8. After a long preparation, in 490 B.C., an army of one hundred
thousand men or more, under the command of Artaphernes, convoyed by a
formidable fleet, invaded Greece. For a long time it met with little
opposition, and city after city submitted to the overwhelming hosts of
the Persian king. The approach to Athens was regarded as the final
turning point of the war.
9. Artaphernes selected the Plains of Marathon, twenty-two miles to
the northeast of Athens, as the place of his final landing. His
forces, by the lowest estimate, consisted of one hundred and fifty
thousand men, of which ten thousand were cavalry. To these were
opposed the army of Athens and its allies, consisting in all of ten
thousand men. The battle-ground forms an irregular crescent, six miles
long and two broad in its widest part. It is bounded on one side by
the sea, and on the other by a rampart of mountains. At the time of
the battle the extremities of the plain were flanked by swamps,
diminishing the extent of the front, and hampering the operations of
the larger army. The command of the Greek army had been intrusted to
ten generals, who ruled successively one day each. Themistocles, one
of these generals, resigned his day in favor of Miltiades, and all the
others followed his example. And so the battle was set, ten thousand
Greeks, under Miltiades, against the overwhelming hosts of the enemy.
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