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Historically Speaking
Marathon at 2,500
A
Grant Mitchell
Greeks recently conquered by Persia rose
ugust 12 marks an accepted date for
By BG John S. Brown
in revolt. Athens and the tiny city-state of
the 2,500th anniversary of the Battle
U.S. Army retired
Eretria attempted to assist, but the Perof Marathon, although the actual date
may instead be September 12, depending upon how one sians utterly crushed the Ionians. Darius resolved to crush
interprets the Lacedaemonian lunisolar calendar. The most Athens and Eretria as well and to bring the European Greeks
notable commemoration will probably be the Athens into his orbit. Had he succeeded, he would have snuffed out
Marathon this year, and other marathons around the world the democratic experiment, independent Hellenic civilizawill undoubtedly take notice as well. Ironically, the ardu- tion and Greek national identity with a single stroke.
After preliminary operations in Thrace and Macedonia,
ous 26-mile race is based upon an athletic performance by
the legendary Philippides that may not have actually oc- Darius launched a naval expedition directly across the
curred. The battle itself did occur and is rightly regarded Aegean Sea. Securing—or devastating—islands en route,
as among the most decisive in history. Marathon is ar- the Persians sacked Eretria and landed an army more than
guably the first major battle for which we have a reliable twice the size of what Athens could muster in the sheltered
record, provided largely by the world’s first actual histo- Bay of Marathon. Hippias recommended the spot, both because it provided an ideal beachhead for the shallow galleys
rian, Herodotus.
Much was at stake at Marathon. Athenian democracy, of the time and because nearby plains offered maneuver
based upon an emerging middle class, was new, untested room for cavalry, an arm with respect to which the Persians
and fragile. Hellenic culture was just beginning to set itself were much superior. The 26-mile distance from Athens
apart as a purveyor of reason, analysis and humanism, and offered yet another advantage. If the staunchly democratic
as a foundation for what later came to be called Western civi- hoplites (infantry soldiers) of the Athenian army marched to
lization. Greece itself was a geographical composite of Marathon, the city itself would be exposed and subject to
squabbling tribes and city-states more so than a national betrayal by lingering confederates of Hippias should anidentity. The former Athenian tyrant Hippias, displaced in a other Persian army capable of securing it show up.
Nine thousand Athenian hoplites did in fact march on
popular uprising, took up with the mighty and growing Persian Empire. He committed to becoming its vassal should the Marathon, joined en route by another thousand from the tiny
Persian king, Darius the Great, reinstate him. Inspired by the city of Plataea. The allied Greeks took up positions on high
Athenian example and related to Athens by blood, Ionian ground overlooking the Persians. They tied in with natural
and man-made obstacles to confine
Persian egress from the beaches and to
limit the Persian options for cavalry
maneuver. For five days, the two sides
faced each other, both wary of the impending battle. The Greek hoplites
were more heavily armored and more
effective at close quarters than the Persians but were outnumbered by more
than two to one and likely to be outflanked if they descended to the open
plains. The Persians had huge advan-
Hoplites of ancient Greece wield spears
on a painted amphora from the collection
of the Athens Archeological Museum.
Outnumbered two-to-one, the Greeks
defeated Persian invaders at the Battle
of Marathon 2,500 years ago.
August 2010 ■ ARMY
85
Ken Russell Salvador
Miltiades, the general who orchestrated the Athenian
victory at Marathon, offered a helmet inscribed with his
name as a sacrifice to the temple of Zeus at Olympia.
tages with respect to numbers, archery firepower and cavalry, but would forfeit these in an uphill assault into the restricted terrain occupied by the Athenians. Time could have
favored the Athenians, as the Spartans had committed to reinforce them once a critical religious festival of theirs was
over. Having fixed the Athenian army at Marathon, the Persians reembarked a portion of their force after dark on August 11, intending to sail to Athens, link up with Hippias’
confederates and overwhelm residual resistance. Elite Persian cavalry seems to have been part of this contingent.
The Persian move did not go unnoticed. The Greeks, inspired by the strategos (general) Miltiades, resolved upon an
immediate attack. They were still heavily outnumbered,
but the odds were more even and Persian cavalry less of an
issue. If they dawdled, Athens might fall behind them. Persian archery remained an issue, so the Greeks resolved to
race through the last 200 meters of their advance. Frontage
was also an issue, so the Greeks thinned their phalanx in
the center from eight to four ranks, leaving it eight ranks
deep on the flanks. The Persians had not expected the
much smaller Greek army to attack and were surprised
when the phalangites rolled over the ridge in battle array
and raced downhill upon them. Archery fire fell briefly
and, by and large, ricocheted off Greek shields and armor.
BG John S. Brown, USA Ret., was chief of military history at the
U.S. Army Center of Military History from December 1998 to
October 2005. He commanded the 2nd Battalion, 66th Armor,
in Iraq and Kuwait during the Gulf War and returned to
Kuwait as commander of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, in 1995. He has a doctorate in history from Indiana University. His book, Kevlar Legions: Army Transformation
1989–2005, is forthcoming.
86
ARMY ■ August 2010
The hoplites crashed into the Persian line and began horrific execution with their stout long spears and nimble short
swords. On the flanks, lightly armored Persian subject
troops were no match for the ferocity and mass of the Greek
assault and soon fled. In the center, the Persians had better
luck against thinner Greek ranks, but this produced a trap
as the rapidly advancing Greek flanks swept away the opposition to their front and then turned in on the center. The
result was a classic double envelopment, pressing the
trapped Persian center into an ever smaller space. More
than 6,000 Persians died, as compared to 192 Athenians.
The surviving Persians hastily reembarked and fled by sea.
The victorious Athenians then force-marched back to
Athens, reaching the city before the Persians at sea could.
Legend holds that Philippides sped ahead of the returning
Athenians, reaching the city in time to tell of the triumph
and hearten the inhabitants to hold out until their victorious army returned. A variant holds that Philippides had already made a run to and from Sparta before the battle,
fought in the battle itself and, exhausted by the final 26
miles, died on the spot. Decisively defeated and checked at
all points, the Persian host withdrew across the Aegean.
T
en years later, the Persians returned with an even
grander army, but they faced a different Greece.
Democracy was firmly ascendant in Athens, and its citizens had used the time to construct a formidable navy
rowed by free men. Other Greeks rose to the Athenian example. Spartans valiantly defended Thermopylae, and
Greek city-states mobilized in ever larger numbers to oppose the invading Persians. Athens won a spectacular
naval victory at Salamis; a year later, a vast coalition of
Greek armies won a smashing victory at Plataea. Hellenic
civilization was saved. Democracy was saved. Greek national identity was born. Military history as we know it
was also born.
Marathon became a textbook exposition for the principles of war and the first in a long series of battles that describe the military history of the Western world. Indeed,
many historians see an emergent Western way of war in
the hoplite battles of ancient Greece: citizen-soldiers, uniformly shared risks, applied technology and a search for
the singular decisive battle. We owe much to the warriors
of Marathon, remembered imperfectly through the 2,500
years that distance them from us. Today’s marathoners are
but a few of the many echoing their footsteps.
✭
Recommended Reading:
Fuller, J.F.C., A Military History of the Western World,
Vol. 1 (Cambridge, Mass.: DaCapo Press, 1987)
Grene, David, trans., Herodotus: The History (Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press, 1987)
Hanson, Victor Davis, The Western Way of War: Infantry
Battle in Classical Greece (Berkeley, Calif.: University of
California Press, 2009)