Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/367

BATTLE OV MARATHON 849 Be ems to have been long remembered ulso among the Gveeks aa the peculiar characteristic of the battle of Marathon, and Herod- otus tells us that the Athenians were the first Gieeks who ever charged at a run. 1 It doubtless operated beneficially in render- ing the Persian cavalry and archers comparatively innocuous, but we may reasonably suppose that it also disordered the Athe- nian ranks, and that when they reached the Persian front, they were both out of breath and unsteady in that line of presented spears and shields which constituted their force. On the two wings, where the files were deep, this disorder produced no mis- chievous effect : the Persians, after a certain resistance, were overborne and driven back. But in the centre, where the files were shallow, and where, moreover, the native Persians and other choice troops of the army were posted, the breathless and disordered Athenian hoplites found themselves in far greater difficulties. The tribes Leontis and Aatiochis, with Themistoklea and Aristei_.sS among them, were actually defeated, broken, driven back, and pursued by the Persians and Sakae. 2 Miltiadjs 1 Herodot. vi, 112. Tlpurot fj.lv yap 'EA/^vm> -XUVTUV TUV The running pace of the charge was obviously one of the most remark- able events connected with the battle. Colonel Leake and Mr. Finlay Seem disposed to reduce the run to a quick march ; partly on the ground that the troops must have been disordered and out of breath by running a mile. The probability is, that they really were so, and that such was the great reason of the defeat of the centre. It is very probable that a part of the mib run over consisted of declivity. I accept the account of Herod- otus lit xlly, though whether the distance be exactly stated, we cannot certain 1 , say : indeed the fact is, that it required some steadiness of disci- pline to prevent the step of hoplites, when charging, from becoming accel- erated into a run. See the narrative of the battle of Kunaxa in Xenoph. Anabas. i, 8, 18 ; Diodor. xiv, 23 : compare Polysen. ii, 2, 3. The passage of Diodorus here referred to contrasts the advantages with the disadvan- tages of the running charge. Both Colonel Leake and Mr. Finlay try to point out the exact ground occupied by the two armies : they differ in the spot ihoscn, and I cannot think that there is sufficient evidence to be had in f&vor of any spot. Leake thinks that the Persian commanders were encamped in the plain, of Tri t orythos. separated from that of Marathon by the great marsh, and com inanicating with it only by means of a causeway (Leake, Transact, ii p. 170). 1 Herodot. vi. 113. Kard TOVTO /ih dr), k >'IKUV ol ftupQipot, ~nv nranatav.