Battle of Marathon
An Athenian and Plataean force defeats a Persian expedition on the plain of Marathon in Attica. Herodotus records that before the battle the Athenians sent the runner Pheidippides to Sparta to seek help, a journey of roughly 250 km. He records no run from Marathon to Athens afterwards. The 192 Athenian dead are cremated and buried under a mound on the plain. The day of the battle within 490 BCE is disputed in the sources, with both August and September dates argued.
Uncertain — sources disagree, or the dating is contested. Stated here, not resolved.
Subjects
- Marathon and the Tumulus of the Athenians · site · Greece
- Pheidippides · person · Greece · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent. This is the standing of the weakest source, not an average.
Histories, Book VI, chapters 105–106
Herodotus records that before the Battle of Marathon the Athenians sent a trained runner, named Pheidippides or Philippides, to Sparta to request help, and that he encountered Pan on Mount Parthenion; Herodotus records no run from Marathon to Athens. V55 verification basis: the chapter attribution and the absence of the Marathon-to-Athens run were read in encyclopaedic summary (Britannica, National Geographic); the Greek text was not consulted in this session.
Herodotus · c. 430 BCE · Partly verified
Herodotus, Histories VI.105–106 (standard chapter citation; any critical edition or Loeb text)
Tumulus of the Athenians, 490 BC, Marathon
The Soros at Marathon holds the ashes of 192 Athenians who fell in 490 BCE, stands about 10 m high with a diameter of about 50 m, and was excavated by Valerios Stais in 1891. V55 verification basis: read through an attributed search summary; the ministry page was not retrieved and the coordinate is taken from the standard reference entry for the Marathon tumuli rather than from this page.
Hellenic Ministry of Culture · Partly verified
https://2500years.culture.gov.gr/en/chapters/i-machi-tou-marathona/timvos-ton-athinaion
Recorded on Marathon and the Tumulus of the Athenians
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.