2. Persia Attacks The Persian King Darius I commands to invade Athens, a Greek city He sends 25000 men and 600 ships to the bay of Marathon, just outside of Athens Athens would have fallen if not for Miltiades, a general from Thrace He knew Persian tactics and how to defeat them
5. The waiting For 10 days both sides waited The Athenian Generals were squabbling Also the Athenians did not have a plan yet The runner came back to say that Sparta could not help The Spartans were observing a religious festival
6. All on their own Miltiades took command and put his plan into order The Athenians charged down the hill They hit the Persians The sheer numbers of the Persians pushed the Greeks back The Greeks weakened their center and strengthened their sides The valley let the sides push into the Persians thus routing them
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9. Nike The Persians ran back to their ships, with 6400 casualties while the Greeks had 192 The same runner who ran to Sparta ran back to Athens He announced the victory and dropped dead The distance between Marathon and Athens is 26 miles this is about the distance of the Marathons today This was the first invasion of Greece In the next invasion, the Persians would have many more men and Greece would be in far more danger
