Marathon by Richard Billows

Author:Richard Billows [Richard Billows]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-01-12T05:00:00+00:00

THE DEFENSE OF DEMOCRATIC ATHENS

The Spartan king Kleomenes, livid at his humiliation by the Athenians, called out the Spartan army and summoned allied contingents from all around the Peloponnesos with the aim of nipping the nascent Athenian democracy in the bud. In addition, he persuaded regional rivals of the Athenians, the Thebans and Chalkidians, to cooperate with his intended invasion of Attica by themselves invading Attica at the same time from the north and north east respectively. Invaded simultaneously from three directions by three major enemy forces then, the Athenian experiment in democracy really did seem likely to be ended before it had properly begun. The Athenian leaders correctly saw that it was the Peloponnesian army approaching from the west that was the main danger, and they called on all Athenians of hoplite status to come together to meet this invasion, marching out to confront the Spartans and their allies in the plain of Eleusis. At the same time, they sent messengers to Sardis to the Persian satrap there, Artaphernes, with a desperate plea for help: the Persians seemed to be the only power strong enough to assist them against the danger that was threatening.

However, it seems Kleomenes had not told the allies he had summoned to join his army what his aim was, nor even fully informed his Spartan co-king Demaratos. When it became clear that the goal was to attack the Athenians and overthrow their new self-governance system, dissension arose in the Spartan camp. The strongest, and so most independent, of Sparta’s allies were the Corinthians; and the Corinthians had a long standing friendship with the Athenians, based on common hostility towards their mutual neighbor Megara and their mutual trading and maritime rival Aigina. The Corinthians refused to join in an attack on Athens, and marched back home. They seem to have done this with the approval of Kleomenes’ co-king Demaratos, who himself left the expeditionary force and returned home with some of the Spartans. Emboldened by this, the rest of the allied contingents decided to head for home too; and before the fearful Athenians’ astonished eyes, the entire Peloponnesian army simply melted away without a blow being struck.

Meanwhile Kleomenes’ allies the Thebans and Chalkidians had already invaded Attica and were ravaging the borderlands to the north and northeast, and the Athenians at once turned to deal with these enemies. They first moved to confront the Chalkidians, who had apparently penetrated deeper into Attica. The Thebans, however, learned of their intention and marched to the Chalkidians’ aid. Learning of this in their turn, the Athenians shifted course and confronted the Thebans. A sharp battle was fought, apparently early in the morning, in which the Athenians won a clear victory, driving the Thebans out of Attica in flight, killing many, and capturing more than 700 prisoners. They then turned in the afternoon to deal with the Chalkidians, who had escaped back across the Euboian channel to their home territory on the island of Euboia.

But the Athenians wanted revenge for the unprovoked attack and invasion of Attica.

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