Conflicts & Resolutions · Battle

Battle of Marathon

490 BCE · 5th century BCE · Part of the Greco-Persian Wars

The Battle of Marathon was fought in 490 BCE on the plain of Marathon in Attica, where an Athenian army, aided by Plataea, defeated a Persian expeditionary force sent by Darius I. It ended the first Persian invasion of Greece. For the Achaemenid Empire the setback was limited in scale, but the battle became a central symbol of Greek resistance to Persian expansion.

Battle of Marathon
Image: John Steeple Davis · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 3 profiles

Achaemenid EmpireMilitarySakaMilitaryAthensMilitary

Mentioned in 2 state histories

AthensPlataea

Great speeches

Xerxes Announces the Invasion of Greecec. 484 BCE

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Battle of Marathon. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/battle-of-marathon
MLA
“Battle of Marathon.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/battle-of-marathon. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Battle of Marathon.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/battle-of-marathon.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Battle of Marathon’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/battle-of-marathon (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