499-490BC in Greece

Temple of Aphaia at Aegina

This post will look at Greece and the wider Greek world from the years 499BC to 490BC. Firstly a word as to our sources. By and large, the closer we move to the present, the better the sources become. Archaeology will shed some light on the period, but not much. Archaeology can give information on settlement patterns and occasional destruction levels, but it cannot tell the stories of the people who lived at this time. For this we are reliant on later writings from the classical world. Unlike the Mesopotamian and Egyptian sources, at least some of which are near contemporary with the events they describe, we have almost no manuscripts from this era, so most of what we hear will be mediated through the words of later writers, particularly Herodotus. This is not necessarily an issue, but it should be remembered. This particular period however begins to see actual historical writing focused on this period, particularly Herodotus’ book “Histories”, which is in many ways the first book of history to be preserved to us. Thucydides, Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch are all useful sources for this period as well.

Temple at Naxos

In the year 499BC Naxos was attacked by Persian forces. Certain Naxian exiles had previously approached the deputy tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras, with a plea to restore them. Sensing a real possibility for expanding his own influence, Aristagoras approached Artaphrenes, who was the satrap of Asia Minor and a brother of Darius I. Artaphrenes approved of the plan to attack Naxos and bring it under Persian control. The King in Susa gave his approval and two hundred ships were prepared, manned mainly by Persian soldiers and commanded by the Persian noble Megabates, but financed by Aristagoras and with Ionian contingents alongside the Naxian exiles.

The expedition failed, not disastrously, but expensively. Megabates and Aristagoras quarrelled and the Naxians were warned of the impending invasion, possibly by Megabates, but possibly just by the Ionians themselves. The Naxians prepared for a siege and successfully held out against the invaders for four months. At this point the siege was abandoned, although the Persians made a fortress for the Naxian exiles to stay on, in case they could win back the city themselves later. The ships returned to Asia Minor, with Aristagoras in disgrace and owing a large amount of money to the Persians, which he would have found difficult to repay.

Greek kylix showing Eos and Memnon (from the Louvre
collection)

The Naxians, then, made all preparations to face the onset of war. When their enemies had brought their ships over from Chios to Naxos, it was a fortified city that they attacked, and for four months they besieged it. When the Persians had exhausted all the money with which they had come, and Aristagoras himself had spent much beside, they built a stronghold for the banished Naxians, and went off to the mainland in poor spirits since still more money was needed for the siege.
Herodotus, Histories, 5.34, written around 440BC

Herodotus then tells a story that Histiaeus, the original tyrant of Miletus, sent a message to Aristagoras, ordering him to rebel. This message was supposedly delivered on the tattooed head of a slave, who asked Aristagoras to shave him. Histiaeus is said to have suspected he was being held as a hostage in the royal court and that a rebellion would give him an excuse to return to Ionia. This is possible, but the failure of the Naxian expedition would have given Aristagoras a strong reason to rebel anyway.

Achilles tending to Patroclus, from the Altes Museum Berlin

In the autumn of 499, expecting to be stripped of his position by Artaphrenes and fearing possible exile or execution, Aristagoras summoned representatives of the Ionian states to Miletus. Here the representatives were incited into rebellion. The tyrants of the Ionian cities were nearly all at Myous, in the aftermath of the failed expedition. Because the taxes were high, and the tyrants imposed by Persia were unpopular, the Ionians were nearly all in favour of rebellion. Once rebellion had been decided, the Ionians sent a force to capture the tyrants. Aristagoras renounced his position as tyrant and all the Ionian states declared themselves free cities. The Mytileneans killed their tyrant when he was returned to them, but the other cities let theirs go free.

Aristagoras next took a ship to Sparta, braving the crossing of the Aegean in the winter of that year, or possibly early spring. Sparta was the preeminent military force in Greece and it was believed that if any Greeks could defeat the Persians then it would be the Spartans. Aristagoras took with him a map of Ionia, showing where the lands and cities were and where the Spartans would be needed. King Cleomenes of Sparta asked how far inland the palace of the Persian king was and Aristagoras admitted that it would be three months march inland. Cleomenes realised how dangerous the undertaking was and refused to help Aristagoras. It is said by Herodotus that Aristagoras then tried to outright bribe Cleomenes, but that his young daughter Gorgo told him to send the stranger away or he would become corrupted.

World map supposedly along the lines of the map
produced by Hecataeus. The Greeks had knowledge of
the Mediterranean basin but of very little else

The map that Aristagoras had may have been produced by Hecataeus of Miletus. Miletus was at this time perhaps the most culturally rich of any Greek city. Hecataeus was perhaps the first historian in the world. He had travelled extensively and seen many lands, including Egypt. While in Egypt he realised that his personal genealogy, which he traced back sixteen generations to a divine ancestor, were miniscule compared to the historical records of the Egyptians. He composed works on genealogy, mythography and also wrote a book called Periodos ges, which was a travelogue combined with historical information on the lands he travelled in. The book was not preserved and only fragments remain, quoted in later writings. He improved upon the earlier map of Anaximander and it may have been a version of this map that was shown to the Spartans. Hecataeus was also a statesman of Miletus and counselled against the Ionian Revolt.

Aristagoras then went to Athens and promised wealth and glory to all who would aid in the Ionian Revolt. The Athenians believed themselves to be related to the Ionians, who shared a similar dialect, and the Athenians were worried that their ousted tyrant Hippias, who was with Artaphrenes, would return with Persian aid against them. With these considerations in mind, the Athenians voted to send twenty ships in the spring of 498 to aid the Ionians, while nearby Eretria sent five ships in support, possibly as repayment of a debt of gratitude from the time of the dimly remembered Lelantine War.

Greek red-figure kylix showing Theseus slaying Sinis

In 498 Aristagoras returned to Ionia, where he incited a group of captured Paeonians who had been transplanted to Asia Minor to flee to Chios and from there back to their lands in Europe. This was probably done to sow as much confusion in the Persian lands as possible.

The Athenian and Eretrian reinforcements arrived and assembled at Ephesus with the armies of the Ionians. They marched on Sardis, the centre of Persian administration in the region and the old capital of the Lydian kings. They met no effective resistance, but when they arrived in Sardis the strong citadel was fortified against them. The lower town, containing most of the temples, was set ablaze and Herodotus reports that a sanctuary of a goddess was burned by the Greeks, either intentionally or unintentionally. The blaze was apparently so intense that it threatened the Persians on the citadel, although I’m doubtful that this could happen. The Persians came down to fight in the town squares, so the Ionians and their allies withdrew, having accomplished nothing except burning the town and its temples and enraging the Persians.

Kore statuette
c.490BC

Accordingly, when one of these was set on fire by a soldier, the flames spread from house to house all over the whole city. While the city was burning, the Lydians and all the Persians who were in the citadel, being hemmed in on every side since the fire was consuming the outer parts and having no exit from the city, came thronging into the marketplace and to the river Pactolus, which flows through the marketplace carrying down gold dust from Tmolus and issues into the river Hermus, which in turn issues into the sea. They assembled in the marketplace by this Pactolus and were forced to defend themselves there. When the Ionians saw some of their enemies defending themselves and a great multitude of others approaching, they were afraid and withdrew to the mountain called Tmolus, from where they departed to their ships at nightfall.
Herodotus, Histories, 5.101, written around 440BC

Persian forces followed the retreating Greeks to Ephesus where the Ionian forces made their stand against the vengeful Persians. The Greeks were badly defeated and the commander of the Eretrian troops, a famous athlete by the name of Eualcides of Eretria, died in the battle. The Ionian forces split up and went to their cities, while the Athenian and Eretrian contingents went home.

