Battle of Marathon The Battle of Marathon ( , " Machē tu Marathōnos " ) took place in 490 BC , during the first Persian invasion of Greece . It was fought between the citizens of Athens , aided by Plataea , and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes . The battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia , under King Darius I , to subjugate Greece . The Greek army decisively defeated the more numerous Persians , marking a turning point in the Greco - Persian Wars . The first Persian invasion was a response to Greek involvement in the Ionian Revolt , when Athens and Eretria had sent a force to support the cities of Ionia in their attempt to overthrow Persian rule . The Athenians and Eretrians had succeeded in capturing and burning Sardis , but were then forced to retreat with heavy losses . In response to this raid , Darius swore to burn down Athens and Eretria . At the time of the battle , Sparta and Athens were the two largest city states . Once the Ionian revolt was finally crushed by the Persian victory at the Battle of Lade in 494 BC , Darius began plans to subjugate Greece . In 490 BC , he sent a naval task force under Datis and Artaphernes across the Aegean , to subjugate the Cyclades , and then to make punitive attacks on Athens and Eretria . Reaching Euboea in mid - summer after a successful campaign in the Aegean , the Persians proceeded to besiege and capture Eretria . The Persian force then sailed for Attica , landing in the bay near the town of Marathon . The Athenians , joined by a small force from Plataea , marched to Marathon , and succeeded in blocking the two exits from the plain of Marathon . The Greeks could not hope to face the superior Persian cavalry ; however , when learning that the Persian cavalry was temporarily absent from the camp , Miltiades ordered a general attack against the Persians . He reinforced his flanks , luring the Persians ' best fighters into his centre . The inward wheeling flanks enveloped the Persians , routing them . The Persian army broke in panic towards their ships , and large numbers were slaughtered . The defeat at Marathon marked the end of the first Persian invasion of Greece , and the Persian force retreated to Asia . Darius then began raising a huge new army with which he meant to completely subjugate Greece ; however , in 486 BC , his Egyptian subjects revolted , indefinitely postponing any Greek expedition . After Darius died , his son Xerxes I restarted the preparations for a second invasion of Greece , which finally began in 480 BC . The Battle of Marathon was a watershed in the Greco - Persian wars , showing the Greeks that the Persians could be beaten ; the eventual Greek triumph in these wars can be seen to begin at Marathon . Since the following two hundred years saw the rise of the Classical Greek civilization , which has been enduringly influential in western society , the Battle of Marathon is often seen as a pivotal moment in European history . The battle is perhaps now more famous as the inspiration for the marathon race . Although thought to be historically inaccurate , the legend of the Greek messenger Pheidippides running to Athens with news of the victory became the inspiration for this athletic event , introduced at the 1896 Athens Olympics , and originally run between Marathon and Athens . Sources . The main source for the Greco - Persian Wars is the Greek historian Herodotus . Herodotus , who has been called the ' Father of History ' , was born in 484 BC in Halicarnassus , Asia Minor ( then under Persian overlordship ) . He wrote his ' Enquiries ' ( Greek — " Historia " ; English — " ( The ) Histories " ) around 440 – 430 BC , trying to trace the origins of the Greco - Persian Wars , which would still have been relatively recent history ( the wars finally ended in 450 BC ) . Herodotus ' s approach was entirely novel , and at least in Western society , he does seem to have invented ' history ' as we know it . As Holland has it : " For the first time , a chronicler set himself to trace the origins of a conflict not to a past so remote so as to be utterly fabulous , nor to the whims and wishes of some god , nor to a people ' s claim to manifest destiny , but rather explanations he could verify personally . " Many changes that were subsequent with ancient historians , despite following in his footsteps , criticised Herodotus , starting with Thucydides . Nevertheless , Thucydides chose to begin his history where Herodotus left off ( at the Siege of Sestos ) , and may therefore have felt that Herodotus ' s history was accurate enough not to need re - writing or correcting . Plutarch criticised Herodotus in his essay " On The Malignity of Herodotus " , describing Herodotus as " " Philobarbaros " " ( barbarian - lover ) , for not being pro - Greek enough , which suggests that Herodotus might actually have done a reasonable job of being even - handed . A negative view of Herodotus was passed on to Renaissance Europe , though he remained well read . However , since the 19th century his reputation has been dramatically rehabilitated by archaeological finds which have repeatedly confirmed his version of events . The prevailing modern view is that Herodotus generally did a remarkable job in his " Historia " , but that some of his specific details ( particularly troop