Marathon, Greece

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Marathon, Greece

Marathon (Demotic Greek: ?a?a???a?, Marathónas; Attic

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
/ Katharevousa

Katharevousa

Katharevousa , is a form of the Greek language conceived in the early 19th century by Greeks intellectual and revolutionary leader Adamantios Korais ....
: , ) is an ancient Greek city-state, a contemporary town in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
, the site of the battle of Marathon

Battle of Marathon

The Battle of Marathon, Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars took place in 490 BC and was the culmination of the first attempt by the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Ancient Greece....
in 490 BC, in which the heavily outnumbered Athenian

Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
army defeated the Persia

Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
ns. The tumulus

Tumulus

A tumulus is a mound of Soil and Rock s raised over a Grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, H?gelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world....
or burial mound (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
??µß??, tymbos, i.e. tomb) for the 192 Athenian dead that was erected near the battlefield remains a feature of the coastal plain. The Tymbos is now marked by a marble memorial stele

Stele

A stele is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerals or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living ? inscribed, carved in relief , or painted onto the slab....
and surrounded by a small park.

name of the athletic long-distance endurance race, the "marathon

Marathon

The marathon is a long-distance running with an official distance of 42.195 kilometers that is usually run as a road race. The event is named after the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens....
", comes from the legend of Pheidippides

Pheidippides

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Encyclopedia

Marathon (Demotic Greek: ?a?a???a?, Marathónas; Attic

Ancient Greek

Katharevousa

Greece

Battle of Marathon

Athens

Persian Empire

Tumulus

Greek language

Stele

History

The name of the athletic long-distance endurance race, the "marathon

Marathon

Pheidippides

Pheidippides , hero of Ancient Greece, is the central figure in a story which was the inspiration for a modern sporting event, the marathon....
, a Greek soldier, who was sent from the town of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been miraculously defeated in the Battle of Marathon. It is said that he ran the entire distance without stopping, but moments after proclaiming his message "Nenikekamen" ("We were Victorious!") to the city he collapsed dead from exhaustion. The account of the run from Marathon to Athens first appears in Plutarch

Plutarch

Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 ? 120 ? commonly known in English as Plutarch ? was a Ancient Rome historian , biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonism....
's On the Glory of Athens in the 1st century AD who quotes from Heraclides Ponticus

Heraclides Ponticus

Heraclides Ponticus , also known as Herakleides, was a Greece philosopher who lived and died at Heraclea Pontica, now Karadeniz Eregli, Turkey....
' lost work, giving the runner's name as either Thersipus of Erchius or Eucles.[1] Lucian of Samosata (2nd century AD) also gives the story but names the runner Philippides (not Pheidippides).[2]

The name actually comes from the distance from the battle at Marathon to Athens, 26 miles. After Miltiades (the general of the Greek forces) defeats Darius' Persian forces the Persians decide to sail from marathon to Athens to sack the unprotected city. Miltiades orders all his hoplite forces to 'Double-time' march back to Athens. So by the time Darius' troops arrive, they see the same Greek force waiting for them

The Greek historian Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
, the main source for the Greco-Persian Wars

Greco-Persian Wars

For other Persian wars, see Roman-Persian Wars, Islamic conquest of Persia, Iraq war , and Military history of Iran.The Greco-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between several ancient Greece city-states and the Achaemenid Empire that started in 499 BC and lasted until 448 BC....
, mentions Pheidippides as the messenger who ran from Athens to Sparta asking for help. In some manuscripts of Herodotus the name of the runner between Athens and Sparta is given as Philippides.

There are two roads out of the battlefield of Marathon towards Athens, one more mountainous towards the north whose distance is about 34.5 km (21.4 miles), and another flatter but longer towards the south with a distance of 40.8 km (25.4 miles). It has been successfully argued that the ancient runner took the more difficult northern road because at the time of the battle there were still Persian soldiers in the south of the plain.

Marathon (µ??a???) is the Greek word for fennel

Fennel

Fennel is a plant species in the genus Foeniculum . It is a member of the family Apiaceae . It is a hardy, perennial plant, umbelliferous herb, with yellow flowers and feathery leaf....
. It is believed that the town was originally named so because of an abundance of fennel plants in the area. The sophist and magnate Herodes Atticus

Herodes Atticus

Herodes Atticus , also known by his Ancient Rome name, Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes Marathonios was a Greeks rhetorician, notable as a proponent of Philostratus' Second Sophistic, a pseudo-revival of classical Greek culture....
was born in Marathon. In 1925, a dam was constructed by the American company ULEN in a valley above Marathon, in order to ensure water supply for Athens

Athens

Lake Marathon

Lake Marathon or the Marathon Reservoir is a water supply reservoir formed from the construction of Marathon Dam at the junction of Charadros and Varnavas Torrents near the town of Marathon, Greece, Greece....
. The Dionysos-Nea Makri road, part of GR-83, passes through a traffic-light-controlled one-lane driveway on the crest of the dam wall. The plain area lies to the southeast.

The beach of Schinias is located southeast of the town and it is a popular windsurfing

Windsurfing

Windsurfing, or sailboarding, is a Surface Water Sports using a windsurf board, also commonly called a sailboard, usually two to five meters long and powered by the wind pushing on a sail....
spot and the Olympic Rowing Center

Schinias Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Centre

The Schinias Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Centre was built to host the Rowing at the 2004 Summer Olympics and flatwater Canoeing at the 2004 Summer Olympics at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece....
for the 2004 Summer Olympics

2004 Summer Olympics

1896 Summer Olympics

The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to April 15, 1896....
and 2004 Summer Olympics

2004 Summer Olympics

The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team officials from 201 countries....
, Marathon was the starting point of the marathon races (for both women and men in 2004). The area is susceptible to flash flooding, because of forest fires having denuded parts of the eastern slopes of Mount Penteli

Penteli

Pent?li or Pendeli, is a tall mountain and mountain range situated northeast of Athens and southwest of Marathon, Greece. Its elevation is 1,109 m....
especially in 2006.

Population

The other settlements in the municipality are Ágios Panteleímon (pop. 1,489), Káto Soúli (1,477), Vranás (731), Aýra (235), Vóthon (207), Áno Soúli (188), and Schiniás (156).

Marathon, Greece

History

Population

See also