Battle of Marathon (490 BC)

At Marathon in 490 BC, 10,000 Athenian and Plataean hoplites repelled the invading Persian army of Darius I against odds that should have overwhelmed them. The victory preserved Athenian democracy at its most fragile moment, allowing the Golden Age of Athens to produce Socrates, Plato, Sophocles, Herodotus, and the democratic ideas that still underpin Western civilisation. The messenger who ran to Athens to announce victory gave us the marathon race.