History and legend

~Ύ~ he. Battle of Marathon: History and Legend is an exhib i -

I t ion in c o m m e m o r a t i o n o f t he significant batt le that

t ook place 2,500 years ago, w h e n ten thousand Athenians

and Plataeans managed t o resist the attack o f t he Persian

Empire, wh ich had already conquered the w o r l d o f the East

w i t h their vast mi l i tary and economic p o w e r

T h e Persian Empire, w i t h its swift expansion and t w o cen­

tur ies o f political dominance in the N e a r and Middle East,

marked an intersect ion in tne h istory o f antiquity. It per­

manent ly eradicated all t he pet ty k ingdoms o f the area and

created a new, unified w o r l d . U n d e r Darius I (522-486 BC),

the state achieved stability and its ident i ty as t h e first t ru ly

mukinat ional empi re .The King was the absolute mas te r t he

agent o f the supreme god Ahura-Mazda.

The Greek w o r l d , on t h e o t h e r hand, in t h e late Archaic

per iod , was polit ically f ragmented. The mos t representa­

t ive poli t ical uni t was the city-state. City-states w e r e self-

conta ined, independent and highly compe t i t i ve w i t h o n e

a n o t h e r T h e polit ical f ragmentat ion w i t h i n t he Greek w o r l d

was h o w e v e r counterba lanced by its c o m m o n religious and

cultural identi ty,The main means o f preserv ing the f r eedom

o f t he Greek city-states was the phalanx o f hoplkes - t h e

f ree, se l f -support ing citizens w h o fought on foo t , in f o rma­

t ion , fully discipl ined and coord ina ted .

A t the t ime, the Peloponnesian

League was the strongest

unified political and mil i tary

power; the only one ap­

pearing capable o f oppos­

ing the Persian menace, f l

H o w e v e r a rising power,

Athens, managed t o re­

pulse the Spartan interven­

tions, t o finally r id herself o f

the tyranny o f the Peisistratid

1. Dane, end of 5th c. - 375 BC. Athens, Numismatic Museum, inv. no. NM 64646 © Hellenic Ministry of Culture

2. Tetradrachm of Athens, 520/10-480 BC. Athens, Numismatic Mu­seum, inv. no. NM 1910/11 Ν 105 © Hellenic Ministry of Culture

family, and, under Cleisthenes in 508/7 BC, t o proceed w i t h

the forging o f a n e w system o f government - democracy

This novel, radical political system o f the Athenians was t o be

sorely tested and w o u l d be vindicated eighteen years later, at

t he Battle o f Marathon.

The number o f t r oops o f t he Persian expedi t ionary force

under Datis' leadership that landed and encamped on the

shores o f Mara thon in early September 490 BC is est imated

t o have been be tween 12,000 t o 25,000 infantry and 200 t o

1,000 cavalry. 9,000 Athenian hopli ies and 1,000 Plataean allies

rushed t o Marathon and encamped on the heights that cut

o f f t he plain f r o m the southwest. Heading the Greek force

was the Commander - in -Ch ie f (polemarchos) Callimachus, bu t

t he actual command was in t he hands o f Miltiades, one o f the

ten generals (strategoi), w h o happened t o be familiar w i t h

Persian batt le tactics.

The Persian army's presence in Marathon was actually meant

as a diversion. So, once the Persian plan became apparent, Mil­

tiades ordered the at tackThe phalanx moved quickly, breaking

into a run for the last meters t o keep casualties f r o m the

enemy's arrows at a min imum. To compensate fo r

t he Persians' supenority in numbers, the Athenians

had lengthened their line, thinning the centre, but

reinforcing the wings. The t w o wings, w i th the

Persian cavalry absent, scattered the weaker t(

Persian units before them.They then tu rned t o ­

wards the Persian centre, surrounding i t The latter

broke and retreated in disarray towards the i r ships.

It was then when the last and bloodiest phase o f the

battle t o o k place.The Persian fleet managed t o set sail for

Phaliron. only t o find there the Athenian army arrayed on

the beach after an exhausting and desperate forced march.

The Persians sailed away, frustrated,

The epic character o f t he batt le no t only gave rise t o tales

o f heroic deaths, like those o f Callimachus and Kinegirus, but

3. Red-figured amphora with Greek warrior attacking a Persian, ca. 480-470 BC. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. ME07527 © The Metropolitan Museum of Art/ Art Resource/Scala, Florence

also t o those o f o the r personal teats, such as that o f Pheidip-

pides, and o f the runner announcing v ic tory t o t h e Athenians

w i t h his dying breath after having run t o t h e city f r o m the dis­

tant battlefield. Another ; mythic, d imension has gods and he-

r oes suppor t ing the Athenians' Pan fi 01 i i r e At cad an i o u n

t i is Theseus f r o m the under

along w i t h goddess Athena, t he local hero Marathon, and the

farmer Echetlos.

The pictorial represet ' ' 1 a n t I

19th-century travellers' Grand Tour Marathon was perceived

as a condui t o f remembrance / the manifestation o f the g lory

ot t he batt le and its protagonists.The tounda+ion fo r this in­

tellectual approach t o t he site had been laid in s

4. Attic red-figured bell-krater, attributed to the Altamura Painter, depicting warriors leaving home, 470-460 BC. London, The British Museum, inv. no. 1961,0710.1

5. Part of the Frieze of Archers, ca. S10 BC. Paris, Musee du Louvre, inv. no. 97-024173 © RMN/Apeiron Photos

6. Carl Rottmann, Marathon, 1848, oil on canvas, 161.5 χ 205 cm Munchen, Bayerischen Staats-gemaldesammlungen, Neu Pinakothek, Inv. Nr. 860

7. Fragment of the trophy of the battle. Marathon Archaeological Museum © Hellenic Ministry of Culture

Cover: Attic red-figured kylix depicting a duel between an Athenian and a Persian, 480 BC, attributed to the Triptolemos Painter. Edinburgh, The Royal Scottish Museum, inv. no. 1887.213 © The Trustees of the National Museum of Scotland

enment and the French Revolution, which restored ancient

Greek democracy t o t he ideological landscape.

Memor ia l t o the victory and the landmark o f this area is the

renownedTornb o f the Marathon wa rn jt the 11 n l t r.oi ind'

- which according t o prevailing opinion - - covers Li ·,ε & nalns

o f the Athenian dead. It was first excavated by Heinrich Schli-

emann in 1884, w h o claimed that the t o m b dates earlier than

the battie. In 1890-1891 the archaeologist Vaierios Sta'is discov­

ered at the same site a thick layer o f charcoal and ash as well

as charred skeletal remains, Accord ing t o Pausanias, a second

t o m b existed next t o that o f t he Atheni ans tor the burial of the

Plataeans and the slaves. Spyros Marinatos at t r ibuted to the

Plataeans a tomb, some 3 km nor thwes t o f the l o m b o f the

Athenians. Many have quest ioned the identification o f the t w o

tombs.As a rule, though, it is generally accepted that t he larger

t o m b , t he "burial m o u n d " does indeed contain t he remains o f

t he 192 Athenians w h o fell in the battle.

The exhibit ion aims at explor ing the different aspects o f the

Battle o f Marathon. Topics are explored through an educa­

t ional perspective and due attent ion has been paid t o the ac-

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