NARRATOR: On the narrow plane
of Marathon in Eastern Greece, a battle rages that
will alter the course of Western civilization. On one side, the army
of the Persian empire, the most powerful fighting
force in the world. On the other side, the army
of Athens, half its size, led by the famed Greek
general Miltiades. This is a battle of
military brilliance in the face of overwhelming
odds, a battle for the future of Greece and for the
supremacy of the ancient world. Two civilizations are
about to collide-- East meets West on the
plains of Marathon. [theme music] Death comes swiftly. For six days, a brutal
attack by a faceless invader stains the soil red. [swords clanging] Those not butchered
are enslaved. [swords clanging] The aggressors are the heavy
infantry of the mighty Persian Empire. They are called Immortals. The victims are residents
of the island of Euboea in the Greek city of Eritrea. 600 Persian warships had
set sail on the Aegean Sea, and swallowed every Greek
island in their path. But Euboea is not their
final destination. They're heading to Athens. The goal-- total destruction. They moved across
this island chain, across the Eastern Mediterranean
in an island-hopping campaign much like the United States did
during World War II with Japan of capturing small islands,
turning them into logistics bases, and then finally being
in a position where you could attack Athens. NARRATOR: Nothing stops
the Persian war machine. From Eritrea, they
set sail for Athens. Persians eat cities the
size of Athens for breakfast. They are so confident of success
that they load up their ships with marble along the way,
so they can build a victory monument once they burn
Athens to the ground. NARRATOR: The Persian
Empire is enormous. Its borders extend from
the Indus River in India to the Nile River in Egypt. Persia was the greatest
empire the world had ever known, not only in geographic
terms but in manpower terms. Millions and millions of people. Also, one of the highest
cultures that the world had known in everything from
architecture to art, to writing, to design. And she was a
multi-national empire. There were more nationalities
and religions in the Persian Empire than had ever existed
in any empire before. NARRATOR: By contrast,
Athens is merely one in a loose collection
of Greek city-states. What we now call modern Greece
you'd have to imagine at this time was not really a nation
but comprised of a number of city-states, ranging all the
way in the North from Macedonia down to Athens, Corinth, Sparta,
all those states whose names pop up in history. Each city-state was a
self-contained society. Had its own lands, its own army. NARRATOR: But
aboard his warship, the Persian commander Datis
cares about only one of these city-states-- Athens. He's so confident he'll be able
to destroy this historic city, the only question in his mind
is exactly how he'll destroy it. He can either
attack Athens directly from the sea, is
one possibility. This is a bit difficult.
Athens is walled. And an amphibious assault from
the sea against opposition is pretty iffy business. So he decides not to
attack Athens head-on, rather to pick a spot about
25 miles away from the city, along his line of route,
and to land there, and figured one of two
things would happen. Either the Greek army responds
and comes out to meet him, or he would land,
assemble his army, and simply march on to
Athens from the ground. So given the choice
between the land campaign or an amphibious landing
of Athens itself, he chooses the land campaign. NARRATOR: Datis directs
his fleet of 600 ships about 26 miles away
from Athens at Marathon. He moors his ships
in Marathon Bay, and disembarked on
the skinniest beach. The Persians then make
camp on the northeast side of the plain, next
to the great marsh. The Persian army is
about to slam into Athens like a category 5 hurricane. The Athenians know
surrender isn't an option. They're divided
on how to prepare. Should they hunker down
behind the city walls, or march out to meet
the Persians in battle? NARRATOR: Some in Athens
believe that an open field battle against the
Persians is suicide. But one Athenian disagrees. His name is Miltiades, and
he has a personal history with the Persians. Miltiades is a very
interesting character. He comes from a prominent
family in Athens. And when he's about 35, he takes
over Greek colony in Ionia, on the edge of the
Persian Empire. He rules there as a tyrant. This makes him very
unpopular in Athens. NARRATOR: In the
late 6th century BC, Miltiades' home on the
Hellespont Peninsula is engulfed by the
expanding Persian Empire. He's forced into
military service. Now wielding a Persian
sword, he must fight along his conquerors. The Persians soon spread