Even though the strategic initiative was now with the Persians, the Ionian burning of Sardis may have strengthened them temporarily. Caria, with their many mercenaries and their strong city of Caunus, now considered joining the revolt. Byzantium was captured by the Ionian fleets and the Greek cities of the Hellespont and Propontis joined the revolt. All but one of the kingdoms of Cyprus revolted against the Persians, with the rebel Cypriots led by Onesilus, brother of King Gorgus of Salamis. The deposed Gorgus fled to the Persians. The Cypriots besieged Amathus, as it was the only city not to rebel. Onesilus appealed to the Ionians to send reinforcements and a large number of Ionian ships were came to his aid.

Peleus wrestling Thetis, c.490BC

Word reached King Darius of the revolt and he swore to punish the perpetrators; both the Ionians and those who had aided them. The tyrant Histiaeus was released to go to Ionia to aid the Persians in quelling the rebellion, after he had reaffirmed his promises of loyalty to King Darius.

Elsewhere in the Greek world around this time, King Amyntas I of Macedon died and was succeeded by his son Alexander I. In Gela in Sicily, Cleander of Gela was murdered by a member of the democratic faction in the city. However Cleander’s brother, Hippocrates of Gela, became tyrant of Gela in his stead. Hippocrates appointed Aenesidemus as tyrant of Leontini, as a way of rewarding his ally in the wars that Hippocrates was fighting.

In 497, while the Ionians and Cypriots were besieging Amathus, a Persian relief force, under the command of Artybius, was dispatched from Cilicia and landed near Salamis on Cyprus. Another Phoenician fleet sailed along the southern coast towards Amathus. The Ionians met the Phoenicians at sea and won a victory, however the Persian land army fared better against the Cypriots. Artybius was slain by the Cypriots, but the Persians continued to fight and sizeable Cypriot contingents defected. Onesilus was killed and the Cypriots routed. Cyprus was retaken swiftly by Persia and the Ionian fleet retreated to Ionia.

Medusa head red-figure vase

As an interesting aside, Herodotus notes that the head of Onesilus was taken to Amathus and displayed above the city gates, where the skull became used by local bees as a beehive. On the later advice of an oracle the citizens of Amathus buried the skull with honours and instituted a hero cult of Onesilus.

More Persian armies and generals were sent to Asia Minor to deal with the revolt. The commanders were Daurises, Hymaees and Otanes. Daurises attacked the Hellespont region and swiftly retook the cities of Dardanus, Abydos, Percote, Lampsacus and Paesus. However, the Carians now came out in open revolt and Daurises’ armies moved south to counter this new threat. Hymaees attacked the Propontis region and Aeolia, with some success, but died of illness later in the year. Artaphrenes and Otanes campaigned against Ionia and took back some of the smaller cities.

Gravestone from Athens,
probably showing a hoplitodromos runner

So the Cyprians, after winning freedom for a year, were enslaved once more. Daurises, Hymaees, and Otanes, all of them Persian generals and married to daughters of Darius, pursued those Ionians who had marched to Sardis, and drove them to their ships. After this victory they divided the cities among themselves and sacked them. Daurises made for the cities of the Hellespont and took Dardanus, Abydus, Percote, Lampsacus, and Paesus, each in a single day. Then as he marched from Paesus against Parius, news came to him that the Carians had made common cause with the Ionians and revolted from the Persians. For this reason he turned aside from the Hellespont and marched his army to Caria.
Herodotus, Histories, 5.116-117, written around 440BC

Aristagoras decided to lead an attack on Thrace around this time. Herodotus suggests that Aristagoras was a coward who was looking for somewhere to flee. It is hard to know what Aristagoras was doing, whether he had a plan or was simply looking for a bolt-hole. It should be noted that Thrace was a poor place to flee from Persia to, as it was still technically controlled by Persia.

In 496 Daurises’ armies attacked the main army of the Carians, who were famed as mercenaries throughout the Near East. The Carians fought on the shores of the River Marsyas, but were defeated after a stubborn struggle. The Battle of the Marsyas may have occurred late in the previous year however. The Carian army then fell back on Labraunda and were joined by reinforcements from Miletus. They fought a second engagement, but both the Milesians and Carians were defeated with heavy casualties.

Campaign of Daurises against the Carians

Labraunda was not far from Miletus and Daurises may have considered turning westwards to strike at the heart of the rebellion. With the main Carian army defeated it looked as if the campaign was nearly over and that all that was needed was a mopping up operation of the cities. But the Carians launched a surprise night attack while the Persians were marching on a road near Pedasus and won a victory over the Persians. In the confusion of the night-fighting Daurises and a number of high-ranking Persian officers were killed. As their commander was dead, the Persians withdrew.

The Carians, however, rallied and fought again after this disaster, for learning that the Persians had set forth to march against their cities, they beset the road with an ambush at Pedasus. The Persians fell into this by night and perished, they and their generals, Daurises and Amorges and Sisimaces. With these fell also Myrsus, son of Gyges. The leader of this ambush was Heraclides of Mylasas, son of Ibanollis.
Herodotus, Histories, 5.121, written around 440BC

Around this time Aristagoras was killed while besieging a town in Thrace. This left the Ionians without a natural leader of the rebellion and made coordinated action much more difficult. However, the Persians had also lost their most senior general in the region when Daurises had died and both sides paused to regroup.

Olympic boxing (the boxer on the right is submitting by
raising his finger)

Histiaeus had arrived in Sardis and was accused by Artaphrenes of treachery. Histiaeus fled to Chios where he tried to start a revolt among the Persians in Sardis. Artaphrenes forestalled this however and intercepted the messages, executing the ringleaders of any plots that Histiaeus was involved in. This quelling of internal plotting probably stalled the Persian army however.

In this year the Olympics were held. Tisikrates of Croton won the stadion race. Empedocles of Acragas won the horse-race. Philon of Corcyra won the boxing, Exainetos of Acragas won the wrestling, Pataikos of Dymai won the race for the mares, while Callias II of Athens, an extremely wealthy individual, owned the team of horses that won the tethrippon, or chariot race for the second time in the Olympics.

Vase painted by the Edinburgh Painter
at the Wilanow Palace in Warsaw

Around 495 Histiaeus tried to return to Miletus, but the Milesians, who by now were not over-fond of tyrants and not happy with the consequences of the revolt, refused to allow him to return. Histiaeus fled to Mytilene in Lesbos, where he was given eight ships. He took these eight ships towards Byzantium, where he acted as a pirate and seized as many ships as he could coming through the Bosphorus.

