Marathon (First Persian War)
But what was the best way for the Persians to take over
Greece? By land or by sea? The Persians had tried the land way in 514 BC
when they attacked the Scythians.
But they had lost. So this time the Persians decided to attack by sea. They
decided to start from Ionia (modern Turkey) and try to conquer Athens. The
Persians were especially mad at the Athenians because the Athenians had
invaded Anatolia during the Ionian Revolt. Then,
if they got Athens, maybe they would attack the rest of Greece.
The Persians knew a lot about Athens and the best way to attack Athens from
the exiled Athenian tyrant Hippias,
who was living at the court of Darius now. Hippias was angry that the Athenians
had thrown him out, and he was hoping to get back into power in Athens with
Persian help.
(The reason we know so much about this war is that a Greek
historian, Herodotus, wrote a
history of it afterward).
By the fall of 490 BC the Persians were ready. The Persian ships, carrying the cavalry, sailed over to Greece, looting islands on the way. Their first stop was to take Eretria, on the island of Euboea (you-BEE-ah). When the Persians got to Eretria, the people all went inside their walls and shut the big city gates. Usually at this time people were pretty safe once they were inside their walls. The Persians didn’t have any weapons that could break down strong stone walls. But some of the Eretrians were afraid of the Persians anyway, and one of them opened a back door for the Persians in the middle of the night, and so the Persian army got in and took over Eretria through this treachery.
More about the Battle of Marathon and the First Persian War
To find out more about the Battle of Marathon, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your local library:
Marathon (Battles That Changed the World), by David J. Califf (2002). For teens.
The Battle of Marathon (Battles of the Ancient World), by Don Nardo (1995). For teens. Rather unappealing layout, but the information and writing are good. With appropriate quotations from Herodotus.
Second Persian War
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