North, cross the Danube River, and invade Scythia, modern
day Eastern Europe and Asia. Miltiades was in charge
of guarding the bridges across the Danube over which
the Persian army had come in order to go into Scythia
and prosecute the campaign. NARRATOR: Finally, after
three long years in Scythia, Miltiades decided
he'd had enough. Miltiades had never been
a big fan of the Persians. And he tried to get
other Greek generals to agree that what
we ought to do is burn the bridges behind
Darius and his army, and let them die of starvation
or be killed by the Scythians. The other Greeks would
not go along with it, but it was Miltiades' idea,
and that was picked up by Persian intelligence. So Persian intelligence were
not very happy with Miltiades, as you might expect. NARRATOR: Miltiades
flees to Athens, but he is not welcome there,
Either the people of Athens still remember
Miltiades as a tyrant, and lock him up the
first chance they get. Three years after
his arrival in Athens, Miltiades faces the death
sentence for tyranny, but he's got an ace in the hole. He knows the Persian game. NARRATOR: And the
Persians are on their way, looking to destroy Athens. The Athenians not only
spare Miltiades' life, they make him a general. But Miltiades has to wonder
which fate is worse-- execution or being
hacked to literally bits by the Persian warriors. NARRATOR: Miltiades chooses
to face the Persian blade. And rather than hide
behind the walls of Athens, he wants to meet the
Persians on the battlefield. But the final decision
on whether to fight is not his to make. Athenian democracy
extends to the army, too. So when an argument erupts
over what to do at marathon the council of 10 generals
must decide what to do-- attack now or retreat
and try to get help from other Greek city-states? The vote is 5-5. The tie-breaking vote falls
to a man named Callimachus. He is the polemarch. It's a ceremonial position
in the Athenian army. Miltiades makes an impassioned
case to Callimachus saying, it's up to you whether Athens
is reduced to slavery or rises to become the greatest of
all the Greek city-states. He explains that
failure to fight now will shatter the democracy
along factional lines, and make them easy
prey for the Persians. Callimachus is convinced,
and he votes to attack. NARRATOR: Miltiades
gets his war. He leads the entire Athenian
army, roughly 10,000 strong, 26 miles East to the
plains of Marathon. The odds are overwhelmingly
against Miltiades. The Persian force is colossal. More than twice the Athenian
size, 20,000 infantry, 3,000 archers, 2,000 cavalry. Miltiades takes a
look at the situation and realizes immediately
he's severely outnumbered. He's not only outnumbered,
he's outgunned in the sense that there are fairly
substantial archer and cavalry contingents. NARRATOR: Even if the
Athenians can hold back the Persian infantry,
they have no way to counter the
Persian warhorses. It's a massive mismatch. Cavalry is one of the keys
to Persian military success. They were one of
the first armies to fully integrate
horses and heavy infantry for a devastating one-two
punch, and funnel their enemies into the chomping jaws of
their main infantry lines. NARRATOR: Miltiades is
outnumbered and outgunned. The Athenians have never faced
a force like this before. But they have cut their teeth
on some of the greatest warriors of the ancient world. For centuries, these
two Greek city-states shed each other's blood, but
50 years before Miltiades faces the Persians, a conflict erupts
between the Greek neighbors that will ultimately lead
to the Battle of Marathon. It's 540 BC, 50 years before
the Battle of Marathon. Two Greek city-states,
Athens and Sparta, attack each other on
the open battlefield. The rivalry between
Athens and Sparta is kind of like Michigan versus
Ohio State, except with spears. They constantly
seek any advantage they can over one another. While most of their battles
are provincial squabbles, one of them gets the Persians
involved, and eventually leads to the Battle of Marathon. NARRATOR: Athens is known as
the birthplace of democracy. Sparta, their
neighbor to the west, couldn't be more different. Imagine that the US Marines
had their own country. That's Sparta. They train constantly--
weapons, tactics, armor. It's pretty much all they do. Now, the Athenian-Spartan
relationship is very bipolar. Sometimes they help each other,
and sometimes they fight. NARRATOR: At the time, Athens
is ruled by a man named Hippias. He is, however, wildly unpopular
with the Athenian aristocrats, so they plot a coup and
overthrow Hippias with the help of some unlikely allies-- the Spartans. Now, the problem with
the Spartans helping you is that they wouldn't go home. And that was the problem
that the Athenians had, was how to get rid