So troubles arose in Sardis. Since he failed in this hope, the Chians brought Histiaeus back to Miletus at his own request. But the Milesians were glad enough to be rid of Aristagoras himself, and they had no wish to receive another tyrant into their country now that they had tasted freedom. When Histiaeus tried to force his way into Miletus by night, he was wounded in the thigh by a Milesian. Since he was thrust out from his own city, he went back to Chios; when he could not persuade the Chians to give him ships, he then crossed over to Mytilene and persuaded the Lesbians to give him ships. They manned eight triremes, and sailed with Histiaeus to Byzantium; there they encamped, and seized all the ships that were sailing out of the Euxine, except when the crews consented to serve Histiaeus.
Herodotus, Histories, 6.5, written around 440BC

Meanwhile the Persians decided to ignore the peripheral distractions and to focus on Miletus. The dead Daurises was possibly replaced with Datis, a senior Median general who had fought alongside and against the Greeks before.

Bust of Pythagoras in the
Capitoline Museum

Around this time it seems likely that Pythagoras died. He had been an enigmatic thinker and philosopher, and it is hard to exactly pin down his personal beliefs. He left behind a Pythagorean community who furthered his reputation and who were almost like a communal cult with an almost religious obsession with mathematics and music.

If Pythagoras had passed away around this time, other philosophers had arisen to take up the mantle. Heraclitus flourished around this time. He is remembered as an acerbic, melancholy character, who was obsessed with change. He believed that the universe was in continuous flux. If Thales was to be associated with water, Heraclitus was to be associated with Fire, as he believed the world to be nothing more than rarefied fire undergoing a series of transformations. His philosophy was compelling, but difficult to understand. He was known as the Obscure, or the Riddler, to his contemporaries. Due to his melancholy nature, he is also known as the Weeping Philosopher. He was from Ephesus and was doubtless active during the time of the Ionian Revolt, although it is not known that he took any part in it. He wrote a book and deposited it in the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, but only small fragments have come down to us of it.

In the sphere of art, the Pioneer Group of Athenian vase painters was active around this time. They were a group of vase painters who worked in the potter’s area of Athens and who tried to perfect the red-figure vase painting of their day. The Edinburgh Painter was also active in Athens at this time.

Later painting of a weeping Heraclitus

In 494 the Persians were reorganised under new leadership. They sent their land armies to attack Miletus directly. Their fleets, under Phoenician leadership, came from the south and were slower at getting into position. The Ionians assembled their whole fleet off the coast of Miletus at a small island called Lade. They had a sizeable naval contingent, which Herodotus numbers at 353 triremes. The Persian fleet, with Phoenician, Cilician, Egyptian and Cypriot contingents was somewhat larger. The Ionians put themselves under the command of an experienced commander by the name of Dionysius of Phocaea. Phocaea had previously been abandoned by its inhabitants, but Dionysius was one of the few who had remained.

He put the Ionians through a rigorous training exercise for a week, to enable them to act cohesively. Eventually the Ionians, who were unused to these perpetual rigours, rebelled and stopped obeying orders. The Persians wisely held back from attacking while these dissensions were sowing in the camp. After waiting some time for the Ionians to become more and more disorganised, the Persians sent the Ionian tyrants who had been deposed by the cities at the beginning of the revolt to promise that if people simply went home and surrendered that no more would be done to them. The knowledge of potential Persian leniency made the Ionians far less likely to fight. The Samians are said to have secretly accepted the offer and to have been told to defect in the heat of battle.

The Persians offered battle soon thereafter, in what is known as the Battle of Lade. The Persian fleet was larger and as the two sides advanced against each other, the Samians withdrew. The Lesbians began to withdraw and most of the Ionian fleet was soon in flight. Some of the Samians are said to have stayed, but this may be a later tale. The Chians are said to have fought bravely, to have suffered heavy losses, fled the battle after all was lost, only to be cut down on land by the Ephesians in a confused and sorry case of mistaken identity.

A wooden model of an
ancient Greek trireme

The most roughly handled of those that stood their ground in the sea-fight were the Chians, since they refused to be cowards and achieved deeds of renown. They brought a hundred ships to the fleet, as was mentioned above, and on each ship were forty picked men of their citizens. Seeing themselves betrayed by the greater part of their allies, they did not think it right to act like the worst among them; with only a few allies to aid them they fought on and broke the enemy's line, until they had taken many ships but lost most of their own.
Herodotus, Histories, 6.15, written around 440BC

The unfortunate commander of the Ionian fleet, Dionysius of Phocaea, fled with his ships to Phoenicia where he made a brief career as a pirate, before fleeing with his ships westwards, where he was a pirate preying on Carthaginian and Etruscan ships near Sicily for the rest of his life.

Earlier statuary from the Temple of Apollo at
Didyma

The Siege of Miletus continued unabated and without hope for the defenders. Miletus was taken by mining operations of the Persians and its inhabitants were killed or deported. The Milesians were deported to a town in Mesopotamia, near the mouth of the Tigris. Some Carians from Pedasus were deported to the farmland around the city. The Oracle of Apollo at Didyma was plundered and ruined. All its treasures were taken as plunder and the statue of the god itself was sent to Darius as war booty. The oracle at Didyma would later be restored, but would first be silent for the next centuries; something which it apparently did not foresee.

The Samians were ashamed of their flight and fearful of the actions of the tyrant when he was to return. So they accepted an invitation from Scythes, the tyrant of Zancle, a Sicilian town at the north-eastern tip of Sicily, to settle there in Sicily. Upon arriving in the western Mediterranean, the Samians were met by Anaxilaus (sometimes known as Anaxilas), the tyrant of Rhegium, which was a Greek city at the toe of Italy. Anaxilaus disliked the Zancleans and he persuaded the Samians to attack Zancle and seize it by surprise. They did so, and expelled the Zancleans from their city. Scythes appealed to his ally Hippocrates of Gela, who in fact betrayed Scythes and allied with the Samians. Scythes eventually made his way to the king of Persian, who was impressed by him and he died a wealthy man. To complete the whole miserable tale of betrayal and intrigue, shortly thereafter, Anaxilaus betrayed the Samians, expelled them from the town and settled it with new inhabitants. He also renamed the city as Messana, after his native Messene, which is the name the city still bears to this day.

Head of a warrior from Athens
circa 490BC

When Histiaeus, who was still raiding near Byzantium, heard that the Ionians had been crushed at the Battle of Lade, he returned to Ionia. He asked the Chians to join him in continuing the rebellion, but the Chians had lost heavily at Lade and refused to participate in any more wars against Persia. Histiaeus attacked them and forced them to join his rebellion. He then took his Lesbian and Chian army and attempted to attack the island of Thasos in the north of the Aegean.

Elsewhere in Greece, in this year the Spartans, under their king Cleomenes, decided to attack their ancient rival Argos. The Argives were said to have been fearful of a prophecy that seemed to suggest they would be taken unawares, so they mirrored the Spartan movements, until the Spartans realised this and their crier signalled that it was time to eat, when in reality the Spartans were preparing for an attack. The Argives settled down to eat and were taken unawares. This is a later story by Herodotus and is almost certainly nothing more than a folktale. It is true that the Argives suffered a dreadful defeat at the Battle of Sepeia. The defeat was worsened by Cleomenes executing what survivors he could and burning down a sacred grove where other survivors had fled, burning alive the fugitives in the process.

