The battle of Marathon is widely regarded by historians as one of the most important batttles in world history. Twenty-five hundred years ago in 490 b.c. a loose confederation of Greek city states faced a unified, battle tested Persian army which outnumbered the Greeks by some 5 to 1. The Hellenes were so discordant that their most able soldiers, the Spartans, did not fight because of a lunar superstition. Had the Greeks lost this battle, as everyone, including themselves, expected there was no organized resistance to prevent the Persians from overrunning all of Europe, an event which would have considerably altered the future course of world history.
       The tactics used by the Hellenes to defeat an overwhelmingly numerically superior army have been used in some famous battles throughout military history, most notably by Hannibal at Cannae, and are to this day studied in military schools throughout the world.. The Hellenic army boldly thinned their lines in order to lengthen them to match the length of the Persian lines. By deception the Persians were led to believe that the strength of the Hellenic lines was in the center while in reality the infantry was concentrated on the flanks. The Hellenic center brazenly initiated a battle with the much stronger Persian center and then, in a preconceived maneuver, cunningly retreated drawing the entire Persian army into an invisible pocket. At the proper time, perfect timing was the crux of the Hellenic plan, the flanks showed their strength and came down upon the Persian rear and routed the enemy. The outflanked Persian army ran for their lives and made it to their ships still very much outnumbering the shocked Greeks, most of whom expected to die on this day. The Persians then sailed for Athens hoping to destroy the most important Hellenic city-state whose entire defense force was twenty-six miles away at Marathon. The Greeks guessed where the Persians were headed and hurried over land to Athens to take up strong defensive positions. Had the Persians doubled back to Marathon the Hellenic army would have had no time to take up the positions which enabled it to defeat the Persians and the back door to Athens would have been wide open. Approaching Athens, the Persians, seeing the strong defensive positions of the Greek army which had just defeated them at Marathon , turned around and sailed for home.

(inset picture is burial mound of Athenians who died at Marathon in 490 b.c.)