MARATHON: The 2500 th Anniversary of an Ancient Battle and its Modern Legacy
October 14, 2010
Professor Katherine Panagakos
The Richard Stockton College of NJ katherine.panagakos@stockton.edu
Websites of interest:
The Federation of Hellenic American Organizations of NJ: http://hellenicfederationnj.com/
Stockton’s ICHS (Interdisciplinary Center for Hellenic Studies): www.stockton.edu/ichs
-Information on the Classical Humanities Lecture Series; The Friends of Hellenic Studies; OGRE; etc.,
Marathon2500 Project: http://www.marathon2500.org/
Brief Chronology (all dates are BC) (adapted from Krentz)
522 Darius (522-486) becomes king of the Persian Empire
510 Spartans expel Hippias from Athens
508/7 Kleisthenes institutes democracy in Athens
507/6 Athenians give earth and water to Persians (sign of submission)
499 Ionian Revolt begins
495 Battle of Lade
493/2 Darius’ heralds visit Greece (heralds killed by Athenians and Spartans)
490 Battle of Marathon
480 Battles of Thermopylae, Artemision, and Salamis
479 Battles of Plataea and Mycale
(Very) Select Bibliography
Richard A. Billows. Marathon: The Battle That Changed Western Civilization. Overlook (2010).
Peter Green. The Greco-Persian Wars. Univ. of California Press (1998).
Victor Davis Hanson. The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece. Univ. of California
Press (2000).
Peter Krentz. The Battle of Marathon. Yale (2010).
Alan Llyod. Marathon: The Crucial Battle That Created Western Democracy. Souvenir Press (1973).
Sources for Battle of Marathon
Aeschylus’ Persians Aristophanes’ Wasps Herodotus’ Histories*(main source)
Cornelius Nepos Pausanias Plutarch The Byzantine Encyclopedia (9 th /10 th century) known as the Suda