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The Ancient Greeks have long been considered the forefathers of modern American civilization, however the Golden Time of Athens and the spread of Greek effect across much of the known world only took place due to 1 of the most crucial fights of antiquity: the Struggle of Marathon. In 491 BC, following a successful invasion of Thrace on the Hellespont, the Persian emperor Darius delivered envoys to the primary Greek city-states, including Sparta and Athens, demanding tokens of globe and normal water as symbols of submission, but Darius didn't exactly have the reply he desired. Matching to Herodotus in his famous Histories, "Xerxes however hadn't delivered to Athens or even to Sparta heralds to demand the surprise of globe, and for this reason, namely because at the ex - time when Dareios experienced sent because of this very purpose, the one people threw the men who made the demand into the pit and the others into a proper, and bade them take from thence globe and normal water and bear these to the king." Thus, in 490 BC, following the revolt in Ionia have been crushed, Darius delivered his basic Mardonius, at the head of an enormous fleet and invading force, to eliminate the meddlesome Greeks, starting with Athens. The Persian military, numbering ranging from 30,000 and 300,000 men, landed on the basic at Marathon, a few dozen kilometers from Athens, where an Athenian military of 10,000 hoplite heavy infantry backed by 1,000 Plataeans prepared to contest their passage. The Athenians appealed to the Spartans for help, however the Spartans dithered; according to the Laws and regulations of Lycurgus, they were forbidden to march until the waxing moon was full. Accordingly, their army came too past due. Thus, it dropped after the Athenians to shoulder the burden. With the military led by the fantastic generals Miltiades and Themistocles, the Athenians charged the outnumbering Persians. Outmatched by the might of the heavy, bronze-armored Greek phalanx, the second-rate Persian infantry was enveloped and damaged, causing these to flee for his or her ships in panic. The Athenians experienced gained a colossal win against an overpowering and seemingly invincible enemy. Somewhat ironically, the Struggle of Marathon has been best commemorated by the competition that bears its name, a custom that started predicated on a legend a Greek man known as Pheidippides ran the 26.2 kilometers back to Athens in order to announce the Greek win and eventually collapsed and passed away as soon as he had done so. However, the importance of the challenge itself can't be overstated. The Struggle of Marathon proved to be one of the biggest sources of enmity between the Greeks and Persians, and Darius' boy Xerxes would seek to undo the results with his own invasion just years later. Since it was, the rivalry between the Greeks and Persians would go on for over 150 years and culminated with Alexander the Great's devastation of the Achaemenid Persian capital city of Persepolis. Marathon also positioned the city-state of Athens as a significant electricity not only in Greece but throughout the Mediterranean and Near East, as their military services, diplomatic, and economical influence grew following the battle.
