The Golden Age of Athens began in 478 BCE when the Athenians defeated the invading Persians, marking the political, economic, and cultural growth of what is not the Greek capital.
The Varangian Chronicler has beautifully chronicled the Battle of Marathon and its consequences, leading to the Athenian Golden Age.
In 500 BC, the burgeoning city states of Greece clung to the edge of the civilized world. Hugging the Aegean & hemmed by the massive Persian Empire, the Greeks had begun to develop a unique civilization & sent colonists far & wide. pic.twitter.com/HySjUOkdeC
— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) September 10, 2022
The rebellion scored some initial success, capturing & burning the wealthy city of Sardis, but soon the overwhelming power of the Persian Empire ground down resistance. The epicenter of the rebellion, Miletus, was besieged & captured in 494 BC. pic.twitter.com/skwmkguskn
— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) September 10, 2022
However, the rebellion had seriously threatened the stability of the Persian Empire & the participation of Athens & Eretia in the burning of Sardis could not go unpunished. The Persian king Darius the Great organized an invasion to punish these insolent cities & expand his rule. pic.twitter.com/sazC67ps1W
— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) September 10, 2022
The Persians demanded earth & water to store in their capital of Persepolis as a token of submission. Almost all the Greek states obliged. Athens tried & executed the Persian envoys, Sparta simply threw them down a well. Darius was enraged & the battle lines were drawn. pic.twitter.com/JYWGL1DtnR
— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) September 10, 2022
The Persian fleet landed at the Bay of Marathon, roughly 42 km (26 mi) from Athens. A force of 10,000 Athenians & Plateans (a small, allied city nearby) blocked the passes out of the marshy plain. Pheidippides, the fastest runner in Athens, was sent to Sparta to obtain help. pic.twitter.com/9OZciq2mur
— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) September 10, 2022
When Pheidippides delivered the news that no Spartan help would arrive, nervousness increased among the Greeks. The feared Persian horsemen had been trapped by the hoplites on the plains of Marathon, but what was to stop a portion of the army from sailing away and flanking them? pic.twitter.com/mgkYcTRcY6
— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) September 10, 2022
The vote among the generals was too close to call & the commander, the war archon Callimachus, decided for the attack. In the gray of predawn of September 10th, the Athenians put on their suits of bronze & serried their ranks on the quiet plain of Marathon. pic.twitter.com/QZ6BaOBlj4
— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) September 10, 2022
The Greeks marched in formation for about a mile, the two armies trading war cries & paeans as the distance closed. When the phalanx entered the range of Persian bows & slings they broke into a run and smashed into the Persians with a thunderous clamor of bronze & iron. pic.twitter.com/ac5YgRAkfy
— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) September 10, 2022
However, the thin Greek center was imperiled. Here the hoplites faced the elite Persian and Saka warriors from Central Asia, their famous axes capable of cleaving into the bronze helmets of the Greeks. When the Greek flanks turned & fought the Persian center they broke & fled too pic.twitter.com/ZgSiGg7qNw
— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) September 10, 2022
The Athenians captured 7 ships, but most escaped successfully. The battle was over by mid-morning, however the Athenians worried about being flanked by the escaping Persian fleet. The exhausted warriors marched rapidly to Athens, 26 miles (42 km) away to block another landing. pic.twitter.com/4dcyhZd6QY
— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) September 10, 2022
When the Persian fleet saw the Athenian army snaking into their city, they turned around & sailed away: Athens & Greece were saved. The seemingly invincible & innumerable Persians were defeated. pic.twitter.com/tFPjRji7BV
— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) September 10, 2022
The famed runner, Pheidippides, as the legend goes, ran from Marathon to Athens after the battle & ahead of his brothers. Reaching the city he announced “Nikomen!” (We win!) & collapsed, dead, from the exertions of the past week. The Marathon of today commemorates his final run. pic.twitter.com/bmXMprVi9d
— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) September 10, 2022
Victory at Marathon also cemented Athen’s democratic character. All her warriors who fell there were interred together in a common tomb. From the poorest peasant to the noble Callimachus himself, all were equal in death: all were citizens. pic.twitter.com/xl7GopXhNT
— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) September 10, 2022
Defeat at Marathon only served to increase Persian conviction to subjugate the unruly Greeks & Darius’s son, Xerxes, would invade 10 years later. This invasion would be one of Greece’s greatest triumphs & allow the West to blossom free from foreign rule in the next centuries. pic.twitter.com/2DNWwJyEWD
— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) September 10, 2022
The drama of the Persian Wars, though long past, still inspires the imagination. Names like Salamis, Marathon, Thermopylae, & Leonidas harken us back to these triumphs through the haze of thousands of years, so powerful is their luster. pic.twitter.com/8A2TpRTEEP
— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) September 10, 2022
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