Battle of Marathon. Story: Battle of Marathon

In the 5th century BC, one of the main superpowers was the Persian Achaemenid Empire, which owned vast territories in Western Asia and Northeast Africa. At its peak, its borders ran along the Indus River and in the area of ​​the first cataract of the Nile. The empire constantly sought to conquer new territories. However, all her attempts to conquer the Greek city-states were never successful. One of the most important battles that lasted between the inhabitants of Hellas and the Persians for half a century was the Battle of Marathon.

Background

At the end of the 6th century BC, Greek cities in Asia Minor rebelled against Persian rule. They were secretly and openly supported by their European relatives. The latter circumstance caused discontent among the Persians.

Two years before the Battle of Marathon took place, King Darius sent an army against Greece led by his son-in-law Mardonius. However, it was defeated by the Thracian tribe of the Brigs and, having captured Macedonia, returned to Persia. The next campaign was led by the king’s nephew Artaphernes and the experienced commander Datis. Darius demanded that they enslave Athens and Eritrea, which fell after a long siege and the betrayal of two noble citizens who opened the gates to the Persians.

Now Datis had to capture Athens. The local strategist Miltiades the Younger, who in his youth was the tyrant of Chersonesos, was able to achieve the release of some of the slaves who were to join his army as warriors.

Persian plan

The Battle of Marathon (who commanded it, see below), included in all textbooks on war tactics, took place on September 12, 490 BC. The battle was preceded by several events.

A few days before the events described, Persian troops landed at the town of Marathon and made a halt on a small plain surrounded on three sides by mountains. They had only one day's march to Athens.

The place where the Battle of Marathon subsequently took place (a film with that name was made in 1959) was advised to the Persian commanders by Hippias. Before his expulsion from Greece, he was the tyrant of Athens, but for more than 20 years he had been hiding at the court of Darius. Persian reconnaissance reported that there were no enemy troops nearby. But even if the enemy patrols had time to report to Athens about the enemy’s landing, the Greek army would have needed at least 8 hours to get to Marathon.

Athenian plan

The army that moved towards the Persians was led by Miltiades himself, who had fought with them many times and was familiar with their tactics.

He knew that in open space the enemy's cavalry would be able to attack the Athenians from the flanks, and their archers would shower them with arrows from the front line. Considering the twofold superiority of the Persians over the Greeks, it can be argued that this situation meant certain defeat. The only way out was to prevent the armies from clashing on the plain.

To achieve this goal, Miltiades deployed his warriors in close formation, and they blocked a huge gorge between the mountain slopes.

The commander lined up hoplites - warriors with heavy spears, swords and shields - on the flanks so that they could resist the Persian cavalry, and sent the most dexterous and brave archers to the mountains. Their task was to fire arrows at the enemy from above and throw darts and stones at them. In addition, Miltiades ordered the trees to be felled. Soon, in front of the flanks of the Athenians, abatis were built in which light infantry with bows, slings and darts were positioned.

Thus, the Persians could not carry out a cavalry attack either on the flanks, since for this they had to make their way along the slopes under a hail of arrows, or from the front, since even the infantry could barely fit in the bottleneck!

Battle of Marathon: description

For three days the Athenians and Persians did not dare to attack each other. It was unprofitable for the Greeks to change their successful position, and they hoped for help from the Spartans, to whom they sent a messenger for reinforcements. The Persians hoped to lure the enemy onto the plain.

Some researchers believe that, realizing the impossibility of attacking Athens through the gorge guarded by the troops of Miltiades, the Persians put part of the army on ships, hoping to land elsewhere. If this version is correct, then the commander decided to attack in order to inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy.

Be that as it may, it is reliably known that Miltiades ordered the Athenians to move towards the Persian positions.

At his order, the hoplite phalanx rushed forward at a run. This avoided heavy losses from enemy arrows and demoralized the Persians. The latter stopped, and the Greek warriors attacked them from the flanks.

Retreat

The Persians, who realized that they were in danger of complete defeat, rushed to flee towards their ships. However, their commander Datis suddenly discovered that he and his soldiers were cut off from the ships. The only thing that could save the Persians was an attack. The situation was complicated by the fact that throwing weapons remained on the battlefield, and one had to rely only on the skill of the soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. Despite all the stubbornness of the Athenians, the well-prepared Persian cavalry was able to cut through the ranks of the Athenian hoplites and opened the way for the infantry to retreat.

The panic that gripped Datis's camp, located on the seashore, led to the fact that the cavalry's horses went crazy and it was impossible to drive them onto the ships. There was a delay, which allowed the Athenians to catch up with the Persians and force them to fight in shallow water, during which 2 Athenian strategists and a polemarch were killed.