of the Spartans. Well, they rose in revolt
and drove the Spartans out of Athens. And this was that
period about 400-- 540 BC, which was the beginning
of Athenian democracy at about this time. The problem was this, inevitably
one would expect the Spartans to counterattack. NARRATOR: Athens believes
they need an ally to defend themselves against Sparta. They turn to the Persian Empire. So it's one of the first
examples in Greek history of a smaller state trying to
align itself with a larger state, in this case,
the Persian Empire, in order to protect
itself from the aggression of another state,
in this case Sparta. NARRATOR: Athens sends an
envoy to the Persian province of Ionia, now modern day Turkey. At the court of the
Persian governor, the envoy asks for Persia's
help against Sparta. The Persian governor agrees,
but on one condition. The Athenians must make a
sacred offer of earth and water. The trouble is, the
Athenians don't really understand what the offer
of earth and water means. They think they're signing a
treaty, just like the treaties they've made in the past
with other Greek city-states. But to the Persians,
accepting earth and water means they own Athens. It has become their colony. NARRATOR: Without understanding
what they're really doing, the envoys submit
to Persian rule. All of Athens will pay
dearly for this mistake. It made no sense to
the rational Greeks. I mean, these are the people
who invented logic, mathematics, and philosophy. For them, it was just
a silly little ritual that really meant nothing. The problem, then, is
the same problem now. When you have two cultures
reaching an agreement, sometimes that agreement means
different things to each party, because the cultural context in
which it occurs is different. NARRATOR: Athens secures the
promise of Persian protection, but Sparta attacks so
quickly Athens has no time to call on her new ally. Determined to keep their new
democracy, Athenians fight more ferociously than ever. They defeat the Spartan
invasion on their own. Now, this is IMPORTANT because
Athens had asked the Persians for help, but they
don't need it. They defeated Sparta
all by themselves. The Athenians now
felt that the agreement they had made with the
Persians was null and void. They made the terrible mistake
of telling the Persians that. NARRATOR: This infuriates the
Persian emperor, Darius I. It amounted, in
the Persian view, to little more than
an open revolt, and Darius resolved that he was
going to bring Athens to heel. NARRATOR: The Persians sent
heralds to Athens and demand payment of customary taxes. The Athenians throw
them into a pit to die. Athens has spit in the face
of the world's most powerful empire. Throughout history,
alliances often come with unintended
consequences, but few have the magnitude
of the one of the treaty between Athens and Persia. If the Athenians never
asked for Persian help against the Spartans, the world
might be a completely different place today. It sets off
centuries of conflict between the East and the West. NARRATOR: And the
first major battle is Marathon, where more than
20,000 Persian infantry and cavalry and archers are
preparing to burn Athens to the ground. The Athenian General Miltiades
and 10,000 Greek infantrymen are colossally overmatched. But Miltiades does
have one advantage. How does he offset the
inferiorities that he suffers relative to the Persian forces? And the answer almost always
in antiquity is the same-- terrain, terrain, terrain. Location, location, location. NARRATOR: Historians
debate the exact route the Persians would have taken
to get from Marathon to Athens. Some believe they would have
taken the coastal road, a route that passes through
the Vrexiza Swamp. But then you would have
to go through a swamp, which was doable. But then you would
have been in a problem where the Persian army would
have been in column of march trying to gain the road,
with the Athenian army on its flank-- always a bad idea. NARRATOR: The only
other way to Athens is through the mountains
beginning at the Vrana Valley. If the Persian army
intends to invade Athens, it's got to go through
the mouth of that valley. And it's not very wide. It's not very wide. So what Miltiades does, he
decides to block the valley. And he deploys his troops in
the mouth of the Vrana Valley, in order to make it
impossible for the Persians to advance further. NARRATOR: Miltiades has
positioned his infantry in the valley like
a cork in a bottle. The Athenian phalanx is made up
of lines of tightly organized, interlocking warriors. They can move forward and back
easily, but not side to side. The phalanx formation is
incredibly effective at holding ground and moving forward. With rows of impact
tightly together, they use each other's