numbers and dates ) should be viewed with skepticism . Nevertheless , there are still some historians who believe Herodotus made up much of his story . The Sicilian historian Diodorus Siculus , writing in the 1st century BC in his " Bibliotheca Historica " , also provides an account of the Greco - Persian wars , partially derived from the earlier Greek historian Ephorus . This account is fairly consistent with Herodotus ' s . The Greco - Persian wars are also described in less detail by a number of other ancient historians including Plutarch , Ctesias of Cnidus , and are alluded by other authors , such as the playwright Aeschylus . Archaeological evidence , such as the Serpent Column , also supports some of Herodotus ' s specific claims . Background . The first Persian invasion of Greece had its immediate roots in the Ionian Revolt , the earliest phase of the Greco - Persian Wars . However , it was also the result of the longer - term interaction between the Greeks and Persians . In 500 BC the Persian Empire was still relatively young and highly expansionistic , but prone to revolts amongst its subject peoples . Moreover , the Persian king Darius was a usurper , and had spent considerable time extinguishing revolts against his rule . Even before the Ionian Revolt , Darius had begun to expand the Empire into Europe , subjugating Thrace , and forcing Macedon to become allied to Persia . Attempts at further expansion into the politically fractious world of Ancient Greece may have been inevitable . However , the Ionian Revolt had directly threatened the integrity of the Persian empire , and the states of mainland Greece remained a potential menace to its future stability . Darius thus resolved to subjugate and pacify Greece and the Aegean , and to punish those involved in the Ionian Revolt . The Ionian revolt had begun with an unsuccessful expedition against Naxos , a joint venture between the Persian satrap Artaphernes and the Milesian tyrant Aristagoras . In the aftermath , Artaphernes decided to remove Aristagoras from power , but before he could do so , Aristagoras abdicated , and declared Miletus a democracy . The other Ionian cities followed suit , ejecting their Persian - appointed tyrants , and declaring themselves democracies . Artistagoras then appealed to the states of mainland Greece for support , but only Athens and Eretria offered to send troops . The involvement of Athens in the Ionian Revolt arose from a complex set of circumstances , beginning with the establishment of the Athenian Democracy in the late 6th century BC . In 510 BC , with the aid of Cleomenes I , King of Sparta , the Athenian people had expelled Hippias , the tyrant ruler of Athens . With Hippias ' s father Peisistratus , the family had ruled for 36 out of the previous 50 years and fully intended to continue Hippias ' s rule . Hippias fled to Sardis to the court of the Persian satrap , Artaphernes and promised control of Athens to the Persians if they were to help restore him . In the meantime , Cleomenes helped install a pro - Spartan tyranny under Isagoras in Athens , in opposition to Cleisthenes , the leader of the traditionally powerful Alcmaeonidae family , who considered themselves the natural heirs to the rule of Athens . Cleisthenes , however , found himself being politically defeated by a coalition led by Isagoras and decided to change the rules of the game by appealing to the demos ( the people ) , in effect making them a new faction in the political arena . This tactic succeeded , but the Spartan King , Cleomenes I , returned at the request of Isagoras and so the Cleisthenes , the Alcmaeonids and other prominent Athenian families were exiled from Athens . When Isagoras attempted to create a narrow oligarchic government , the Athenian people , in a spontaneous and unprecedented move , expelled Cleomenes and Isagoras . Cleisthenes was thus restored to Athens ( 507 BC ) , and at breakneck speed began to reform the state with the aim of securing his position . The result was not actually a democracy or a real civic state , but he enabled the development of a fully democratic government , which would emerge in the next generation as the demos realized its power . The new - found freedom and self - governance of the Athenians meant that they were thereafter exceptionally hostile to the return of the tyranny of Hippias , or any form of outside subjugation ; by Sparta , Persia or anyone else . Cleomenes was not pleased with the events , and marched on Athens with the Spartan army . Cleomenes ' s attempts to restore Isagoras to Athens ended in a debacle , but fearing the worst , the Athenians had by this point already sent an embassy to Artaphernes in Sardis , to request aid from the Persian Empire . Artaphernes requested that the Athenians give him an ' earth and water ' , a traditional token of submission , which the Athenian ambassadors acquiesced to . However , they were severely censured for this when they returned to Athens . At some point later Cleomenes instigated a plot to restore Hippias to the rule of Athens . This failed and Hippias again fled to Sardis and tried to persuade the Persians to subjugate Athens . The Athenians dispatched ambassadors to Artaphernes to dissuade him from taking action , but Artaphernes merely instructed the Athenians to take Hippias