Victory

With great difficulty, the remnants of Datis' army managed to reach the open sea. At the same time, the Athenians managed to capture 7 triremes (rowing ships). A messenger was sent to Athens, who was supposed to deliver to his fellow citizens the good news that the Battle of Marathon had ended in a great victory.

The first "marathon runner"

Every year, thousands of people participate in competitions in which they are asked to run distances of 42 km and 195 m. From time to time, new world records are set as the speed and endurance of athletes increases. However, for the first “marathoner”, covering such a distance between the Marathon plain and Athens cost his life. Having reached his hometown, he exclaimed: “Rejoice, we won!” - and collapsed to the ground lifeless.

Now you know who commanded the Persian troops at the Battle of Marathon. You also know what tactics the strategist Miltiades used to defeat the army of Darius and save his hometown.

Information regarding this battle cannot be considered reliable, since contemporary historians of each of the warring parties presented the events in the light they needed. So the film “The Giant of Marathon, or the Battle of Marathon” (1959) can be considered a fantasy about what happened almost 2500 years ago.

On the topic of the Olympic events of these days :-)

The Persian power, which conquered and united in the second half of the 6th century BC. e. a huge part of the then cultural world (including Babylonia, Egypt, Asia Minor) collided with Greek civilization on the eastern shores of the Aegean Sea. Having conquered most of the rich Greek cities on the western coast of Asia Minor (Miletus, Ephesus, Pergamon, etc.) and the adjacent islands by the end of the 6th century, the Persians soon felt growing discontent and resistance of the local population, the majority of whom were immigrants from Greece.

In 500, this discontent resulted in an open revolt against Persian rule, which was started and led by the inhabitants of Miletus. The Greeks of the Balkan Peninsula tried to help the rebels of Asia Minor. Two cities - Athens and Eretria - sent 25 ships with volunteer soldiers to Miletus. Sparta refused to help the Greeks, and in 496 the uprising was suppressed. This action was used as a pretext for Persia to declare war on Balkan Greece.

In 492, the Persians undertook a combined land-sea campaign against Greece from Asia Minor, but due to prevailing circumstances (a sea storm destroyed the fleet) they were forced to interrupt it.

In 491 BC. Darius sent an embassy to Greece, demanding submission from the Greeks. Some Greek city-states recognized the power of the Persians, but the Spartans and Athenians refused to do so and killed the Persian ambassadors.

part of the Aegean Sea and land troops immediately in Central Greece. Having captured and destroyed the city of Eretria on the island of Euboea, the Persian army, consisting of archers and horsemen, landed in the northeastern part of Attica, on the Marathon plain near the small town of Marathon, 42 km from Athens. The battlefield was a flat valley surrounded by mountains on the seashore, convenient for the Persian cavalry.

The Persians had 10 thousand cavalry and about 10 thousand foot archers.

The Greeks had 11 thousand Athenian hoplites. Numerical superiority was on the side of the Persians, qualitative superiority on the side of the Greeks. The hoplites, trained and welded together by military discipline, faced a multi-tribal Persian army, the majority of whom were alien to the purpose of the campaign.

The Greek army consisted of heavily armed infantry, hoplites, with copper helmets, armor and legguards, with large copper shields; their weapon was a long throwing spear. The Persian infantry was lightly armed, without helmets or armor, and was protected by light and wicker shields; Her main weapons were a bow and a saber. The cavalry was considered the main force of the Persian army.

The Greeks were commanded by ten strategists: one of them, Miltiades, was well acquainted with the methods of action of the Persian army. The opinions of the Athenian strategists differed: some were against entering into battle with the Persians, since they believed that the Athenian army was too small compared to the Persian, others, including Miltiades, insisted on giving battle. The eleventh person with the right to vote was the Athenian polemarch Callimachus, chosen by lot. Miltiades addressed him with a speech: “Now it is in your power, Callimachus, either to plunge Athens into slavery, or to protect their freedom... If we do not enter into battle, a great discord will arise that will confuse the minds of the Athenians and persuade our fellow citizens to submit to the Persians ... If you join my opinion, then our homeland will be free, and the city will be the first in all of Hellas...” With these speeches, Miltiades won over Callimachus to his side. The polemarch's voice decided the matter, and the decision was made to give battle.

Before the battle, Miltiades formed the Greek phalanx at the entrance to the Marathon Valley. On the right flank were the best Athenian hoplites, the rest of the warriors lined up to the left according to the phyla; the left flank consisted of a detachment of Plataeans. The right wing was led by Callemarchus, the left flank was commanded by the brave Aemnest.

