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Battle of Marathon: Greeks Versus the PersiansMilitary History | 19 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post On the morning of September 17, 490 bc, some 10,000 Greeks stood assembled on the plain of Marathon, preparing to fight to the last man. Behind them lay everything they held dear: their city, their homes, their families. In front of the outnumbered Greeks stood the assembled forces of the Persian empire, a seemingly invincible army with revenge, pillage and plunder on its mind. The Athenians’ feelings are best expressed by Aeschylus, who fought in the Persian wars, in his tragic play The Persians: “On, sons of the Hellenes! Fight for the freedom of your country! Fight for the freedom of your children and of your wives, for the gods of your fathers and for the sepulchers of your ancestors! All are now staked upon the strife!” The two sides faced each another directly, waiting for the fight to start. The Athenians stalled for days, anticipating reinforcements promised by Sparta. But they knew they could not wait for long. The Persians, expecting as easy a victory as they had won against enemies so many times before, were in no hurry. The Greeks, knowing the time for battle had come, began to move forward. Ostensibly, theyadvanced with focus and purpose, but beneath this firm veneer, as they looked on a vastly larger enemy — at least twice their number — many must have been fearful of what was to come. The Persian archers sat with their bows drawn, ready to loose a barrage of arrows that would send fear and confusion through the Greek ranks. “The Athenians advanced at a run towards the enemy, not less than a mile away,” recounted the historian Herodotus. “The Persians, seeing the attack developed at the double, prepared to meet it, thinking it suicidal madness for the Athenians to risk an assault with so small a force — rushing in with no support from either cavalry or archers.” Had the Persian archers been allowed to loose their bows, the battle might have ended before it had truly begun. Fighting their doubts and fears, the Athenians seized the initiative and rushed the Persians. Confronted by such a bold move and realizing their infantry would be pressed into action sooner than expected must have shaken Persian confidence. The two Athenian commanders, Callimachus and Miltiades (the latter having fought in the Persian army himself), used their knowledge of Persian battle tactics to turn the tide further in their favor. As the clatter of spears, swords and shields echoed through the valley, the Greeks had ensured that their best hoplites (heavily armed infantry) were on the flanks and that their ranks were thinned in the center. Persian battle doctrine dictated that their best troops, true Persians, fought in the center, while conscripts, pressed into service from tribute states, fought on the flanks. The Persian elite forces surged into the center of the fray, easily gaining the ascendancy. But this time it was a fatal mistake. The Persian conscripts whom the Hellenic hoplites faced on the flanks quickly broke into flight. The Greeks then made another crucial decision: Instead of pursuing their fleeing foes, they turned inward to aid their countrymen fighting in the center of the battle. By then, the Persians were in a state of utter confusion. Their tactics had failed, their cavalry was absent and their archers were useless. Their more heavily armed and armored opponents, who could sense that victory was close, were attacking them from three sides and pushing them into the sea. The Persians fled back to their ships. Many of the Athenians, buoyed by their success, dragged several of the Persian vessels to shore, slaughtering those on board. When the day was over, the Greeks had won one of history’s most famous victories, claiming to have killed about 6,400 Persians for the loss of only 192 Athenians. The Spartans eventually arrived, but only after the battle was long over. To assuage their disbelief in the Athenians’ victory, they toured the battlefield. To their amazement, they found the claim of victory was indeed true. The Athenians had defeated the most powerful empire in the Western world. Subscribe Today
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19 Comments to “Battle of Marathon: Greeks Versus the Persians”
thank u i read the story and it was interesting but i have some questions:
the story couldn’t be reakky true because it has several problem that could not be matched
1.according to it greeks army was 10,000 and the persians double it could not be so reasonable that loss of greek was just 192 and the persians broke the center of greeks.the center of a 10,000 army certainly is more than 192 soldier!!!
2.how it could be possible for an army to defeat center of opponent that is the heart army and couldn’t get the victory?
3.also how it could be possible that an army couldn’t use it’s archers man in a flat plain like marathon that war happened?
4.if persians were surrounded by greeks how they dould get ran away in to their ships? they would be slained to the last one?
5.i think herodut’s story wasn’t so true u know he was greek and obviously he has changed the reality to something that greeks liked to hear or his resources wasn’t so ture!
By soroush sepahyar on Aug 9, 2008 at 4:18 pm
This is a great account, but it is a pity you don’t say how many Persians there were! Maybe it can’t be known with any kind of exactitude, but just to get an idea.
By cantueso on Aug 16, 2008 at 3:46 am
hey soroush, it is correct that the Athenians lost only 192 men out of 10,000 thats one of the main things that makes this battle so famous. hoped i helped a bit!