Argos was in dire straits and there is a later story in Pausanias that suggests that Telesilla (a woman who had devoted her life to poetry) rallied the slaves and women to defend the walls of Argos. The Spartans tried to take the city by sudden assault, but Telesilla’s hasty army held unwavering and the Spartans withdrew. This story is very late and not mentioned in other sources. With such a loss of manpower, it is very probable that women, like Telesilla, and slaves had to assist in the reorganisation of the city. Argos was crippled for over a generation and would not threaten Sparta again for decades.

Figure of Athena from Panathenaic
Amphora

In 493 Histiaeus heard news that the Persian fleet was moving northwards and so returned to Lesbos. His army ran short on food so he attempted to raid the coast with his forces. He was caught by a Persian contingent on the coast opposite Lesbos and after a prolonged struggle at the Battle of Malene, a Persian cavalry charge routed the Greek forces. Histiaeus was captured alive, but Artaphrenes deemed him too dangerous to be left alive and executed him at Sardis. His body was impaled at Sardis, but his head was sent to Darius, who is said to have mourned for the man who once did him such service at the banks of the Danube.

Histiaeus was taken prisoner in this way: the Greeks fought with the Persians at Malene in the country of Atarneus; the armies fought for a long time, until the Persian cavalry charged and fell upon the Greeks. So this was the accomplishment of the cavalry; when the Greeks were routed, Histiaeus, supposing that the king would not put him to death for his present transgression, did what showed that he loved his life too well. He was overtaken in his flight by a Persian, and when he was caught and about to be stabbed, he cried out in the Persian language and revealed himself to be Histiaeus the Milesian.
Herodotus, Histories, 6.29, written around 440BC

The Persians continued mopping up operations in Ionia, on certain islands literally combing the islands with human chains to ensure that no one had hidden from them. Samos was spared because their fleet had abandoned the Ionians during the Battle of Lade but Lesbos, Chios and other islands were despoiled and many inhabitants enslaved.

The Ionian Revolt had now ended with complete victory for the Persians. While the Persian Empire had not been seriously threatened by the uprising, it had however taken some time for them to quell the revolt. They had lost no pitched battles on land, but had suffered some reverses at sea, the burning of Sardis and the night ambush at Pedasus. Thus Artaphrenes was keen to not have to fight the uprising again. He summoned the Ionians and reassessed their tax burdens, in some cases lightening the amount due by small amounts. Apart from the deportation at Miletus and the initial plundering in the aftermath of victory, the Persians attempted to deal relatively fairly with their reconquered subjects.

The Athenians must have known that there would be retribution for their part in the Ionian Revolt. Themistocles became archon of Athens in this year and urged the Athenians to strengthen their navy. This advice may or may not have been followed, but the Athenians seem to have fortified the Piraeus harbour at this time. This was useful because previously the Athenians had just used the nearby beach at Phaleron/Phalerum as a place to draw up their ships, which was very exposed to both the weather and to any enemies that might make a sudden landing there. Using the smaller, but more secluded harbour of Piraeus would enable Athens to better use her fleet.

Coin of Miltiades from his time as tyrant in the Chersonese

A refugee from the Ionian Revolt also fled to Athens around this time. His name was Miltiades. His family was Athenian and had been sent by the Peisistratid tyrants to establish colonies near the Hellespont, where they ruled as tyrants. His father had been Cimon Coalemus, who had been murdered by the jealous sons of the tyrant Peisistratus. Miltiades had been a tyrant in the region himself, but had alienated the Persians. He was in fact first put on trial when he returned to Athens, but the fact that he had been pursued by Phoenician warships on his escape to Athens helped his cause. He had fought in the Ionian Revolt and had seen how the Persians had so often defeated the Greek armies. Thus, even though he was an ex-tyrant, from a family with close connections to tyranny, Miltiades was welcomed back to democratic Athens as a champion of resistance to Persia.

Around this time the great playwright Phrynichus produced a tragic play called the Fall of Miletus, where he dramatized the suffering of the sack and deportation of the Milesian people. The people of Athens were acutely aware of the tragedy that had befallen the Ionian city, and they knew as well that their lack of aid was partly to blame. They also knew that a similar fate might befall them in a future war with Persia. Phrynichus was fined for depressing the populace and the play was banned and never again performed. The play has been lost to us, which is a pity, as Phrynichus is one of the fathers of Greek theatre and such a play would be a great treasure. The banning of the play also meant that future tragedians would generally focus on mythological subjects and historical plays were seldom attempted.

Zeuxo and Chrysippus, circa 490BC

In the year 492 Mardonius, the son of Gobryas and brother-in-law of King Darius, was sent with a large army into Asia Minor. He proceeded along the Ionian coast and, finding that the tyrants put in place by the Persians were unpopular with the Ionians, he removed the tyrants and put democracies in place along his route. From here he crossed into Europe by the more prosaic means of using his ships to ferry soldiers across the channel rather than building pontoon bridges across the sea.

It is possible that Mardonius was aiming at the conquest of Athens and Eretria, in retaliation for their part in the Ionian Revolt, but it is more likely that Mardonius was trying to reinstate the control of Thrace that had been tenuously established in the aftermath of Darius’ Scythian campaign. His fleet moved against Thasos and secured this region without a struggle. Thasos was important because it contained gold mines that were of interest to Persian and Greek alike.

His fleet then moved back to the Thracian coast, but were caught in a heavy storm off the coast of Mount Athos. According to Herodotus this disaster led to three hundred ships lost and twenty thousand dead. This was a disaster indeed. Nature had inflicted a far heavier defeat on Mardonius than the Greeks could.

Kore from Athens, circa 490BC

Crossing over from Thasos they travelled near the land as far as Acanthus, and putting out from there they tried to round Athos. But a great and irresistible north wind fell upon them as they sailed past and dealt very roughly with them, driving many of their ships upon Athos. It is said that about three hundred ships were lost, and more than twenty thousand men. Since the coasts of Athos abound in wild beasts, some men were carried off by beasts and so perished; others were dashed against the rocks; those who could not swim perished because of that, and still others by the cold.
Herodotus, Histories, 6.44, written around 440BC

Mardonius was then assailed by the Thracian Brygi tribe, who launched a night attack against his camp. The attack was initially successful, but the armies of Mardonius repelled the attack and then hunted down their attackers. Having suffered major losses at the Mount Athos disaster Mardonius returned to Asia and reported his losses to the king.

In Sicily, around this time, the tyrant Hippocrates of Gela besieged the city of Syracuse, but had to withdraw as the naval powers of Corinth and Corcyra threatened to intervene in the war. Sicilian chronology is somewhat more difficult than that of mainland Greece so this is an approximate date.

The Olympics were held this year. Tisikrates of Croton took the crown for the stadion race this year, with his second victory at that event. Hieronymus of Andros won the pentathlon, Kleomedes of Astypalaia won the boxing event. Krokon of Eretria won the horse race, even as the Persians made plans against his city. The extremely wealthy nobleman, Callias II of Athens, owned the horses that won the tethrippon chariot race for the third time at the Olympics.

Hoplitodromos runner, painted by the
Antiphon Painter

In the year 491 the Persian king Darius I threatened the Thasians, who it seemed had been contemplating revolt. They were forced to dismantle their walls and move their navy to join the Persian forces. All Persian subject states and cities near the Aegean were ordered to begin building new ships for transporting men and horses, to replace those lost at Mount Athos. Heralds were sent to the Greek cities, both on the islands and the mainland, to order them to submit to Persia by sending symbolic gifts of earth and water to the Persian king, symbolising that he ruled over their lands and seas. One by one the cities sent their submission to the king. But there were some who resisted.