Due to the numerical superiority of the Persians and the considerable width of the valley, Miltiades could not give his phalanx the necessary depth. In addition, he took into account the possibility of his flanks being covered by Persian cavalry. Therefore, he reduced the number of ranks in the center and accordingly increased the number of ranks on the flanks. The total length of the front reached approximately 1 km.

The Persian battle formation consisted of foot archers located in the center and cavalry lined up on the flanks.

In order to not give the Persian cavalry time to attack the Greeks on the plain and to immediately move on to hand-to-hand combat after archery, Miltiades moved from the heights towards the enemy in a “running march”. The “Running March” made it possible to quickly overcome the space hit by arrows and had a moral effect on the enemy.

Having withstood the initial onslaught, the Persian archers counterattacked the Greeks, broke through the weak center of the Athenian phalanx and pursued the Athenians deep into the valley. But the strong flanks of the Greek phalanx overthrew the Persian cavalry, which failed to break through the ranks of the Athenians here, and went against the Persian center, rushing to the aid of their constrained comrades. The consequence of this attack was the defeat of the Persian archers. Surrounded on all sides, the Persians fled.

The Athenians captured seven ships. On the remaining ships, the Persians set sail, trying to reach Athens before the Greek army did. The Athenians also rushed into the city and, ahead of the enemy, reached it earlier than the Persian army. Miltiades stationed his army on the eastern side of Athens. The Persians, approaching Phaler in their ships (Phaler was then the harbor of the Athenians) and seeing that the Athenian army was standing near the city and ready for battle, did not dare to land. The Persian fleet turned back and sailed back to Asia.

In the battle, the Greeks lost 192 people, the Persians - 6,400 people.

In the Battle of Marathon, the Greeks gave the first rebuff to the Persians. This battle showed that heavily armed, well-trained infantry was not afraid of irregular cavalry. At the site of the battle on the Marathon field, next to the mass grave of soldiers who died for their homeland, a monument was erected in honor of the Greek leader Miltiades. Scenes from the Marathon battle were depicted in one of the porticoes located in the main square of Athens.

In the minds of subsequent generations of Greeks, the marathon victory was imprinted as a victory of Hellenic freedom over Eastern despotism, as a victory of a conscious patriotic citizen over the loyal slave of the Persian autocrat.

Even children know: after the victory over the Persians, a messenger was sent to Athens with happy news. This messenger named Pheidippides ran non-stop for 42 kilometers 195 meters and shouted: “Rejoice, Athenians, we have won!” - and fell dead.

It has now been established: the marathon runner is just a legend, which we know from the words of Plutarch. In fact, the messenger Pheidippides ran not to Athens, but much further, to Sparta, for reinforcements (230 km), allowed himself to rest from time to time along the way, remained alive, but the Spartans were too late to help the Athenians.

“In 510 BC. The tyrant Hippias was overthrown in Athens. He went to the ancestral domain of his family Sigei, and from there to the court of Darius I. Two years later, the Athenians sent an embassy to Persia. His goal was to conclude an alliance between the polis and the Achaemenid Empire. In Sardis, the Athenian ambassadors met with the satrap Artaphernes. He stated that an alliance was possible subject to the Athenians giving the king of Persia “land and water.” It was a formula that meant submission."

It's not entirely clear what happened next. It is believed that the ambassadors agreed to this, but the Athenians had to make the decision. The treaty was never ratified, so from the Athenians' point of view they were not a vassal state. But Darius could consider that Athens had become a dependent city on them.

Before the start of the Ionian Uprising, Athens learned that Hippias was at the Persian court and was inciting the Persians against Athens. Their ambassadors arrived in Sardis and began to convince Artaphernes not to trust the exiles. The satrap's answer was harsh: if the Athenians value their lives, they must again accept Hippias as a tyrant.

In 500-494 BC. The Greek city-states of Asia Minor and nearby islands fought for their independence against the Achaemenid Empire. Of the mainland Greeks, only the Athenians and Eretrians responded to the call of their brothers for help. They sent small squadrons to Asia Minor, which they soon recalled. But for the Persian side it was a casus belli that justified their attack on these cities.
After 494 BC it was obvious that the Persian armies would sooner or later cross the Hellespont or the Aegean Sea, and the Greeks would be faced with a choice - surrender or fight the largest state of that time.

In Athens in the 490s BC. Several groups were active. Members of the aristocratic Alcmaeonid family advocated peace with Persia. The supporters of the exiled tyrant Hippias who remained in the city also wanted peace with the Achaemenids.

During these years, the young politician Themistocles began his career among the supporters of the Alcmaeonids. After 494 BC he broke with his former allies and created his own group. His position was firm - confrontation with Persia and defending freedom.
In 493 BC. Themistocles was elected to the one-year position of archon-eponym. In the same year, the playwright Phrynichus staged the tragedy The Taking of Miletus. The play told about an event a year ago - the destruction of the main city of Ionia and the colony of Athens by the Persians. At the request of the Alcmaeonids, Phrynichus was fined.

