Kitap 6
They entered the city and plundered and burnt the temples, in revenge for the temples that were burnt at Sardis [28.0167,38.475] (Perseus) Sardis; moreover, they enslaved the townspeople, according to Darius' command.
After subduing +Eretria [23.8083,38.3917] (Perseus) Eretria, the Persians waited a few days and then sailed away to the land of Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica, pressing ahead in expectation of doing to the Athenians exactly what they had done to the Eretrians. MarathonFor a detailed discussion of various questions connected with the battle of Marathon, readers are referred to How and Wells, Appendix XVIII. was the place in Attica [23.5,38.83] (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Attica most suitable for riding horses and closest to +Eretria [23.8083,38.3917] (Perseus) Eretria, so Hippias son of Pisistratus led them there.
When the Athenians learned this, they too marched out to Marathon, with ten generals leading them. The tenth was Miltiades, and it had befallen his father Cimon son of Stesagoras to be banished from Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens by Pisistratus son of Hippocrates.
While in exile he happened to take the Olympic prize in the four-horse chariot, and by taking this victory he won the same prize as his half-brother Miltiades. At the next Olympic games he won with the same horses but permitted Pisistratus to be proclaimed victor, and by resigning the victory to him he came back from exile to his own property under truce.
After taking yet another Olympic prize with the same horses, he happened to be murdered by Pisistratus' sons, since Pisistratus was no longer living. They murdered him by placing men in ambush at night near the town-hall. Cimon was buried in front of the city, across the road called “Through the Hollow”, and buried opposite him are the mares who won the three Olympic prizes.
The mares of Evagoras the Laconian did the same as these, but none others. Stesagoras, the elder of Cimon's sons, was then being brought up with his uncle Miltiades in the Gelibolu Yarimadasi (peninsula), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaChersonese. The younger was with Cimon at Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens, and he took the name Miltiades from Miltiades the founder of the Gelibolu Yarimadasi (peninsula), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaChersonese.
It was this Miltiades who was now the Athenian general, after coming from the Gelibolu Yarimadasi (peninsula), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaChersonese and escaping a two-fold death. The Phoenicians pursued him as far as Imbros, considering it of great importance to catch him and bring him to the king.
He escaped from them, but when he reached his own country and thought he was safe, then his enemies met him. They brought him to court and prosecuted him for tyranny in the Gelibolu Yarimadasi (peninsula), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, AsiaChersonese, but he was acquitted and appointed Athenian general, chosen by the people.
While still in the city, the generals first sent to Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta the herald Philippides, an Athenian and a long-distance runner who made that his calling. As Philippides himself said when he brought the message to the Athenians, when he was in the Parthenian mountain above Tegea [22.4,37.5] (Perseus) Tegea he encountered Pan.
Pan called out Philippides' name and bade him ask the Athenians why they paid him no attention, though he was of goodwill to the Athenians, had often been of service to them, and would be in the future.
The Athenians believed that these things were true, and when they became prosperous they established a sacred precinct of Pan beneath the Acropolis. Ever since that message they propitiate him with annual sacrifices and a torch-race.
This Philippides was in Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta on the day after leaving the city of Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens,According to Isocrates the distance traversed was 150 miles. that time when he was sent by the generals and said that Pan had appeared to him. He came to the magistrates and said,
“Lacedaemonians, the Athenians ask you to come to their aid and not allow the most ancient city among the Hellenes to fall into slavery at the hands of the foreigners. Even now +Eretria [23.8083,38.3917] (Perseus) Eretria has been enslaved, and Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas has become weaker by an important city.”
He told them what he had been ordered to say, and they resolved to send help to the Athenians, but they could not do this immediately, for they were unwilling to break the law. It was the ninth day of the rising month, and they said that on the ninth they could not go out to war until the moon's circle was full.This statement probably applies only to the month Carneius (Attic Metageitnion), when the Carneia was celebrated at Sparta [22.4417,37.0667] (Perseus) Sparta in honor of Apollo, from the 7th to the 15th of the month.
So they waited for the full moon, while the foreigners were guided to Marathon by Hippias son of Pisistratus. The previous night Hippias had a dream in which he slept with his mother.
He supposed from the dream that he would return from exile to Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens, recover his rule, and end his days an old man in his own country. Thus he reckoned from the dream. Then as guide he unloaded the slaves from +Eretria [23.8083,38.3917] (Perseus) Eretria onto the island of the Styrians called Aegilia, and brought to anchor the ships that had put ashore at Marathon, then marshalled the foreigners who had disembarked onto land.
As he was tending to this, he happened to sneeze and cough more violently than usual. Since he was an elderly man, most of his teeth were loose, and he lost one of them by the force of his cough. It fell into the sand and he expended much effort in looking for it, but the tooth could not be found.
He groaned aloud and said to those standing by him: “This land is not ours and we will not be able to subdue it. My tooth holds whatever share of it was mine.”
Hippias supposed that the dream had in this way come true. As the Athenians were marshalled in the precinct of Heracles, the Plataeans came to help them in full force. The Plataeans had put themselves under the protection of the Athenians,In 519, according to Thucydides (Thuc. 3.68); Grote gives a later date. and the Athenians had undergone many labors on their behalf. This is how they did it:
when the Plataeans were pressed by the Thebans, they first tried to put themselves under the protection of Cleomenes son of Anaxandrides and the Lacedaemonians, who happened to be there. But they did not accept them, saying, “We live too far away, and our help would be cold comfort to you. You could be enslaved many times over before any of us heard about it.