overlapping shields to form an armored wall. Miltiades anchors his flanks
on the rocky sides of the hill, and then goes about chopping
down trees to put them on the flanks as well. Why does he do this? He's well aware of the
fact that the weakness of the Greek phalanx
is its flanks. Whenever it has
died in battle, it has died because it's
been taken in the flanks, either by another phalanx,
or mostly by cavalry. NARRATOR: In the valley,
the flanks of the phalanx are well protected. So you're not going
to rely on the steepness and the rocks alone. You pile with brush,
and trees, and logs, so that there can't
be any cavalry attack. So just by positioning
his troops where he has, he has essentially taken the
cavalry out of the fight. Great maneuver. NARRATOR: The Persian commander
Datis is not concerned, and assembles his infantry. For three days, the
Persians line up for battle. But the Greeks choose not
to engage them, and stay in their protective zone. It wins the day if
there's no fight at all. Its job essentially
is to protect Athens by blocking the road. So if he would like to stay
here for several weeks, that was quite OK
with Miltiades. Is not OK, of course,
with the Persians. NARRATOR: Finally, the
frustrated Persians initiate an attack. The Athenians form
up for battle. But the Persians
do not immediately send in their infantry. They first launch a blistering
barrage of arrow fire. Under a tidal wave
of missiles, there is nowhere for the
Athenians to hide. 490 BC, it's the Athenian Greeks
versus the mighty Persians on the plains of Marathon. The Persians draw first, with
a devastating arrow attack. You can imagine this wall of
missiles literally blocking out the sun, raining down
on the Athenians. But you know what? The Athenians brushed the arrow
fire away like annoying gnats. NARRATOR: Thousands
of Persian arrows, very few Athenian casualties. And despite being
outnumber 2 to 1, the Athenians, led by General
Miltiades, taunt the Persians. The Persians are on a mission-- break through the wall of Greek
soldiers, march to Athens, and burn the city to the ground. Exactly what happens
next is up for debate. Every historian has his
theory of what went down at Marathon and why. And that's because we only
have one real source-- the Greek historian Herodotus. The problem is,
is that Herodotus is more like the
world's first blogger than an objective historian. He blends events, myths,
anecdotes, hearsay into this great story, but
nobody in their right mind believes it's all true. So who attacked who first
at Marathon and why? Well, from the
Athenian position, there's no need
to attack anyone. NARRATOR: But Datis,
the Persian commander, is itching for a fight. After the failed missile attack,
there's only one thing for him to do. All that's left is
a frontal assault. You're going to have to mix
it up head-on, one on one. NARRATOR: 10,000 Persian
light infantrymen charge across the Marathon plain. Waiting for them is the
Athenian phalanx, a bronze wall of spears and shields. More than a million pounds
of flesh and bone collide. Helping the Athenians create
this wall is the hoplon shield. The Greek shield
known as the hoplon is more than just a
glorified garbage can lid. It's a revolutionary
innovation in warfare. NARRATOR: The hoplon is a large,
circular bowl-shaped shield made of wood and
faced with bronze. It can withstand arrows
and punishing sword blows without splintering. But what makes it
truly remarkable is what's called an argive grip. The soldier passes his
arm through a leather loop in the middle of the
shield, and holds onto a handle near the rim. And why this is important is
it gives you very good control and much more force
with the shield, whereas the old tether
grip in the center wouldn't allow you to produce
a lot of force with it. NARRATOR: The Athenians
stop the crushing charge. Now they go on the offensive. The Athenians' primary weapon is
the heavy ashwood spear called the dory. Seven-feet long, tipped
with sharpened iron, the dory can smash
through shield and armor. [swords clanging] This spear is not thrown. It's used to stab the enemy
with a gruesome thrust. In the 6th century BC,
most Athenian warriors wear lightweight lamellar armor,
made of bonded strips of linen and leather. Some, however, wear
heavy rigid cuirasses with bronze plates sculpted
to look like a muscular torso. Bronze helmets with
distinctive horse-hair plumes protect their heads, while
greaves protect their lower legs. In full battle
gear, the hoplites are armored head to toe. The problem for the
Persians at Marathon is, they're up against a
determined Athenian phalanx that doesn't scatter
during the arrow barrage. The Persian light
infantry also doesn't have their usual cavalry support. So it's just sickle
