Download Battle of Marathon

Battle of Marathon
Objectives:
You should know the key
character and what
happened at the battle of
Marathon.
You should understand
how a newspaper report is
laid out.
You should be able to
recount a historical event
through different
perspectives
Athens & Sparta
What can you re-call?
Persia
• The Persian King (King
Darius) decided he wanted
to take over Greece.
• Persians often attacked
Greek colonies
• Athens often sent soldiers
to help them.
• The Greeks were unable to
stop the Persian armies
when they decided to
attack.
Who might the Athenians ask for help?
Spartans were highly regarded
as epic warriors
Sparta and Athens decided to
join together to fight the
Persians.
Battle Commences!
• In 492 BC, King Darius of Persia ordered the
Greeks to obey him.
• In 490 BC he travelled with his army to fight
at the Bay of Marathon – this fight is known
as the Battle of Marathon.
Pheidippides
• As soon as the
Athenians realised
the Persians were
coming to attack
Greece, they sent
a fast runner called
Pheidippides, to
run all the way to
Sparta to ask for
help
But the Spartans were
celebrating a religious
festival and would not
come until the next full
moon.
But then.....
One of the Athenian officers had a
clever plan. A plan that had never
been used before. Would it work?
The Athenians attacked! They came from the sides!
The Persians could not believe it! They got
confused, they broke the ranks and gave the
Athenians
the chance to
get behind
them.
The Persian army was defeated!
The Persians fled to their ships and left. They lost
more than 6000 men. The Athenians only lost
192. The Spartans were amazed that the small
Athenian army could defeat the enormous
and powerful Persian army.
• After staying to help defeat the Persians, Pheidippides was
told to run to Athens (26 miles away) and tell the people
all about the victory.
• When he arrived he fell to the ground and said: ‘Nike’
(that means we won) but died of exhaustion after
delivering the news.
Research Task
• To create a newspaper article describing an
eyewitness account of the Battle of
Marathon.
• This can be from the perspective of an Athenian, a
Spartan or a Persian.
Newspaper Article
• What do you already know about news reporting?
• What key features should a newspaper article have?