back as tyrant . Needless to say , the Athenians balked at this , and resolved instead to be openly at war with Persia . Having thus become the enemy of Persia , Athens was already in a position to support the Ionian cities when they began their revolt . The fact that the Ionian democracies were inspired by the example of Athens no doubt further persuaded the Athenians to support the Ionian Revolt ; especially since the cities of Ionia were originally Athenian colonies . The Athenians and Eretrians sent a task force of 25 triremes to Asia Minor to aid the revolt . Whilst there , the Greek army surprised and outmaneuvered Artaphernes , marching to Sardis and burning the lower city . However , this was as much as the Greeks achieved , and they were then pursued back to the coast by Persian horsemen , losing many men in the process . Despite the fact that their actions were ultimately fruitless , the Eretrians and in particular the Athenians had earned Darius ' s lasting enmity , and he vowed to punish both cities . The Persian naval victory at the Battle of Lade ( 494 BC ) all but ended the Ionian Revolt , and by 493 BC , the last hold - outs were vanquished by the Persian fleet . The revolt was used as an opportunity by Darius to extend the empire ' s border to the islands of the eastern Aegean and the Propontis , which had not been part of the Persian dominions before . The completion of the pacification of Ionia allowed the Persians to begin planning their next moves ; to extinguish the threat to the empire from Greece , and to punish Athens and Eretria . In 492 BC , once the Ionian Revolt had finally been crushed , Darius dispatched an to Greece under the command of his son - in - law , Mardonius . Mardonius re - conquered Thrace and compelled Alexander I of Macedon to make Macedon a client kingdom to Persia , before the wrecking of his fleet brought a premature end to the campaign . However in 490 BC , following up the successes of the previous campaign , Darius decided to send a maritime expedition led by Artaphernes , ( son of the satrap to whom Hippias had fled ) and Datis , a Median admiral . Mardonius had been injured in the prior campaign and had fallen out of favor . The was intended to bring the Cyclades into the Persian empire , to punish Naxos ( which had resisted a Persian assault in 499 BC ) and then to head to Greece to force Eretria and Athens to submit to Darius or be destroyed . After island - hopping across the Aegean , including successfully attacking Naxos , the Persian task force arrived off Euboea in mid summer . The Persians then proceeded to besiege , capture and burn Eretria . They then headed south down the coast of Attica , en route to complete the final objective of the campaign — to punish Athens . Prelude . The Persians sailed down the coast of Attica , and landed at the bay of Marathon , roughly from Athens , on the advice of the exiled Athenian tyrant Hippias ( who had accompanied the expedition ) . Under the guidance of Miltiades , the Athenian general with the greatest experience of fighting the Persians , the Athenian army marched quickly to block the two exits from the plain of Marathon , and prevent the Persians moving inland . At the same time , Athens ' s greatest runner , Pheidippides ( or Philippides in some accounts ) had been sent to Sparta to request that the Spartan army march to the aid of Athens . Pheidippides arrived during the festival of " Carneia " , a sacrosanct period of peace , and was informed that the Spartan army could not march to war until the full moon rose ; Athens could not expect reinforcement for at least ten days . The Athenians would have to hold out at Marathon for the time being , although they were reinforced by the full muster of 1 , 000 hoplites from the small city of Plataea ; a gesture which did much to steady the nerves of the Athenians , and won unending Athenian gratitude to Plataea . For approximately five days the armies therefore confronted each other across the plain of Marathon , in stalemate . The flanks of the Athenian camp were protected either by a grove of trees , or an " abbatis " of stakes ( depending on the exact reading ) . Since every day brought the arrival of the Spartans closer , the delay worked in favor of the Athenians . There were ten Athenian " strategoi " ( generals ) at Marathon , elected by each of the ten tribes that the Athenians were divided into ; Miltiades was one of these . In addition , in overall charge , was the War - Archon ( polemarch ) , Callimachus , who had been elected by the whole citizen body . Herodotus suggests that command rotated between the " strategoi " , each taking in turn a day to command the army . He further suggests that each " strategos " , on his day in command , instead deferred to Miltiades . In Herodotus ' s account , Miltiades is keen to attack the Persians ( despite knowing that the Spartans are coming to aid the Athenians ) , but strangely , chooses to wait until his actual day of command to attack . This passage is undoubtedly problematic ; the Athenians had little to gain by attacking before the Spartans arrived , and there is no real evidence of this rotating generalship . There does , however , seem to have been a delay between the Athenian arrival at Marathon , and the battle ; Herodotus , who evidently believed