swords and wicker shields against a bronze
wall of Athenians. NARRATOR: The Persian commander
Datis sends in wave after wave of light infantry assaults. Each time, however,
they impale themselves on a solid Athenian
wall of spears. The Persians are unrelenting. Defeat is not an option. The issue of imperial
prestige is at stake. I mean, what in all hell's name
could possibly have motivated this pipsqueak of a
nation, this backwater, to insult the largest
empire on Earth? NARRATOR: For the
Persians, Marathon is about more than
just a broken treaty. It's also punishment
for Athens' support of a revolution against
Persia 10 years earlier in nearby Ionia. Once an Athenian
Greek colony, Ionia was absorbed as a province by
the Persian Empire in 540 BC. But 40 years later in
500 BC, a local tyrant incited a revolution. The people of Ionia then
asked Athens for help. Athens was seen
by her colonies as kind of the mother country. And I guess Athens considered
herself the mother country. And so when her colonies asked
for help, she sent troops. It was a mistake of the
first order, to be sure, but that's probably
what motivated it. It certainly could not possibly
be justified on the grounds of rational self-interest. NARRATOR: The Athenians were
joined by a force from Eritrea in nearby Euboea. They sailed across
the Aegean to Ionia, and stormed the
capital of Sardis. It is another Athenian slap
in the face the Persians will never forget. 500 BC, 10 years before
the Battle of Marathon, the Ionian Revolt has begun. Several Greek contingents,
including Athenians, attacked Persian-controlled
Sardis, the Ionian capital, and burned the
city to the ground. To make matters worse for
Persia, at the same time they are fighting wars in
India, Egypt, and Scythia. The Ionian rebels
score a major blow, but the victory is short lived. The Persians increase
their force levels and begin to suppress
the Ionian Revolt. The Athenians, knowing that
discretion was the better part of valor, went home,
as did the Euboeans, and the Ionian Revolt simmered
on and off for the next five years, until it
finally simmered out. It flared out, and Persian
recaptured the Ionian coast. NARRATOR: But the Persian
King Darius is furious. He vows vengeance. Darius calls upon his
god to grant him vengeance against the Athenians. He even makes a
servant come up to him three times every night during
dinner, and whisper in his ear "Sire, remember the Athenians." So even while he's dealing
with Egypt and wars and India and Scythia, Athenian payback
is always on his mind. NARRATOR: King Darius
attempts to exact revenge on the Athenians in
490 BC at Marathon. But so far the Athenians have
survived a massive Persian missile attack. And now they are holding fast
against the Persian light infantry. General Miltiades
has brilliantly positioned his defensive force. The Greek heavy
infantry phalanxes are jammed in a narrow
opening between the mountains, blocking the path to Athens. The Persians had chosen
the battlefield, OK, by landing at Marathon,
but the Athenians had chosen the terrain by
using it to maximum advantage. And it's an old trick. NARRATOR: But an effective
one, as the Persian light infantry doesn't even
dent the Athenian wall. [swords clanging] The Persian light infantry
retreats, but now Miltiades must face the elite force
of the Persian army, the heavy infantry,
the immortals. NARRATOR: The legendary
Immortals are the storm troopers of the Persian empire. Faceless, they march into
battle in complete silence. They are the Athenians'
worst nightmare. In addition to their
brutal killing ability, the presence of the
Immortals forces Miltiades to change his tactics. Miltiades although he is
prepared the battlefield expertly and to give him
every advantage, still suffers from a great disadvantage, and
that is the area in which he occupies, although it's
relatively narrow, OK, is still wider than he has
sufficient troops to cover. What he does is, he
weakens his center and moves the
additional troops out. So that when you look
at the deployment of the Athenian force, you're
looking at a force that is relatively thin
in the center but has heavy phalanxes on either side. NARRATOR: Weakening the
center of his phalanx is a huge gamble, but then
Miltiades rolls the dice again. He advances his line out
of the protective valley. If he stays where he is, he
knows that when the center gets hit, it's going to flex in. The problem when it flexes in
if he stays where he is, is there's not enough room
for his heavy phalanxes on the end to maneuver inward. There's not enough room. They're jammed up
against the terrain. So he has a very, very
delicate tactical problem. And it's this-- NARRATOR: Miltiades his must
move his troops far enough to be able to extend his line,
