Changing History for the Better
2,503 years ago, foes met on the plain of Marathon in Greece.
They were the Persians and the Athenian Greeks. In the year, 490 B.C, the Persians and Athenians were in a stalemate, the air tense and both armies bristling. The Persians were a very diversified group with light spearmen, archers, and horsemen, all from different countries. The Greeks on the other hand, were heavily armed and were fighting with their family and friends. From atop their camp, the Athenians could only see rectangles and rectangles, spreading out as far as the eye could see, a disheartening sight.
The Battle of Marathon was part of the Greco-Persian War (499 B.C.- 449 B.C.) and was one of the first recorded battles in history. Aristogras, the ruler of Miletus, (located on the western coast of Anatolia, in modern day Turkey), helped lead a rebellion against the rule of the Persian Empire. He had the support of Athens and Eretria (a Greek city) to burn down the Persian capital of Sardis. For this, the Persian king, Darius, vowed revenge. Before moving on to attack Athens, King Darius had captured Thrace (today the southeastern section of Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, and the European part of Turkey) and Macedonia. Darius then moved on with Hippias to take Athens. Hippias was a previously overthrown tyrant of Athens who hoped to regain it back by working with Darius. The Greeks heard that the Persians were coming for them and tried to get help from the Spartans, a people known for their aggressive fighting. They sent Philippides to ask for help but received no help, for Spartans were celebrating the festival of Carneia, a time of peace, but they did receive a thousand men from Plataea (a small city, located in Greece) to add to their troops, because the Athenians had fought for them before, thus they had a debt to pay to them.
The Athenian warriors were heavily armored with large round shields that covered most of their body, and iron helmets with small eye slits: a menacing look. The shields, though very large, still only covered half of a person’s body, so the actual protection came from the overlapping of the shields from the soldiers standing side by side.
The Persians had many different types of infantry. They had long range archers with powerful bows that could shoot arrows as far as 300 yards. They had lightly armed spearmen prepared to launch their deadly spears at the enemies at any time, and there were horsemen, high up on their majestic beasts. Would the lesser number of Athenians be able to stand up to the Persian army? Did they have a strategy to implement against what would seem like death itself?
The Greeks had already had trouble before the battle. At around 510 B.C, they were ruled by an unforgiving, cruel tyrant, Hippias, whom they overthrew with the help of the Spartans to create a better government, a democracy, to give power to the people, which was a contrast to Hippias, who only suited his own needs. After their success with a new way of life, the Athenians weren’t going to give it up to some conquerors that were there to return tyranny to their land.
When it was the time to meet the Persians in battle, the Athenians took a 26-mile march to the plain of Marathon. The Persians picked a perfect spot for their type of army with their light infantry compared to the heavily armored, slower Athenians. The marshes on either side of the plain were still wet and soggy even though it was early September, making progress difficult. When the Persians and the Athenians met, there was a stalemate. No one moved and both armies stood still, daring the other to attack.
On the Athenian side, this situation was beneficial, because every day that they waited was a day closer for the Spartan’s festivities finishing. However, since they had gathered all of their hoplites there at the battle, there were no defenders at Athens, so a secondary attack could not be defended against. They had all of their men there because a defeat here would mean the defeat of Athens, but as they could lose everything from attacking, and could gain an advantage by waiting, they decided to hold it out until a profitable situation appeared.
The Persians were more lightly armored, so they were reluctant to attack first. “The previous night, Hippias had a dream in which he slept with his mother. He supposed from the dream that he would return from exile to Athens, recover his rule, and end his days an old man in his own country” (Herodotus 6.107.1 – 6.107.2). But when the Persians were unloading their army, Hippias had a coughing fit and lost a tooth in the water and could not find it in the sand. He was devastated, and quite superstitious, he took this as bad luck and said, “This land is not ours and we will not be able to subdue it. My tooth holds whatever share of it was mine” (Herodotus 6.107.4).
The ten Athenian generals were divided in their opinion of what to do. Some said that their numbers were too few to attack, while others, including Miltiades, suggested fighting. Their votes were equal on both sides, so since they could not come up with a decision, it was Athenian tradition that a polemarch (πολέμαρχος), was to be chosen by lot and to also have equal voting power as a general. A man named Callimachus was chosen. Miltiades confronted this man and said, “Callimachus, it is now in your hands to enslave Athens or make her free, and thereby leave behind for all posterity a memorial such as not even Harmodius and Aristogeiton left. Now the Athenians have come to their greatest danger since they first came into being, and, if we surrender, it is clear what we will suffer when handed over to Hippias. But if the city prevails, it will take first place among Hellenic cities. I will tell you how this can happen, and how the deciding voice on these matters has devolved upon you. The ten generals are of divided opinion, some urging to attack, others urging not to. If we do not attack now, I expect that great strife will fall upon and shake the spirit of the Athenians, leading them to medize [this term was tied to the word ‘Mede’, and was often used by the Greeks when speaking of the Persians, although it denoted another Iranian tribe, the Medes. Its use in the historical record suggests that Miltiades was aware that Callimachus was doubtful about whom to side with, and
considered possibly fighting for the Persians and sympathizing with them. This was a crime of the deepest treason for Athenians.] “But if we attack now, before anything unsound corrupts the Athenians, we can win the battle, if the gods are fair. All this concerns and depends on you in this way: if you vote with me, your country will be free and your city the first in Hellas. But if you side with those eager to avoid battle, you will have the opposite to all the good things I enumerated” (Herodotus 6.109.3 – 6.109.6). Never were words so true. Callimachus was under much stress, for the fate of his hometown was at risk. But, with his speech, Miltiades was able to persuade Callimachus onto his side of the vote, and it was chosen that they should attack.
