The Persians vs. the Greeks

In 490, after the Greek cities of Eretria and Athens had sent help to the Ionian cities, the Persians, retaliating, made their first attempt to conquer mainland Greeks. After Eretria was surrendered to the Persians, its inhabitants were enslaved.

Next came Marathon. Sent by Darius, the Persians under Artaphernes and Datis, who had landed in Marathon Bay, were defeated by a much smaller number of Athenian and Plataean hoplites under the general Miltiades and the polemarch Callimachus. The Greeks used the large number of the Persians to their advantage by surrounding them on three sides and then squeezing them together.

• Battle of Marathon
• Hoplite
• Accomplishments of Darius