Show victory made history on plain of marathon the ancient marathon was a small town on the eastern coast ot of attica about 20 miles northeast of athens there Is a modern village of the name but the site 0 of the ancient marathon Is occupied now by a town called along with neighboring towns the old marathon belonged to an ancient Hansen tic league called the Tetra polls this league claimed a very early origin legend carrying it back to the time of 0 theseus and it survived until after the fourth century B C the plain of 0 marathon Is famous camou 3 as the scene of the decisive battle in which miltiades led the athenians and Ilat enns eans to victory over the army of darius under command of datla datis and Artap hernes in E B C the greeks numbered about while the persians had bad a much larger form force but the invaders were put utterly to rout with heavy loss while the greeks lost only men the great mound in which the remains of these dead were placed Is still conspicuous on the plain the battle turned back the eastern invasion of europe and saved athens and according to tra saved athens and according to tradition a greek runner sped without stopping froni from marathon to athens bearing the tidings of victory |