Themistocles, in the year of his archonship, took the first step in creating the sea power of Athens. He chose a place for the harbor (dem Piraeus) and ordered work on its construction to begin. But after the expiration of his term of office, these works were interrupted for ten years. At this time, a man who played a decisive role in the events of 490 BC returned to Athens. - Miltiades.

Miltiades

Miltiades came from a noble family of Philaids. The future winner of Marathon was born around 550 BC. His uncle, also Miltiades, captured Chersonese of Thracia and ruled there as a tyrant. Around 520 BC Miltiades inherited power over this region. The Philaides ruled Chersonesos as semi-independent rulers, but remained citizens of Athens.

In Chersonesos, Miltiades married the daughter of the Thracian king. When in 513 BC. Darius I crossed over to Europe with his army, the Athenian recognized his power over himself and arrived in the Persian camp. During the campaign of the Persian king against the Scythians, Miltiades and other Greek tyrants with their troops guarded the bridge that Darius built across the Danube.

Soon after the Persians retreated from the steppes, the Scythians went on the offensive. They attacked Chersonese, and Miltiades fled from his possessions. The Athenian arrived on the island of Lemnos and founded a new colony there, which began to be replenished by settlers from Athens. After some time, the tyrant restored his power in Chersonesus.

In 493 BC. After the Ionian uprising, the Persian fleet sailed to Chersonesos to subjugate these lands. Miltiades had to flee again. The former tyrant and his companions escaped on five ships. The Persians captured one of them. Miltiades' son Metiochos was on board. He was sent to Persia, but Darius treated him mercifully. He allocated him a plot of land and found a wife from a noble Persian family.

Arriving in Athens, Miltiades soon became a defendant in a trial for his rule as a tyrant. Philaids was not only able to justify himself, but also immediately became a leading politician in Athens.

Before the invasion 492-490 BC

In 492 BC. The satrap Mardonius led an army and navy to Greece. But he did not even bring the army to the borders of Thessaly. He occupied the island of Thasos and part of the Macedonian territories. In Thrace, he spent a lot of time and effort fighting the Brig tribe. Near Cape Athos, a storm destroyed his fleet. After this, Mardonius retreated to Persia.

In 491 BC. Persian ambassadors went to Greek cities. They demanded that the Greeks give “land and water.” Herodotus wrote that many mainland Greeks and all the islanders submitted. The exact list of cities that surrendered is unknown. Probably, the Thessalians and the communities dependent on them expressed their submission to the Persians. Of the islanders, land and water were given by Aegina, who at that time was an enemy of Athens.
The ambassadors reached Athens, where they were executed. The decision to kill the ambassadors was made at a meeting of the people's assembly. The Persians were sentenced to be thrown into the baratron (a pit into which those sentenced to death were thrown). From Antiquity there remains a text of psephism (resolutions of the people's assembly), according to which those who insulted the Athenian people were executed in this way. Not only the Persians, but also the Greek translator from Samos were thrown into the pit because he retold the commands of the King of Persia in Greek.

Campaign of Datis and Artaphernes

In 490 BC. Darius appointed his nephew Artaphernes and the experienced Mede commander Datis as new commanders of the army. The campaign was directed against Athens and Eretria. The army embarked on ships in Cilicia, and the fleet moved to Samos.

The Persians decided not to repeat the route of Mardonius's fleet and moved to the Cyclades Islands. They reached Naxos first. Residents of the island city fled from Naxos to the mountains. The Persians captured a few prisoners and burned the city.

Afterwards, the invaders landed on the sacred island of Delos, where, on the contrary, they honored the local sanctuary. On other islands of the Cyclades, the conquerors recruited new warriors and took hostages. The inhabitants of Karist tried to resist, but after the siege they surrendered.
Finally, the fleet of Datis and Artaphernes reached Eretria and occupied three places on the island. The inhabitants of Eretria defended their city from the Persians for six days, but noble citizens opened the gates to the invaders, and Eretria fell.

The Persians burned the city. They presented it as revenge for the burning of Sardis during the Ionian Revolt. The surviving Eretrians were made slaves and sent to Persia. A few days later the fleet sailed from Eretria and headed for Attica.

Confrontation at Marathon

The Persian fleet crossed the Euripus Strait and the invading army landed near the town of Marathon. Hippias indicated the landing site. He noted that the Marathon plain was convenient for cavalry. His father Peisistratus had landed in the same place half a century earlier, returning from his second exile.

