Desperation can be a powerful motivator. Darius was beyond angry a persistent thorn in his side, the continued insolence from Athens was infuriating and so he dispatched his army under the leadership of Datis, his best admiral, heading first toward the conquest of Eretria, a city nearby and in close relations with Athens. Hickman, Kennedy. The Greeks had no problem closing the distance and engaging the Persian army at close-range. Who was the Athenian runner who ran from Athens to Sparta? Ephialtes, son of Eurydemos, a local shepherd from Trachis, seeking reward from Xerxes, informed the Persians of an alternative route the Anopaia path which would allow them to avoid the majority of the enemy forces and attack their southern flank. Thus the Athenians, initially, went to face the Persians alone. But he took no time to mourn. Why did Kipruto has also championed the 2018 Toronto Marathon (2:05.13) and the 2021 Prague Marathon (2:10.16). He began three years of preparation for an even larger assault on Greece, this time a full scale, massive invasion rather than a targeted raid for revenge. Not only Greek military ideas, but also Greek philosophical ideas survived and flourished thanks to the Greek victory over the Persians. The battle occurred on the beach, near the Persian ships, and can be visualized using the map of the Battle of Marathon in figure 2. Some sources also indicate that Militiades had learned from Persian deserters that the cavalry was away from the field. These ideas were later rediscovered and adopted by the Renaissance thinkers of Europe in the 14th - 16th centuries, and they continue to heavily influence the Western world today. "Battle of Thermopylae." This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. The Spartans declined to send aid at that time, due to a religious ceremony, but promised to come after the next full moon. We are victorious! echoed across the expectant crowd, and in the second before they broke into a jubilant celebration, Pheidippides, overcome with exhaustion, staggered and fell to the ground, dead or so the myth of the origins of the first Marathon goes. Battle of Marathon - Definition, Facts & Who Won - History That hope for leniency was met with severe and brutal disappointment as the Persians sacked the city, burned the temples, and enslaved the population. In those days Greece was not a unified country, but a collection of independent city-states. The Battle of Marathon was fought in August or September 490 BC during the Persian Wars (498 BC448 BC) between Greece and the Persian Empire. The Greek tactic of feigning a disorganised retreat and then turning on the enemy in the phalanx formation also worked well, lessening the threat from Persian arrows and perhaps the hoplites surprised the Persians with their disciplined mobility, a benefit of being a professionally trained army. Before the Athenian army departed, the elected city magistrates, or archons, had dispatched Pheidippides an athletic message carrier whose profession, called a hemerodromos (meaning day-long-runner), bordered a sacred calling on a desperate plea for assistance. THE PERSIANS WENT RUNNING FOR THEIR SHIPS. The battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Greece. They were joined by 1,000 Plataeans, which, according to Herodotus, greatly calmed the nerves of the Athenians. Mound ( soros) in which the Athenian dead were buried after the Battle of Marathon. The Battle of Marathon was the first major victory for the Greeks over the Persians and gave them confidence that they could be defeated. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you Surprised by the Greeks' audacity, the Persians rushed to form their lines and inflict damage on the enemy with their archers and slingers (Map). After the Athenians impressive defeat of the Persians, Datis the general in charge of leading Darius army withdrew his forces from Grecian territory and returned to Persia. Help us and translate this definition into another language! Darius I, king of Persia whod likely set his sights on Greece as far back as 513 B.C. The truth, however, is that This was, perhaps, to stretch his lines longer in order to avoid being outflanked by the more numerous Persians. It often said that the battle of Marathon was one of the few really decisive battles in history. At the Battle of Marathon, Athens' underdog victory stunned Persia The surprise defeat of the mighty Persian Empire in 490 B.C. Sign up for our free weekly email newsletter! They left their infantry to keep the Athenian army occupied at Marathon, but under cover of darkness theyd packed up and loaded their fast-moving cavalry back onto their ships. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Pursuing the Greek center, the Persians quickly found themselves flanked on both sides by Militiades' strengthened wings which had routed their opposite numbers. Finding no battle to be fought, the Spartans toured the bloody battlefield, still littered with numerous rotting corpses the cremation and burial of which took days and offered their praise and congratulations. - Stories, Character Traits & Analysis, Xenophanes of Colophon: Philosophy, Quotes & Biography, AP World History - Hellenism and Athenian Philosophy: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - The Rise of the Roman Republic: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - The Fall of the Roman Empire: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - The Dark Ages: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - Early Middle Ages: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - The Medieval Warm Period: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - The High Middle Ages: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - Asia, Africa & America (1000-1300 CE): Tutoring Solution, AP World History - The Late Middle Ages: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - The Renaissance: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - The Age of Exploration: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - The Reformation Across Europe: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - The Elizabethan Era: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - The Enlightenment: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - Political, Technological, and Intellectual Developments (1750-1914): Tutoring Solution, AP World History - Colonialism: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - Imperialism: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - World War I: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - World War II: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - The Cold War and Other 20th Century World History: Tutoring Solution, AP World History - A Globalized World - 1980 & Beyond: Tutoring Solution, Portions of the AP World History Exam: Tutoring Solution, How to Write a Good Essay on Your AP World History Exam: Tutoring Solution, Developing and Writing Your AP World History Exam Essay: Tutoring Solution, NY Regents Exam - US History and Government: Help and Review, AP European History: Homework Help Resource, GED Social Studies: Civics & Government, US History, Economics, Geography & World, CLEP Western Civilization I - Ancient Near East to 1648 Prep, High School World History: Help and Review, Who was the Goddess Athena? This victorys importance would become even more critical some years later, when Darius son, Xerxes I, launched a colossal invasion of Greece. Most of what we know comes to us from the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who was writing of these events decades after they occurred. The Greeks' favored way of fighting was in a formation called the phalanx. Thermopylae 480 BC: Last stand of the 300, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Tomb of the Plataeans at Marathon. