A punitive expedition
Darius sends Datis and Artaphernes against Eretria and Athens after the Ionian Revolt and Athenian aid at Sardis. Eretria falls before the Persians reach Marathon.
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Battle
Marathon
490 BC
A thinned centre holds long enough for the wings to return
Military history
How do the Greek wings turn two local successes into victory while their centre falls back?
At Marathon, the Athenians and Plataeans must bar the road to Athens without waiting for the Spartans. They extend their line, thin the centre and take an immediate risk: if that centre breaks before the wings prevail, the Persian expedition can regain the initiative.
Hippias guides the fleet to Marathon
Herodotus presents Marathon as the part of Attica best suited to horses and closest to Eretria. Hippias therefore leads the Persians to a favourable landing place; the passage does not, however, say what their cavalry does during the battle.
Athens stands alone
The Athenians march with the Plataeans. The Spartans promise help, but their religious calendar delays their departure: the battle is decided before they arrive.
An extended line
To make their line as long as the Persian line, the Greeks make the centre shallower than the wings. Herodotus describes this deployment and its result; he does not allow us to claim that Miltiades had devised a complete trap in advance.
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Chronological dossier
ThermopylaeThe wall, sea and slopes allow the allies to repel two days of assaults; Hydarnes's night march along Anopaia creates a second front, compels the main body's withdrawal and destroys the rearguard.ArtemisiumIntelligence, brief sorties and storms prevent the Greek force from being encircled; after a costly third engagement, the fall of Thermopylae removes the naval choke point's purpose.SalamisSicinnus's message exploits a genuine division and prompts Xerxes to close the exits by night; in the morning, the imperial fleet's depth creates congestion in the strait, local ruptures spread and the fleet declines a second battle.PlataeaThe cavalry cuts Greek access to water and supplies; the night withdrawal breaks up the coalition, but Mardonius's pursuit meets two separate stands before the Persian camp is opened.
Military history
Sources
Primary sourceHérodote, Histoires, livre VI
Livre VI, sections 94 à 117, notamment 102, 108 à 117
Persian expedition, Hippias’s role, choice of Marathon, Athenian march, decision to fight, order of the line, advance dromō, different outcomes in centre and wings, ships captured and reported losses.
View ↗University chapterP. J. Rhodes, The battle of Marathon and modern scholarship, dans Marathon – 2,500 Years
Pages 3 à 22 de l'ouvrage, surtout pp. 10 à 19 du chapitre (PDF, pages 14 à 22)
Absence of totals in Herodotus, modern ranges, interpretation of the thinned centre, meaning of dromō, topography, cartographic reconstruction, losses and the disputed chronology of the return to Athens.
View ↗Academic articleDániel Réfi-Oszkó, The Invisibles: Achaemenid Heavy Cavalry during the Greco-Persian Wars
Acta Classica Universitatis Scientiarum Debreceniensis 58 (2022), pp. 3 à 18, surtout pp. 11 à 13
Herodotus’s silence on cavalry action at Marathon, the fragility of the “without cavalry” testimony and modern disagreement over its employment.
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