阳金狗年 (male Iron-Dog) −363 or −744 or −1516 — to — 阴金猪年 (female Iron-Pig) −362 or −743 or −1515
The Battle of Marathon
Year490 BC was a year of thepre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as theYear of the Consulship of Camerinus and Flavus (or, less frequently,year 264Ab urbe condita). The denomination 490 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when theAnno Dominicalendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Darius I sends an expedition, underArtaphernes andDatis the Mede, across theAegean to attack the Athenians and the Eretrians.Hippias, the aged ex-tyrant of Athens, is on one of the Persian ships in the hope of being restored to power in Athens.
When the Ionian Greeks inAsia Minor rebelled againstPersia in499 BC,Eretria joinedAthens in sending aid to the rebels. As a result, Darius makes a point of punishing Eretria during his invasion of Greece. The city is sacked and burned and its inhabitants are enslaved. He intends the same fate for Athens.
September 12 – TheBattle of Marathon takes place as a Persian army of more than 20,000 men is advised by Hippias to land in the Bay ofMarathon, where they meet the Athenians supported by thePlataeans. The Persians are repulsed by 11,500 Greeks under the leadership ofCallimachus andMiltiades. Some 6,400 Persians are killed at a cost of 192 Athenian dead. Callimachus, the war-archon of Athens, is killed in the battle. After the battle, the Persians return home.
Before the Battle of Marathon, the Athenians send a runner,Pheidippides, to seek help fromSparta. However, the Spartans delay sending troops to Marathon because religious requirements (theCarneia) mean they must wait for the full moon.
The Greek historianHerodotus, the main source for theGreco-Persian Wars, mentions Pheidippides as the messenger who runs fromAthens toSparta asking for help, and then runs back, a distance of over 240 kilometres[1] each way.[2] After the battle, he runs back to Athens to spread the news and raise the spirits. It is claimed that his last words before collapsing and dying in Athens are "Chairete, nikomen" ("Rejoice, we are victorious").
Hippias dies atLemnos on the journey back toSardis after the Persian defeat.
Cleomenes I is forced to fleeSparta when his plot againstDemaratus is discovered, but the Spartans allow him to return when he begins gathering an army in the surrounding territories. However, by this time he has become insane, and the Spartans put him in prison. Shortly after, he commits suicide. He is succeeded as King of Sparta by a member of theAgiad house, his half-brother,Leonidas.