The generals made sacrifices to the Gods for favorable conditions, and then line of battle was set up. It was made to be extra wide, with the wings, the sides, sometimes called the flanks, strongest. This formation would become a tactical advantage or disadvantage, for their small numbers and thin lines could be obliterated, or their strategy could work and confuse the Persians, leading to slaughter. On the battlefront, Callimachus was in command of the right wing and the left wing consisting of Plataean soldiers, led by their own generals.
Then they attacked. There are a couple different versions of what happened. Some say that the Persians attacked first because they felt they had to force some kind of victory, since they couldn’t stand there indefinitely. Some say that the Greeks attacked first because they saw some of the Persians’ cavalry leaving Marathon for an unspecified reason. Assuming that the Greeks were the ones to attack, the Persians were caught off-guard and were surprised to see the weaker side attack first. Hundreds and hundreds of arrows rained down on the Athenians and they closed the gap between the two sides with astonishing speed, even with their full, heavy armor on. The two groups met and the arrows continued to rain down. By now, the soldiers were so densely packed that the Persian archers were killing not only the enemy, but their own people too. Battle cries resounded, and the two sides clashed. Towards the middle of the line, the Persians were beating the Athenians, and it looked like the Persians would walk on with the victory, but on the wings, the Athenians were winning. The thicker wings continued to beat back on the Persians until they could circle around and assist the fight in the center. The enemy was now surrounded and the center became bloodied, trashed with Persian flesh and limbs. The frightened remaining Persians realized they had lost the fight here and they ran back to their ships and tried sailing towards Athens.
The Athenians were overjoyed with their victory and sent Philippides all the way to Athens, the whole twenty-six miles, where he yelled “Nenikēkamen!” (We were victorious!) He then unfortunately died of exhaustion, his life ending peacefully.
The Athenians were able to stop seven ships from sailing away from Marathon. Realizing that there was still an imminent threat of the Persians taking Athens undefended, they marched back as fast as possible back home, beating the Persians there. Discouraged, the foreigners sailed back to Asia.
“In this labor Callimachus the polemarch was slain, a brave man, and of the generals Stesilaus son of Thrasylaus died. Cynegirus son of Euphorion fell there, his hand cut off with an ax as he grabbed a ship’s figurehead. Many other famous Athenians also fell there” (Herodotus 6.114.1).
“In the battle at Marathon about six thousand four hundred men of the foreigners were killed, and one hundred and ninety-two Athenians; that many fell on each side” (6.117.2). The Battle of Marathon was a very bloody one though not at all for the Athenians. Herodotus recounts the numerous deaths of the enemies, and the notable Athenians who died: “The following marvel happened there: an Athenian, Epizelus son of Couphagoras, was fighting as a brave man in the battle, when he was deprived of his sight, though struck or hit nowhere on his body, and from that time on he spent the rest of his life in blindness. I have heard that he tells this story about his misfortune: he saw opposing him a tall armed man, whose beard overshadowed his shield, but the phantom passed him by and killed the man next to him. I learned by inquiry that this is the story Epizelus tells” (Herodotus 6.117.1 – 6.117.3).
Several days after the battle, the Spartans went to Marathon to inspect the damage. They were quite shaken up, seeing all the dead and bloodied Persians. The victory from the Battle of Marathon pushed the Persians away from them, giving Athenians time to regroup and organize their society for coming battles. Many legacies were created because of that battle, and there are two vital and important legacies left for the modern world. Democracy was protected and defended, and freedom given not to the rulers of a country, but to its people. An event called the marathon was created, and is held today in different locations all over the world, and is 26.2 miles long, to celebrate the historical run by Philippides, an honorable ending to a historic battle.
Herodotus: The Histories were written by Herodotus in around 450 BC to 420 BC. This work is a major source for the culture and life in the Mediterranean and Western Asia: It is one of the first accounts of Persia and the rise of its empire. It accounts the Greco-Persian Wars and represents the problems between the idea of freedom with the Greek city-states, and the slavery and rampant expansionism that the Persian Empire represented.