We advise you to put yourselves under the protection of the Athenians, since they are your neighbors and not bad men at giving help.” The Lacedaemonians gave this advice not so much out of goodwill toward the Plataeans as wishing to cause trouble for the Athenians with the Boeotians.
So the Lacedaemonians gave this advice to the Plataeans, who did not disobey it. When the Athenians were making sacrifices to the twelve gods,The twelve gods were Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Athena, Ares, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hestia. The βωμὸς was a central altar in the agora, from which distances were reckoned. they sat at the altar as suppliants and put themselves under protection. When the Thebans heard this, they marched against the Plataeans, but the Athenians came to their aid.
As they were about to join battle, the Corinthians, who happened to be there, prevented them and brought about a reconciliation. Since both sides desired them to arbitrate, they fixed the boundaries of the country on condition that the Thebans leave alone those Boeotians who were unwilling to be enrolled as Boeotian. After rendering this decision, the Corinthians departed. The Boeotians attacked the Athenians as they were leaving but were defeated in battle.
The Athenians went beyond the boundaries the Corinthians had made for the Plataeans, fixing the Asopus river as the boundary for the Thebans in the direction of Plataea [23.2667,38.2] (Perseus) Plataea and Hysiae. So the Plataeans had put themselves under the protection of the Athenians in the aforesaid manner, and now came to help at Marathon.
The Athenian generals were of divided opinion, some advocating not fighting because they were too few to attack the army of the Medes; others, including Miltiades, advocating fighting.
Thus they were at odds, and the inferior plan prevailed. An eleventh man had a vote, chosen by lot to be polemarchOne of the nine archons, all chosen by lot. of Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens, and by ancient custom the Athenians had made his vote of equal weight with the generals. Callimachus of Aphidnae was polemarch at this time. Miltiades approached him and said,
“Callimachus, it is now in your hands to enslave Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus)Athens or make her free, and thereby leave behind for all posterity a memorial such as not even Harmodius and Aristogeiton left. Now the Athenians have come to their greatest danger since they first came into being, and, if we surrender, it is clear what we will suffer when handed over to Hippias. But if the city prevails, it will take first place among Hellenic cities.
I will tell you how this can happen, and how the deciding voice on these matters has devolved upon you. The ten generals are of divided opinion, some urging to attack, others urging not to.
If we do not attack now, I expect that great strife will fall upon and shake the spirit of the Athenians, leading them to medize. But if we attack now, before anything unsound corrupts the Athenians, we can win the battle, if the gods are fair.
All this concerns and depends on you in this way: if you vote with me, your country will be free and your city the first in Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas. But if you side with those eager to avoid battle, you will have the opposite to all the good things I enumerated.”
By saying this Miltiades won over Callimachus. The polemarch's vote was counted in, and the decision to attack was resolved upon. Thereafter the generals who had voted to fight turned the presidency over to Miltiades as each one's day came in turn.Each general seems to have been head commander in turn. He accepted the office but did not make an attack until it was his own day to preside.
When the presidency came round to him, he arrayed the Athenians for battle, with the polemarch Callimachus commanding the right wing, since it was then the Athenian custom for the polemarch to hold the right wing. He led, and the other tribes were numbered out in succession next to each other.There was a fixed official order; but Plutarch's account of the battle places certain tribes according to a different system. Perhaps the battle-order was determined by lot. The Plataeans were marshalled last, holding the left wing.
Ever since that battle, when the Athenians are conducting sacrifices at the festivals every fourth year,e.g. the great Panathenaea, and the festival of Poseidon. the Athenian herald prays for good things for the Athenians and Plataeans together.
As the Athenians were marshalled at Marathon, it happened that their line of battle was as long as the line of the Medes. The center, where the line was weakest, was only a few ranks deep, but each wing was strong in numbers.
When they had been set in order and the sacrifices were favorable, the Athenians were sent forth and charged the foreigners at a run. The space between the armies was no less than eight stadia.
The Persians saw them running to attack and prepared to receive them, thinking the Athenians absolutely crazy, since they saw how few of them there were and that they ran up so fast without either cavalry or archers.
So the foreigners imagined, but when the Athenians all together fell upon the foreigners they fought in a way worthy of record. These are the first Hellenes whom we know of to use running against the enemy. They are also the first to endure looking at Median dress and men wearing it, for up until then just hearing the name of the Medes caused the Hellenes to panic.
They fought a long time at Marathon. In the center of the line the foreigners prevailed, where the Persians and Sacae were arrayed. The foreigners prevailed there and broke through in pursuit inland, but on each wing the Athenians and Plataeans prevailed.
In victory they let the routed foreigners flee, and brought the wings together to fight those who had broken through the center. The Athenians prevailed, then followed the fleeing Persians and struck them down. When they reached the sea they demanded fire and laid hold of the Persian ships.
In this labor Callimachus the polemarch was slain, a brave man, and of the generals Stesilaus son of Thrasylaus died. Cynegirus Brother of the poet Aeschylus. son of Euphorion fell there, his hand cut off with an ax as he grabbed a ship's figurehead. Many other famous Athenians also fell there.