The landing came as a surprise to Athens, but Miltiades firmly took charge of preparing the militia for defense. He proposed psephism, according to which all combat-ready men were conscripted into the militia. These included even those whose age was not suitable for military service. A number of slaves were freed and they joined the army.

But the assembled militia numbered only nine thousand hoplites. Another thousand warriors came from Boeotian Plataea, a city that had been an ally of Athens for several decades.

In Classical Athens, the troops were commanded by ten strategoi, who were elected every year. From ancient times, the polis retained the position of polemarch, which lost its real meaning. In 490 BC. one of the strategists was Miltiades.

Who were the other strategists who led the army to the Marathon plain? According to the biographies written by Plutarch, the strategists included Themistocles and Aristides, two Athenians who would play leading roles in Athens in later years. The name of another strategist is known - Stesily. Perhaps two more strategists were Polyzel and Kinegir. The latter was the brother of the playwright Aeschylus. But he could not have been a strategist, but a simple hoplite.

When the army reached Marathon, the opinions of the strategists were divided. Half (including Miltiades) believed that it was necessary to engage in battle, half - to retreat. The decision depended on the vote of the polemarch Callimachus. Miltiades convinced the polemarch to support him, and the army remained in place.

The strategists who supported Miltiades' plan yielded to him their days of command of the army. He waited several days and led the Athenians to battle. The strategist made the center of the army weaker, but strengthened both flanks.

At the signal, the Athenians and Plataeans quickly moved towards the Persians. In the center of the Persian army were detachments of the Persians and Saks themselves. They managed to break through the center of the Athenian army and put the militia to flight. But the Hellenes won on both flanks, and, turning around, struck the Persian center. As Nicholas Hammond notes, Miltiades must have anticipated the breakthrough of the center, which he made weaker. He probably gave the order to the flanks in advance so that, having defeated their opponents, they would turn towards the center.
The course of the battle is described in detail in the sources, but one question remains - where the Persian cavalry was. The Persians found themselves on the defensive during the battle, and there is no indication that the cavalrymen were with them at the beginning of the battle. Presumably, the night before the battle, the Persians took their horses to water at the spring of Macarius, which was located at a distance from the Persian positions. The Persian cavalrymen did not have time to return to the camp, and the Ionian Greeks, who were in the army of Datis and Artaphernes, secretly informed the Athenians. When the riders returned, it was already too late.

The army of Datis and Artaphernes fled. The Athenians began to pursue them to the ships and captured seven ships. The Athenians lost 192 people, the Persians - more than six thousand. Among the dead were the polemarch Callimachus, the strategists Stesileus and Kinegir, who, according to the epitaph, died by grabbing the side of an enemy ship with his hand.

The Persians sailed to Athens, which was left without troops. But Miltiades led the militia back, and when the Persian fleet arrived at the harbor of Phaler, the Athenians were already ready for a new battle. After this, Datis and Artaphernes decided to return to Asia.

The Parian expedition and the decline of Miltiades

After the victory at Marathon, Miltiades proposed to the Athenian ecclesia to organize a campaign against the island Greeks, who submitted to Persia. If the Athenians had established control over them, they would have protected themselves from further attacks from the sea.

A fleet of seventy ships under the command of one Miltiades sailed to the Cyclades. The description of the last campaign of Miltiades is an example when the testimony of Herodotus is less significant than the testimony of less significant authors.

According to the "father of history", Philaids attacked the island of Paros to settle scores with the local nobility. There he decided to make his way to the sacred site of Demeter, fell into a panic and broke his leg. However, Herodotus honestly admitted that this story should be told to him by the inhabitants of Paros themselves.

A more detailed account of this episode is given by Cornelius Nepos, who wrote on the basis of the lost work of the attidographer Demon. The Athenians sent a fleet against the island cities, which had helped the Persians in the previous campaign. Miltiades managed to conquer some of them.
In 489 BC. the strategist arrived at the island of Paros. The inhabitants of this policy provided a trireme with a crew a year earlier for the campaign of Datis and Artaphernes to Athens. First, Miltiades tried to negotiate with the Parians. He then began the siege. The strategist skillfully led the campaign and almost conquered the city. But one night a flame broke out in the distance. Both sides thought that it was a Persian squadron sailing. Miltiades ordered the destruction of the wooden canopies he had used for the siege of Paros and withdrew his army.

During the siege, Miltiades received a wound (probably not under the circumstances described by Herodotus) and arrived in Athens sick. His condition did not prevent his enemies from bringing the unsuccessful strategist to trial on charges of misleading the Athenian people. The trial took place in the people's assembly, the prosecutor was Xanthippus, the future winner of the Battle of Mycale. The sons of Miltiades and Xanthippus, Cimon and Pericles, would also later become rivals.