Athens and Sparta, among others refused to give the symbolic gifts. The Athenians threw the emissaries into a pit and later legend says they suggested the emissaries to collect their own earth. The Spartans threw the Persian messengers into a well. This was seen as an extravagant act of defiance, but it was also sacrilegious. Emissaries were protected by custom and religious sanction. The murder of a diplomat was seen as a grave crime.

Stater from Aegina from around 490BC
showing the turtle symbol on the obverse

The nearby island state of Aegina did give earth and water to the Persians. Aegina was a major enemy of Athens and the Athenians sent a message to the Spartans accusing Aegina of betraying the Greek cause. The Spartan king Cleomenes began to threaten the leading citizens of Aegina. Meanwhile, the Eurypontid king of Sparta, Demaratus, tried to undermine Cleomenes.

Then Darius attempted to learn whether the Greeks intended to wage war against him or to surrender themselves. He sent heralds this way and that throughout Hellas, bidding them demand a gift of earth and water for the king. He despatched some to Hellas (Greece), and he sent others to his own tributary cities of the coast, commanding that ships of war and transports for horses be built. So the cities set about these preparations. The heralds who went to Hellas received what the king's proclamation demanded from many of those dwelling on the mainland and from all the islanders to whom they came with the demand. Among the islanders who gave earth and water to Darius were the Aeginetans.
Herodotus, Histories, 6.48-49, written around 440BC

Treasury of the Athenians at Delphi

Wanting to get rid of a rival, the rather unpredictable Cleomenes made a pact with a relative of Demaratus’, Leotychidas, to say that Demaratus was in fact illegitimate and that Leotychidas should be king of Sparta in his stead. The Oracle at Delphi was bribed to confirm this suspicion and Demaratus was demoted from the kingship and Leotychidas put in his place. Shortly thereafter Demaratus left Sparta, after the taunting of Leotychidas, and fled to Persia, where he was welcomed at the court of Darius. Cleomenes and Leotychidas then successfully forced the island of Aegina to submit to Sparta and withdraw its submission to Persia. The instigators of the submission to Persia were arrested and deported to Athens as hostages.

Meanwhile in Sicily, Hippocrates of Gela died in a battle against the Sicels. His sons took power, but the citizens of Gela revolted against them. Gelo, the commander of the cavalry put down the revolt, but then took power for himself and made himself tyrant of Gela, founding the Deinomenid dynasty of tyrants. Gela was a powerful city in Sicily and Gelo would be one of the most powerful rulers in the Greek world at this time.

Pediment from the older Hecatompedon temple in Athens

A number of things occurred in the decade in or around 490BC that are difficult to assign to a particular date so I shall mention them here. Around this time a Comedy competition was added to the Great Dionysia festival in Athens, in addition to the slightly more venerable Tragedy competition.

In architecture, the city of Athens built a treasury in Delphi around this time. However, the later writer Pausanias states that it was dedicated with the spoils from the later Battle of Marathon. More modern archaeologists suggest that it is stylistically similar to earlier temples and thus may have been begun some decades previously. Perhaps it had been begun some time previously, but was subsequently rededicated after the Battle of Marathon?

Vase painted by Onesimos

On the beleaguered island of Aegina, a Temple of Aphaia was completed at around this time. In Athens a new temple to Athena Parthenos was begun on the Acropolis. This was a replacement for the older Hecatompedon (hundred-footer) temple that had served as the primary temple on the hill. It is sometimes referred to as the Older Parthenon and stood at the site of the present Parthenon, but almost nothing remains of it.

In the realm of artwork, the Bryn Mawr Painter and the vase painter named Onesimos both flourished in or around this time period. Both of these painters were red-figure vase painters whose works survive from this time.

In the realm of medicine, it would appear that Hippocrates (sometimes known as Hippocrates I) was active at around this time. He was the grandfather of the more famous Hippocrates and probably lived on Cos, where he was associated with the medical school there. While he was a physician, from a prominent family of physicians, it is not clear if he wrote on or innovated in any aspect of medicine.

Possible route of Hanno the Explorer

Although the dates are unclear, it would seem that Hanno the Navigator, a Carthaginian explorer, made his expedition around this time. Hanno sailed westwards, through the Pillars of Hercules and into the Atlantic Ocean. Here he describes a voyage into strange lands and also records meeting a tribe of semi-humans that his interpreters referred to as Gorillie/Gorillae and are probably what we now refer to, using his word, as gorillas. It is unclear how far south Hanno or his ships actually reached. They mention a mountain of fire that is probably a volcano and which might be a description of Mount Kakulima or Mount Cameroon. As the Carthaginians were notoriously secretive about their voyages, it is possible that large parts of his narrative were forged, or concealed. But it is still fascinating to remember the courage of explorers of times past. Far in the future, a crater on the moon would be named after him.

And we sailed along with all speed, being stricken by fear. After a journey of four days, we saw the land at night covered with flames. And in the midst there was one lofty fire, greater than the rest, which seemed to touch the stars. By day this was seen to be a very high mountain, called Chariot of the Gods. Thence, sailing along by the fiery torrents for three days, we came to a bay, called Horn of the South. In the recess of this bay there was an island, like the former one, having a lake, in which there was another island, full of savage men. There were women, too, in even greater number. They had hairy bodies, and the interpreters called them Gorillie. When we pursued them we were unable to take any of the men; for they all escaped, by climbing the steep places and defending themselves with stones; but we took three of the women, who bit and scratched their leaders, and would not follow us. So we killed them and flayed them, and brought their skins to Carthage. For we did not voyage further, provisions failing us. 
Periplus of Hanno the Navigator, written circa 450BC, but translated at a later date into Greek

Craters of Mount Cameroon, possibly the mountain of fire
seen by Hanno the Explorer

Pliny the Elder writes that Himilco the explorer set sail at the same time as Hanno. These dates are very sketchy and it is quite possible that these voyages were made at different times and possibly up to a century and a half earlier. Himilco is said to have said into the Atlantic and sailed north. He describes a still sea, without wind, and takes a long time to pass along the coast, possibly because his expedition was founding colonies along the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula along their route. Himilco’s voyage is even less documented than Hanno’s and almost nothing survives of it save the occasional reference in Pliny and in a much later poem, possibly written by Avienus around AD350. Himilco was possibly the first explorer from the Mediterranean to sail as far north as Britain, or possibly even Ireland. But his expedition is not well documented and the Carthaginians were known to forge their travel reports to deter outsiders from venturing along their trade routes.

