They joined with the Spartans and King Leonidas during the legendary suicidal stand in the pass of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans stood against tens of thousands of Persian soldiers. He had just run the full 40 kilometers from Marathon to Athens. The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. The Greek's further capitalized on this advantage by running into the battle, thus minimizing the amount of time they were exposed to the arrow fire. Perhaps at this point the Theban contingent may have surrendered (although this is disputed amongst scholars). This tale of romantic sacrifice then caught the attention of author Robert Browning in 1879, who wrote a poem entitled Pheidippides, which deeply engaged his contemporaries. The front row would hold their shield in front and present a solid shield-wall. The Battle of Marathon: The Greco-Persian Wars Escalate "Persian Wars: Battle of Marathon." They fully understood the advantages that the Greeks were deriving from their position, and while they might be able to overwhelm them eventually by virtue of numbers, losing a large portion of their Persian forces on a foreign shore was a logistical problem that Datis was not willing to risk. Depots of equipment and supplies were laid, a canal dug at Chalkidike, and boat bridges built across the Hellespont to facilitate the movement of troops. This stubbornness forced the two armies to remain at a stalemate for about five days, facing one another across the plain of Marathon with only minor skirmishes breaking out, the Greeks managing to keep hold of their nerve and their defensive line. The Persian defeat at Marathon halted the Persian Empire's western expansion, and ensured continued Greek independence. Battle of Marathon (Lesson for KS2 What Was the Significance of the Battle of Marathon? In a phalanx formation, the hoplites would stand close together, usually in columns of eight. This easy submission was not soon forgotten by Athens and Sparta, and over the following years they watched as Persian influence spread ever closer towards them. But he took no time to mourn. The Persian army fought with tactics that proved inferior to those of the Greek hoplite armies. The battle occurred on the beach, near the Persian ships, and can be visualized using the map of the Battle of Marathon in figure 2. Political Aspects of the Classical Age of Greece, Wars of the Alexander the Great: Battle of Chaeronea, Persian Wars - Battle of Marathon - 490 BCE, Biography of Artemisia I, Warrior Queen of Halicarnassus, Rulers of the Persian Empire: Expansionism of Cyrus and Darius, The Battle of Gaugamela During the Wars of Alexander the Great, The Peloponnesian War: Causes of the Conflict, M.S., Information and Library Science, Drexel University, B.A., History and Political Science, Pennsylvania State University. As with most battles from this period, these numbers are suspect. Miltiades employed a successful strategy in which he weakened the center of his force to strengthen its wings, causing confusion among the Persians. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When the Greeks held their position, Xerxes once again sent envoys to offer the defenders a last chance to surrender without bloodshed if the Greeks would only lay down their arms.
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