Marathon 490 BC: When Athens Defied the Persian Empire | FULL DOCUMENTARY

Founded in the 6th century BC, the Persian Empire dominates the Middle East. In 499 BC, Miletus, what was once Miltos, a Greek city in Ionia under Persian control, rebels. The uprising spreads to other cities in the region. The insurgents appeal for help from independent Greeks who are nevertheless divided. Two cities, Athens and Eritrea, help the rebels to seize Sardis, one of the Persian capitals. MAN SPEAKS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE Darius the Great has inherited the Persian Empire, composed of 50 or so eastern kingdoms. The duty of every king of kings is to strengthen his borders, then to extend them. Power, strength and authority, the Persian campaign's most important goal enable the empire to spread out from present-day Iran over 6 million square kilometres, a massive portion of the Middle East. Most of the subjugated peoples have accepted Persian domination. Despite being obliged to pay taxes, they are free to conserve their own culture, religion and institutions. In Darius's eyes, the Ionian Greeks and their allies deserve to be punished for the capture of Sardis. Miletus, the seat of the insurrection, will be the first stage in his vengeance. Darius lays siege to the city on land and by sea. Miletus, the jewel of Greek civilisation, is crushed. Its inhabitants are reduced to slavery. The misfortune suffered by the people of Miletus fills the rest of Greece with sadness. Darius takes revenge for the humiliation of Sardis. The cities that helped the Ionians are in his sights. Eritrea and notably Athens. Athens is seemingly unaware of the punitive campaign about to bear down on her. HE SPEAKS GREEK Themistocles wasn't born into one of the most prestigious families of Athens. Plutarch describes him as without fortune, but that may be an exaggeration. His father, Neocles, certainly worked in commerce, so it's true that Themistocles isn't a member of the wealthy, land-owning aristocracy, and thus doesn't have the same opportunities as those who were well-born. Yet, as a child, his intelligence stood out, and if we are to believe Plutarch, one of his teachers once told him, my boy, thou wilt be nothing insignificant, but something great of a surety, either for good or evil. Promoted to the rank of captain and already admired, Themistocles has a taste for honors. I find Athens more magnificent than ever. I never tire of contemplating my city. Other cities are more renowned, but I was born in Athens, and duty calls me there. But I have not always felt such pride. Many years earlier, a drunken night cost me my family's esteem. After this one night too many, my father was categorical. I was corrupted with vice, and all I was good for was bringing shame and dishonor on our family. My mother pleaded the excesses of youth, but in vain. His mind was made up. My father disowned and disinherited me. I had a mad thirst for fame and a whole host of projects. I began to devote myself to politics and state affairs. It became my passion. Soon, people began to seek my counsel. I arbitrated conflicts between citizens, and my success is now earning me quite a reputation. People listen to me. I hold the keys to my own destiny. The original political regime in Athens was a fantastic springboard for Themistocles. He was 15 when the city became a democracy. From then on, every citizen plays a part in politics. In practice, the wealthiest fill the highest positions, such as Archon or Stratagos. But their power lies in their charisma and their ability to win over their fellow citizens with their ideas and actions. Themistocles will grab his chance. If we are to believe the historian Thucydides, he's incredibly gifted, smart, intuitive, and quick to solve problems. He also has a great oratory and improvisation skills. The task has fallen to me of training young hoplites in the military arts, starting with making discipline the first of virtues. If we were Spartans, we would already be constant soldiers, broken into the duty of collective obedience from our earliest years. We would train non-stop, urged on by a heroic vision of fate, death in combat being the finest of deaths. But Athenians are not Spartans. Am I persuasive enough? I hope so. My future grandeur depends on my ability to command. I will continue in my aim, despite only having a handful of citizen soldiers, far from a professional army. But how can one not admire men who keep in top physical condition and equip themselves at their own expense? The important thing is that they know how to take up arms when danger threatens. I am not a tyrant, I am a good man. This is the new order you are fighting for. I am not God's servant, but a slave. I will save you from this hell. These young Athenians seem sensitive to the common good, but how they struggle to obey. They still believe that collectively obeying orders is tantamount to a loss of freedom. Do we Athenians not laud individual potential? I have certainly benefited from mine. Miltiades is strategos, one of the ten generals who command Athens' forces. But as the Persians draw near, Miltiades is especially valued and trusted. Unlike most Athenians, he knows the Persians. He has in the past campaigned with King Darius' Persian army. A few years earlier, he administered a province under Persian rule, an experience that proves useful because he knows how they fight. But the Athenian troops look so weak compared to Darius' powerful army. To resist a Persian invasion, the Greeks will need to put aside their divisions and unite. Can Miltiades in Athens persuade other Greeks to fight with them? Greece is made up of more than 100 quarrelling states, but they have a common language and a shared religion. When a common enemy appears, they can sometimes work as allies against the danger. Darius is a great supporter of the Athenians. He is a friend of the Athenian enemy. Don't