Miltiades managed to avoid a death sentence, but was imposed a huge fine of 50 talents. Soon the winner of the Battle of Marathon died from his wound. Paying the fine and restoring the family's good name became the task of his son Cimon, who years later became one of the leaders of Athens. The names of Miltiades and Cimon in the later literary tradition of the Hellenes will go together, as an example of a father and son who equally served their state.

On the advice of the former Athenian tyrant Hippias, the Persian army, a few days after the destruction of the city of Eretria on the island of Euboea, crossed the Euripus Strait and encamped on the Marathon plain, convenient for the action of numerous cavalry. Without a doubt, Hippias had secret followers in Athens, with whom he agreed on a landing on the southern coast of Attica. Artaphernes pitched his tent near Cape Kinosura on a coastal hill from which the entire plain opened out.

When the fleeing villagers brought news to Athens that Eretria had fallen, that the Persian army had crossed to Attica, stood at Marathon and was devastating the entire land to Decelea and Parnes, the Athenians courageously decided to fight to the last of their strength for freedom and independence. During the elections, citizens had already foreseen the danger; Therefore, courageous and intelligent people were chosen as archons and strategists this year. The polemarch was an experienced warrior, Callimachus of Athens; among the strategists were Miltiades, Aristides, Themistocles and other people of proven talent. At the military council, it was decided to ask for the help of the Spartans. The speedy Pheidippides hurried with this request to Sparta. The distance was slightly more than 200 miles; he ran it in two days. He was instructed to tell the kings and ephors that the Athenians were asking them to prevent the oldest of the cities of Hellas from falling under slavery to the barbarians, that Eretria had already perished, and there was one less famous city in Greece. The Lacedaemonians did not reject the request, but said that in the month of Carnea - and then it was the month of Carnea (it corresponded to the Athenian month Metagitnion, which fell in August and September of our calendar) - they, according to ancient custom, could not set out on a campaign before the full moon. And there were still ten days left until the full moon. One could believe that if Hippias, who undoubtedly had many followers in Athens, appeared with a huge army at their walls, then what happened in Eretria would also be repeated. Danger would then give weight to the words of the timid, that voluntary submission is better than a desperate struggle, the outcome of which is doubtful. Therefore, all the astute patriots in Athens found that the surest means of salvation was a quick attack on the Persians.

Persian archers (possibly from the corps immortals). Frieze of the palace of King Darius in Susa

Miltiades especially strongly insisted on this, knowing that in the event of the triumph of Hippias and the Persians, his death was inevitable. During Darius's campaign against the Scythians, he advised breaking the bridge on the Danube and giving the fleeing Persians a sacrifice to Scythian vengeance, and therefore could not expect mercy from Darius; and Hippias could hardly forget the old mortal enmity between the Philaides and the Peisistratids. When Miltiades, two years before the Persian invasion of Attica, sailed with his wealth to the harbor of Piraeus, there were many envious people and enemies of him in Athens. The question was raised through the courts whether it was possible, without endangering the freedom of the people, to allow a man who was autocratic, like a king, to live in Athens in Chersonesus; many influential people wanted him to be expelled. But the respect of the people for his patriotism and merits before the Athenian state was destroyed by the intrigues of his enemies, and the Athenian people were so reasonable that they understood to what extent it was now necessary for them, in difficult days, to take advantage of the experience of Miltiades, who alone of all Athenians knew the character well troops and tactics of the Persians. He, who fought in the ranks of the Persians, alone was able to defeat them.

The strategists and the polemarch gathered for a council of war; the fate of the Athenian state depended on what decision would be made there. Miltiades proposed to immediately lead the entire army against the enemy; Aristides and three other generals agreed with him; five other strategists believed that a wait-and-see approach should be taken. Whose side the majority of votes would be on was to be determined by how the polemarch voted. Miltiades took him aside and said: “It now depends on you, Callimachus, to plunge Athens into slavery or keep it free and create for yourself for eternal times a glory higher than that which Harmodius and Aristogeiton left behind. Since Athens existed, it has not been in such danger as it is now. If you join my opinion, our hometown will remain free and will be the first in Hellas; and if you vote for those who do not want battle, then you know what fate we will experience, given over to the power of Hippias.” Callimachus voted for the opinion of Miltiades, and it was decided to go to battle in Marathon. The People's Assembly joyfully approved this courageous decision.

