The First Marathon and other historical factoids.

“Such is our love of freedom that we fight.”

Cyrus the Great became the King of Persia in 559 BC after which he conquered most of the Mediterranean. In turn that meant most of the subjects of his empire were not of Persian descent. The Persian Empire became the most powerful empire in the world and indeed the most powerful the world had ever seen. Persian rule was relatively light with all the benefits of the empire; it does not matter, because people hate being ruled by foreigners, and therefore it was fear that kept the subjects in line.

In 540 BC, Persia conquered Ionia, which was populated by Greeks. In 499 BC, the Ionians rose up in rebellion, knowing the limits of their power and the might of the Persians they asked their Greek brothers across a gulf of water for help. Unfortunately most of the Greek Polis’ were busy that weekend, however it just so happened that Athens and Eritrea were available to answer the call. Athens and Eritrea send Hoplites (Greek foot soldiers) and Naval Vessels to assist the Ionians.

In 494 the revolt fails and the Ionians are crushed. Darius I, who succeeded Cyrus, was bent on revenge. Darius understood that the empire was held together by the fear of his power. In 490 BC, Darius sends an army to Greece to punish Athens and Eritrea in order to remind everyone the extent of his power.

Twenty thousand soldiers arrive in Eritrea, the size of this army was nothing to the Persians but it was the biggest army the Greeks had ever laid their eyes on. Persia demands Eritrea’s surrender. Eritrea refuses. “Geography is destiny,” as someone once said. Eritrea is weak and has very little natural defenses. The Persians punish the Eritreans resistance by destroying the city (completely). The remaining citizens were displaced a 1000 miles east.

The Persian army leaves Eritrea and travels by Sea down the coast of Greece where they land at the city of Marathon. The Persians send a messenger from Marathon to Greece, which is a distance of 26 miles. The messenger declares that resistance is futile and demands the Athenian surrender.

In the Greek Polis, the soldiers were the citizens and as such the politicians. The citizens of Athens assemble and debate the course of action for which they must take. They send a messenger back, declaring that ‘we know your power is much greater than ours, but such is our love of freedom (eleutheria) that we will fight.”

After the assembly decided to fight, they go home, grab their armor and march out. They are not forced to fight but are fighting to defend their homes. In all, the Greeks number ten thousand (Persians have 20k, 2 to 1 odds) and they march out to confront their fate at the Battle of Marathon in 490BC.

To make a long story short the Athenians were victorious in a huge upset. In all, seven thousand Persians were slaughtered, whereas only one hundred and ninety-two Greeks fell. The freemen fighting to defend their homes were more motivated to fight then the subjugated Persian army.

After the battle the Athenians send a runner back to Athens, he runs the entire way, upon his arrival he shouts in great exuberance, “victory, victory, victory!” Then he dies, thus completing the first ever Marathon.

After the defeat, Darius imparts on a slave one job and one job only. Everyday this special slave was to remind Darius to punish the Athenians. Darius dies before he ever gets the chance, but his boy, Xerxes will not soon forget the loss they suffered at the hands of the Athenians.