worry. We will help you to get rid of the Persians. We have nothing to lose. I lost my brother. I lost my wife. I lost my son. I have nothing left. All I have left is my homeland. Darius launches a war to subjugate the whole of Greece. On land, the Persians seize Greek cities one after the other. After the Ionian coast, it's the turn of Hellespont, Chersonesis and Thrace to be subjugated. Everywhere ambassadors demand the land and the water as a sign of allegiance. As far as Macedonia, Greek cities accept submission. General Datis is well advised by Hippias. A Greek in the service of a Persian. What a strange arrangement, unless one goes back to the past. Hippias was the last tyrant of Athens, the heir of a power that was taken by force and exercised to excess. His ousting signaled the end of 49 years of tyranny. Sick of arbitrary executions, the Athenians, helped by the Spartans, stood up for their freedom. The people seized power and installed a new regime, democracy. Hippias advises General Datis to take advantage of Persian naval superiority. He should embark as many horsemen, archers and spear carriers as possible. The Greeks only know how to fight on foot and in hand-to-hand combat and are impeded by their heavy equipment. With arrows raining down and charged by the cavalry, they cannot resist. The Athenians do not have the military expertise of the Spartans. A few Greek cities are still behind him. And they still have a fortress, a hotel, which the gates of the cities on the other side of the sea have fortified. Darius takes Hippias' advice and decides to seek glory on the seas, with 600 ships carrying the finest Persian warriors, including 50,000 soldiers from the four corners of the empire. On land, the King of Kings reinforces his positions while he begins to display his authority on the sea. Soon, nearly the whole Aegean Sea is under his control as, one by one, the Greek islands fall into Persian hands. All of Asia is bearing swords and marching to the orders of the King of Kings. Nobody can resist wave after wave of Persian troops and Athens sees the danger looming. My mind is made up. I agree with Miltiades and disagree with those who are so stricken with terror that they have forgotten their own values. We can stand up to the Persians. Spurred on by Miltiades' words, I train relentlessly, convinced there is no middle ground between freedom and slavery. And the freedom of sovereign authority for the people is something I'm attached to. So what if one must fight to defend it, as long as the outcome is glorious? My dear... I will not dishonor the sacred arms. I will not abandon my comrade wherever I am. I will fight for the sacred principles. I will not let my homeland be weakened, but I will, even greater and stronger, uphold our established laws. And if anybody seeks to overturn them, I will not allow it. The Persian fleet reaches the Eritrean coast. A week later, the city capitulates to the Persians. On entering the city, they pillage and set fire to the temples in revenge for the great fire of Sardis, and force the inhabitants into slavery following Darius's orders. The threat of a landing weighs down on Athens and the whole of Attica. Hippias chooses Marathon, 40 kilometers north of Athens, because it's so near to Eritrea. There's a bay big enough to contain the Persian fleet. And Marathon is also a plain, closed off to the south by Mount Pentelikon, and the one place within the territory of Athens that favors a cavalry charge. You would have to know the terrain to choose such a battlefield, and that's where the complicity of the turncoat Hippias plays a determining role. While the landing at Marathon is being prepared, back in Persepolis, Darius and Xerxes admire the skills of the Immortals, the crack troops who make up the King's Guard. Darius sent some of these Immortals to provide backup for General Dates' campaign in Greece. They are all born and bred Persians, men used to the fiercest battles, and completely devoted to their sovereign. Speak. We are tired. Rumors spread about the atrocities committed in cities that have fallen into Persian hands. Faced with danger and warned of the pillage and burning the Persians have left in their wake, Athens grows worried. I need to reassure Athenians. The Persians will not enslave our homeland before we have sown disorder amongst their ranks. It seems impossible for Athens to defend itself alone. She has fewer than 10,000 hoplites ready to face an enemy numbering four or five times more men. Persia has already taken a terrible revenge on the Ionian Greeks who revolted earlier in the 490s. Many Greek states will now be too scared to resist. But Athens has allies from a brave little neighboring state, Plataea. And above all, Athens hopes for help from Sparta. Sparta's hoplites are seen as the best soldiers in Greece. They're true specialists, trained, deeply disciplined, frighteningly brave, and often accompanied by loyal allies from neighboring states. Can Athens and Sparta join forces to face foreign invasion? That's the question citizens will ask at the next convening of the Ecclesia, before a surprise visit. Darius has sent one of his emissaries and an interpreter. What do you want from us? By the will of the king, I have come to ask for water and land. Vassilios Kleosanthos Elton Humas Genkaihudo Raiteson. Do you really think that we will give them to you? We have not taken them and we are not in the hands of any sultan. But there is little water and land. You don't understand. I will give you everything you need. The land, your sons, your life, your forefathers, your wealth. If it's not enough, I will give you all I have. So, what do you say to the king? We do not want this last chance to avoid combat, nor do the Spartans find to believe the rumours. Any Spartan Athens will dare to brave the advancing tide of Persian troops and obstinately refuse submission. Darius's fleet expects to