Figure 36 Attic red-figure amphora, showing a hoplite spearing a Persian warrior who holds a bow and a
sword; height 34.8 cm, ca. 480–470 BC. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1906
(06.1021.117).
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1906. www.metmuseum.org (accessed March
29, 2016).
Whatever the reasons for their victory at Marathon, the Athenians and Plataeans had no time to savor it.
The Persian fleet, which was still intact, set sail immediately and headed around the promontory of Attica
for the port of Athens itself. By the time the Persians arrived, the victorious Athenian troops were already
there, having marched the roughly 40 kilometers as quickly as they possibly could. The Persians had
expected to find the city undefended; when they saw the Athenian army ready to repel any attack, they
turned around and sailed back to Asia, taking the disappointed Hippias with them. As if the reality of the
event was not fabulous enough, a number of legends arose in its wake, the most enduring of which
concerned the messenger who had run from Athens to Sparta. A later, entirely fictitious account has him
then running back to Marathon to participate in the battle, after which he rushes to report the victory to the
Athenians with his dying breath. The marathon race that commemorates this last (and least impressive)
feat is a purely modern invention and dates only from the first modern Olympic games, held in Athens in
- At that time a race was held from Marathon to the stadium in Athens, a distance of 42 kilometers.
(By contrast, the longest foot race at the ancient Olympic games covered a distance of only about five
kilometers, if that.) The marathon race is now a standard feature of the Olympic games and is a popular