Beyond, towards the area to the west, 
Himilco relates that from the Pillars there is a sea without end: 
The Ocean lies open across a wide area, and the sea stretches out. 
No man has entered upon these seas; no man has ever set ships on that ocean, 
Because the sea lacks winds that would drive the ship along, 
And no breeze from the sky favours a ship. 
Then, because a mist clothes the air with a kind of cloak, fog always conceals the sea 
And lasts through the day, which is rather thick with clouds. 
That is the Ocean, which roars far off around the vast earth. 
That is the great sea. This sea encircles the shores. 
This is the source of the water of the inner sea; this is the parent of our sea. 
Indeed, on the outside it curves into shape very many gulfs 
And the power of the deep sea penetrates our world.
Ora Maritima, possibly written by Avienus, circa AD350

Treasury of the Athenians at Delphi

Probably around the beginning of the year 490 it was discovered that Cleomenes, one of the kings of Sparta, had bribed the Oracle of Delphi to declare his rival, the king Demaratus, illegitimate and to expel him from Sparta. Cleomenes ran away to Thessaly and then Arcadia, where he is said to have stirred up the Arcadians against the Spartans. The Spartans are said by Herodotus to have brought their king home, but to have found that he had gone insane. He was then confined, but eventually persuaded a helot guard to give him a knife, at which point he began to cut himself until he died of his wounds. This is the tale told by Herodotus, who tells a number of stories of what might or might not have caused the king’s supposed madness. It is not impossible that Cleomenes, who had made some serious enemies with his clever, but erratic behaviour, was murdered or executed secretly by the Spartans themselves.

After the death of Cleomenes I, his half-brother Leonidas I succeeded as Agiad king of Sparta. Leonidas married Gorgo, the daughter of Cleomenes. The Eurypontid king Leotychidas was now seen to have become king under false pretences, however the previous king Demaratus had already fled to the Persians, so Leotychidas remained king. The people of Aegina now demanded the hostages back that Cleomenes and Leotychidas had taken from them and deposited at Athens. Leotychidas had no choice but to ask the Athenians to return the hostages, ten of the most prominent nobles of Aegina, but the Athenians refused.

Reconstruction of the Temple of Aphaia at Aegina

Athens was a long-time enemy of Aegina. There was a dim, distant reason the two cities hated each other; a war over statues, perhaps a century earlier, that Aegina had won. Over a decade earlier Aegina had raided Athens, after Thebes had requested aid in a war against the Athenians. The Athenians were still angry over the insult of the undeclared act of aggression. But the underlying reason for the hatred of the two city states was that they were both naval powers who traded extensively and had large navies. Athens wished to wrest control of the sea from Aegina, as Aegina had a large and powerful navy, considerably larger than the Athenian navy at the time. Aegina was also wealthy. Over a century earlier their city had begun minting coins and the weights and measurement standards of Aegina were used by merchants all over the Mediterranean. According to Herodotus one of the wealthiest merchants of the Greek world, Sostratos, was from Aegina. Aegina is close enough to Athens that the island can be seen from the Acropolis and two such ambitious neighbours could not coexist peacefully.

Ruins of the Temple of Aphaia at Aegina

Faced with the refusal to return the hostages, the people of Aegina captured a ship containing many wealthy Athenians while they were at a festival at Sunium. There was now outright war between the two cities. Aegina was ruled by an oligarchy, so one wealthy nobleman, Nicodromus, who planned a democratic coup, appealed to the Athenians to attack the city. He would betray the city to the Athenians in return for a change of government. The Athenians borrowed some ships from the Corinthians, who were also concerned about the power of Aegina, but they arrived too late and the coup attempt had failed. Nicodromus and his supporters who had managed to flee were given land at Sunium. The remainder were executed by the rulers of Aegina. The Athenians did manage to win a naval engagement, as with their fleet now numbered about seventy triremes. Some Argive volunteers came to Aegina and Aegina was victorious in a further naval engagement which caused the Athenians to withdraw.

It is probable that Herodotus, who is our primary source for all of this, is telling a story that was told to him by the Athenians and there are some problems with the chronology. I have placed this conflict in the early months of 490, but it may have been slightly earlier or slightly later, perhaps by a number of years. But this is where Herodotus writes of it.

Pediment sculptures from the Temple of Aphaia
at Aegina

Around this time the city of Taras (or Tarentum, but now known as Taranto), won some victories against the Messapians and Peucetians. These were two neighbouring peoples in southern Italy. They may have originally come from across the Adriatic, but had settled in southern Italy and must have been dismayed at the growing wealth and influence of the Greek city states.

Meanwhile in Persia, King Darius had not forgotten that the Eretrians and the Athenians had helped in the burning of Sardis during the Ionian Revolt. The expedition of Mardonius had been called off two years earlier after the storm, but now another army had been gathered. It was under the command of the experienced general Datis, with his second-in-command being Artaphrenes the Younger, the son of the satrap Artaphrenes who had been besieged by the Greeks in Sardis eight years earlier. The army gathered in Cilicia with a huge fleet. Herodotus says that there were six hundred triremes, and a large number of supply and horse-transport vessels besides. Even if these numbers were exaggerated this must still have been a formidable force. I think that the number of transport vessels must have been larger than normal, as the army of Datis had a number of cavalry and cavalry require much more space than infantry to transport.

Datis determined to use his huge naval force to sail across the Aegean Sea, rather than travelling through Thrace as Mardonius did. This would allow the Persians to subdue the islands of the Aegean as they passed. Naxos, which had survived a Persian siege nearly a decade earlier, was attacked. Faced with overwhelming odds the Naxians fled to the hills, but were captured and enslaved. Their city was afterwards burned.

Terrace of the Lions at Delos

The people of the unfortified island of Delos heard the fate of Naxos and fled, but Datis had no desire to attract evil omens. He did not attack Delos, but instead summoned the Delians, gave them assurances of safety and then sacrificed to the gods Apollo and Artemis there, as it was said to be on Delos that these gods had been born. Datis sailed onwards, but Herodotus records that, after the passing of the Persian fleet, an earthquake shook the island. The Persians sailed onwards, subduing island after island before landing on the large island of Euboea, pausing briefly to attack and subjugate Carystus at the southern end of the island.

Meanwhile the city of Eretria was in a panic and unsure what course to take. The Naxians had tried to flee to the hills, but that had failed. The Eretrians had lost badly against the Persian cavalry at the Battle of Ephesus earlier in the decade, so fighting in the plain was ruled out. The Athenians sent some small forces to assist in the defence of Eretria, but these were withdrawn, as it was feared that Eretria would inevitably fall. This was a cynical move, but a justified one.

After a hard-fought siege of just six days the city fell, possibly by treachery, as some citizens believed the Persians to be irresistible. The Persians burned Eretria to the ground, even including the temples, in revenge for the burning of Sardis. Those Eretrians who survived the siege were made captives and placed on a nearby island to await deportation. The month was now either August or September, and, after waiting a few days, the Persian fleet moved over to the mainland and disembarked on the plains of Marathon.

Hippias, the exiled Peisistratid tyrant, was with the Persian army and had probably advised the Persians to land at Marathon. It was at Marathon that his father Peisistratus had made his successful landing after returning from exile and, after a short struggle with the Athenians, had almost effortlessly taken over the city. Hippias may have planned to do the same and the Persian commanders, Datis and Artaphrenes, would have been pleased to hear that this area had a wide beach for their ships. It also had shelter from the winds that blew across the Aegean at this time of year, probably the widest plain in Attica and was also one of the easiest places in the region to deploy cavalry.

