chapter 36 (volume 4.)_

See, also, ATHENS: B. C. 501-490.

GREECE: B. C. 490. The Persian Wars: Marathon.

The second and greater expedition launched by Darius against the Greeks sailed from the Cilician coast in the summer of the year 490 B. C. It was under the command of two generals,—a Mede, named Datis, and the king's nephew, Artaphernes. It made the passage safely, destroying Naxos on the way, but sparing the sacred island and temple of Delos. Its landing was on the shores of Eubœa, where the city of Eretria was easily taken, its inhabitants dragged into slavery, and the first act of Persian vengeance accomplished. The expedition then sailed to the coast of Attica and came to land on the plain of Marathon, which spreads along the bay of that name. "Marathon, situated near to a bay on the eastern coast of Attica, and in a direction E. N. E. from Athens, is divided by the high ridge of Mount Pentelikus from the city, with which it communicated by two roads, one to the north, another to the south of that mountain. Of these two roads, the northern, at once the shortest and the most difficult, is 22 miles in length. … [The plain] 'is in length about six miles, in breadth never less than about one mile and a half. Two marshes bound the extremities of the plain; the southern is not very large and is almost dry at the conclusion of the great heats; but the northern, which generally covers considerably more than a square mile, offers several parts which are at all seasons impassable. Both, however, leave a broad, firm sandy beach between them and the sea. The uninterrupted flatness of the plain is hardly relieved by a single tree; and an amphitheatre of rocky hills and rugged mountains separates it from the rest of Attica."

_G. Grote, History of Greece, part 2, chapter 36 (volume 4)._

The Athenians waited for no nearer approach of the enemy to their city, but met them at their landing-place. They were few in number—only 10,000, with 1,000 more from the grateful city of Platæa, which Athens had protected against Thebes. They had sent to Sparta for aid, but a superstition delayed the march of the Spartans and they came the day after the battle. Of all the nearer Greeks none came to the help of Athens in that hour of extreme need; and so much the greater to her was the glory of Marathon. The ten thousand Athenian hoplites and the one thousand brave Platæans confronted the great host of Persia, of the numbers in which there is no account. Ten generals had the right of command on successive days, but Miltiades was known to be the superior captain and his colleagues gave place to him. "On the morning of the seventeenth day of the month of Metagitnion (September 12th), when the supreme command according to the original order of succession fell to Miltiades, he ordered the army to draw itself up according to the ten tribes. … The troops had advanced with perfect steadiness across the trenches and palisadings of their camp, as they had doubtless already done on previous days. But as soon as they had approached the enemy within a distance of 5,000 feet they changed their march to a double-quick pace, which gradually rose to the rapidity of a charge, while at the same time they raised the war-cry with a loud voice. {1572} When the Persians saw these men rushing down from the heights, they thought they beheld madmen: they quickly placed themselves in order of battle, but before they had time for an orderly discharge of arrows the Athenians were upon them, ready in their excitement to begin a closer contest, man against man in hand-to-hand fight, which is decided by personal courage and gymnastic agility, by the momentum of heavy-armed warriors, and by the use of lance and sword. Thus the well-managed and bold attack of the Athenians had succeeded in bringing into play the whole capability of victory which belonged to the Athenians. Yet the result was not generally successful. The enemy's centre stood firm. … But meanwhile both wings had thrown themselves upon the enemy; and after they had effected a victorious advance, the one on the way to Rhamnus, the other towards the coast, Miltiades … issued orders at the right moment for the wings to return from the pursuit, and to make a combined attack upon the Persian centre in its rear. Hereupon the rout speedily became general, and in their flight the troubles of the Persians increased; … they were driven into the morasses and there slain in numbers."

_E. Curtius, History of Greece, book 3, chapter 1 (volume 2)._

The Athenian dead, when gathered for the solemn obsequies, numbered 192; the loss of the Persians was estimated by Herodotus at 6,400.

_Herodotus, History, book 6._

ALSO IN: _E. S. Creasy, Fifteen Decisive Battles,

_C. Thirlwall, History of Greece,

_G. W. Cox, The Greeks and Persians,