The Battle of Marathon

The battle of Marathon in 490 B.C was possibly the greatest battle ever fought in Greek history. It began when the Persian army, which greatly outnumbered the Athenians, landed on the shores of Greece, they had been sent by Darius II of Persia who wanted to conquer Greece. Darius II was helped by a man named Hippios, a former tyrant who had been exiled from Athens, and the fleet was led by the skilled military leader named Datus. The Athenians Gathered a small force and were ready, but would their small army be enough to defend against the crushing Persian Army?

            Once the Persians arrived with their ships they landed on Marathon Bay, the perfect place for their style of fighting, as they had been told by none other than Hippios, the Athenian traitor. The Athenians were impossibly outnumbered, they were just a small group of men from the surrounding villages and from Athens against the entire Persian army, but they did have a few advantages, the first being that they knew one another as friends and neighbors, whereas the Persian men did not even speak the same language, much less know one another because they were from all around Persia, Asia, and the Middle East. The Athenians also had the high mountains around the plains of Marathon and it would be very hard to fight them positioned there, they also had a great motivation to fight, as they had to defend their freedom and democracy, and would rather die than see Hippios become ruler over Athens again. The Athenians had sent a runner named Thidipodes to call the Spartans to help them, but they were in the middle of a religious festival and would not come until full moon, the Athenians would be on their own against Persia, and after a four day standoff, Datus made a plan, he would leave a strong force to fight at Marathon and load up the rest of his army and sail around the coast to attack the undefended city of Athens.

            Datus wanted to execute this military plan secretly but Athenian spies caught on and told Miltiedies the Athenian leader, and he made a daring plan, the Persian fleet had sailed that night and they left a force about twice the size of the Athenians, Miltiedies had a pretty good idea of what Detus was planning, and to save Athens he would not only have to win the battle of Marathon, but also rush back to defend Athens. He took the opportunity at just the right moment and prepared his army to attack, but he realized that the Athenian army was not large enough to use their standard tactics, normally the Athenians would form rectangular formations eight men deep, they would make a row of these and crush the enemy, the problem was that the Persians were so numerous that they would overlap the sides of the lines and surround them. To solve this problem Miltiedies made the middle lines only four men deep so that the lines could be longer, after this they marched down into the plains of Marathon and upon reaching an arrows distance from the Persians they charged. This was very difficult because they wore extremely heavy armor and meter long shields, this armor made them practically impenetrable but was very hard to run in, especially with a shower of arrows coming down. Once they reached the Persians, their long steel spears broke through and they began fight. The Persians had a difficult time because their shields were only made of reeds, it was much lighter but not very strong, never the less, the Persians were winning, because they just kept coming. They might have secured a victory if it was not for the opportunity that came right in the nick of time for the Athenians, they saw an opening on the side of the Persian army, they overlapped the Persians and were almost able to surround them, and because of their sheer strength they crushed the Persian Army. After this tremendous victory the same runner, Thidipodes ran to tell the Spartans that they had the victory, he gave this great news and then died from exhaustion, however, the battle was not over, the Athenians still had to get back to Athens.

            As it so happened the Athenians made it back just in time to set up a defense and watch the Persian fleet come in. When they arrived the Persians were astonished that the Athenians had not only defeated their army, but were ready to fight them, without a second thought Datus turned his ships around and sailed back to Persia.

            The Battle of Marathon was an extraordinary event in the history of Greece, the Persians may have outnumbered the Athenians two to one, but it may have been the unbreakable bond that held the Athenians together that gave them them the strength to defeat their enemies. From that point onward there was no greater honor for an Athenian than to have fought at Marathon.

Information gathered from the Ron Paul Curriculum Western Civilization One course and History.com Desicive Battles Episode 4.