Later bust of Miltiades

The Athenians, upon learning that the Persians had destroyed Eretria and had now landed at Marathon, sent a runner to Sparta. This runner was called Pheidippides (sometimes written as Philippides in some ancient sources). He is probably the most famous runner in antiquity. His name may have originally been Philippides, meaning “lover of horses”, which was an aristocratic name and an unusual one for a person who probably had running as a livelihood. Alternatively his name may have been something else entirely and Pheidippides may have been a nickname. Pheidippides is a compound name combining “thrifty” and “horse”, and so it might be a joke that, as a professional runner, he didn’t need a horse. Whatever the case, this mysterious runner was sent to cover the distance to Sparta, to raise the alarm of the imminent Persian threat and to beg for Spartan aid.

Pheidippides covered the nearly 250 kilometres in around a day and a half, having a religious experience as he ran, believing that the god Pan spoke to him; promising aid in the battle to come if Athens would build a temple to Pan after the battle. Upon arriving in Sparta Pheidippides gave his message to the Spartans, “Men of Lacedaemon, Athens requests your assistance. We beg you not to stand by and watch the most ancient city in Greece be enslaved by a foreign power. Eretria has already been reduced to slavery, thus making Greece weaker by one notable city than it was before.”

The Spartans are said to have agreed in principle to the Athenian aid. But they refused to march until the Carnea festival was completed, which seems to have meant that the Spartan army would not begin to march until at least a week later. It would then take them some time to reach Attica and Marathon. Pheidippides must have taken this news and raced back towards the army at Marathon, presumably covering the distance in a similar time.

The Niobid Crater in the Louvre:
The scene may show Athenian soldiers at a
sanctuary of Heracles preparing for battle
at Marathon. It may be an entirely unrelated
scene however

While Pheidippides ran from Athens, the Athenians marched out of the city towards Marathon, determined to confront the Persians on the plain, rather than be caught inside their city and risk treason, as the Eretrians had done. Through forced marching, the Athenians would have been able to reach a hill overlooking the plain late in the day, thus preventing the Persians from moving from their initial camp near the ships. The Athenians were forming up their camp. There were perhaps ten thousand Athenian hoplites. The hill was a strong position to defend, and marshy areas on either side of the plain protected their flanks somewhat. But it would be risky for the hoplites to leave the hill and engage with cavalry and archers on the plain. It is probable that the Athenians brought more troops as peltasts and skirmishers, possibly slaves who were promised their freedom for fighting in this critical battle.

At this crucial juncture, in Athens’ hour of need, the nearby city of Plataea arrived to give aid. Plataea was a very small Boeotian city that was allied to Athens through a shared antipathy to Thebes. Plataea had remembered the wars Athens had fought on their behalf and sent their entire military force, around a thousand hoplites, to try and hold the army of Datis.

Datis and Artaphrenes ordered their troops to mostly disembark, but made no effort to attack the Greeks. Having seen the disunity and cowardice of the Greeks in previous campaigns, Datis was probably planning to present the great strength of his army to the Greeks and wait for their nerve to break. Once they began to quarrel amongst themselves they would be easy prey. As the two sides waited for the other to move, Pheidippides must have arrived back at the camp. The news that the Spartans were coming, but not yet, changed the picture for the Athenian commanders and most of them were probably of the opinion that they should wait until reinforcements arrived. There were ten Athenian war commanders, led by the war-archon Callimachus. Miltiades, who had previously fought the Persians while a tyrant in the Chersonese, was one of the Athenian commanders as well, and seems to have favoured an attacking strategy rather than waiting.

Persian archer from the friezes of the
Temple of Aphaia at Aegina
(reconstruction)

Datis, who had Hippias, the deposed Athenian tyrant to advise him, would have been able to guess some of the counsels of the Greeks. The Persians must have been aware that large numbers of reinforcements were en route. The Persians outnumbered the Greeks three or four to one, but those odds would change once the Spartans arrived. Supplies may have been an issue for the Persians as well, in that they had to maintain a large fighting force on hostile territory. On the other hand, if they waited, Hippias’ supporters might still fracture the Athenian army. Datis weighed the probabilities and it seems that he decided to act.

I have often seen discussions of the battle that suggest that Datis decided to embark some of his troops, perhaps including most of his cavalry, and prepare to sail against Athens. Others have suggested that Datis, weary of waiting for dissension in the Greek ranks, was mustering his army to attack. All of this is speculation. Our closest detailed source to the battle is in the Histories of Herodotus, written about fifty years later, and this account does not mention either of these factors specifically. But it seems likely that the something about tactical situation changed in some respect and something that Datis did made the Athenians decide to attack. There is no mention of the feared Persian cavalry in the battle, so perhaps these had been boarded onto the ships. We will never know for sure, but the Greeks now chose the moment to strike.

According to Herodotus, Miltiades had been pushing for an attack and Callimachus, the war archon and foremost of the ten Athenian generals, now agreed. The Athenians and their allies formed up on the hill overlooking Marathon. They spread their line across the plain to match the Persian line and to prevent them from being outflanked. Once their line was spread out thinly enough, the marshes on either side of the plain would prevent the Persian line from extending. To match the Persian line the centre of the Athenian host was thinned, while the flanks stayed at their normal strength. It is unclear if this was a cunning plan, or simply because the commanders did not have enough men, needed the line to be long and dared not have their flanks weak.

Initial positions of the Battle of Marathon:
Athenian forces shown in blue. Persian forces in red

The Athenians now began to advance on the Persians. Herodotus mentions that the armies were about a kilometre and a half apart when the advance was ordered. At some point, probably in the last few hundred metres, the Athenians were ordered to attack at a run. This would have broken the cohesiveness of the hoplite formation, but Miltiades knew that the here they faced troops with armour that was far lighter than the hoplite armour and that it was most important to simply get the troops into direct combat. The Athenians charged and Herodotus records that the Persians thought they were mad, to run recklessly straight into battle without support.

When they had been set in order and the sacrifices were favourable, the Athenians were sent forth and charged the foreigners at a run. The space between the armies was no less than eight stadia. The Persians saw them running to attack and prepared to receive them, thinking the Athenians absolutely crazy, since they saw how few of them there were and that they ran up so fast without either cavalry or archers. So the foreigners imagined, but when the Athenians all together fell upon the foreigners they fought in a way worthy of record. These are the first Hellenes whom we know of to use running against the enemy. They are also the first to endure looking at Median dress and men wearing it, for up until then just hearing the name of the Medes caused the Hellenes to panic.
Herodotus, Histories, 6.112, written around 440BC

A monument to
Callimachus

The Athenians crashed into Persian lines and a bitter struggle ensued. The Persians and Sacae troops in the centre beat the thin Athenian lines and began to pursue the beaten Athenians inland. But on the flanks it was Persian lines that broke and the Athenians and Plataeans now charged in at the disorganised Persians in the centre. Panic spread and the Persian centre, after some initial fierce resistance, fled towards their ships. Callimachus died in the chaotic fighting in the centre, as did another of the Athenian generals. At this point there can have been no hoplite line of battle, merely a confused seething mass of troops. The Athenians tried to stop the Persians and capture their ships, but the Persians beat them back from the ships and managed to put to sea with all but seven of their vessels. One Athenian noble, Cynegeirus, lost his hand trying to hold onto a ship until a Persian chopped it off with an axe.