that Miltiades was eager to attack , may have made a mistake whilst seeking to explain this delay . As is discussed below , the reason for the delay was probably simply that neither the Athenians nor the Persians were willing to risk battle initially . This then raises the question of why the battle occurred when it did . Herodotus explicitly tells us that the Greeks attacked the Persians ( and the other sources confirm this ) , but it is not clear why they did this before the arrival of the Spartans . There are two main theories to explain this . The first theory is that the Persian cavalry left Marathon for an unspecified reason , and that the Greeks moved to take advantage of this by attacking . This theory is based on the absence of any mention of cavalry in Herodotus ' account of the battle , and an entry in the Suda dictionary . The entry " χωρίς ἰππεῖς " ( " without cavalry " ) is explained thus : The cavalry left . When Datis surrendered and was ready for retreat , the Ionians climbed the trees and gave the Athenians the signal that the cavalry had left . And when Miltiades realized that , he attacked and thus won . From there comes the above - mentioned quote , which is used when someone breaks ranks before battle . There are many variations of this theory , but perhaps the most prevalent is that the cavalry was re - embarked on the ships , and was to be sent by sea to attack ( undefended ) Athens in the rear , whilst the rest of the Persians pinned down the Athenian army at Marathon . This theory therefore utilises Herodotus ' suggestion that after Marathon , the Persian army re - embarked and tried to sail around Cape Sounion to attack Athens directly ; however , according to the first theory this attempt would have occurred " before " the battle ( and indeed have triggered the battle ) . The second theory is simply that the battle occurred because the Persians finally moved to attack the Athenians . Although this theory has the Persians moving to the " strategic " offensive , this can be reconciled with the traditional account of the Athenians attacking the Persians by assuming that , seeing the Persians advancing , the Athenians took the " tactical " offensive , and attacked them . Obviously , it cannot be firmly established which theory ( if either ) is correct . However , both theories imply that there was some kind of Persian activity which occurred on or about the fifth day which ultimately triggered the battle . Date of the battle . Herodotus mentions for several events a date in the lunisolar calendar , of which each Greek city - state used a variant . Astronomical computation allows us to derive an absolute date in the proleptic Julian calendar which is much used by historians as the chronological frame . Philipp August Böckh in 1855 concluded that the battle took place on September 12 , 490 BC in the Julian calendar , and this is the conventionally accepted date . However , this depends on when exactly the Spartans held their festival and it is possible that the Spartan calendar was one month ahead of that of Athens . In that case the battle took place on August 12 , 490 BC . Opposing forces . Athenians . Herodotus does not give a figure for the size of the Athenian army . However , Cornelius Nepos , Pausanias and Plutarch all give the figure of 9 , 000 Athenians and 1 , 000 Plateans ; while Justin suggests that there were 10 , 000 Athenians and 1 , 000 Plataeans . These numbers are highly comparable to the number of troops Herodotus says that the Athenians and Plataeans sent to the Battle of Plataea 11 years later . Pausanias noticed on the monument to the battle the names of former slaves who were freed in exchange for military services . Modern historians generally accept these numbers as reasonable . Persians . According to Herodotus , the fleet sent by Darius consisted of 600 trireme s . Herodotus does not estimate the size of the Persian army , only saying that they were a " large infantry that was well packed " . Among ancient sources , the poet Simonides , another near - contemporary , says the campaign force numbered 200 , 000 ; while a later writer , the Roman Cornelius Nepos estimates 200 , 000 infantry and 10 , 000 cavalry , of which only 100 , 000 fought in the battle , while the rest were loaded into the fleet that was rounding Cape Sounion ; Plutarch and Pausanias both independently give 300 , 000 , as does the Suda dictionary . Plato and Lysias give 500 , 000 ; and Justinus 600 , 000 . Modern historians have proposed wide ranging numbers for the infantry , from 20 , 000 – 100 , 000 with a consensus of perhaps 25 , 000 ; estimates for the cavalry are in the range of 1 , 000 . Strategic and tactical considerations . From a strategic point of view , the Athenians had some disadvantages at Marathon . In order to face the Persians in battle , the Athenians had had to summon all available hoplites ; and even then they were still probably outnumbered at least 2 to 1 . Furthermore , raising such a large army had denuded Athens of defenders , and thus any secondary attack in the Athenian rear would cut the army off from the city ; and any direct attack on the city could not be defended against . Still further , defeat at Marathon would mean the complete defeat of Athens , since no other Athenian army existed . The Athenian