avenge the King of Kings. Has he not been asking one of his officers to remind him at every meal since the capture of Sardis, Sire, remember the Athenians. When the Persians want to capture an island, they round up its inhabitants as if with a net, so there can be no escape. They hold hands, forming a long line north to south, and sweep the whole island on a massive scale manhunt. Philippides was a professional herald, known as a hamerodrome. Etymologically, it means man able to run a whole day. It's said he ran the 240 kilometers that separate Athens and Sparta in 36 hours. Many people doubted this sporting achievement for years, until a Greek, Yannis Kouros, won the first Athens to Sparta race in 1983 in just under 22 hours, far below the supposed 36 hours of Philippides. Moreover, Philippides' performance seems all the more likely, given that hamerodromes used to train like genuine athletes. Meanwhile, Datis, Hippias, and their naval troops fervently continue their invasion plan. Observers note an army of a thousand faces, reflecting the multicultural nature of the King of Persia's subject peoples. Crack horsemen, uncountable infantrymen, and an impressive fleet spread fear. At full sail, Datis and Hippias are bearing down on Marathon. Persian strategy isn't easy to reconstruct. It may have evolved. They will land their cavalry at Marathon, but they will re-embark it before the hand-to-hand combat begins. Here you can see the effects of a change of plan, perhaps on Hippias' advice. By landing at Marathon, the Persians will draw the soldiers of Athens 40 kilometers from their city. They will then head back out to sea and sail around Attica to the port of Phaleron, just to the south of the city. Athens will then be defenseless, and the partisans of Hippias will open the city gates. The Athenians were in dire straits. The alliance of Greek cities against foreign dominion was still in a more embryonic form. A mere 9,000 Athenians and 1,000 Plataeans stand to face the biggest army in the world. 50,000 Persian troops, including 5,000 cavalrymen, set foot on the soil of Marathon and pitched their formidable camp in less than a day. In Athens, it's all we can think about. The army of Darius the Great has landed. We hear it's only a day's march from the city. And with the memory of the sacking of Miletus and the massacre and enslaving of its inhabitants still fresh, many Athenians are gripped with fear and beseeching the gods. Without divine intervention, they believe it's impossible to escape the enemy. I do not agree. For the very first time in its history, Athens is faced with its own destiny and must fight. The Athenians have heard me. The citizen soldiers are heading to Marathon, a handful of men against a myriad of invaders intent on resisting. After a day's march, all of the Athenian hoplites reach Marathon. They will soon be joined by their trusty allies, the Plataeans. Together, they plan on blocking the Persian advance by making use of the local terrain. To have a good look at their enemy, at first the Athenians take a defensive position about one and a half kilometers away. This lets them block the Persian advance towards the city of Athens. And for a while, they can still hope, though with less and less confidence, that help will arrive from Sparta. For five days, Persians and Greeks face off, neither of them taking the offensive. Everything is going to Hippias' plan, to have the Athenians believe the danger is at Marathon and to let them assemble there. The Athenians are still hoping for Spartan help and suspect nothing of what's going on behind their backs. The city of Athens is currently defenseless. Datis and Hippias are finally ready for action. It's time to order the Persian cavalry back onto the ships so it can see through its true objective, to seize Athens. Melchiades is in a mind to engage them in battle without further ado, but the generals are divided. Of the ten strategos, five want to go into combat, while five believe they're unable to fight the Persians and prefer to wait for the Spartans. If we succumb to the power of the Persians, our punishment is decided. If we are victorious, our city will become the most important in all Greece. Callimachus is convinced. Naturally, Melchiades has been given command of operations. He's the most resolute. He knows we're alone and is no longer counting on Spartan help. His only concern is the obvious disproportion of the present forces and how to compensate for it. Melchiades spreads out the Greek front line. He puts his crack troops in the center and gives their command to the Mysticles. Then he concentrates the rest of his men on the flanks. Greek phalanxes excel in head-on attack but are vulnerable on the flanks. They need to strengthen their lateral phalanxes to force the enemy flanks into retreat and make possible a pincer movement that will surround the Persian center, which contains their best troops, the Immortals. 6,400 Persians have perished. Only 192 Athenians and 11 Plataeans have fallen on the field of battle. But the majority of the Persian fleet has evaded us. Meanwhile, the escaped Persian fleet is in fact sailing towards Athens. The Persians have such a reserve of men that their losses are insignificant and defeat at Marathon without consequence. We have no time to patch up our wounded and recover from the fatigue of combat. Under Melchiades' orders, we advance as one at a forced march to Athens. Athens has withstood the Persian invader, considered invincible. 2,000 Spartans will arrive two days later, too late for battle but on time to salute our valor. Our city will earn great prestige from this victory and be held up as a symbol of resistance to oppression. For here, at Marathon, a handful of men have just beaten a multitude of enemies. History is being made. It's likely that the Persian Empire won't stop there. That challenge is to come. Will Athens be able to rise to it?