so the phalanxes can maneuver. The trick is, how far
can Miltiades move out from the valley? If he doesn't come
out far enough, his flanks can't maneuver. If he comes out too
far, the Persians can get around his
flanks and surround him. And remember, all this
is happening on the fly. Miltiades won't know how far
is too far until it happens. NARRATOR: The
immortals close in. Miltiades needs
to make his move. He orders his
troops to redeploy. Herodotus tells
us that Marathon is the first time the Greek
hoplites ever ran into battle. And the reason they'd
never done it before is that it's exhausting. The Greeks wear all this heavy
armor and carry long spears, so running just wastes
a lot of energy. The other problem with running
is the tight phalanx formation itself. Their strength lies in
their unit cohesion. If that breaks apart
as they advance, they're immediately vulnerable. My guess is that Herodotus
is describing a redeployment at the run, not a movement
to contact at the run. At a given signal,
everybody, moving as close to to the format as they could,
moved out to 200 yards, stopped, and then
reformed very quickly. So that by the
time actual contact occurred with the
Persians, OK, the units were once more disciplined,
ranks were dressed, ready to receive the charge. [shouting] NARRATOR: While historians
debate many aspects of the Battle of Marathon, most
agree about what happens next-- an apocalypse of violence. The armies collide in
a horrifying maelstrom of bronze and blood. The battle is so intense that
some Greeks report crazed visions of ghost warriors
crashed through the lines and cut down men at random. But the reality is
just as terrifying-- the Persians surge forward, and
the Athenians are beaten back. The weak center can't
withstand the Persian attack, It's about to break. It's getting pushed back,
back, back, towards the valley. The hoplite dam
is about to burst, and it looks like
Athens is doomed. NARRATOR: Miltiades' center
is on the brink of collapse, but at the flanks,
it's a different story. The normal tactics
for the Persian infantry would have been to put the
strongest units in the middle and the weaker
units on the wings. This is because the wings are
usually supported by cavalry. And Miltiades would know this,
and it may be why he bolsters his own forces on the flanks. NARRATOR: With the Persian
cavalry rendered ineffective by the terrain, the Athenians
are able to chop down the weakened Persian flanks. The center of the Athenian line
continues to be pushed back, while the flanks hold strong. Herodotus tells us that
just before the center broke, they were rallied by their
officers to find new courage and actually counterattack. [swords clanging] They counterattack enough
to stop the forward movement in the center. And at that point, the heavy
phalanxes on the wings-- bang-- closed in on the side,
took them in the flanks, literally had them in the V,
and literally slaughtered them. NARRATOR: In a daring stroke
of military brilliance, Miltiades has completely turned
the tables on the Persians. [swords clanging] The Battle of Marathon has
become a Persian bloodbath. While keeping his
flanks anchored, the Athenian general Miltiades
has pulled the center of his line back, drawing the
Persian infantry into a death trap. Hemmed in on three sides,
the Persians can't maneuver. They panic. One of the reasons for their
panic probably was something caused by the fog of war, and
by something that happens to men in battle no matter how
well they are trained or how well you are disciplined. Every now and again, the disease
of fear gets into your soul. And when that happens, and
panic gets into your ranks, it's done. You can't stop it, no matter
how disciplined you are, how controlled you are. NARRATOR: More than
6,000 Persians perish, while the Athenians
lose fewer than 200. [swords clanging] Among the Athenian
dead, however, is Callimachus, whose
tie-breaking vote pushed the Athenians into battle. Some cite Marathon as
the first known example of the pincer
maneuver, or what's called a double envelopment. But this isn't truly the case,
because Miltiades only uses one force, so he does not
completely envelop the enemy. The Persians still have
an avenue of retreat. NARRATOR: And they use it. The Persians race
back toward the beach. Some say the Athenians
immediately chased the Persians back to their ships. But this is pretty unlikely,
since the Athenians would be completely exhausted
at this point. NARRATOR: What likely
happened is Miltiades and his men rested until
they were able to go back on the offensive. It took a considerable
time for the Persians to try to grab what's left of
their wounded, their horses, and put them on-- try to get them on the boat. It might have taken