strategy was therefore to keep the Persian army pinned down at Marathon , blocking both exits from the plain , and thus preventing themselves from being outmaneuvered . However , these disadvantages were balanced by some advantages . The Athenians initially had no need to seek battle , since they had managed to confine the Persians to the plain of Marathon . Furthermore , time worked in their favour , as every day brought the arrival of the Spartans closer . Having everything to lose by attacking , and much to gain by not attacking , the Athenians remained on the defensive in the run up to the battle . Tactically , hoplites were vulnerable to attacks by cavalry , and since the Persians had substantial numbers of cavalry , this made any offensive maneuver by the Athenians even more of a risk , and thus reinforced the defensive strategy of the Athenians . The Persian strategy , on the other hand , was probably principally determined by tactical considerations . The Persian infantry was evidently lightly armoured , and no match for hoplites in a head - on confrontation ( as would be demonstrated at the later battles of Thermopylae and Plataea . ) Since the Athenians seem to have taken up a strong defensive position at Marathon , the Persian hesitance was probably a reluctance to attack the Athenians head - on . Whatever event eventually triggered the battle , it obviously altered the strategic or tactical balance sufficiently to induce the Athenians to attack the Persians . If the first theory is correct ( see above ) , then the absence of cavalry removed the main Athenian tactical disadvantage , and the threat of being outflanked made it imperative to attack . Conversely , if the second theory is correct , then the Athenians were merely reacting to the Persians attacking them . Since the Persian force obviously contained a high proportion of missile troops , a static defensive position would have made little sense for the Athenians ; the strength of the hoplite was in the melee , and the sooner that could be brought about , the better , from the Athenian point of view . If the second theory is correct , this raises the further question of why the Persians , having hesitated for several days , then attacked . There may have been several strategic reasons for this ; perhaps they were aware ( or suspected ) that the Athenians were expecting reinforcements . Alternatively , since they may have felt the need to force some kind of victory — they could hardly remain at Marathon indefinitely . Battle . The distance between the two armies at the point of battle had narrowed to " a distance not less than 8 stadia " or about 1 , 500 meters . Miltiades ordered the two tribes that were forming the center of the Greek formation , the Leontis tribe led by Themistocles and the Antiochis tribe led by Aristides , to be arranged in the depth of four ranks while the rest of the tribes at their flanks were in ranks of eight . Some modern commentators have suggested this was a deliberate ploy to encourage a double envelopment of the Persian centre . However , this supposes a level of training that the Greeks did not possess . There is little evidence for any such tactical thinking in Greek battles until Leuctra in 371 BC . It is therefore probable that this arrangement was made , possibly at the last moment , so that the Athenian line was as long as the Persian line , and would not therefore be outflanked . When the Athenian line was ready , according to one source , the simple signal to advance was given by Miltiades : " At them " . Herodotus implies the Athenians ran the whole distance to the Persian lines , shouting their ululating war cry , " Ελελευ ! Ελελευ ! " ( " Eleleu ! Eleleu ! " ) . It is doubtful that the Athenians ran the whole distance ; in full armour this would be very difficult . More likely , they marched until they reached the limit of the archers ' effectiveness , the " beaten zone " ( roughly 200 meters ) , and then broke into a run towards their enemy . Another possibility is that they ran " up to " the 200 meter - mark in broken ranks , and then reformed for the march into battle from there . Herodotus suggests that this was the first time a Greek army ran into battle in this way ; this was probably because it was the first time that a Greek army had faced an enemy composed primarily of missile troops . All this was evidently much to the surprise of the Persians ; " . . . in their minds they charged the Athenians with madness which must be fatal , seeing that they were few and yet were pressing forwards at a run , having neither cavalry nor archers " . Indeed , based on their previous experience of the Greeks , the Persians might be excused for this ; Herodotus tells us that the Athenians at Marathon were " 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 " . Passing through the hail of arrows launched by the Persian army , protected for the most part by their armour , the Greek line finally collided with the enemy army . Holland provides an evocative description : The enemy directly in their path . . . realised to their horror that [ the Athenians ] , far from providing the easy pickings for their bowmen , as they had first imagined , were not going to be halted . . . The impact was devastating . The Athenians had honed their style of fighting