Marathon (ancient world)
Marathon, located on the northeastern shore of Attica, Greece, is historically significant as the site of the famous Battle of Marathon in 490 BC during the Greco-Persian Wars. The area, fertile and rich in barley, was home to a town believed to have been founded by the hero Marathon and was part of a religious coalition known as the Tetrapolis. The battle itself was fought between a vastly outnumbered Athenian army, consisting of approximately 8,000 hoplites and a contingent from Plataea, against a Persian force estimated at 24,000 strong. Despite being significantly outnumbered, the Athenians, under the command of Miltiades and bolstered by decisive tactics, achieved a remarkable victory, resulting in heavy Persian losses. This conflict not only marked a pivotal moment in Greek history but also highlighted the military capabilities of the hoplite class. The aftermath of the battle saw the Persian fleet retreating, ultimately shaping the course of the Persian Wars. Today, Marathon is remembered not only for this historic battle but also for its cultural and mythological heritage, including connections to figures like Theseus and Heracles.
Subject Terms
Marathon (ancient world)
(Plasi)
A place on the northeastern shore of Attica, seventeen miles northeast of Athens. Objects from the Neolithic to the Roman periods have been found at a number of sites in the vicinity, but recent excavations have confirmed that the ancient town was at a location named Plasi (not at Marathona). It commanded part of a coastal plain fertile in barley, about two miles wide and five miles long. According to mythology, Marathon was founded by a hero of the same name, and was the place where Theseus slew the wild bull that had ravaged the area for two decades, thus inaugurating his life-long friendship with Pirithous. According to the Heraclidae of Euripides, when the children of Heracles took refuge from Eurystheus in the temple of Zeus, Theseus refused to give them up. Possessing, in addition, cults of Heracles, Dionysus, Pan, Delian Apollo, and the hero Echetlaus, Marathon was a member of an ancient religious group of four communities known as the Tetrapolis (comprising also Oenoe, Probalinthus and Tricorythus).
The Athenian ruler Pisistratus landed in the neighborhood when he arrived from the north to seize Athens for the second time (546). But the fame of Marathon rests on the battle fought when the generals of the Persian King Darius I invaded the country in 490. The Persian fleet, based on Eretria in Euboea, landed a force of perhaps 24,000 infantry, archers and a few cavalry (see below) on the beach: whereupon the Athenians decided to send eight or nine thousand heavy-armed infantry (hoplites) to confront them. They were reinforced by about a thousand Plataeans, though the Spartans (to whom the runner Pheidippides had been dispatched to appeal for help) could not join them for six days, allegedly (or genuinely) because of a religious festival. Although half of the ten Athenian generals wanted to await their arrival, the polemarch (civil commander-in-chief) Callimachus gave his casting vote in favor of an attack, the conduct of which was apparently entrusted to the influential Miltiades; though tendentious Athenian legends have befogged the whole story. It seems, however, that in the absence of the enemy's cavalry (which may already, although this is not certain, have taken ship toward Athens), the Greek wings outflanked and routed their center, thus deciding the outcome. The Persians lost 6,400 men (against Athenian losses of only 192); but their fugitives evaded pursuit, and were picked up by their fleet. This then moved onward toward Athens; but the Athenian troops from Marathon arrived in time to prevent the ships from landing a Persian force, and they sailed away. The first phase of the Persian Wars was over; the victory had been won by the hoplite middle class, unlike Salamis, ten years later, which was won by the lower-class oarsmen. The tomb of the Athenians and the trophy (Herakleion) have been located; an alleged identification of the Plataean tomb (Vrana), however, seems unacceptable.
The most distinguished native of Marathon was Herodes Atticus (cAD 101–77), writer, sophist, orator and Roman consul, whose property has been located (by inscriptions) at Nisi nearby.