The Battle of Marathon

Day 2,473, 10:07 • Published in Greece USA • by Hipparch
Marathon, Battle of (490 B.C.E.)

In August 490, a Persian force of some 30,000 men under the command of Darius landed at Marathon in Attica. Nine thousand Athenians and 1,000 Plataean allies, all under Miltiades, defeated the enemy, despite having been refused immediate help from Sparta.

Who took the initiative for battle is still under debate, though it seems that the Greeks decided to attack first after they heard a rumor saying that the Persian cavalry was withdrawing. Miltiades, wanting to make his army look equal in length to the Persian army, made its center only a few ranks deep but kept the wings deeper and stronger. The Athenians occupied the center and the right side of the line, and the Plataeans were on the left. Little is known of the Persian dispositions, except that the Persians and Sacae (a warlike people from Central Asia) formed the very strong center of the line.

After the usual sacrifice, the Greeks charged at the double (according to Herodotus, the first Greeks to have done so) across no-man’s-land, taking the Persians by surprise and thus reducing the effectiveness of their archers. The fighting, according again to Herodotus, was severe and lasted a long time. The Persians broke the weak Athenian center and pursued the survivors inland. Meanwhile, the stronger Greek wings, which had already managed to route their opponents, reformed (most probably joining forces) and attacked the Persian troops who had broken through their center. The Persians started to flee toward their ships, with the Greeks in close pursuit. Large numbers of Persians perished in a nearby marsh, and even more were killed by the pursuing Greeks. Most of the Persian navy was already at open sea, but seven Phoenician ships that were still lying close inshore, waiting for the last fugitives, were captured by the Greeks. Herodotus gives the losses as 6,400 Persians and 192 Athenians dead. The former figure may seem exaggerated, but the latter can surely be accepted as precise.

Despite the Greek victory, the Persian fleet laid course for Sounion in order to attack Athens. Miltiades immediately ordered his troops to march post-haste to Athens and managed to reach the city before the enemy fleet. When the Persians arrived soon afterward and saw an army waiting for them, they set off toward Asia.

This amazing victory of the Athenians and their Plataean allies had a huge impact on Athens’s later history, and many scholars have praised the strategy and tactical brilliance of Miltiades. It should be noted, however, that although all these tactics appear to be quite sophisticated and planned well ahead (even down to what becomes, according to some views, the “falling back of the Athenian center”), it is more likely that what happened was almost accidental. If we are to believe Herodotus, the thinning of the Greek center was a purely defensive move rather than a specific plan for the wings to first crush the enemy wings and then move on to smash their center by a “double envelopment.” In addition, there is no reason to believe that the victory was due to the superiority of Greek discipline because most of the Greek hoplitai were just common citizens and not professional soldiers. All these caveats do not decrease the importance of the victory but on the contrary enhance it and make it more astonishing.

References and further reading:
Hackett, John, ed. Warfare in the Ancient World. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1989.
Hammond, Nicholas. “The Campaign and Battle of Marathon.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 88 (196😎, 13–57.
Lazenby, John. The Defence of Greece 490–479 BC. Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1993.

*This essay has appeared (under my real name) in Sandler, S., (ed.), Ground Warfare: An International Encyclopedia, 2002, ABC-CLIO.