Greco-Persian Wars. Map

At the beginning of September, the Athenian army, consisting of 10,000 citizens, crossed the heights of Pentelak and Parnes and encamped at the foot of the ridge, in front of which the lightly armed skirmishers and cavalry of the Persians were spread out across the Marathon plain in an immense multitude. The hoplites were divided into ten detachments, 100 people each; each detachment was commanded by one of the strategists; the power of the commander-in-chief passed in turn from one to another, for one day. But most of the strategists were so convinced of the genius of Miltiades that they gave him, on the advice of Aristides, a command in his own day. However, he waited for the battle until the day on which the command of the army belonged to him in turn. The Athenian hoplites with their large shields and long, heavy spears had already lined up for battle when unexpected reinforcements approached them - a thousand Plataean citizens.

Greek phalanx from the Battle of Marathon

The Athenians were joyfully surprised that the small Plataean state had so nobly shown, in a difficult time for them, its gratitude to them for their help to him. Large states avoided participating in the common national cause, and Plataea sent all its warriors into life and death battles. By this she acquired the friendship and gratitude of the Athenians forever. Since the Battle of Marathon, at the festival of state unity of Attica, at the festival of Panathenaia, the Plataeans were also included in the prayer for the Athenian people. The leader of the Plataean army was the brave leader Aimnest. These courageous hoplites stood at Marathon on the left flank of the Athenian battle formation.

Progress of the Battle of Marathon

On the 17th day of the month Metagitnion (September 12, 490), solid ranks of heavily armed Greek infantry rushed from the heights onto the Marathon plain. The Persians looked at this with amazement: such a small army, only 11,000 people, an army that has neither shooters nor cavalry, itself seeks a battle with an army in which there are 110,000 warriors; - The Persians thought that these people had gone crazy. Greek tactics were generally cautious; but Miltiades found that Marathon should act differently, and moved the army into a quick attack, so that it would remain exposed to the rain of arrows as little as possible, and so that the enemy cavalry would not have time to turn around. Perhaps he considered it necessary to end the Battle of Marathon as quickly as possible because he figured out the plan of the Persians: most of their fleet with part of the troops went south to capture the Phalerian harbor, from where the Persians wanted to go to Athens.

So, the Greek hoplites ran across the distance that separated them from the enemy - about two miles - and with a loud battle cry, pointing their spears horizontally, rushed into battle against the Persians, Medes and Saca, built in a quadrangle. The enemies withstood the onslaught, fought hard, and began to press the weakest part of the Greek army, the center; No matter how bravely Aristides and Themistocles fought, standing here with the hoplites of their phyla, the enemy broke their ranks and killed many squires standing behind the battle line. But on both wings the Greeks were victorious; without pursuing the fleeing enemies, they went to the center on both sides, its ranks closed again, the Greeks made a general attack on the Persians and Saks, who were initially victorious; they defeated them, and soon the flight of the Persians became general. Many enemies drowned in the swamps in the north; Most of them ran to the shore, where the ships stood, and began to untie them in order to sail away. The marathon victors overtook the runners, detained them, and set fire to the ships; masses of barbarians fell under the swords of the Greeks. But quite a few Greeks were also killed in the Battle of Marathon, including the brave polemarch Callimachus and Stesilaus, one of the strategists; Kinegir, brother of Aeschylus, who was fighting next to him, grabbed the enemy boat to hold it; his hand was cut off with an axe.

Marathon battle. Battle scheme

The entire Persian camp with all its convoys after the Battle of Marathon went to the winners. But the number of ships they captured was only 7. The rest managed to move away from the shore, and the Persians with the captured Eretrians set off from Marathon to the south. The guards posted on the mountains were amazed to see that the Persians were sailing past Cape Sunia to the west, with the obvious intention of unexpectedly attacking Athens, which was left without troops. It was said that this plan was suggested to the Persians by the supporters of Hippias, and that the signal for calling the Persians was to raise a shining shield on the mountain. Miltiades quickly made a decision: having entrusted Aristides with the hoplites of his phylum (Antiochides) to guard the booty and take care of the wounded, he and the rest of the army went from Marathon directly to Athens to repel a new attack by the defeated enemy. And indeed, a fleet of barbarians appeared near Phaler; but Miltiades warned him. Datis and Artaphernes, seeing the Athenian army lined up at Kinosargi on Ilissa, abandoned the thought of landing. The Persian fleet, with booty and prisoners taken from Naxos and Eretria, sailed back to Asia.

Consequences of the Battle of Marathon

The former Athenian tyrant Hippias was probably in the navy. But the failure of the expedition probably undermined the old man’s strength. Some kind of illness befell him, from which he lost his sight and died on the way to Asia, on the island of Lemnos. According to other news, he was killed in the Battle of Marathon. – The Persian king Darius acted mercifully with the captured Eretrians. He gave them the city of Ardericca, which stood on the Tigris, 5 miles from Susa, on the high road; during the time of Herodotus they still retained their language and Greek morals. Euphorbus and Philagres, who betrayed Eretria to the Persians, were awarded lands.