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. But, in late 486 B.C., only a handful of years after Marathon, he became seriously ill. The pass of Thermopylae, located 150 km north of Athens was an excellent choice for defence with steep mountains running down into the sea leaving only a narrow marshy area along the coast. The Greeks, though, were far from finished, and despite many states now turning over to the Persians and Athens itself being sacked, a Greek army led by Leonidas' brother Kleombrotos began to build a defensive wall near Corinth. For decades the mere mention of the Persian army was enough to terrify the Greek city-states they were an unknown entity, supported by incredibly strong cavalry and vast numbers of soldiers, and seemingly impossible for the small, contentious peninsula to confront. Due to the tactical superiority of the Greek hoplite soldiers, who fought in the phalanx formation, the Athenians triumphed over the Persians. With all prepared, the trumpets sounded and Miltiades ordered, At them!. Persia wanted revenge for Athens disrespect, and they were going to get it. The stress of dealing with a revolt in Egypt further exacerbated his poor health, and by October, he was dead. Miltiades had his center form columns of only four men, rather than eight. Why did Terry Fox Run the marathon of Hope? Inspired by Dick Traum, an amputee who had run the New York City Marathon, he decided to run across Canada to raise awareness for cancer. Thats how the Marathon of Hope was born. After training for more than a year, Terry Fox began his nearly impossible feat on April 12, 1980, on the east Pericles, the Delian League, and the Athenian Golden Age. No Persian accounts of the Greco-Persian Wars, including the Battle of Marathon, have been passed down to us. According to legend, an Athenian messenger was sent from Marathon to Athens, a distance of about 25 miles (40 km), and there he announced the Persian defeat before dying of exhaustion. Greeces confidence in its ability to fight Persia, combined with a burning desire for revenge, would later enable the Greeks to follow the charismatic young Alexander the Great in his invasion of Persia, spreading Hellenism to the farthest reaches of ancient civilization and changing the future of the western world. An error occurred trying to load this video. World History Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Canada. WebThe battle of Marathon was fought in September of 490 B.C., when the Persian king Darius I sent a force to subdue Athens after the Athenians had supported the Ionian Greeks during their unsuccessful rebellion against Persian rule in western Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). This saw the center reduced to ranks four deep while the wings featured men eight deep. Faced with the same terrible and fast approaching enemy, debate raged in Athens as it had in Eretria as to the safest course of action for the city, the downside to democracy being the slow and dissentious style of decision making. The Battle of Marathon marked an important shift in historical momentum as the always quarrelsome, squabbling Greeks managed to stand together and defend against the powerhouse of the Persian Empire for the first time after years of fear. Although the Persians had enjoyed the upper hand in previous contests during the recent Ionian revolt, the terrain at Thermopylae would better suit Greek warfare. Some Rights Reserved (2009-2023) under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license unless otherwise noted. Here are 10 facts about it. The Battle of Marathon On a sweltering summer day, the nine elected magisterial archons of Athens waited breathlessly for news, surrounded by a restless crowd of citizens. Defeated, the Persians departed from the area and sailed south to attack Athens directly. Though todays official marathon distance of 42.195 kilometers is not based on the run in Greece, but rather on the distance regularized by the 1908 Olympics in London. A commotion outside the city walls caught the attention of the archons, and suddenly the gates were thrust open. Whereas the Greek army consisted entirely of heavy infantry, the Persians consisted mainly of light infantry and archers, in addition to horsemen. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. His proclamation, Rejoice! Discover the significance of the Battle of Marathon through maps and historical accounts. Indeed, Spartan indifference is epitomised by Dieneces, who, when told that the Persian arrows would be so dense as to darken the sun, replied that in that case the Spartans would have the pleasure of fighting in the shade. Coming swiftly to battle, the strong Persian center held firm against the ruthless Athenians and their allies, but their weaker flanks collapsed under the force of the Greek advance and they were quickly left with no choice but to withdraw. The Battle of Marathon was fought between a Persian army and a mostly Athenian Greek army in 490 BCE during the first Greco-Persian War. On top of that, defeat at the battle of Marathon meant the utter destruction of Athens. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. Just why Greece was coveted by Persia is unclear. But their utter victory at Eretria, an ally of Athens and a city that they had laid siege to and enslaved after being offered surrender, was a tactical mistake that showed Persias hand. 6 Who was the Athenian runner who ran from Athens to Sparta? The Persian forces also included the Immortals, an elite force of 10,000 who were probably better protected with armour and armed with spears. There, they could attempt to bottleneck the Persian attack, minimize the numerical advantage that the Persian army brought, and hopefully keep them from reaching Athens until the Spartans could arrive. The Spartan king, on the third day of the battle, rallied his small force - the survivors from the original Spartan 300, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans - and made a rearguard stand to defend the pass to the last man in the hope of delaying the Persians progress, in order to allow the rest of the Greek force to retreat or also possibly to await relief from a larger Greek force. It was a decision which bought time for the mobilization of Greek coalition forces that stood victorious against the same enemy at the decisive battles of Salamis and Platea tilting the scales of power in the Greco-Persian Wars towards Greece, and giving birth to an era of Athenian imperial expansion that eventually brought it to fight Sparta in the Peloponnesian War. The Battle of Marathon was a conflict fought in 490 B.C. Even the Romans, famous for their legions, used a Greek-style hoplite army until 315 BCE. In the resulting battle, the Persian arrows proved almost entirely ineffective against Greek armor and shields.
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