several hours, 8, 10 hours. At some point, the
Greeks were rested. And at some point, they
reformed, and now they began-- "pursuit" is too strong a word. They began literally
marching towards the beach, in order to encourage, let us
say, the Persians to leave. NARRATOR: Fighting breaks out
again as the Persian rear guard tries to protect the retreat. Athenians butcher
them, and capture seven of the fleeing boats. [swords clanging] Herodotus recounts a story
where a Greek soldier grabs the boat with his left
hand, and has it chopped off by the fleeing Persians. Undaunted, he grabs the
boat with his right hand. It also gets chopped off. So the Greek soldier
bites the boat, and tries to hold it on
the beach with his teeth. This is the kind of hyperbole
that Herodotus is known for. NARRATOR: The Athenians
route the Persian infantry, but the danger isn't over yet. The Persians aren't
sailing back to Asia. They're heading
straight for Athens. Miltiades sends a Greek
messenger from Marathon to Athens with news
of the victory. The Athenian runs the 26
miles from Marathon to Athens, runs into the town square. He held up his hands, "nike,"
which means "victory," and drops dead, probably of
a heart attack or a stroke. And this is where we get the
phrase "to run a marathon," 26 miles-- the distance from
Marathon to Athens. But at the same time that this
inaugural race is being run, Miltiades realizes that
the fight is not yet over. Once Miltiades realizes
what the Persians are doing, he sends another runner back
to Athens to alert them. Then he assembles his troops
for a forced night march back to the city. It's hard to imagine how
tired these infantry guys are at this point. But if they hope to save
Athens, they have to keep going. NARRATOR: The Athenians
march all night long. It's difficult to know how
long it would take the Persians ships to sail to Athens from
Marathon, a distance of about 62 miles by sea. While a ship of that day could
make the trip in about 10 hours, a lot would depend on
the currents, weather condition, the weight that the
ship was carrying. Also, it's possible that some
of the ships with the cavalry might have already settled
for Athens a day or so before. So Miltiades can't be sure
if he had won the battle and lost the war. NARRATOR: Early the next
morning, the Persian commander Datis enters the Athenian
harbor with his 600 ships. On the walls of the
city, he sees Miltiades and the entire Athenian army. Datis takes one look at this,
understands the difficulties involved with carrying out an
opposed amphibious landing, decides better of it,
turns to the coxswain, turn the boat around. The fleet turns around,
and sails back to Persia, and Athens remains free. NARRATOR: As the
Persians sail away, the Athenian
infantry can finally celebrate their amazing
victory at Marathon. To commemorate, the
victory the Athenians build one of the most iconic
buildings in human history-- the Parthenon, a massive
temple to the goddess Athena. Carved into the wall
of the Parthenon are 192 figures, one for
each of the Athenians slain at Marathon. After the defeat
at Marathon, Datis returned to the
court of King Darius. Some suggest he's
executed for his failure. And while there's no
evidence for this, history never hears
from Datis again. But what we do know is
that Darius was furious. Furious because this pygmy
little barbaric state has insulted the great
empire of Persia yet again, and got away with it. Darius swears in his mind
that if he lives long enough, he will have his revenge
on the Athenians. As it turns out, of course,
he doesn't live long enough. NARRATOR: Persian
revenge for Marathon falls to Darius' son, Xerxes,
who 40 years after Marathon personally travels to Greece
to fulfill his father's wishes. This transmission of
the desire for revenge against Athens sets up 40 years
later one of the signature battles of Western
military history, the last stand of the 300
at the pass of Thermopylae. NARRATOR: At Thermopylae,
the great Spartan commander Leonidas uses the same
tactics against the Persians that Miltiades did nearly half
a century earlier at Marathon. Marathon itself is one of
those moments that is defining in Western history. In fact, it defines what it is
to be Western and Greek over against Persian and Eastern. It's not the end of the story. In fact, it's just the
beginning of the story. NARRATOR: The Battle of
Marathon tells the ancient world that Persia isn't invincible. It serves as a battle
cry for future rebellions throughout the empire. Greece and Persia will
continue to clash on and off for the next 100 years. The struggle catapults
Greece from obscurity into the center stage
of the ancient world. It all begins on the
blood-soaked plain of Marathon.