Herodotus's story about the Battle of Marathon has long aroused doubt. What is especially strange is that the Persian cavalry did not seem to participate in the battle in this story. Based on the expression found in Svydas, “the cavalry has left,” some scholars made the following assumption: in agreement with the Persian adherents in Athens, the cavalry and most of the infantry were already put on ships when the Greeks attacked the Persians, who had the intention of using the main part of his forces to attack Athens from the south.

The day after the Battle of Marathon, in the evening, 2,000 Spartans came to the aid of the Athenians. They covered their long journey in three days. Having learned that the Persians were defeated, they wished to see the field of the Battle of Marathon, on which 6,400 bodies of killed enemies still lay. The Spartans praised the bravery of the Athenians and went home. The Athenians buried their dead - according to Herodotus, their number was 192 - on the battlefield of Marathon and wrote their names on 10 columns that decorated the tombstone. The Plataeans and the murdered slaves were also buried with honors; and the bodies of the Persians were all indiscriminately thrown into grave pits. Near the burial mounds, which are still visible on the Marathon plain, the Athenians erected two monuments of white marble: one in honor of the defenders of Greece, “by whose hand the power of the gold-decorated Medes was cast into dust,” and the other in honor of Miltiades.

Battle of Marathon. Video

The Battle of Marathon forever remained the pride of the Athenians. The Athenian citizens passed the bloody test here and proved that they were worthy of freedom. The inscription on the tomb of Aeschylus said only that he fought at Marathon and showed his courage to the Medes; this was his greatest glory. Patriotic orators of later centuries spoke of a marathon battle when they wanted to arouse courage in the Athenian people. The Athenian felt proud pleasure when he was called “the descendant of those who fought at Marathon.” In memory of this great victory, sacrifices were made annually to Artemis of Agrotera, whom Miltiades asked for help before the battle; the inhabitants of Marathon, on the anniversary of the battle, offered prayers and libations on the burial mounds. The Athenians appointed a reward to the one who would write the best elegy in honor of those killed at Marathon; Simonides of Keos received the award. Pindar also praised Athens, “the pillar of Greece, the illustrious city.”

Legends of the Battle of Marathon

The Athenians attributed to the gods a large part in their glorious marathon victory and honored them for that. When the walker Pheidippides fled to Sparta, he heard on Mount Parthenia, near Tegea, the voice of the god Pan, who said that the Athenians should remember him, because he was kind to them, had done them a lot of kindness and would continue to do so in the future. After the battle, the Athenians said that this god brought terror to the enemies (that general fear that is called panic in his name). The mountain and grotto of Pan were located near the site of the battle of Marathon; there was also a group of rocks that looked like goats and were therefore called the goats of Pan. In gratitude for the fact that he frightened the Persians, the Athenians dedicated a grotto to him, located in the rock under the acropolis, and decided to annually make sacrifices to him and organize a torch race in his honor; Miltiades erected a statue of him in the grotto, on which was carved an inscription composed by Simonides: “I, goat-footed Pan, enemy of the Medes, friend of the Athenians, was installed by Miltiades.” – Before the battle, Miltiades promised to sacrifice as many goats to Artemis of Agrotera as the number of enemies killed. By decision of the people it was established that, in fulfillment of this vow, on the 6th day of Voedromion, the month following the battle, 500 goats would be sacrificed to this goddess at the festival and that such a sacrifice would be repeated on this day every year (this rite served source of the erroneous belief that the Battle of Marathon took place on the day of the festival of Artemis). A tenth of the spoils was given to Athena, Apollo and Artemis. Athena's share was subsequently used for a statue of her, which Phidias made; this bronze statue of “Athena the Protector,” 60 feet high, was placed in the acropolis; From the spoils that fell to Apollo, several copper statues were made and a building was built for them at the Delphic Temple, to which they were donated; for the remaining third, a temple to the “glorious” Artemis was built in Athens.

At a time when the historian Pausanius visited the Marathon plain, it was still false to read on the columns the names of those killed in this battle; the legends told to Pausanius testify to how fresh the memory of this battle remained 600 years after it: “here every night you can hear the neighing of horses and the noise of battle,” says Pausanius (I, 32). “Whoever stood here on purpose to hear this, his action did not go unpunished; but whoever hears this by chance, the spirits are not angry with him. I was told that at the battle of Marathon there was a man who looked and dressed like a peasant, and that he killed many barbarians with a plow, and after the battle disappeared. When the Athenians asked the deity who he was, they received the answer that they should honor the hero Ehetley (plough-holder). Above the swamp, in which many barbarians died, they showed me stone logs from which Artaphernes’ horses ate before the Battle of Marathon, and on the rock there were traces of a tent.”