Supposedly during this desperate confusion Callias (known as Callias II to distinguish him from other members of his family with the same name), an extravagantly wealthy Athenian nobleman, was strutting around the battlefield in suitably magnificent armour. A Persian surrendered to him and, thinking Callias to be a king of some sort, led him to a part of the Persian camp where a large treasure was concealed in a hole. The Persian had been hoping for a reward from the Athenian king, but as of course Callias was not a king, he apparently murdered the Persian and took the treasure for himself. The story of this got out and Callias and his obscenely wealthy family were afterwards referred to as Laccopluti (meaning roughly “enriched by the ditch”) by the comic poets. This story is of course much later and may be a slur by the comic poets that was later repeated by Plutarch, but I thought it worth mentioning.

Greek helmet found on the battlefield of Marathon

The Persians were now on board their ships, and after taking some time to pick up Eretrian deportees from an island where they were being held captive, they began to sail southwards along the coast towards Sunium. From Sunium they would only be a few hours from Athens. The Persians had clearly suffered a defeat, but the bulk of their army was still intact and a very present threat to Athens. To make matters worse, it would seem that there was the real possibility of treachery.

Herodotus mentions that a shield signal had been made to the Persians telling them to sail to the attack of Athens. It is unclear whether the signal was given at Marathon, near Sunium or from Athens itself. Herodotus records that the powerful Alcmaeonid family were blamed as the perpetrators of this treachery, but that this was unlikely, as the Alcmaeonids were enemies of Hippias and the Peisistratid family. Hippias probably still had at least some supporters in Athens though.

Aristides, later known as Aristides the Just, one of the ten commanders, was left to guard the battlefield with the exhausted hoplites of two tribes of Athens. These had held the centre of the line and were least able to march at speed. Meanwhile Miltiades, who was now the main commander after the death of Callimachus, ordered the Athenians, who had just run across the plain and fought a long and hard-fought battle, to gather their armour and march back to the city at speed. They covered the 42 kilometres back to the city at great speed, reaching the old harbour at Athens in what must have been around ten hours.

Figure of Saca or Persian warrior from Athenian vase

The Persian fleet had rounded the cape of Sunium and came to the harbour at Phalerum, which was the old harbour of Athens. The small Athenian fleet, recently beaten by Aegina, made no effort to attack the Persians, but the presence of the victorious Athenian land army and the coming of night must have deterred the Persians and the fleet of Datis and Artaphrenes sailed back towards Asia.

Plutarch refers to a runner, called either Eukles or Thersippus, who ran back from Marathon to Athens to tell of the victory. A later writer called Lucian, refers to a Phillipides who ran back to Athens to tell the news, and upon telling his news, died. More modern writers have taken this story and ascribed it to Pheidippides, whose epic run from Athens to Sparta to Marathon was described by Herodotus.

The modern Marathon race is inspired by this later legend of Pheidippides, but it almost certainly didn’t happen. It was too good a story for Herodotus not to repeat if there was even a shred of evidence to it. Herodotus’ silence here is almost proof that it did not happen. In some ways the fact that over five thousand Athenian soldiers marched back to Athens at such speed is almost a more impressive tale than the modern story. They were not professional runners and they were weary from battle and weighed down by heavy armour, and probably in Callias’ case, stolen gold.

A 19th century statue showing the
death of Pheidippides

While the modern Marathon race is inspired by this, there is another race, the Spartathlon, which was inspired by Pheidippides’ 1.5 day 250 kilometre run. The record for running this is an almost impossible 20:25:00, run by Yiannis Kouros in 1984. To be fair to Pheidippides, he not only ran to Sparta, but almost certainly ran back to tell the news at Marathon, and he was carrying the fate of his country on his shoulders.

When the dead were accounted for at the battlefield it was found that around six thousand four hundred Persians had fallen. Perhaps more had died at the water’s edge trying to board ships, or sank into the swamps at the edges of the battlefield. Athens was now beginning to come to terms with the momentous victory. They had only lost one hundred and ninety two citizens, while their allies the Plataeans had lost eleven. Perhaps more slaves or non-citizen soldiers had died, but the victory was still an overwhelming one. People now began to speak of having seen the gods fighting by their sides and legends began to grow about the battle. The vision of Pheidippides, where he had heard Pan speak to him, was remembered. Pan had sown panic in the enemy lines and he was given a sanctuary on the north side of the Acropolis in recognition.

The victory at Marathon is often classed as one of the most important battles in the history of the world. Without a victory at Marathon the Greeks might have been conquered by Persia. While the Persians were certainly not evil despots or cartoon villains, Greek civilisation did not flourish in the regions that they ruled, so it is unlikely that Greek culture would have flowered and prospered as it later did. Other battles had to be fought and won in the years after, but Marathon was the first decisive Greek victory in the Greco-Persian wars. It was a victory that let the Greeks know that resistance was even a true possibility.

The burial mound of the Plataean dead at Marathon

Marathon is sometimes talked about as being a triumph of the Greek phalanx, but this is probably not the case. Herodotus talks of the Athenians running into battle. If this is true, then unless the Athenians halted before hitting the Persian line, they would have almost certainly lost formation long before they reached the Persian army. The fact that the line in the centre broke also suggests the phalanx played little part here. The heavy armour of the Greeks was decisive, but their formation probably wasn’t.

Spartan forces arrived a few days later, having marched at speed from the Peloponnese once their festival was over. They insisted on being shown the battlefield and were impressed and possibly a little worried that the Athenians had been capable of winning such a victory. The congratulated the Athenians and marched back to Sparta.

Neither Datis nor Artaphrenes had died in the battle and their fleet sailed back to the coast of Asia, with Datis stopping briefly at Delos to leave behind a golden statue that had been looted from Greece against his orders. The news of the defeat was taken to Darius, who began to muster another, greater, army to destroy Athens. The captured Eretrians were marched inland for months and eventually settled at Ardericca near Susa. There they were treated well, but they never returned to their homeland.

The helmet dedicated by Miltiades at Olympia

At Olympia, we have a tantalising object, a helmet that was dedicated by a person called Miltiades to Zeus. It is not clear, but it is possible that this was a dedication of the helmet that the Athenian general Miltiades wore on the day of the Battle of Marathon. This is not positively proved, but it is certainly possible and worth recording.

The Athenians in recognition of their victory, buried the dead of the battle differently. Instead of being cremated in family graves in the cemetery of Kerameikos outside Athens, as was usual, the Athenian dead were all buried together under a great mound, reminiscent of the tumuli of the heroes of the Iliad. The Plataean dead were honoured with their own smaller mound and a column was erected as a memorial to the deeds of those who rested there. The column has since fallen, but the two mounds of Marathon still stand to this day.

The burial mound of the Athenian dead at Marathon

Primary Sources:
Periplus of Hanno the Navigator, written circa 450BC, but translated at a later date into Greek
Herodotus’ Histories, written circa 440BC
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, written circa 400BC
Plutarch, On the Glory of Athens, written circa AD100
Plutarch, Aristides, written circa AD100
Plutarch, Themistocles, written circa AD100
Pausanias, Description of Greece, written circa AD150
Ora Maritima, possibly written by Avienus, circa AD350

Secondary Sources:
Wildwinds ancient coinage website

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