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Battle of Marathon: Greeks Versus the PersiansMilitary History | 19 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post The absence of Persian cavalry is one of the reasons for the Greek victory. The second is that the Persians were completely unprepared for and unable to adapt to the Greeks’ tactics. Persian battle tactics that previously had served them well entailed stationing their archers at the front to fire volley after volley of arrows into the enemy ranks, wreaking havoc and instilling fear. Once that objective was achieved, Persian infantry would move in to slaughter the confused opposition, with cavalry used only to complete the task when the enemy was routed. The Greeks held an advantage at Marathon in the equipment of their infantry. An Athenian hoplite carried a heavy, 9-foot spear, wore a solid breastplate and carried an almost body-length shield. The Persian infantryman, in contrast, wore little more than robes and carried a shorter sword and a wicker or cane shield. Therefore, close-quarter combat favored the Athenians. The Persian disadvantage was exacerbated by the Greek use of the phalanx formation — an eight-hoplite by eight-hoplite square. The hoplites at the front would interlock their shields, as would the men to the side, forming an almost impenetrable barrier. Because of their lesser numbers, the Greeks had to thin their formation out, but even that would eventually further serve their purpose. Although they had won a great victory, the Athenians knew the Persian threat had not passed, and they quickly marched back to prepare the defense of Athens from the attack they were certain would come. In an amazing feat of strength and endurance, they marched at double time directly from the battlefield and managed to reach the city before the Persian ships arrived. With time of the essence, the Athenians dispatched Pheidippides to inform Athens’ populace of their victory before the troops arrived. The tale goes that after running the 26 miles from Marathon to Athens, Pheidippides exclaimed: “Rejoice! We conquer!” then died from exhaustion. Whether true or not, that is the source of the modern-day marathon race; the distance of the modern race reflects the distance Pheidippides ran. Even though the future battles of Salamis and Plataea were fought against a greater Persian threat, had Marathon ended in defeat, those later battles would never have occurred. Themistocles, who fought at Marathon, saw that Athens had been lucky the first time, and had the Persians conducted their campaign differently, the outcome might well have been different. Hence, soon after Marathon he successfully petitioned to have Athens build a stronger navy, which led to its success at Salamis. Marathon smashed the myth of Persian invincibility, an achievement that lent a critical measure of confidence to the Greeks who fought the Persians again at Salamis and Plataea. It meant that many of the same commanders who served at Marathon were at the later battles and had knowledge of the Persian mind, and in the longer term, it would lead Alexander the Great on his conquest of Asia and the eventual decline and downfall of the Persian empire. While most credit the second installment of the Persian wars with the birth of the Athenian renaissance, one could argue that Marathon was the catalyst for, and much of the reason behind, the Athenians’ belief that they were on par with the Spartans — which allowed them to flourish. Had Marathon been a defeat and Athens annihilated, the Western democracy, culture, art and philosophy that developed from this period in history might have been lost, and the Western world today could be very different. Subscribe Today
This article was written by Jason K. Fosten and originally published in the January/February 2007 issue of Military History magazine. Jason K. Foster is a London-based teacher and historian specializing in ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Military History magazine today! Pages: 1 2 3Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to
            Tags: Ancient-Medieval, Historical Conflicts
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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