Vastly outnumbered, roughly 10,000 Athenian and Plataean hoplites charged the Persian army as it disembarked near Marathon, exploiting a weakened Persian center to encircle and rout the invaders. The victory, later credited to the general Miltiades, became a foundational moment of Athenian identity and, through the legend of a runner racing to Athens with news of victory, gave the modern marathon its name and distance.
According to ancient tradition tied to this date on some historical calendars, the Athenians faced a Persian invasion force of King Darius I on the coastal plain of Marathon, roughly 25 miles from Athens. Herodotus records the Greeks as outnumbered but resolved not to wait passively for siege; instead, the general Miltiades ordered a running charge across the field to minimize losses from Persian archers.
The Athenian line, deliberately thinned in the center and reinforced on the flanks, allowed the Persian center to push forward while Greek wings collapsed inward, trapping the invaders in a pincer. Persian forces broke and fled to their ships, leaving behind, according to Herodotus, 6,400 dead against just 192 Athenians.
The battle's aftermath produced one of history's most enduring legends: a messenger, later named Pheidippides, supposedly ran the distance to Athens to announce victory before collapsing dead from exhaustion — the inspiration for the modern marathon race. Historians debate the story's accuracy, but Marathon's strategic reality is undisputed: it halted the first Persian invasion of Greece and gave Athenian democracy a founding myth of resilience against overwhelming odds.
Key people: Miltiades