Battle of Marathon

I say, the deposition of the tyrants in the rest of Greece, not many years subsequently the battle of Marathon was fought between the Medes and Athenians.

For we say that at Marathon we alone stood in the van of danger against the barbarian;

They lay them then in the public sepulchre, which is in the fairest suburb of the city, and in which they always bury those who have fallen in the wars (except, at least, those who fell at Marathon;

As the Athenians were marshalled at Marathon, it happened that their line of battle was as long as the line of the Medes.

In the battle at Marathon about six thousand four hundred men of the foreigners were killed, and one hundred and ninety-two Athenians;

Coming from the sacred precinct of Heracles in Marathon, they pitched camp in the sacred precinct of Heracles in Cynosarges.

and they were hindered by the war they were then waging against Messene, and possibly by other obstacles, about which we have no information, with the result that they arrived too late by one single day for the battle which took place at Marathon.

But we—that is, I myself and our friend Megillus—affirm that it was the land-battle of Marathon which began the salvation of Greece, and that of Plataea which completed it;

Miltiades, who won the battle of Marathon, or yonder man?

The battle of Marathon is pictured there.

the barbarians whom Marathon destroyed were not enough.

In the twelfth year after this, having won the battle at Marathon, in the archonship of Phaenippus, after letting two years pass after the victory, the people being now confident, they used for the first time the law concerning ostracism, which had been enacted out of suspicion of those in positions of power, because Pisistratus, being a popular leader and general, had become tyrant.

whence Miltiades, fittingly making use of a trackless way and the night, and attacking the Persians, whom Datis led, accomplished the victory in the contest with those whom he himself led.

or that the victory at Marathon belonged to Miltiades,—it was the victory of the commonwealth.

Take first Themistocles, who won the naval victory at Salamis, Miltiades, who commanded at Marathon, and many others, whose achievements were not on a level with those of our commanders today.

The effect of this was that many strove to acquit themselves as gallant soldiers in battle, like Polyzelus, Cynegirus, Callimachus and all who fought at Marathon;

what sort was he who conquered the barbarians in the battle at Marathon and won for the city the glory which has come to Athens from this victory;

no, all these things have been the source of many complaints against her, while because of the battle of Marathon, the naval battle at Salamis, and most of all because her citizens abandoned their own homes to insure the deliverance of Hellas, she enjoys the encomiums of all mankind.

Certainly those who confronted the barbarians at Marathon, by defeating an army from the whole of Asia, won, at their own peril, security for every Greek alike.

Athenians, guarding Greece, subdued in fight At Marathon the gilded Persians’ might.

And they deemed that a victory which they could not win alone would be as impossible with the aid of their allies.

and so in their own land they set up on behalf of Greece a trophy of victory over the barbarians, who had invaded others’ territory for money, past the frontiers of their land;

These, supposing that, if they obtained the willing friendship of this city or overwhelmed its resistance, they would easily dominate the rest of the Greeks, landed at Marathon, thinking that we should be most destitute of allies if they made their venture at a moment when Greece was in dissension as to the best means of repelling the invaders.

And Miltiades, the hero of Marathon, they sentenced to be flung into the pit, and had it not been for the president, in he would have gone.

For whereas the men of Marathon had only proved to the Greeks thus much,—that it was possible to repel the barbarians by land though few against many, yet the prospect in a sea-fight remained still doubtful, and the Persians still retained the reputation of being invincible by sea, in virtue of their numbers and their wealth, their naval skill and strength.

With the same design they sailed off from Eretria to Marathon, supposing that they would have an easy task in leading the Athenians captive under the same yoke of bondage as the Eretrians.

but to the King she could not bring herself to lend official aid for fear of disgracing the trophies of Marathon, Salamis and Plataea, but she permitted exiles only and volunteers to assist him, and thereby, beyond a doubt, she saved him.

In the battle, the Athenian center was the hardest pressed, and it was there that the Barbarians held their ground the longest, over against the tribes Leontis and Antiochis.

Now when Datis, on being sent by Darius ostensibly to punish the Athenians for burning Sardis, but really to subdue all the Hellenes, put in at Marathon with all his armament and went to ravaging the country, then, of the ten generals appointed by the Athenians for the conduct of the war, it was Miltiades who enjoyed the greatest consideration, but in reputation and influence Aristides was second.

When the Athenians had routed the Barbarians and driven them aboard their ships, and saw that they were sailing away, not toward the islands, but into the gulf toward Attica under compulsion of wind and wave, then they were afraid lest the enemy find Athens empty of defenders, and so they hastened homeward with nine tribes, and reached the city that very day.

but those of Aristides include the fairest, most brilliant, and most important actions of the Greeks, namely, Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea.

Besides, at Marathon, and again at Plataea, Aristides was only one of ten generals, while Cato was elected one of two consuls out of many competitors, and one of two censors over the heads of seven of the foremost and most illustrious Romans, who stood for the office with him.

as Themistocles complained that the victory Miltiades got at Marathon would not let him sleep.

But after Miltiades the general overcame the Persian at Marathon, Themistocles utterly forsook his former disorders;

It is said, indeed, that Themistocles was so carried away by his desire for reputation, and such an ambitious lover of great deeds, that though he was still a young man when the battle with the Barbarians at Marathon was fought and the generalship of Miltiades was in everybody’s mouth, he was seen thereafter to be wrapped in his own thoughts for the most part, and was sleepless o’ nights, and refu …