in combat with other phalanxes , wooden shields smashing against wooden shields , iron spear tips clattering against breastplates of bronze . . . in those first terrible seconds of collision , there was nothing but a pulverizing crash of metal into flesh and bone ; then the rolling of the Athenian tide over men wearing , at most , quilted jerkins for protection , and armed , perhaps , with nothing more than bows or slings . The hoplites ' ash spears , rather than shivering . . . could instead stab and stab again , and those of the enemy who avoided their fearful jabbing might easily be crushed to death beneath the sheer weight of the advancing men of bronze . The Athenian wings quickly routed the inferior Persian levies on the flanks , before turning inwards to surround the Persian centre , which had been more successful against the thin Greek centre . The battle ended when the Persian centre then broke in panic towards their ships , pursued by the Greeks . Some , unaware of the local terrain , ran towards the swamps where unknown numbers drowned . The Athenians pursued the Persians back to their ships , and managed to capture seven ships , though the majority were able to launch successfully . Herodotus recounts the story that Cynaegirus , brother of the playwright Aeschylus , who was also among the fighters , charged into the sea , grabbed one Persian trireme , and started pulling it towards shore . A member of the crew saw him , cut off his hand , and Cynaegirus died . Herodotus records that 6 , 400 Persian bodies were counted on the battlefield , and it is unknown how many more perished in the swamps . The Athenians lost 192 men and the Plataeans 11 . Among the dead were the war archon Callimachus and the general Stesilaos . Aftermath . In the immediate aftermath of the battle , Herodotus says that the Persian fleet sailed around Cape Sounion to attack Athens directly . As has been discussed above , some modern historians place this attempt just before the battle . Either way , the Athenians evidently realised that their city was still under threat , and marched as quickly as possible back to Athens . The two tribes which had been in the centre of the Athenian line stayed to guard the battlefield under the command of Aristides . The Athenians arrived in time to prevent the Persians from securing a landing , and seeing that the opportunity was lost , the Persians turned about and returned to Asia . Connected with this episode , Herodotus recounts a rumour that this manoeuver by the Persians had been planned in conjunction with the Alcmaeonid s , the prominent Athenian aristocratic family , and that a " shield - signal " had been given after the battle . Although many interpretations of this have been offered , it is impossible to tell whether this was true , and if so , what exactly the signal meant . On the next day , the Spartan army arrived at Marathon , having covered the in only three days . The Spartans toured the battlefield at Marathon , and agreed that the Athenians had won a great victory . The dead of Marathon were buried on the battlefield . On the tomb of the Athenians this epigram composed by Simonides was written : In the meanwhile , Darius began raising a huge new army with which he meant to completely subjugate Greece ; however , in 486 BC , his Egyptian subjects revolted , indefinitely postponing any Greek expedition . Darius then died whilst preparing to march on Egypt , and the throne of Persia passed to his son Xerxes I . Xerxes crushed the Egyptian revolt , and very quickly restarted the preparations for the invasion of Greece . The epic second Persian invasion of Greece finally began in 480 BC , and the Persians met with initial success at the battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium . However , defeat at the Battle of Salamis would be the turning point in the campaign , and the next year the expedition was ended by the decisive Greek victory at the Battle of Plataea . Significance . The defeat at Marathon barely touched the vast resources of the Persian empire , yet for the Greeks it was an enormously significant victory . It was the first time the Greeks had beaten the Persians , proving that the Persians were not invincible , and that resistance , rather than subjugation , was possible . The battle was a defining moment for the young Athenian democracy , showing what might be achieved through unity and self - belief ; indeed , the battle effectively marks the start of a " golden age " for Athens . This was also applicable to Greece as a whole ; " their victory endowed the Greeks with a faith in their destiny that was to endure for three centuries , during which western culture was born " . John Stuart Mill ' s famous opinion was that " the Battle of Marathon , even as an event in British history , is more important than the Battle of Hastings " . It seems that the Athenian playwright Aeschylus considered his participation at Marathon to be his greatest achievement in life ( rather than his plays ) since on his gravestone there was the following epigram : Militarily , a major lesson for the Greeks was the potential of the hoplite phalanx . This style had developed during internecine warfare amongst the Greeks ; since each city - state fought in the same way , the advantages and disadvantages of the hoplite