Iranians History on This Day

anniversary of the Marathon war, which occurred in 490 BC

Darius

    This piece of history will be completely edited later


    13 September is the anniversary of the one-day Marathon battle which took place in 490 BC, and in which the Iranian naval force did not succeed and had to retreat, with heavy casualties.
    The only intention of Darius the Great was to punish the Athenians – and not to conquer them – who were instigating the Greek speaking people of the Iran territories of Asia Minor (the Ionian cities and islands) to revolt and disobey. Therefore, he sent an infantry and cavalry army, with ship, to the main Greek land, which was being governed as a country – city or united states.
    This army, which was the largest amphibious military expedition from the beginning of history upto the end of the 19th century, conquered the city of Eretria and the Euboea Island in the eastern coast of Attica.
    According to Greek historians, Athens and her allies, except Sparta, succeeded in gathering 10,000 soldiers for defense against the Iranian force and were waiting for the Sparta force, when Miltiades, the defense commander from Athens, heard that the naval force commander of Iran had sent back more than half of his force, and most of them being the cavalry, to the ships, and was planning a direct attack on Athens city, and the units situated in the east of Attica were busy erecting camps, but the ground that they had landed on was hollow, semi marshy and watery.
    After consulting eight other generals he decided on a night attack on the Iranian units, before the remaining Iranian forces in the east of Attica could find better ground and finish setting up their camp. The Athenian soldiers, who took their position on higher and drier ground, made a quick move towards the Iranian forces. The Iranian units, who were in the middle of the scene, warded off the Athenian attack but two right and left flanks could not resist and the whole army was besieged. Simultaneously, Athenian ships attacked the Iranian supply ships which were left undefended and kept them out of reach of the forces which were in war. As the Greek historians have written, in these operations the naval force of Iran bore 6400 fatalities and started to retreat. As a sign of gratitude for saving their city, the Athenians built a treasury in Delphi and presented it to their God, Apollo. Miltiades, who had predicted that Iran would take revenge,
     ordered to build 200 ships, but this time Iran attacked Greece by land. Iranian sources only mention about the failure of this war and the anger of Darius who had sworn that he is not the son of his father if he does not take revenge, and had taken the names of seven of his ancestors (the names of his father and forefathers), and the expression “seven generations” (haftposht) has come from that day, and Iranians would memorize the names of their fathers and forefathers upto 7 generations, and keep in mind their good and bad deeds.
    In some histories, especially in books of American historians, 12 September has been specified as the day of the Marathon war, which could be because of the 6 or 7 hours time difference between America and Athens. All historians have unanimously written that from the beginning of the history of mankind, until date, the world has not seen an empire like the Persian Empire of the Achameanian era; an Empire built on the grounds of administrativen organization, law, justice, special attention to communication (roads, ports, post service) and tolerance of all beliefs and religions.

    Translation by Rowshan Lohrasbpour

Persian Empire

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