By Mary Rose on Sep 17, 2008 at 12:31 pm
war in marathan
i need a Pictures of dariyas
please send it today
By ahmed on Oct 29, 2008 at 9:44 am
From the postings it appears that some are having difficulty
understanding that Greece had three wars with Persia. Leonidas
and the 300 Spartans alone with 700 Thespians and many other
Greeks died at Thermopylae during the second Persian War (480
BC). The Battle of Marathon occurred in the first Persian War ten
years earlier (490 BC).
While the exact size of the Persian army in the first Persian War is
truly unknown, what is known that the Persians considered
Marathon more of a set back than a defeat. They were able to
board their ships. Since the Athenian Army was at Marathon, the
Persians set sail to Athens to burn it to the ground. The Greeks
realized what was happening and the entire Army ran to Athens
and got there ahead of the Persians. King Darius of Persia seeing
the Greek Army waiting, turned around and went back to Persia;
humiliated but with his Navy and Army bloodied but intact.
The Athenian Army was well trained and practiced running long
distances in full armor. The Greek infantry was heavily armored
in comparison to the Persians who used wicker shields little to no
armor. Each Athenian youth was required serve two years in the
army undergoing one year military training doing garrison duty
before being considers being sufficiently trained for combat. After
that, each male was subject to recall into the army until he
reached the age of 60.
Ten years later in 481 BC, King Darius was dead and his son, King
Xerxes invaded Greece again to avenge his father’s humiliation
and to teach the Greeks a lesson. The Persian Army is reported to
exceed 1,000,000 men but more likely was between 100,000 to
200,000 men. Three major battles occurred in this war. The
first was at Thermopylae where a vastly inferior Greek army
stalled the might of Persia for days before King Xerxes defeated
the Greeks. While a defeat for Greece, the heroism of its soldiers
inspired and united the Greeks. The second major battle in the
second Persian War was a naval battle at Salamis where the
Greek navy destroyed the Persian navy in perhaps the bloodiest
naval engagement in all history (modern historians estimate
that as many as 30,000 died on both sides). Without control of
the seas needed to support his huge army, the Persian position in
Greece was no longer supportable and the Persian Army was
destroyed at the Battle of Plataea in 479BC. Years later, in 333
BC Alexandria the Great initiated Greece’s third war with Persia
ending Persia’s presence as a world power for all times.
By sxinias on Nov 10, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I don’t know if Alexander’s defeat of the Persians can be cast as the final Greek payback. The Macedonians were regarded as less-than-Greek and it took conquest before the Greek states “joined” the empire. That’s the Macedonian empire. When push came to shove Alexander made it pretty clear just who was boss. One doubts if “the home front” in Greece ever lost its ambivalence over being subjects of a Macedonian ruling house.
Final payback was arguably by Persia. Persia learnt to play Greek against Greek, in the Pelopponesian War funding repeated rebuldings of the Spartan navy until that actually became a viable force (who would have thought ?) It was Athens that ultimately lost and to a militarised ethnic-group supremacist state that was the antithesis of democratic ideals. Athens never quite regained its old glory after that.
By WongHoongHooi on Nov 20, 2008 at 2:54 am
Hello. Do you know what a hoplite is? I do. Hahahaha.
By phphph on Dec 6, 2008 at 9:47 pm
I think the battle of Marathon was a big battle.
By phphph on Dec 6, 2008 at 9:48 pm
im andi n i am albanian, just sayin bravo for spartans…brave warriors like albanians…powerful n unbrakeable….like scanderbeg killed the ottomans against ottoman empire to get all over europe…
By andi on Jan 6, 2009 at 3:57 am
Hi, as the article’s author I am sorry I have not had time to answer all the queries, but i have been swamped. Whilst Herodotus’ account is certainly bias, other sources confirm that the Athenians did only lose 192 men, they are buried under a mound at Marathon. As far as the archers go, the Greek battle tactics of running meant that the archers were taken out of the equation.
The fact that the Athenians lost so few men was the exact reason the Spartans were so surprised when they arrived at the battlefield. Mainly because they thought the Athenians to be a bunch of philosophers and not warriors.
From memory, I think the sources estimate the Persians to be about 28000.
By Jason Foster on Feb 13, 2009 at 6:26 pm
can anyone tell me when this war ended, i have to know. thankkkks!
By lindsey on May 6, 2009 at 9:26 am
thanks the storey was great but with few errors
By Nyajuok on Jun 2, 2009 at 7:13 am
It ended right after that in 479 BC. After that, nothing much happened until the time when 300 took place. Persians lost that too but all of the 300 died. After that came Alexander the Great and he took all of Persia and more.
By NIND on Sep 29, 2009 at 3:45 pm
I would like to see some pictures or video of the actual battle ;-)
By hangfire on Nov 5, 2009 at 11:53 pm