The First Invasion of Greece

Recount of The battle of Marathon
The First Invasion of Greece was the part of the Persian Wars that occurred right after the Ionian Revolt. It happened because the Persians wished to stop the Greeks and the threat they presented to Persia. Also, the Persian Emperor wanted to punish Athens for the role it had in the Ionian Revolt. The Greeks had sent 20 ships to aid the Ionians on their revolt on the Persians. Darius was the King during the first attack on the Greeks and he sent the fleet that attacked Athens because he wanted to teach a lesson to the Greeks for disobeying him and helping out the Ionians.

The Greeks were aware of the disastrous things that could happen to them and they gathered up as many allies as possible. Sparta had the best warriors in Greece but they were unwilling to help out. The Greeks had only one thousand Plataeans as allies. The battle was planned out carefully and the Greeks chose a good place to fight. The place was called The Bay of Marathon. The land was on Athen's side and the Persians were already there. The Athenians were outnumbered 3 to 1. Miltiade was one of the Ten Generals. He was honoured and respecedt by the other 9 Generals and he chose the battlefield and planned the battled out.

Miltiades's special formation was to make the centre weak and fragile but strengthen the wings as much as possible. Soon Miltiade ordered the army to attack and the Battle of the marathin had begun. The centre was attacked badly but both the wings had made good attack. Miltiade's plan had worked out and the Persians suffered for it. Darius regretfully told his army to retreat and the Persians left the ground in shame.

The Marathon Aftermath
Though the Athenians had won they knew they had not destroyed Perisa's whole army but they were happy they had won. After the war ended Miltiades sent his best runner Phaedippas to run back to Athens to tell them the good news. Phaedippas reached Athen and shouted "VICTORY!" and died immediately. The Marathon race was then invented in houronur of Phaedippas. The Athenians slaughtered 6400 Persians while they lost only 192 men. The Athenian men who had died were buried in a huge mound in the battle field. Here is a photo of the big mound. People who cisit the site today can see the mound.



The Persians sailed to Athens and attempted to annexe Athens, while the Athenian Army were still on the route from the Bay of Marathon, but they were already there and were prepared for another battle. Darius had enough and ordered a general retreat. The army sailed back to Persia, but that wasn't the end of the invasions. To be continued in....

The Second Invasion of Greece !