After that treachery did its work. Two prominent citizens admitted the Persians into the town. The temples were burnt “in retaliation for the burning of the temples at Sardes,” and the population was enslaved “according to the commands of Darius.”
H. vi. 102.
After reducing Eretria, and waiting for a few days, the Persians sailed to Attica in hot haste,[65] thinking to treat the Athenians in the same way as they had treated the Eretrians. TOPOGRAPHY OF MARATHON. Hippias, the son of Peisistratos, led them to Marathon, as being the most suitable ground in Attica for cavalry, and nearest to Eretria.
MARATHON: FROM THE “SOROS,” LOOKING TOWARDS LITTLE MARSH.
1. Euripus. 2. Little Marsh. 3. Slope of Mount Agrieliki.
[To face page [163].
It may be well, before seeking to account for the choice of Marathon as a landing-place, to describe briefly the plain and its surroundings, as well as its lines of communication with Athens.
The Topography of Marathon.
The plain of Marathon is situated on the east coast of Attica, on the shores of the southern Euripus, at a distance by road of about twenty-four miles from Athens. It is one of those alluvial plains which have been formed by the débris brought down by torrents at the head of a broad bay. This bay is sheltered on the north-east by the long, narrow, rocky promontory of Kynosura, which projects for more than a mile from the general line of the coast. Longitudinally the plain runs from north-east to south-west, having a length of from four and a half to five miles. Its breadth from the shore of the bay to the foot of the hills which surround it is from a mile and a half to two miles. These hills are not, save on the south-west side, very lofty, or very steep; but their surface is of that peculiarly rugged nature characteristic of Greek mountain slopes.