The Athenian and Plataean dead of Marathon were buried on the battlefield in two tumuli. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Ten years later the Persians returned and achieved several victories before being expelled from Greece. "Persian Wars: Battle of Marathon." We are victorious! echoed across the expectant crowd, and in the second before they broke into a jubilant celebration, Pheidippides, overcome with exhaustion, staggered and fell to the ground, dead or so the myth of the origins of the first Marathon goes. Some sources also indicate that Militiades had learned from Persian deserters that the cavalry was away from the field. The relatively small size of the defending force has been explained as a reluctance by some Greek city-states to commit troops so far north, and/or due to religious motives, for it was the period of the sacred games at Olympia and the most important Spartan religious festival, the Karneia, and no fighting was permitted during these events. A full marathon race is 42.195 km, or 26.2 miles - the exact distance between Marathon and Athens. 10 generals at the head of 10,000 soldiers set out for Marathon, tight-lipped and fearful, but ready to fight to the last man if necessary. Web. Though todays official marathon distance of 42.195 kilometers is not based on the run in Greece, but rather on the distance regularized by the 1908 Olympics in London. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. In the face of this, the Greek generals concluded that their only option was to hold a defensive position for as long as possible, wedged between the fortified hills that surrounded the Bay of Marathon. In this lesson, pupils will play a starter game to learn about warfare in Ancient Greek times, including armour and fighting formation. Thermopylae was an excellent choice for defence with mountains running down into the sea leaving only a narrow pass along the coast. Upon receiving the answer, he swore vengeance upon them, commanding one of his attendants to say to him, three times every day before he sat down to his dinner, Master, remember the Athenians.. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. THEN THE GREEKS MARCHED BACK TO ATHENS TO DEFEND THE CITY AGAINST Pericles, the Delian League, and the Athenian Golden Age. After the Athenians impressive defeat of the Persians, Datis the general in charge of leading Darius army withdrew his forces from Grecian territory and returned to Persia. 3 What was the most important impact of the Battle of Marathon? Winter halted the land campaign, though, and at Salamis the Greek fleet manoeuvred the Persians into shallow waters and won a resounding victory. There is also a lesser known, grueling, long-distance event of 246 kilometers (153 miles) that recreates Pheidippides actual run from Athens to Sparta, known as the Spartathlon.. Last modified April 16, 2013. He suggests that the summer heat of August may have pushed the runner Marathon Encamping on the edge of the Plain of Marathon, they faced a Persian force numbering between 20-60,000. The Greeks then formed a phalanx by standing close together, typically in columns of eight, and using long spears to strike at their enemies from behind a wall of shields. did the battle of Marathon 15 Significant Facts about the Battle of Marathon Leonidas had stationed the contingent of Phokian troops to guard this vital point but they, thinking themselves the primary target of this new development, withdrew to a higher defensive position when the Immortals attacked. This was compounded by the Greek's decision to run into the battle, limiting their exposure to the Persian arrows. To link to this article in the text of an online publication, please use this URL: https://historycooperative.org/the-battle-of-marathon/. Though some other ancient historians also wrote of the events of the Greco-Persian Wars, they did not include as much detail as Herodotus. The incorrect version of events has Pheidippides running from Marathon to Athens to deliver news of the victory and dying of exhaustion immediately afterwards. He has a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Michigan. Mound (soros) in which the Athenian dead were buried after the Greek tactics proved superior to those of the Persians. Years prior, he had accompanied the Persian king, Darius I, during his campaigns against the fierce nomadic warrior tribes north of the Caspian Sea. Finding no battle to be fought, the Spartans toured the bloody battlefield, still littered with numerous rotting corpses the cremation and burial of which took days and offered their praise and congratulations. Others scrambled and made it back to the water, floundering to their ships in a panic and rowing quickly away from the dangerous shore. And though the Persians a civilization rich with its own intricacies and motivations have been vilified by the conflicts victors, had the Greeks fears been realized, the collective path of revolutionary ideas and the growth of societies would probably look nothing like they do today, and the modern world could be much different. Arriving approximately 25 miles north of Athens, the Persians came ashore and were soon hemmed in by the Greeks on the Plain of Marathon. This battle was sparked by Athenian involvement in the Ionian Revolt (499 - 493 BCE), which greatly angered the Persian king, Darius the Great. The romantic tale of the runners joyful sacrifice (which caught the imagination of 19th century writers and popularized the myth, but was in reality far more impressive, and far less tragic) tells of an incredible long distance run to beg the military assistance of Sparta, and the determined quick march of the battle-worn Athenians from Marathon back to Athens to defend their city. Pupils will find out what happened at the Battle of Marathon and why it had such a surprising outcome, before using their knowledge to analyse key reasons for the Greek victory in a group sorting activity. The left and right wings of the Greek army consisted of the normal eight-man columns. It was an attempt by a vengeful Persian king Darius the Great to expand his empire across the Aegean Sea. With no choice but to act, the Greeks took the initiative. The two opposing armies were essentially representative of the two approaches to Classical warfare - Persian warfare favoured long-range assault using archers followed up with a cavalry charge, whilst the Greeks favoured heavily-armoured hoplites, arranged in a densely packed formation called the phalanx, with each man carrying a heavy round bronze shield and fighting at close quarters using spears and swords. Although the Persian tactic of rapidly firing vast numbers of arrows into the enemy must have been an awesome sight, the lightness of the arrows meant that they were largely ineffective against the bronze-armoured hoplites.