phalanx had not been obvious . Marathon was the first time a phalanx faced more lightly armed troops , and revealed how effective the hoplites could be in battle . The phalanx formation was still vulnerable to cavalry ( the cause of much caution by the Greek forces at the Battle of Plataea ) , but used in the right circumstances , it was now shown to be a potentially devastating weapon . Legacy . Legends associated with the battle . The most famous legend associated with Marathon is that of the runner Pheidippides / Philippides bringing news to Athens of the battle , which is described below . Pheidippides ' run to Sparta to bring aid has other legends associated with it . Herodotus mentions that Pheidippides was visited by the god Pan on his way to Sparta ( or perhaps on his return journey ) . Pan asked why the Athenians did not honor him and the awed Pheidippides promised that they would do so from then on . The god apparently felt that the promise would be kept , so he appeared in battle and at the crucial moment he instilled the Persians with his own brand of fear , the mindless , frenzied fear that bore his name : " panic " . After the battle , a sacred precinct was established for Pan in a grotto on the north slope of the Acropolis , and a sacrifice was annually offered . Similarly , after the victory the festival of the " Agroteras Thysia " ( " sacrifice to the Agrotéra " ) was held at Agrae near Athens , in honor of Artemis Agrotera ( " Artemis the Huntress " ) . This was in fulfillment of a vow made by the city before the battle , to offer in sacrifice a number of goats equal to that of the Persia ns slain in the conflict . The number was so great , it was decided to offer 500 goats yearly until the number was filled . Xenophon notes that at his time , 90 years after the battle , goats were still offered yearly . Plutarch mentions that the Athenians saw the phantom of King Theseus , the mythical hero of Athens , leading the army in full battle gear in the charge against the Persians , and indeed he was depicted in the mural of the Stoa Poikile fighting for the Athenians , along with the twelve Olympian gods and other heroes . Pausanias also tells us that : Another tale from the conflict is of the dog of Marathon . Aelian relates that one hoplite brought his dog to the Athenian encampment . The dog followed his master to battle and attacked the Persians at his master ' s side . He also informs us that this dog is depicted in the mural of the Stoa Poikile . Marathon run . According to Herodotus , an Athenian runner named Pheidippides was sent to run from Athens to Sparta to ask for assistance before the battle . He ran a distance of over 225 kilometers ( 140 miles ) , arriving in Sparta the day after he left . Then , following the battle , the Athenian army marched the 40 ( 25 miles ) or so kilometers back to Athens at a very high pace ( considering the quantity of armour , and the fatigue after the battle ) , in order to head off the Persian force sailing around Cape Sounion . They arrived back in the late afternoon , in time to see the Persian ships turn away from Athens , thus completing the Athenian victory . Later , in popular imagination , these two events became confused with each other , leading to a legendary but inaccurate version of events . This myth has Pheidippides running from Marathon to Athens after the battle , to announce the Greek victory with the word " Nenikēkamen ! " ( Attic : ( We were victorious ! ) ) , whereupon he promptly died of exhaustion . Most accounts incorrectly attribute this story to Herodotus ; actually , the story first appears in Plutarch ' s " On the Glory of Athens " in the 1st century AD , who quotes from Heracleides of Pontus ' s lost work , giving the runner ' s name as either Thersipus of Erchius or Eucles . Lucian of Samosata ( 2nd century AD ) gives the same story but names the runner Philippides ( not Pheidippides ) . It should be noted that in some medieval codices of Herodotus the name of the runner between Athens and Sparta before the battle is given as Philippides and in a few modern editions this name is preferred . When the idea of a modern Olympics became a reality at the end of the 19th century , the initiators and organizers were looking for a great popularizing event , recalling the ancient glory of Greece . The idea of organizing a ' marathon race ' came from Michel Bréal , who wanted the event to feature in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens . This idea was heavily supported by Pierre de Coubertin , the founder of the modern Olympics , as well as the Greeks . This would echo the legendary version of events , with the competitors running from Marathon to Athens . So popular was this event that it quickly caught on , becoming a fixture at the Olympic games , with major cities staging their own annual events . The distance eventually became fixed at 26 miles 385 yards , or 42 . 195 km , though for the first years it was variable , being around — the approximate distance from Marathon to Athens . Posttraumatic Stress Disorder . Herodotus ' account of the battle may point to the first recorded case of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder . During the battle , an Athenian named Epizelus became instantly and permanently blind without having been struck .