The Creative Assembly (Copyright) Salamis Meanwhile, the Persian fleet fled back to Asia but they would be back, and next time, in even bigger numbers. Victory dedications and statues were erected and, for the Greeks, the Battle of Marathon quickly became the stuff of legend. According to tradition 6,400 Persians were dead, for only 192 Greeks. This and their longer spears, heavier swords, better armour, and rigid discipline of the phalanx formation meant that the Greek hoplites won a great victory against the odds. At close quarters the Greeks thinned their centre and extended their flanks to envelop the enemy lines. When the two armies clashed on the plain of Marathon in September 490 BCE, the Persian tactic of rapidly firing vast numbers of arrows into the enemy must have been an awesome sight but the lightness of the arrows meant that they were largely ineffective against the bronze-armoured hoplites. With their longer spears, heavier swords, better armour, and rigid discipline of the phalanx formation the Greek hoplites won a great victory against the odds. The Ionian rebellion, the offering of earth and water in submission to the Persian satrap in 508 BCE, and the attack by Athens and Eretria on the city of Sardis in 499 BCE had not been forgotten either. Wealth and resources seem an unlikely motive other more plausible suggestions include the need to increase the prestige of the king at home or to quell once and for all a collection of potentially troublesome rebel states on the western border of the empire.
Just why Greece was coveted by Persia is unclear. Next in king Darius' sights were Athens and the rest of Greece. 522-486 BCE), was already expanding into mainland Europe and had subjugated Ionia, Thrace, and Macedonia by the beginning of the 5th century BCE.
If they had been defeated then the western world may not have inherited from them such lasting cultural contributions as democracy, classical architecture and sculpture, theatre, and the Olympic Games. The Greeks were, ultimately, victorious and their civilization preserved. Several of the most famous and significant battles in history were fought during the Wars, these were at Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea, all of which would become legendary. The Persian Wars refers to the conflict between Greece and Persia in the 5th century BCE which involved two invasions by the latter in 490 and 480 BCE.
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