Battle of Marathon

The victorious defeat of the Persians at the battle of marathon led to the makings of legends ’and how the modern meaning behind the term marathon came about’. The battle of Marathon took place in 490BC and was sparked due to the retaliation of the Persians to the Greeks, by the king of Persia, Darius. At this time the Persian army was expanding in places all over the continent. And even under impossible odds the outcome left the Greeks Victorious, which some could argue was thanks to Philippides, who ran the first ever recorded marathon to warn Athens of attack. With this victory the future of our modern world was written, as it was to be Greek and European instead of Persian and Asiatic. The legend of the victory and of Philippides still echoes in both Greek society, and throughout the modern world. This event is told to us by the single account of Herodotus, a famous historian labelled ‘the father of history.’ However it is a common belief by most historians that his workings are biased.
King Dairus of Persia began the battle due, to the Athenians and Eretrian’s retreat in the Ionian Revolt which sought to overthrow Persian rule. However the opposing, who were the militaries of Asia minor where forced to retreat due to heavy losses, after which Dairus plotted his revenge for Greece. ‘Grant O god, that I may punish the Athenians’, Then he commanded one of his servants to repeat   to him the words ‘Master, remember the Athenians’, three times whenever he sat down to dinner’ (Herodotus, 440 B.C.E, the Histories). This in turn shows the desire for revenge that Darius felt prior to the battle. In 490B.C.E Darius’ Armada of 600 ships, containing 25000 hoplite warriors landed in marathon Bay. Prior to this Persia had been involved in many battles to which they were victorious; this gave them the absolute confidence that they could defeat the Athenians and take control of Athens. When the ships had pulled in, the numerical discrepancy was obvious to the Athenians. They...