Download Marathon Drama

Battle of Marathon Drama Script
Narrator 1: The city of Athens was a thriving and wonderful city. It also
had a small army and no king or queen. Lots of kings of other places
thought it would be wonderful to become king of Athens.
Narrator 2: Persia was a huge empire, much bigger than Greece. In 490
BC, a Persian army of over 25,000 men plus cavalry and ships, invaded
Greece. Their target was the city of Athens and they planned to land at
Marathon. Of course, when the Athens people heard of this they were
extremely scared. They asked other cities for help! They sent a man
called Pheidippides to run to Sparta with the plea for support.
Pheidippides; Hello my name is Pheidippides. I have come from the
majestic city of Athens to look for your help against the Persians.
Spartan officer: I’m sorry my son you have called at a bad time. We are
in the middle of a month-long festival to pray to Pan
Pan: Hi my name is Pan. I am the goddess of nature and wildlife and a
goddess sacred to the Spartans. Sparta must not fight for another two
weeks. If they do I shall see they will suffer!!! I will help you fight the
Persians.
Narrator 1: Pheidippides then had to run all the way back to the
Athenians with the bad news. He had run for over 280 miles in only 10
days.
Pheidippides: I’m sorry my friends but the news is not good from Sparta
A1: What will we do?
A2: We must act quickly!!
A3: Let’s go to the city of Marathon where at least we can block the
Persian army from getting to Athens.
N2: The Greek soldiers waited on top of the hill while the Persian army
waited on the plain of Marathon below. There were 48 000 Persian
soldiers and only 10 000 Greek soldiers. One of the officers had a clever
plan. A plan that had never been used before. Would it work?
A4: Lets make a rapid attack of our own!
N1: The Persians could not believe it! They got confused, they broke the
ranks and gave the Athens army the chance to get behind them. The
Persians, having re-grouped at their ships, put up a fight but within
hours the battle was over and the surviving Persians escaped, leaving
6500 dead.
A5: Pheidippides, please run to Athens and tell them the good news.”
N2: Pheidippides ran 42 km to Athens. It was far and he was so tired.
When he arrived he fell to the ground and said:
Pheidippides: ‘Nike’ Rejoice for we have won!!
N2: Then he sadly died. To this day the Marathon is famous. Many people
try to run the same distance as Pheidippidus. Thank goodness people
don’t die after running this long distance. Many cities now organise their
own marathons.