Herodotus: The Victory At Marathon

Herodotus was born in 484 BCE in Halicarnassus in Asia Minor. Halicarnassus is located in modern day Turkey and was under Persian rule until Alexander the Great captured in in 334 BCE at the siege of Halicarnassus. Throughout of his youth, he devoted himself to reading and traveling due to the political restrictions the Persians had in his homeland. He traveled through Asia Minor and through parts of European Greece. After one of his relatives was executed by the tyrant of Halicarnassus, Lygdamis, Herodotus decided to leave for Samos, and later he made his way to Athens, where he lived a life full of fame and praised for his literary works. Herodotus wrote the Histories, which mainly tells the story of the Persian invasion of the Greek mainland

Prior to the defeat in Marathon, the Persian military was known for their superiority and lack of mercy in combat. Therefore, the victory of the Athenians over the Persians served as a boost of morale for Athenians and as merits for later to proclaim Athenian superiority. Athens was known, not for its ground troops, but for its superior naval power. Therefore, this victory was even greater because they were able to defeat the Persians inland without the aid of the Spartans. As Herodotus writes in the Histories “… but the Athenians in close array fell upon them, and fought in a manner worthy of being recorded.” Like Peter Green, author of The Greco-Persian Wars explains, “psychologically, the legend became almost more important than the actual battle.” Following the defeat of the Persians at Marathon, as described in the article by J. A. S. Evans, the Greek world was divided in two, there was those who glorified the battle, and those who believed that this was not a great victory that saved and assured the freedom of the Greeks from Persian rule. It was only natural for Athenians to glorify this victory and by glorifying it, they tampered with the historical accounts and the historical facts of the battle. These inaccuracies are not Herodotus fault; they exist due to the oral traditions that were in place at the time of his research. Therefore, by the time Herodotus started to investigate the Persian Wars, the Battle of Marathon had a pro-Athenian undertone to